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Robotech #1
Genesis
The Global Civil War was about to make Humankind extinct, when the stupendous Super Dimensional Fortress dispatched to Earth by a dying alien genius changed all that forever. Humanity's only hope lay in a corps of untried young men and women gifted with powers they didn't fully understand. Then the most feared conquerors in the universe attacked, determined to destroy them for no reason they could comprehend.
214 pages, Paperback
First published February 12, 1987
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 66 reviews
January 6, 2016
A new era of reading started here to me
A SELF-IMPOSED CHALLENGE
I started to learn to read novels in English with this book.
Sure, I got English classes on High School but that it didn't much good to really have enough vocabulary as to get into reading a full English written novel.
I met the Robotech books in the shelves of a local book store, back then, in 1992, and it was like receiving a call from a higher realm.
If I wanted to know what those books said, I needed to read them on English, since it wasn't something that you'd found to be translated into Spanish eventually, I could still be waiting and that was in 1992.
Those books were calling me, those books were in need to be at home with someone who cares for them, and I realized that that one was me.
At first it was agonizing, since I was reading more the dang dictionary than the book itself, it took me like 3 days to advance one single page, and I was doing it in the way of translating from English to Spanish.
After like a year or so, I ended the original first series (the three main wars, 12 books), by then I knew that I've taken the right decision since the extra details on those books make me to appreciate Robotech in a new light, with new eyes and superior knowledge.
With that, I started to read other stuff on English like Star Trek novels, eventually I changed from a English-Spanish dictionary to a full English dictionary, to force myself to understand the reading on English without doing the translation in my brain to Spanish. (And each time that I advanced into a new step of reading in English, I read again the original 12 books of Robotech.)
Even later I left the dictionary at home and carrying only the novels. (And I never needed again to carry the dictionary.)
It was an awesome moment in my reading life.
Later I took an English course, since by then, I was able to read anything in English but I wasn't able to construct sentences by myself.
Thanks to my decision of learning to read in English, not only my range of novels got almost infinite possibilities, obviously I was able to read a lot of wonderful books that maybe I never would be able to read, but also thanks to learn to read in English, even I met one the women that I loved the most, in my life, and she still is one of my best and dear friends.
And nothing of this would happen if I wouldn't learn to read in English.
AND OF COURSE, NOW IT'S TIME TO MAKE THE REVIEW
Genesis by Jack McKinney (a pen name of James Luceno & Brian Daley) is the first novel in a book series that adapted into prose format the original Anime TV series Robotech.
Robotech is an American re-adaptation of three different Japanese anime TV series: Macross, Southern Cross and Mospeada. Re-adapting the stories, even doing some editing on the animation, to make it a whole single storyline. The success of the newly adapted TV series in America opened the chance to extend the story into a sequel that while it failed to get budget to be a full TV series, the sequel was adapted into 5 books, as part of this prose book series, and even adding 1 book to make an ending to the whole saga and also three books telling events "in-between" of the three main wars. There were also several comic book mini-series recently.
Earth was in a bloody global war, when suddenly an incredibly massive spaceship crashed into the planet, and thanks to that, the inner war ended and the Earth nations make peace to work in the project of researching the mysterious gigantic spaceship developing a new science based on the what they found inside of the vessel and...
...the "Robotechnology" was born.
Of course, the falling of the spaceship may ended the inner war, but it was clear that we weren't alone in the universe and the nations decided that there was a fair risk of facing a war against alien life forms, so...
...the Robotech Defense Force was assembled.
The astonishing big spaceship crashed in the coast of a deserted island named "Macross" and after 10 years of restless work, by people of all nations, to rebuild the vessel and developing military craft based on the new "Robotech" science, even a city was built too to give home to all the civilian workers, civilian business services, and obviously the military personnel of the new RDF.
The gigantic massive spaceship was named: Super Dimensional Fortress One (SDF-1).
And using the base of American F-14 "Tomcats", were created new military air-space craft named "Veritech", able to transform into three modes: Veritech(Jet), Battleloid (a humanoid-like robot) and Guardian (a combined shape of Jet and Robot gaining skills of both forms).
After 10 years, peace on Earth was a reality and even the fear of an alien invasion was starting to lose strenght.
After 10 years, the SDF-1 was ready for its maiden voyage.
And it was on the very day of the celebration of the full operational status of the SDF-1 that the Zentraedi attacked!
The Zentraedi, they were gigantic aliens (of the same height of a Veritech in Battleloid mode) and using war machine pods, and with a fleet of war spacewagons with the same impressive size than the SDF-1.
The SDF-1 were a vessel of that alien race and now they wanted it back!
The First Robotech War started!
A SELF-IMPOSED CHALLENGE
I started to learn to read novels in English with this book.
Sure, I got English classes on High School but that it didn't much good to really have enough vocabulary as to get into reading a full English written novel.
I met the Robotech books in the shelves of a local book store, back then, in 1992, and it was like receiving a call from a higher realm.
If I wanted to know what those books said, I needed to read them on English, since it wasn't something that you'd found to be translated into Spanish eventually, I could still be waiting and that was in 1992.
Those books were calling me, those books were in need to be at home with someone who cares for them, and I realized that that one was me.
At first it was agonizing, since I was reading more the dang dictionary than the book itself, it took me like 3 days to advance one single page, and I was doing it in the way of translating from English to Spanish.
After like a year or so, I ended the original first series (the three main wars, 12 books), by then I knew that I've taken the right decision since the extra details on those books make me to appreciate Robotech in a new light, with new eyes and superior knowledge.
With that, I started to read other stuff on English like Star Trek novels, eventually I changed from a English-Spanish dictionary to a full English dictionary, to force myself to understand the reading on English without doing the translation in my brain to Spanish. (And each time that I advanced into a new step of reading in English, I read again the original 12 books of Robotech.)
