by Nathan Stout (of AccordingToWhim.com)
Robotech is probably my one greatest sci-fi enjoyment. Sure I like Star Wars and Star Trek but Robotech has a special place in my heart. You have heard all this before from me when I blogged about the Robotech Fanzine from many MANY years ago.
I have watched the show, read the books, comics, fanzines, and such in the past but I haven’t done it in a couple of years. I am getting the itch to do it again. I don’t know what brought this on but I just had this notion to re-read the novelizations again. As you may or may not know the Robotech novelizations were written by Jack McKenny who is actually a pseudonym for two real people James Luceno and Brian Daley. Daley also wrote some Star Wars novels and the novelization of the original Tron movie. He died years ago but after the Robotech novels.
The Robotech novelizations include 21 books. The first 12 mirror the televisions show very closely and fill in all the little gaps and explain away all the details that don’t make sense (that occur in the animation). The other are mishmash of Robotech materials. Here is the list of books in reading order:
- Genesis (1987) (Macross Saga)
- Battle Cry (1987) (Macross Saga)
- Homecoming (1987) (Macross Saga)
- Battlehymn (1987) (Macross Saga)
- Force of Arms (1987) (Macross Saga)
- Doomsday (1987) (Macross Saga)
- The Zentraedi Rebellion (1994) (Not attached to any animation)
- The Devil’s Hand (1988) (Partly dramatized the couple of existing Sentinels episodes)
- Dark Powers (1988) (Sentinels)
- Death Dance (1988) (Sentinels)
- World Killers (1988) (Sentinels)
- Rubicon (1988) (Sentinels)
- The Masters’ Gambit (1995) (Not attached to any animation)
- Southern Cross (1987) (Southern Cross)
- Metal Fire (1987) (Southern Cross)
- The Final Nightmare (1987) (Southern Cross)
- Before the Invid Storm (1996) (Not attached to any animation)
- Invid Invasion (1987) (New Generation)
- Metamorphosis (1987) (New Generation)
- Symphony of Light (1987) (New Generation)
- The End of the Circle (1990) (Not attached to any animation)
My intent in 2012 (starting in late 2011) is to begin reading these novelizations all over again as well watching the corresponding episodes and reading certain comics which take place at the same point in the story, and reading articles from the fanzines. I am going to attempt to give myself the ‘total picture’ of the Robotech saga and see what it’s like. This isn’t a goal per say, just a fun thing I want to do. This means I will probably be writing about it alot in the coming year but not in blog format. I am thinking I could write some lengthy articles about certain subjects or aspects to the saga.
This means I am going to have to drag out my comic collection and figure out what I need to get ahold of (since I don’t have many of the comics anymore). I have the books and the DVDs as well as the fanzines so I am almost ready to rock and roll.