Sounds like somebody read all the books in a month, rather than a month or more at a time as published. The books are like episodes, they aren't meant to be one flowing plot. And every show (of at least full season length) has a formula if the writers are to not go insane.
I rarely visit the forums to avoid the cynicism ooze.
I think the main problem is that some of the books are ghostwritten and those tend to be very unimportant. Any book that opens with "Special thanks to [insert name here]" should be put down immeadiately. (Yes, there are probably exceptions, but none spring to mind.)
Maybe you'd be less disappointed if you stopped expecting things to be Carmen Sandiego movies.
Well, there are 54 main books and 4 Chronicles so that would be 58. But there are also 4 megamorphs (with the Veleek, the dinosaurs, the Time Matrix, and an alternate universe where they don't meet Elfangor) as well as those two terrible choose-your-own-adventure books so that brings it up to 64.
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Read it!... If You Have Patience And Dedication
I'll keep this review simple.
Pros — Holy Deconstruction Batman: Everything in the series is deconstructed. If the series had a different author it might've been a lighthearted monster-of-the-week type romp. But as it is it's a gritty, very realistic, and often brutal take on many popular tropes. No victory is unambiguous. — Cool premise: Turn into animals, fight aliens! — Believable and deep character growth: The characters start out as kids and by the end of the series they've all matured and changed in perfectly natural ways. It's a real (sadistic?) pleasure to see how the war affects them over time. — Sci-fi: This is a huge world with many cool alien races and cool techno gadgets. A plus for sci-fi lovers. — Many points of view: The book cycles between the six Animorphs as narrators which is good for keeping things fresh. The 'Chronicles' books give you even more (nonhuman) points of view.
Cons — Repetetive: The books are very formulaic. Usually goes something like this: Kids are doing something mundane (or finishing up a mission) - Inciting incident - Morph bugs to investigate - Suicidal mission - Lose limbs - Narrow and ambiguous victory or loss - Lament over lost innocence. The repetition wouldn't be so bad if the series weren't SO LONG. 58 books (including 'Chronicles') Often I'd be put off of reading the next one because it's a safe bet that it would follow the same formula. Now don't get me wrong some books with this formula are still intriguing and great. And the ones that break the formula are really great. But overall you'll probably find yourself thinking "Oh here's Erek with the plot." This is why I think patience and dedication are necessary for this series. Some books are really great, but you'll need to be able to stick through the more repetitive books. Minor cons — TSSEEEWWW: Maybe it's just me but the ubiquity of onomatopoeia like these got to be annoying. — The humor: It's either hilarious, and I mean hilarious, or flat and cringe worthy. — Continuity errors: These are understandable in such a huge series but the occasional logical or continuity errors can be a bit jarring.
Overall I recommend it if for nothing else than the brutal deconstruction of so many tropes. Great characters, interesting story, mature issues. Just beware repetition is rampant.