Even later I left the dictionary at home and carrying only the novels. (And I never needed again to carry the dictionary.)
It was an awesome moment in my reading life.
Later I took an English course, since by then, I was able to read anything in English but I wasn't able to construct sentences by myself.
Thanks to my decision of learning to read in English, not only my range of novels got almost infinite possibilities, obviously I was able to read a lot of wonderful books that maybe I never would be able to read, but also thanks to learn to read in English, even I met one the women that I loved the most, in my life, and she still is one of my best and dear friends.
And nothing of this would happen if I wouldn't learn to read in English.
AND OF COURSE, NOW IT'S TIME TO MAKE THE REVIEW
Genesis by Jack McKinney (a pen name of James Luceno & Brian Daley) is the first novel in a book series that adapted into prose format the original Anime TV series Robotech.
Robotech is an American re-adaptation of three different Japanese anime TV series: Macross, Southern Cross and Mospeada. Re-adapting the stories, even doing some editing on the animation, to make it a whole single storyline. The success of the newly adapted TV series in America opened the chance to extend the story into a sequel that while it failed to get budget to be a full TV series, the sequel was adapted into 5 books, as part of this prose book series, and even adding 1 book to make an ending to the whole saga and also three books telling events "in-between" of the three main wars. There were also several comic book mini-series recently.
Earth was in a bloody global war, when suddenly an incredibly massive spaceship crashed into the planet, and thanks to that, the inner war ended and the Earth nations make peace to work in the project of researching the mysterious gigantic spaceship developing a new science based on the what they found inside of the vessel and...
...the "Robotechnology" was born.
Of course, the falling of the spaceship may ended the inner war, but it was clear that we weren't alone in the universe and the nations decided that there was a fair risk of facing a war against alien life forms, so...
...the Robotech Defense Force was assembled.
The astonishing big spaceship crashed in the coast of a deserted island named "Macross" and after 10 years of restless work, by people of all nations, to rebuild the vessel and developing military craft based on the new "Robotech" science, even a city was built too to give home to all the civilian workers, civilian business services, and obviously the military personnel of the new RDF.
The gigantic massive spaceship was named: Super Dimensional Fortress One (SDF-1).
And using the base of American F-14 "Tomcats", were created new military air-space craft named "Veritech", able to transform into three modes: Veritech(Jet), Battleloid (a humanoid-like robot) and Guardian (a combined shape of Jet and Robot gaining skills of both forms).
After 10 years, peace on Earth was a reality and even the fear of an alien invasion was starting to lose strenght.
After 10 years, the SDF-1 was ready for its maiden voyage.
And it was on the very day of the celebration of the full operational status of the SDF-1 that the Zentraedi attacked!
The Zentraedi, they were gigantic aliens (of the same height of a Veritech in Battleloid mode) and using war machine pods, and with a fleet of war spacewagons with the same impressive size than the SDF-1.
The SDF-1 were a vessel of that alien race and now they wanted it back!
The First Robotech War started!
January 5, 2019
So this was rather interesting...
Many people of a certain age surely remember Robotech with more than a little fondness. As a young boy it blew me away; I simply couldn't get enough. It was also, I believe, my first introduction to big concept Space Opera (along with Star Wars, obviously).
Jack McKinney was a pseudonym for authors James Luceno and Brian Daley and these books are the novelization of the Robotech series, starting with the Macross saga. The books are long out of print but with some luck you should be able to get hold of them in omnibus format (Robotech: The Macross Saga: Battle Cry, Robotech: The Macross Saga: Doomsday etc.).
Genesis covers roughly, oh, the first 5 episodes or so. Other than a bit of a prologue and some additional technical information, the story is pretty much exactly like the original series. It's competently written (in fact, the quality was better than I had expected), but the authors are working within the constraints of the original work so there are some limitations. Don't expect any high literature or hard science, and you'll be fine (think "young adult" and you'll be golden).
So was it worth it?
It wasn't too bad at all, but the book loses some steam in the second half, mostly because of the budding romance between Rick Hunter and Minmei. It's in the story, so it's in here, but these particular sequences just seemed to drag on interminably and I found them nothing short of soppy. They're also a bit creepy, considering that Minmei is only fifteen.
Having said that, the Robotech franchise has always been high quality and that is reflected here. The action scenes are depicted quite well and fans of the series should find it enjoyable.
3 stars.
Many people of a certain age surely remember Robotech with more than a little fondness. As a young boy it blew me away; I simply couldn't get enough. It was also, I believe, my first introduction to big concept Space Opera (along with Star Wars, obviously).
Jack McKinney was a pseudonym for authors James Luceno and Brian Daley and these books are the novelization of the Robotech series, starting with the Macross saga. The books are long out of print but with some luck you should be able to get hold of them in omnibus format (Robotech: The Macross Saga: Battle Cry, Robotech: The Macross Saga: Doomsday etc.).
Genesis covers roughly, oh, the first 5 episodes or so. Other than a bit of a prologue and some additional technical information, the story is pretty much exactly like the original series. It's competently written (in fact, the quality was better than I had expected), but the authors are working within the constraints of the original work so there are some limitations. Don't expect any high literature or hard science, and you'll be fine (think "young adult" and you'll be golden).
So was it worth it?
It wasn't too bad at all, but the book loses some steam in the second half, mostly because of the budding romance between Rick Hunter and Minmei. It's in the story, so it's in here, but these particular sequences just seemed to drag on interminably and I found them nothing short of soppy. They're also a bit creepy, considering that Minmei is only fifteen.
