Robotech Novelizations

[kanedaestes]

hey before i got real heavy into macross which was hard to obtain for awhile, i did read these books, and they are okay, i really like the zentradi rebellion book number 19, because it talks about the transition period of everything, rick and company getting ready to leave in th sdf-3, the emergence of the southern cross army as well as hovertanks, and with all this the zentradi uprisings in south america, it was good, but now i have all things macross, it is kind of no longer as interesting as it once was, since the macross story line is much better.

[bsu legato]

IIRC - there were 3 other Robotech novels - all dealing with "lost" (ie- completely made up) stories set inbetween Macross and SC. I also seem to remember that Jack McKinney was a pen-name for two authors that collaborated to write the novels.

Found them on Amazon -

Robotech 19

Robotech 20

Robotech 21

Hey, those are the ones! I see that #20 seems to be an attempt to use the awful Robotech: The Movie storyline.

[Deacon Blues]

The only reprint that they did in English was the Mobile Suit Gundam Trilogy...

Edit:: The only reason why I was happy to have read these is because:

(1). I don't have the series on VHS anymore

(2). I'm not planning on purchasing them

(3). It gives me an excuse to get off the computer

I mean, the beginning of the 1st book provided a nicer intro to the ASS-1 crash and what not that the series didn't do...

Edited September 15, 2004 by Deacon Blues

[yellowlightman]

Hey, those are the ones! I see that #20 seems to be an attempt to use the awful Robotech: The Movie storyline.

It was their attempt at a cyberpunk story as well. I remember reading in an old interview that a lot of the main characters names were based off famous cyberpunk novelists; Gibson, Rucker, Sterling, etc.

[EXO]

Hey, those are the ones! I see that #20 seems to be an attempt to use the awful Robotech: The Movie storyline.

It was their attempt at a cyberpunk story as well. I remember reading in an old interview that a lot of the main characters names were based off famous cyberpunk novelists; Gibson, Rucker, Sterling, etc.

ghhkk.. I hate it when they do that... kinda cheesy... it's like oooh looks at us, we're so dep within the cyberpunk cult... anyone that has casually heard of cyberpunk has heard those names...

Priss and the Replicants, now there's a smart homage.... it doesn't reak of trying too hard...

[bsu legato]

It's kind of ironic that Brian Daley and James Luceno were two of my favorite Star Wars EU authors.

[Agent ONE]

You guys actually read novels!!??? I don't have the attention span for that. If fact when some of you clowns get wordy with your posts I don't even read em. Its just too long.

I am a product of the MTV generation... It must have explosions to keep my attention.

[yellowlightman]

Priss and the Replicants, now there's a smart homage.... it doesn't reak of trying too hard...

Or a nearly identical intro (with very similar music, IIRC), but yeah, BGC handled it's homages must more discretely.

[Blaine23]

You guys actually read novels!!??? I don't have the attention span for that. If fact when some of you clowns get wordy with your posts I don't even read em. Its just too long.

I am a product of the MTV generation... It must have explosions to keep my attention.

Here ya go, A1.

I can do it, yes I can read! The words make sense to me!

Don't say I never did anything for you.

[Agent ONE]

You guys actually read novels!!???  I don't have the attention span for that.  If fact when some of you clowns get wordy with your posts I don't even read em.  Its just too long.

I am a product of the MTV generation... It must have explosions to keep my attention.

Here ya go, A1.

I can do it, yes I can read! The words make sense to me!

Don't say I never did anything for you.

I didn't say I didn't know how to read... I just said pleasure reading puts me to sleep. I have no problem reading marketing textbooks. THEY are actually interesting. But reading a story... Forget it.

I started to read The Bourne Ultimatum when I was in Warsaw (after my interogation... I had a little trouble at the airport) and I got 100 pages into it, since the military was watching me I couldn't do much else. But since I got back to SF I haven't opened it.

[EXO]

I can do it, yes I can read!  The words make sense to me!

oh man... i've dun ordah'd the wrong set yo...

Here me be thinking dat dat biatch Mckinney be trippin on some stress... now I gotta flip these page all ovah 'gin...

hooked on ebonics

Edited September 15, 2004 by >EXO<

[The White Comet]

I bought a bunch of these books back when they reprinted them and never got to read them(thank god). I sold them in mint condition on ebay for like 90$ about a year ago. Makes me wish i had bought the two Japanese Macross novels when i saw them in japan for 500 yen each about 3 years ago.