Having said that, the Robotech franchise has always been high quality and that is reflected here. The action scenes are depicted quite well and fans of the series should find it enjoyable.
3 stars.
June 25, 2024
I was a latch-key kid. For those of you millennials and subsequent generations who did not grow up in the 70s, 80s, and early 90s, a “latch-key kid” was a kid who had two parents that worked long hours and basically stayed at home before and after school for several hours alone. That means no parental supervision. That means having the entire run of the house yourself.
I’ll give you kids a few seconds to mull that over.
I know: it’s shocking, horrifying, and you’re wondering why our parents weren’t arrested for neglect or abuse.
See, basically, in those days of yore, our parents didn’t really give a shit what we did for six or seven hours at night. Mom would go straight to the kitchen and make Hamburger Helper (just Google it). Dad would sit in his armchair and read the paper or watch the news or fall asleep. We would eat a quick meal together, and then our parents would tell us to go do something, which included (but was not limited to): doing our homework, riding our bikes around town, meeting up with friends at the local pharmacy or shopping plaza for the express purpose of making farting noises with our armpits and/or talking excessively about girls we liked in school and how much we would love to see their boobs.
This was the Golden Age of childhood for us. It was pretty much downhill after that.
This is all, by the way, a completely irrelevant and unnecessary preface to a review of Jack McKinney’s novel “Robotech: Genesis”, the first in a series of paperbacks based on an anime series that I watched religiously everyday after school.
The show, besides being about an alien invasion of Earth and giant robots, was also the first time I ever saw people getting killed in a cartoon. So, it didn’t graphically show people getting killed, but it often showed human-driven spaceships and giant robots being blown up, so it was obvious that people were dying. Which I thought, as a kid, was super-cool.
Kids, keep in mind: I didn’t have a home computer (we didn’t get one until my senior year of high school), a smartphone, iPad, and the term “Internet” hadn’t even been coined yet. After-school cartoons were the only thing we had going for us.
“Robotech” was one of my favorite shows, if not my favorite. (Vying for second place was “G.I.Joe” and “Transformers”.)
McKinney wrote these books (close to a baker’s dozen, I think) way back in the late-80s. They were basically novelizations of the shows. I didn’t read them at the time. I waited until now, when I’m 51, to read them.
They are essentially critic-proof. I could go on about how two-dimensional the characters are, how the book spends a lot of time mired in technical detail about spaceship and robot design, how stilted and silly the dialogue is, but nobody cares. If you are reading these books, you are reading them because you are a 12-year-old kid (regardless of how old you really are) who loves giant robots fighting giant aliens.
And you are probably reminiscing how fun it was to be a latch-key kid.
I’ll give you kids a few seconds to mull that over.
I know: it’s shocking, horrifying, and you’re wondering why our parents weren’t arrested for neglect or abuse.
See, basically, in those days of yore, our parents didn’t really give a shit what we did for six or seven hours at night. Mom would go straight to the kitchen and make Hamburger Helper (just Google it). Dad would sit in his armchair and read the paper or watch the news or fall asleep. We would eat a quick meal together, and then our parents would tell us to go do something, which included (but was not limited to): doing our homework, riding our bikes around town, meeting up with friends at the local pharmacy or shopping plaza for the express purpose of making farting noises with our armpits and/or talking excessively about girls we liked in school and how much we would love to see their boobs.
This was the Golden Age of childhood for us. It was pretty much downhill after that.
This is all, by the way, a completely irrelevant and unnecessary preface to a review of Jack McKinney’s novel “Robotech: Genesis”, the first in a series of paperbacks based on an anime series that I watched religiously everyday after school.
The show, besides being about an alien invasion of Earth and giant robots, was also the first time I ever saw people getting killed in a cartoon. So, it didn’t graphically show people getting killed, but it often showed human-driven spaceships and giant robots being blown up, so it was obvious that people were dying. Which I thought, as a kid, was super-cool.
Kids, keep in mind: I didn’t have a home computer (we didn’t get one until my senior year of high school), a smartphone, iPad, and the term “Internet” hadn’t even been coined yet. After-school cartoons were the only thing we had going for us.
“Robotech” was one of my favorite shows, if not my favorite. (Vying for second place was “G.I.Joe” and “Transformers”.)
McKinney wrote these books (close to a baker’s dozen, I think) way back in the late-80s. They were basically novelizations of the shows. I didn’t read them at the time. I waited until now, when I’m 51, to read them.
They are essentially critic-proof. I could go on about how two-dimensional the characters are, how the book spends a lot of time mired in technical detail about spaceship and robot design, how stilted and silly the dialogue is, but nobody cares. If you are reading these books, you are reading them because you are a 12-year-old kid (regardless of how old you really are) who loves giant robots fighting giant aliens.
And you are probably reminiscing how fun it was to be a latch-key kid.
April 23, 2016
Sta reci sem da sam bio ogroman fan ove serije kada sam bio mali i McKinney je odradio odlican posao u novelizaciji istoj.
I da se razumemo nije samo prepricao seriju (mada to je glavni deo) vec je ubacio i puno ekstra scena da malo dublje objasni likove ili dogadjaje ili sama razmisljanja. Sada na momente ume da bude slabih delova ali sem toga odlicno drzi paznju.
Tako da ako vam treba podsetnik na mladost samo uronite.
I da se razumemo nije samo prepricao seriju (mada to je glavni deo) vec je ubacio i puno ekstra scena da malo dublje objasni likove ili dogadjaje ili sama razmisljanja. Sada na momente ume da bude slabih delova ali sem toga odlicno drzi paznju.
Tako da ako vam treba podsetnik na mladost samo uronite.
June 18, 2013
I started my Robotech love affair when I was roughly 10 or so, when it used to be a syndicated cartoon on a local channel in California. Having been weaned on the ultra "feel good" cartoons of the day (GI Joe, He-Man, and even Voltron), Robotech was definitely a sobering experience for my young mind. Characters actually fell in, and out, of love, personalities evolved over the course of the show, mistakes were made by smart people...and some people actually died! From that moment on, the standard after-school fare just didn't hold the same appeal. And I can probably admit to having a huge crush on Lisa Hayes...but that's besides the point...
So a few years later, as I am starting to really read books regularly and of my own volition, out come the Robotech novelizations based on the cartoon series. No, they weren't Hemingway, Kerouac, Heinlein or Asimov. But they were simple stories set on a grand stage, and told with obvious affection for the source material. The writing is better than you'd find in "kids" books of that time, and the story crossed generations and touched on themes that most parents, wrongly, did not think their children were ready to handle. There was literally nothing else like it in print at the time.
I can honestly say that I wore out several of my paperbacks from reading them over and over and taking them with me on family trips. The story and characters were the things I kept returning to. So does my nostalgia affect my rating of the book, and the remaining books in the series? Yep, sure does. They are an integral part of my youth, and will always be held in high regard. But, Robotech is also just a plain old fun space opera of epic proportions as well. Definitely check it out for a good chunk of 80's and 90's sci-fi love.
So a few years later, as I am starting to really read books regularly and of my own volition, out come the Robotech novelizations based on the cartoon series. No, they weren't Hemingway, Kerouac, Heinlein or Asimov. But they were simple stories set on a grand stage, and told with obvious affection for the source material. The writing is better than you'd find in "kids" books of that time, and the story crossed generations and touched on themes that most parents, wrongly, did not think their children were ready to handle. There was literally nothing else like it in print at the time.
I can honestly say that I wore out several of my paperbacks from reading them over and over and taking them with me on family trips. The story and characters were the things I kept returning to. So does my nostalgia affect my rating of the book, and the remaining books in the series? Yep, sure does. They are an integral part of my youth, and will always be held in high regard. But, Robotech is also just a plain old fun space opera of epic proportions as well. Definitely check it out for a good chunk of 80's and 90's sci-fi love.
August 6, 2022
WWIII is brought to an uneasy end by the crashing of an alien space fortress into a tiny South Pacific island. Fearing the owners of the ship will come looking for it humanity bands together to repair the ship and reverse engineer its Robotechnology.... From there the aliens arrive and the reader follows the lives of a wide cast of characters (teens, men, women, families, pilots, ALIENS!) as the navigate a war driven by confusion that will leave none of them unscathed...
Robotech: Genesis is the novelization, by Jack McKinney, of the first 4-episodes of the eponymous TV series. Jack McKinney, as it happens, is the nom de plume of author team James Luceno and Brian Daley. A storied sci-fi team, Daley wrote the classic Han Solo at Stars End and the NPR radio dramas for Star Wars (among others novels and novelizations) and Luceno is still writing Star Wars books (among others novels and novelizations).
These are short, fun books. The characters have surprisingly rich lives for a cartoon adaptation and "McKinney" brings his real world military experience to add some texture to what can be in parts dry repetition of a scene. The authors do have fun acknowledging the cartoon-science that is sometimes at play, making up their own explanations for an error in the TV show.
All in all these are fun little pieces of history, but I'd really only recommend them for fans of the show.
Robotech: Genesis is the novelization, by Jack McKinney, of the first 4-episodes of the eponymous TV series. Jack McKinney, as it happens, is the nom de plume of author team James Luceno and Brian Daley. A storied sci-fi team, Daley wrote the classic Han Solo at Stars End and the NPR radio dramas for Star Wars (among others novels and novelizations) and Luceno is still writing Star Wars books (among others novels and novelizations).
These are short, fun books. The characters have surprisingly rich lives for a cartoon adaptation and "McKinney" brings his real world military experience to add some texture to what can be in parts dry repetition of a scene. The authors do have fun acknowledging the cartoon-science that is sometimes at play, making up their own explanations for an error in the TV show.
All in all these are fun little pieces of history, but I'd really only recommend them for fans of the show.
November 22, 2011
Upon re-reading as an adult and as a writer myself, the writing is pretty awful. "Artless" might be an apt word.
However, understand that you're not getting a Hyperion, a Dune, or Shadow of the Torturer from the get go will let you sit back and relax and enjoy what is here: a more polished version (in terms of plot and world building) of a pretty decent TV space opera with some great entertaining sequences.
"Robotech" as a cartoon was an attempt to bring anime to the US in the early 80s without hacking it apart into something ridiculously kiddy; when the attempt to do it unaltered didn't work, Harmony Gold threaded three unrelated mecha-series together (Super Dimensional Fortress Macross, Super Dimensional Calvary Southern Cross, and Genesis Climber Mospeada) as a longer, multi-generational story.
"Genesis" covers maybe the first six episodes of the Macross portion of Robotech. It also gives us a glimpse of a more complete Robotech world mostly just hinted at in the TV series: The Robotech Masters at war with the Invid, the brilliant scientist Zor rebelling against them, and the scheming prophecies of the mystical Protoculture Shapings. Plus, Protoculture-imbued mecha and starships that are something less alive than Neon Genesis Evangelion's titular Evangelions but more alive than the official (Japanese & Non-Robotech) Macross continuity's Valkyrie fighters.
If you can read this in the same way you read Lensmen books, you should have a lot of fun. (And I can almost guarantee a lot of fun around books 3,4, and 5, even if the writing doesn't improve.)
Except for the parts with Minmei. She still makes my eyes glaze over.