[Dangaioh]

I have to say before I knew about Macross I really dug those books, they added alot more character development, tidbits on the carrier operations, more everything......then I saw Macross and a had wee little bonfire But speaking of anime books, I heard they were reprinting the OLD Gundam novels.....any word?

the old gundam novels was translated by Fred Schodts for Del Rey Books in 3 books, so far published only once that I know of... it was not that bad, and it was more detailed gruesome than the anime... there is also a brief history of the Gundam series in general, it even talked about how the fans in Japan got so ravenous just for the model kits.

btw, the ending for the original book greatly differs to that of the anime series.

here's what you can expect from the book and not in the anime... sex, violence, gore (not Al Gore), battles and a good read.

now back to Macross..., I too read the book... I gotta admit, it wasn't that bad, atleast it does something good that Robocrap didn't have... "a story", or atleast a sense of cohesiveness that the bastardization of Macross, Southern Cross and Mospeadea 21 lacked.

[MrDisco]

well i've got the entire collection and would never give them up. i think they were a great read with some great ideas on the series as a whole.

[Myriad]

I have to say before I knew about Macross I really dug those books, they added alot more character development, tidbits on the carrier operations, more everything......then I saw Macross and a had wee little bonfire   But speaking of anime books, I heard they were reprinting the OLD Gundam novels.....any word?

the old gundam novels was translated by Fred Schodts for Del Rey Books in 3 books, so far published only once that I know of... it was not that bad, and it was more detailed gruesome than the anime... there is also a brief history of the Gundam series in general, it even talked about how the fans in Japan got so ravenous just for the model kits.

btw, the ending for the original book greatly differs to that of the anime series.

here's what you can expect from the book and not in the anime... sex, violence, gore (not Al Gore), battles and a good read.

now back to Macross..., I too read the book... I gotta admit, it wasn't that bad, atleast it does something good that Robocrap didn't have... "a story", or atleast a sense of cohesiveness that the bastardization of Macross, Southern Cross and Mospeadea 21 lacked.

The three Gundam books were just reprinted. They are all in one book now. The Gundam story in the books is far superior to the show. No boy and his bot BS. Amuro was actually trained to use the Gundam.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detai...=glance&s=books

[Drad]

I am a product of the MTV generation... It must have explosions to keep my attention.

We'll hook you up with some books that are rigged with shaped explosive charges every third or fourth page. Those'll hold ya for awhile.

[1/1 LowViz Lurker]

Another thing I remember is in the book it explains that the pilots have a helmet which reads their thoughts and transfers that movement to the mech. At first that sounded ridiculous since we all know there are physical controls shown in the cartoon/anime. But then after seeing mac+: Can anyone say brainwave control system? Mac + = copying mckinney!

The novels imo were good for backstory and explaining the reasons for why the Zentreadi were after Zor's ship. I particularly liked how the invid were right there at the start (Breetai's face gets injured) because it takes away the "WTF do the aliens want from us?" factor that was in the cartoon. Robotech fans had nothing during the time these came out, (I remember getting a few from a comic book store and my brother, who was only a casual fan of the series actually liked the novels better than the cartoon) so I can understand why people are so fond of these novels. The writing is pretty good, and it fills in the little details whilst not boring you. (the action is described in detail too)

You know what they should have done? Put these free on the robotech dvds as a bonus right alongside those old robotech toy ads. And along with that, scans of the robotech comics. Wasted opportunity IMO

The things I didn't like were contradictions to the cartoon. Personally instead of saying they used "thinking caps" as the controls, they should have explained that the existing controls were highly sophisticated and sensitive enough to mirror the natural motion of human pilot's body using the standard controls. This would have linked perfectly to how roy was demonstrating that with robotechnology they can perform more precise manuevers than thier older planes in the airhshow in the first episode. (an interesting discussion on rt.com about this.)

Expert pilots and amatuers would then be given the chance to perform fancy manuevers thanks to the advances that the alien tech brought (but still be room for aces like max to prove the constant factor that thier pilot skills are what make the difference in the end regardless of what tech level the tool humans are given to work with).

Edited September 16, 2004 by 1/1 LowViz Lurker

[bsu legato]

The three Gundam books were just reprinted. They are all in one book now. The Gundam story in the books is far superior to the show. No boy and his bot BS. Amuro was actually trained to use the Gundam.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detai...=glance&s=books

Dammit, and I had just tracked down 2 of the 3 books again! Now I have to go and buy this compilation. I never should have sold my original copies.

[Jemstone]

I had the novels waaaay back when. They were a gift from a friend who had "abondoned" Robotech. This wa sbefore I got the full 411 on just how much of the original series were massacred to create Robotech. In The end I only read one novel (I think it wa steh final one of the series) and despised it for the simple reason they had managed to kill off my second favorite purple-haired cross dresser.

[Knight26]

You guys actually read novels!!??? I don't have the attention span for that. If fact when some of you clowns get wordy with your posts I don't even read em. Its just too long.

I am a product of the MTV generation... It must have explosions to keep my attention.

That's sad that you can't enjoy reading for the sake of reading, personnaly there are few things better that don't involve a woman then kicking back and relaxing with a good book.

[Panon]

Despite verging close to fan fiction levels at times (like all book tie ins like these) I've always like most of the books.

I never disliked Robotech because of it's story, just what it did to Macross and the other shows - in it's own right, it's perfectly fine.

For that reason the inconsistancies don't bother me at all. I just treat them as Robotech books which have nothing to do with Macross and thus aren't bound by the limitations of it's animation.

[Agent ONE]

You guys actually read novels!!???  I don't have the attention span for that.  If fact when some of you clowns get wordy with your posts I don't even read em.  Its just too long.

I am a product of the MTV generation... It must have explosions to keep my attention.

That's sad that you can't enjoy reading for the sake of reading, personnaly there are few things better that don't involve a woman then kicking back and relaxing with a good book.

While my GF is doing her research/homework (she is still in school) she tells me to quit being loud (I am not really the quiet type). She has told me to pleasure read on many occasions but once I stop moving and sit down with the book I get these out of controll erections. That is when she REALLY doesn't get any studying done. For the most part, as soon as I quit moving I want to pork.

[Cyclone]

Read them, hate them for a number of reasons such as the add-ons (Thinking Caps, Five Year Folds, Shapings, Mystic Protoculture) but mostly because there a number of instances we you can see that both authors when writing "Alpha Fighter" and "Beta Fighter" really meant "VF-1", many of the descriptions and abillities point to it, none more so than the nose detaching scene from "World Killers".

Seriously, how stupid would a Alpha look with a Beta nose section attached to it's arm, let alone how such a combination would stand, let alone walk...

Cyc

[Graham]

I'm a Macross Purist and even though I've never actually watched much RT (saw Macross first), I will admit to owning the RT Macross/Mospeada/Southern Cross books (Sorry, I can never remember their RT names). They are quite enjoyable reads as long as you don't take them too seriously.

And I'm a real bookworm. I probably get through 1 or 2 novels a week on the journey to and from work.

Graham

[kanedaestes]

see even graham has read them, and they are good, but like he said don't take them seriously, look at them as a completely different universe all together

[Pat S]

I will admit to owning the RT Macross/Mospeada/Southern Cross books (Sorry, I can never remember their RT names). They are quite enjoyable reads as long as you don't take them too seriously.

Graham

Wow!

[Blaine23]

I'm a Macross Purist and even though I've never actually watched much RT (saw Macross first), I will admit to owning the RT Macross/Mospeada/Southern Cross books (Sorry, I can never remember their RT names). They are quite enjoyable reads as long as you don't take them too seriously.

And I'm a real bookworm. I probably get through 1 or 2 novels a week on the journey to and from work.

Graham

I take it you're on a train or being driven... because that could get dangerous. Actually my drive to/from work went from 10 minutes to an hour about a year ago. Since then, I've become a big fan of unabridged audiobooks that I download to my iPod. It's very easy, very cheap, and it keeps the ride from being a total killer. I highly recommend it to anyone driving a roadtrip or long commute.

Like I said earlier, I have a soft spot for the Robotech novels as they were my only Macross enjoyment during the barren years when the Robotech VHS was too expensive and the orignal show couldn't be imported into my backwater area growing up. But as a general rule, I don't like to read "adaptations" or "licensed" books at all anymore.

These types of "branded" books are almost always some kind of letdown or not far from fan-fiction (as was mentioned earlier). The authors are interchangeable and the characters and writing suffers as a result. There's a million great books out there, there's no real reason to read about a TV show, movie, or anime except for the comfort factor of it all.