However, understand that you're not getting a Hyperion, a Dune, or Shadow of the Torturer from the get go will let you sit back and relax and enjoy what is here: a more polished version (in terms of plot and world building) of a pretty decent TV space opera with some great entertaining sequences.
"Robotech" as a cartoon was an attempt to bring anime to the US in the early 80s without hacking it apart into something ridiculously kiddy; when the attempt to do it unaltered didn't work, Harmony Gold threaded three unrelated mecha-series together (Super Dimensional Fortress Macross, Super Dimensional Calvary Southern Cross, and Genesis Climber Mospeada) as a longer, multi-generational story.
"Genesis" covers maybe the first six episodes of the Macross portion of Robotech. It also gives us a glimpse of a more complete Robotech world mostly just hinted at in the TV series: The Robotech Masters at war with the Invid, the brilliant scientist Zor rebelling against them, and the scheming prophecies of the mystical Protoculture Shapings. Plus, Protoculture-imbued mecha and starships that are something less alive than Neon Genesis Evangelion's titular Evangelions but more alive than the official (Japanese & Non-Robotech) Macross continuity's Valkyrie fighters.
If you can read this in the same way you read Lensmen books, you should have a lot of fun. (And I can almost guarantee a lot of fun around books 3,4, and 5, even if the writing doesn't improve.)
Except for the parts with Minmei. She still makes my eyes glaze over.
November 6, 2019
The book largely follows the tv show, but the extra details peppered in make it worth the read. Especially the Prologue with it's introduction of Zor, the Invid, and how/why the SDF-1 is a centerpiece to the story. There's also parts of the first chapter which go into detail on the discovery and exploration of the SDF-1 on Earth. If my memory is correct, these scenes were never part of the tv show (maybe the comics?) and do a fantastic job of setting up the story.
If you've got a craving for an easy to digest sci-fi series that's about as deep as what you'd expect to find on a Saturday morning cartoon, but with plenty of action and suspense, look no further than the reading-junkfood that is, Robotech!
If you've got a craving for an easy to digest sci-fi series that's about as deep as what you'd expect to find on a Saturday morning cartoon, but with plenty of action and suspense, look no further than the reading-junkfood that is, Robotech!
May 11, 2011
Robotech was a great animated series back in the 80s and I remember reading a few of the novels in elementary school. I thought I'd give them a try again and this first one was surprisingly good (good Amazon reviews as well). The dialog is a little cheesy but the author really brings to life the battle sequences and knows how to write action. All in all it was entertaining and the Robotech universe is interesting. I may have a go at a few of the others in the series.
In regards to the plot--one day a gigantic ship suddenly bursts through Earth's atmosphere and crash lands on the fictional Macross Island in the South Pacific. After the ship is discovered and its advanced alien technology investigated a coalition of governments repair the ship and prepare to put it into operation. On the day the ship is set to launch alien invaders appear in the sky determined to retake the lost ship...the fun begins.
In regards to the plot--one day a gigantic ship suddenly bursts through Earth's atmosphere and crash lands on the fictional Macross Island in the South Pacific. After the ship is discovered and its advanced alien technology investigated a coalition of governments repair the ship and prepare to put it into operation. On the day the ship is set to launch alien invaders appear in the sky determined to retake the lost ship...the fun begins.
May 10, 2018
Day 2 of 10 of Sci/Fi Fantasy books that influenced me.
I bought the first 3 Robotech novels before going on a cross US car trip in junior high. I had grown up on transformers and had always been interested in Robotech but never got to watch it because it was always aired on Sunday mornings when I was growing up. I fell in love with the books which led to the Role Playing Game by Paladium, and even a subscription to Protoculture addicts. When I finally got to watch the whole cartoon years later when I bought a bootleg VHS off Ebay I was actually disappointed in the series. I think the books are better than the cartoon and they do a far better job of weaving 3 unrelated anime into a single story. I decided to reread the Macross series a couple years ago and was surprised how well it stood up after all these years. I have these novels to thank for my current love of anime, and for getting me other role playing games back when I wasn't allowed to play D&D. I can now admit that Palladium games were awful but high school was populated with Robotech, Rifts and Top Secret because of these books. When I ran out of Robotech books I eventually found Battletech which has been another great book and game series that still plays a big role in my life.
I bought the first 3 Robotech novels before going on a cross US car trip in junior high. I had grown up on transformers and had always been interested in Robotech but never got to watch it because it was always aired on Sunday mornings when I was growing up. I fell in love with the books which led to the Role Playing Game by Paladium, and even a subscription to Protoculture addicts. When I finally got to watch the whole cartoon years later when I bought a bootleg VHS off Ebay I was actually disappointed in the series. I think the books are better than the cartoon and they do a far better job of weaving 3 unrelated anime into a single story. I decided to reread the Macross series a couple years ago and was surprised how well it stood up after all these years. I have these novels to thank for my current love of anime, and for getting me other role playing games back when I wasn't allowed to play D&D. I can now admit that Palladium games were awful but high school was populated with Robotech, Rifts and Top Secret because of these books. When I ran out of Robotech books I eventually found Battletech which has been another great book and game series that still plays a big role in my life.
May 18, 2020
Keeping this book forever!
May 9, 2024
Sometimes I get the urge to read crappy, mindless SF, but unfortunately I have an allergic reaction to everything Baen has published in the last twenty years or so, which limits my options greatly. I have standards, even when reading crap.
Thankfully there are the Robotech novelizations by "Jack McKinney" (a pseudonym for James Luceno and Brian Daley, both most famous for their Star Wars novels, though ironically from different eras, Daley's The Han Solo Adventures predating The Empire Strikes Back, while Luceno's are as recent as last year's Tarkin).
Robotech is a cartoon series cobbled together for American television from three unrelated anime, Superdimensional Fortress Macross, Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross, Genesis Climber Mospeada. Macross is a classic that's spawned numerous sequels in Japan over the last thirty years (there's a new one in production now), while the other two are crap that would be forgotten if they hadn't been combined into Robotech. Macross was greatly dumbed down to make it fit with the other series, though Southern Cross and Mospeada actually benefited from the conversion.
Unfortunately, the American producers couldn't shoot new footage for Robotech, so there are numerous inconsistencies and plot holes between the various parts of the story. These novelizations try to fill those holes by adding backstory and technobabble. Overall they do manage to improve the story.
The most amusing part of the books are when the authors attempt to fill the other kinds of plot holes -- the ones that naturally occur because the source material is a Japanese cartoon series that, though attempting a certain level of realism, was full of implausibilities. The authors are clearly guys who understand science and recognize all the problems with the original material. So for instance, at one point a spaceship performs a "hyperspace fold" too close to the Earth and ends up taking a Pacific Island with it into space. In the original anime, the water around the island was depicted as instantaneously freezing when exposed to space, forming a giant dome of ice. This is impossible -- in an airless void, the water has no way to dump its thermal energy except through radiation, and without any surface tension, it's boiling point would be so low that it would simply sublime into space. The authors can't contradict the cartoon, but they aren't willing to ignore the problem, so they add a paragraph explaining that the strange physics of the space fold caused the water to freeze.
This tendency reaches the level of hilarity in battle scenes, which are peppered with the words like "somehow" and "miraculously," as the authors try to explain the ridiculous (but cool) maneuvers shown in the anime. Twenty missiles come flying at the hero? He performs and evasive maneuver and somehow miraculously dodges them all. This happens in every single battle.
There's one aspect of "McKinney's" writing that I think deserves praise, and that's his handling of the military characters. Brian Daley was a Vietnam veteran, and, like his fellow vets Joe Haldeman and David Drake, he doesn't go in for any of that Kipling crap that exemplifies so much of modern MilSF. His characters don't spend a lot of time thinking about how noble they are for being soldiers, and how journalists and liberal politicians are undermining the military. Now some of that is a result of the source material -- the protagonist, Rick Hunter starts out as a pacifist, and even after he's forced to take up arms, he still questions the military -- but even the characters who are soldiers by choice are just people doing a job. A necessary job, to be sure, but not one they enjoy or think is worthy of glorification. Rather than lauding bravery, the book is full of passages like this:
The funny thing is, despite how mediocre the books are on a technical level, there are a number of bits like that that have stuck in my head since I first read the series back in the middle school. Most of them are from the Dune-style epigrams at the start of each chapter -- Rick Hunter explaining that "pushing the envelope" refers to the upper right corner of a graph showing a plane's performance, and then noting that on real envelopes that's where the stamp gets canceled; a scientist saying Einstein was wrong -- not only does God play dice with the universe, but they're loaded.
Thankfully there are the Robotech novelizations by "Jack McKinney" (a pseudonym for James Luceno and Brian Daley, both most famous for their Star Wars novels, though ironically from different eras, Daley's The Han Solo Adventures predating The Empire Strikes Back, while Luceno's are as recent as last year's Tarkin).
Robotech is a cartoon series cobbled together for American television from three unrelated anime, Superdimensional Fortress Macross, Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross, Genesis Climber Mospeada. Macross is a classic that's spawned numerous sequels in Japan over the last thirty years (there's a new one in production now), while the other two are crap that would be forgotten if they hadn't been combined into Robotech. Macross was greatly dumbed down to make it fit with the other series, though Southern Cross and Mospeada actually benefited from the conversion.
Unfortunately, the American producers couldn't shoot new footage for Robotech, so there are numerous inconsistencies and plot holes between the various parts of the story. These novelizations try to fill those holes by adding backstory and technobabble. Overall they do manage to improve the story.
The most amusing part of the books are when the authors attempt to fill the other kinds of plot holes -- the ones that naturally occur because the source material is a Japanese cartoon series that, though attempting a certain level of realism, was full of implausibilities. The authors are clearly guys who understand science and recognize all the problems with the original material. So for instance, at one point a spaceship performs a "hyperspace fold" too close to the Earth and ends up taking a Pacific Island with it into space. In the original anime, the water around the island was depicted as instantaneously freezing when exposed to space, forming a giant dome of ice. This is impossible -- in an airless void, the water has no way to dump its thermal energy except through radiation, and without any surface tension, it's boiling point would be so low that it would simply sublime into space. The authors can't contradict the cartoon, but they aren't willing to ignore the problem, so they add a paragraph explaining that the strange physics of the space fold caused the water to freeze.
This tendency reaches the level of hilarity in battle scenes, which are peppered with the words like "somehow" and "miraculously," as the authors try to explain the ridiculous (but cool) maneuvers shown in the anime. Twenty missiles come flying at the hero? He performs and evasive maneuver and somehow miraculously dodges them all. This happens in every single battle.
There's one aspect of "McKinney's" writing that I think deserves praise, and that's his handling of the military characters. Brian Daley was a Vietnam veteran, and, like his fellow vets Joe Haldeman and David Drake, he doesn't go in for any of that Kipling crap that exemplifies so much of modern MilSF. His characters don't spend a lot of time thinking about how noble they are for being soldiers, and how journalists and liberal politicians are undermining the military. Now some of that is a result of the source material -- the protagonist, Rick Hunter starts out as a pacifist, and even after he's forced to take up arms, he still questions the military -- but even the characters who are soldiers by choice are just people doing a job. A necessary job, to be sure, but not one they enjoy or think is worthy of glorification. Rather than lauding bravery, the book is full of passages like this:
Contrary to what most civilians thought, real combat veterans seldom bragged among themselves of their heroism; it was a mark of high prestige to go on about how scared you were, how fouled up things were, how hairy the situation had gotten, how dumb the brass were. Because among them, everyone knew.