[Dangaioh]

I have to say before I knew about Macross I really dug those books, they added alot more character development, tidbits on the carrier operations, more everything......then I saw Macross and a had wee little bonfire    But speaking of anime books, I heard they were reprinting the OLD Gundam novels.....any word?

the old gundam novels was translated by Fred Schodts for Del Rey Books in 3 books, so far published only once that I know of... it was not that bad, and it was more detailed gruesome than the anime... there is also a brief history of the Gundam series in general, it even talked about how the fans in Japan got so ravenous just for the model kits.

btw, the ending for the original book greatly differs to that of the anime series.

here's what you can expect from the book and not in the anime... sex, violence, gore (not Al Gore), battles and a good read.

now back to Macross..., I too read the book... I gotta admit, it wasn't that bad, atleast it does something good that Robocrap didn't have... "a story", or atleast a sense of cohesiveness that the bastardization of Macross, Southern Cross and Mospeadea 21 lacked.

The three Gundam books were just reprinted. They are all in one book now. The Gundam story in the books is far superior to the show. No boy and his bot BS. Amuro was actually trained to use the Gundam.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detai...=glance&s=books

must find book.

my 3 individual novels are about to turn into shredded paper as the yelowing continues.

[nathan]

1) All this Robotech bashing not only makes me sick but it also makes Macross fans look like purists (fill in your own words here) and starts flame wars. Please knock it off. If it wasn't for how HG treated Macross fans non of you would even be talking about Robotech now. That might even be why they do it. To piss you off and keep Robotech out there.

2) I own the entire series of Robotech books, mostly first printings. Except for the last few I enjoy them. It's been a while since I've read them but I'm not going to sell them.

3) I have seen the combined books but it has been a while. I have no desire to buy them however and if as it's been rumored that HG is rewriting them to fit there twisted ideas for Robotech I have even less respect for them than I do now. Which is zilch by the way. They should have just released the DVDs and a few collectables and let Palladium continue publishing Robotech they way they wanted and not produce all the crap they are now.

[Raptor One]

Another thing I remember is in the book it explains that the pilots have a helmet which reads their thoughts and transfers that movement to the mech. At first that sounded ridiculous since we all know there are physical controls shown in the cartoon/anime. But then after seeing mac+: Can anyone say brainwave control system? Mac + = copying mckinney!

The things I didn't like were contradictions to the cartoon. Personally instead of saying they used "thinking caps" as the controls, they should have explained that the existing controls were highly sophisticated and sensitive enough to mirror the natural motion of human pilot's body using the standard controls. This would have linked perfectly to how roy was demonstrating that with robotechnology they can perform more precise manuevers than thier older planes in the airhshow in the first episode. (an interesting discussion on rt.com about this.)

Expert pilots and amatuers would then be given the chance to perform fancy manuevers thanks to the advances that the alien tech brought (but still be room for aces like max to prove the constant factor that thier pilot skills are what make the difference in the end regardless of what tech level the tool humans are given to work with).

From reading the novels I always thought that the "Thinking Caps" just assisted in controlling the VFs. For instance the pilots would use the controls to do the general motion and then mentally 'fine tune' the movement with the helmet. I always thought this was a good way to explain certain things, like controlling the transformations. The way I imagined it was that te pilot would flip the mode-change lever and then use the thinking cap to controlled the exact order of transformation etc. I never got the impression it was used to totally control the fighters.

[CoryHolmes]

The Thinking Cap was also used to help the very fine details like balance, manipulation of the fingers, and all those other little details that it takes to run a giant robot.

[JB0]

Of course, it doesn't really make SENSE to have direct uninterpolated control over anything. You shouldn't be operating individual fingers and such, you should just be telling the computer roughly what you want to do and letting it figure out the specifics(example "wrap the left hand around that future j-pop star standing in the crossfire like an idiot").

And the argument that you had to manually guide the mech through transformation was the dumbest thing ever. If ever anything should be pre-programmed with no user input...

Ditto for balance. Your many years of practice with your body will be pretty much useless for balancing a giant robot, which has a diffrent center of gravity, diffrent joint tolerances, some major articulation differences in the foot area, etc. Especially since your inner ears won't be in the right place for balancing the mech(too low), and will lag behind the mech(because your head isn't securely fastened to the mech).

Edited October 15, 2004 by JB0

[Skull Leader]

OMFGWTF!!!!1!1!... IT'S ALIVE!!! (man, what is UP with thread ressurection these days?)

just kidding, lol...

[Project Phoenix]

OMFGWTF!!!!1!1!... IT'S ALIVE!!! (man, what is UP with thread ressurection these days?)

just kidding, lol... 

313153[/snapback]

Haven't you heard? The dead walks among us.