The funny thing is, despite how mediocre the books are on a technical level, there are a number of bits like that that have stuck in my head since I first read the series back in the middle school. Most of them are from the Dune-style epigrams at the start of each chapter -- Rick Hunter explaining that "pushing the envelope" refers to the upper right corner of a graph showing a plane's performance, and then noting that on real envelopes that's where the stamp gets canceled; a scientist saying Einstein was wrong -- not only does God play dice with the universe, but they're loaded.
June 20, 2009
This book really started something for me. I read it in junior high and I guess it was just right for my mindset at the time. I fell in love with ensemble characters progressing the story who may never actually meet in the entire series but are no less important than all the others. The idea of heading each chapter with a quote or entry from a log, diary, journal, or magazine real only to the world that the reader is seeing into added a depth of continuity that persisted through the whole series as well.
The original Japanese storyline was developed in the late 70s and came to the cartoon screen in 1979, an American producer was in Japan looking for concepts and came across three distinctly different stories with similar art styles and wove them together for an immediate syndicated childrens cartoon. Comic books, toys, and other media followed, but the novels made their way into my life in about 1990.
During a Global Civil War, an enormous alien spacecraft wreaks havoc across the globe when it crash lands on a tiny French controlled island in the South Pacific called Macross. Over the next ten years, the ship and its amazing technology - and even more fascinating alien energy sources are studied and rebuilt in an effort to develop a defense against the ship's creators. And that's only the first chapter!!!
A cast of characters whose lives will weave together forming the basis of 23 more books come to life and set their heartbreaking journey into love triangles, war, too short peace, friendships, human/alien hybrid children, and transformable fighting 'mecha'.
The original Japanese storyline was developed in the late 70s and came to the cartoon screen in 1979, an American producer was in Japan looking for concepts and came across three distinctly different stories with similar art styles and wove them together for an immediate syndicated childrens cartoon. Comic books, toys, and other media followed, but the novels made their way into my life in about 1990.
During a Global Civil War, an enormous alien spacecraft wreaks havoc across the globe when it crash lands on a tiny French controlled island in the South Pacific called Macross. Over the next ten years, the ship and its amazing technology - and even more fascinating alien energy sources are studied and rebuilt in an effort to develop a defense against the ship's creators. And that's only the first chapter!!!
A cast of characters whose lives will weave together forming the basis of 23 more books come to life and set their heartbreaking journey into love triangles, war, too short peace, friendships, human/alien hybrid children, and transformable fighting 'mecha'.
November 13, 2007
Looking at the two other reviews here currently is kind of scary.
Robotech was one of the most important things in my life during high school. (In fact, I got one of my best friends when she asked another friend of mine about her Robotech T-Shirt.)
I read these books as part of a craze for more Robotech, the coolest current TV show there was. I didn't know yet that it was what I now know as anime, and I didn't know that it had been assembled from three unrelated shows (I had noticed the changes in art style, but didn't know what they meant), but I did know it told a compelling, well-written SF saga with good characters that was the best thing since sliced bread (or at least Star Trek).
The books, coming from that proud lineage, are certainly not bad (though the covers were wince-inducing), if not great. The six First Generation, or Macross books especially, are good, with some nice explanations of some of the quirks of the series. The other two generations are okay, but don't add as much (and just didn't get the same amount of love). Sentinels... well, it's not bad considering the material, but I never cared for most of the proposed plotline of Sentinels.
Robotech was one of the most important things in my life during high school. (In fact, I got one of my best friends when she asked another friend of mine about her Robotech T-Shirt.)
I read these books as part of a craze for more Robotech, the coolest current TV show there was. I didn't know yet that it was what I now know as anime, and I didn't know that it had been assembled from three unrelated shows (I had noticed the changes in art style, but didn't know what they meant), but I did know it told a compelling, well-written SF saga with good characters that was the best thing since sliced bread (or at least Star Trek).
The books, coming from that proud lineage, are certainly not bad (though the covers were wince-inducing), if not great. The six First Generation, or Macross books especially, are good, with some nice explanations of some of the quirks of the series. The other two generations are okay, but don't add as much (and just didn't get the same amount of love). Sentinels... well, it's not bad considering the material, but I never cared for most of the proposed plotline of Sentinels.
December 27, 2019
I have always had a soft corner for the early action animated cartoons which came out in the 80s - Ninja Robots, Ninja Turtles, DragonballZ. So imagine my joy when I learn that a book series based on one of those was available. And my subsequent disappointment.
Terrible character development, superficial displays, TONS of missed opportunities (especially with the enigmatic Captain Gloval of the SDF - 1), unfinished plot lines, gaping plot holes - this book was a ginormous let down. The storyline reminded a lot of Battlestar Galactica or Star Trek - Voyager, but again, missed opportunities. Kudos to the tech vision though, even if it was superficial.
Can't believe there exist dozens of books in this series. Will give the second one a go, but goodbye hope.
Terrible character development, superficial displays, TONS of missed opportunities (especially with the enigmatic Captain Gloval of the SDF - 1), unfinished plot lines, gaping plot holes - this book was a ginormous let down. The storyline reminded a lot of Battlestar Galactica or Star Trek - Voyager, but again, missed opportunities. Kudos to the tech vision though, even if it was superficial.
Can't believe there exist dozens of books in this series. Will give the second one a go, but goodbye hope.
April 26, 2009
Good book. I have read it before in my youth, and it was just as good as I remember it. The fact that it is directly adapted from the cartoon series is both a good thing and a bad thing. Good because it is very faithful to the cartoon, while expanding on things, but bad because it doesn't add anything to the series. Also, I could do without the "relationship" drama between Rick and Minmei.
Good book, I would recomend it to Sci-Fi fans, just tune out the sappy Minmei/Rick parts.
Good book, I would recomend it to Sci-Fi fans, just tune out the sappy Minmei/Rick parts.
October 17, 2007
My first foray into sci-fi books! I stumbled upon the series when the Half Price books opened up in Redmond. Ran through all 18 books in the series in 2-3 months. What can I say, I have a soft spot for mecha!
January 14, 2015
Great SiFi series. Giant battlesuits battling outer space monsters, what more can you ask for. Very recommended
May 24, 2019
I remember as a kid racing to the TV after school to watch the latest episode of Robotech. I was really into Transformers and found this series shared the similar technology of machines transforming into different shapes. Yet it also had drama and more mature themes - love, war, and loss.
The Kindle edition of this three book omnibus was on sale and so I figured I would do this nostalgia read. While the author is shown as Jack McKinney, it was actually co-written by James Luceno and Brian Daley. They took the entire Macross Saga (36 half hour episodes) and divided it into twelve novels. There are a total of 21 books in the series, covering all three of the Robotech Sagas of the time, plus the aborted sequel project, The Sentinels.
The writing is quite good. It must be a challenge to write battle stories from a TV show that is filled with “Michael Bay Explosions”.
The Kindle edition of this three book omnibus was on sale and so I figured I would do this nostalgia read. While the author is shown as Jack McKinney, it was actually co-written by James Luceno and Brian Daley. They took the entire Macross Saga (36 half hour episodes) and divided it into twelve novels. There are a total of 21 books in the series, covering all three of the Robotech Sagas of the time, plus the aborted sequel project, The Sentinels.
The writing is quite good. It must be a challenge to write battle stories from a TV show that is filled with “Michael Bay Explosions”.
November 25, 2021
All over the place, but also shockingly solid for a novelization of a cartoon that's a re-dub of three mashed-together anime series. Mostly of little consequence beyond setting up the sequel and the romance between Rick and Minmei. Just skip right to the sequel if that's all you doing to do. But also does some really crazy things really all of a sudden and it's kinda of great for that in a way that you don't really get outside of these cheesy dime store novels.
Weird amateurish writing mistakes like poorly attributed dialogue and an omnipotent narrator that shifts perspective from paragraph to paragraph sometimes. Naming two main characters - both of whom are pilots and perspective characters - single-syllable names that begin with R is a bad decision, too.
Weird amateurish writing mistakes like poorly attributed dialogue and an omnipotent narrator that shifts perspective from paragraph to paragraph sometimes. Naming two main characters - both of whom are pilots and perspective characters - single-syllable names that begin with R is a bad decision, too.
September 8, 2021
I grew up on the cartoons and had read the original eighteen book series when I was younger. Reading this again was/is pretty fun. Having extra bits of information to explain things in the cartoon is nice as well. Not the greatest book ever written, but it is a fun giant robot science fiction story with characters I love in situations I cherish fondly from youth. I don't know if it helps to already be a fan of Robotech or Macross, but I would imagine this is still an enjoyable enough read without having seen any of the anime.
December 26, 2021
Having seen the animated series helps with visualization in places. However, there's a bit more detail in the behind the scenes of what characters are thinking that helps in making the story better.
In short, humanity is locked in a global war and nearing a breaking point. The arrival of the alien spaceship (SDF-1) puts the war on hold and creates a peace. Rebuilding the alien ship takes place between chapters as the reader jumps forward 10 years to the completion stage. Aliens arrive to 're'-claim the ship and the humans manning it must defend it.
In short, humanity is locked in a global war and nearing a breaking point. The arrival of the alien spaceship (SDF-1) puts the war on hold and creates a peace. Rebuilding the alien ship takes place between chapters as the reader jumps forward 10 years to the completion stage. Aliens arrive to 're'-claim the ship and the humans manning it must defend it.
August 19, 2019
It's quite an interesting reread. One definitely has to go into the series remembering this is a novelization of the long-running series, and therefore leaving little room for noticeable differences. On the one hand it's an interesting time capsule into the late 80s when this show became a fan favorite. At the same time there are a few cringeworthy moments of questionable prose and characterizations. Looking past those moments, however, one finds a fun old-school pulp SF story.
December 25, 2023
Como fan de la animación de la saga Robotech de los 80’s, me gusto mucho el libro, ya que llenan ciertos huecos, complementando la historia conocida, como por ejemplo, en este libro, se describe como fue que Breetai, comandante de las fuerzas Zentraedi, perdió parte de su rostro. Muy recomendable para los fans de Robotech, y para los que no están familiarizados con la saga también es una muy buena opción de lectura.
September 11, 2021
Didn't have the attention span to do much more than skim this when I got it in 1987. Now I finally read it. Some of the ancillary fiction parts are neat, but it's really just the show written in text - which was cool before DVD, but somewhat pointless today.
June 20, 2017
Sophomoric dialogue, illogical strategies, and complete disrespect for military chain of command, but still.. a fun return to one of my favourite programs of my youth.
April 1, 2019
I remember reading this when I was a teenager. The technology still homes up and send very magical.
December 15, 2019
A short read, that while entertaining, leaves you hanging. Which makes sense since it's the first of 6 books in the Macross arc.
June 4, 2021
Didn't hold up to the memory of reading it 30 years ago.
August 27, 2021
The Robotech animated series has been a favorite of mine since childhood, and I enjoyed experiencing this story in a different format.
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