Robotech (novels)

Robotech was adapted into novel form by "Jack McKinney", a pseudonym for the team of James Luceno and the late Brian Daley, a pair of writers who had previously collaborated on the animated series "Galaxy Rangers". Using fictitious epigraphs in the style of "Dune," McKinney's novels fleshed out the chronology (including adapting the incomplete "Sentinels" source material) in greater detail.

The original twelve novels were written to a tight twelve-month deadline, so that the books could be released one per month. Under this deadline, Daley and Luceno divided the Robotech timeline into twelve segments and worked on different segments simultaneously ("i.e." Daley wrote Book 1 while Luceno wrote Book 2), then traded completed manuscripts for revision and style adjustments. As part of the research project, they watched the TV series many times, and consulted heavily with Carl Macek. [cite web |url=http://recordings.talkshoe.com/TS-8016.mp3 |title=James Luceno Interview, Part One |date=2007-02-05 |last=Meadows |first=Chris |accessdate=2007-02-07 |format=mp3 |work= [http://terrania.us/liberty Space Station Liberty] ]

Many "Robotech" fans consider the McKinney series to be an unofficial canon of its own, despite notable divergences in the writing from Harmony Gold's current official animation-based canon. Despite no longer being considered core continuity by Harmony Gold, the first 15 novels have been recently re-issued by Del Rey Books as Omnibus compilations.

Divergences

The major divergences from the "Robotech" television series include:

* Changing Protoculture from a power source and a hallucinogenic foodstuff for genetic engineering (the mecha from the original series were mostly fusion-powered) into a mystical force akin to the Force in "Star Wars," that, through its "Shapings," manipulated the destiny of the universe.

* Stating that "Robotech"'s mecha are controlled by the pilot's mental imaging via a "thinking cap" ("a la Firefox" or the later Macross spin-off "Macross Plus"), in addition to the joysticks and pedals seen in the show.

* Using a chronology that is slightly contradicted by dialogue from the show.

The divergences can be explained partly by a lack of translated source material from the original shows—meaning that the writers could only go by what was seen on the screen and the materials they had been given—and partly by a desire to tie the series together even more completely than the television show, sometimes by including material that never ended up being animated. In particular, the "Shapings of the Protoculture" enabled this unification, serving as the "deus ex machina" to "Robotech"'s Greek tragedy. It should also be noted that at least some of the elements for which the novels have been criticized were directly suggested by Carl Macek during Daley and Luceno's consultations with him. [cite web |url=http://recordings.talkshoe.com/TS-8016.mp3 |title=James Luceno Interview, Part One |date=2007-02-05 |last=Meadows |first=Chris |accessdate=2007-02-07 |format=mp3 |work= [http://terrania.us/liberty Space Station Liberty] ]

After many discussions of these divergences, and correspondence with James Luceno, a group of fans put together a [http://robotech-aod.com/mckinney.html "McKinney Purist FAQ"] to address them. Books 19-21 in the series, written by Luceno alone after Daley's death, dispense with many of the divergences, making use of more show-accurate research material compiled by fans.

Bibliography

The following is the list of novels released by Del Rey in publishing order, Omnibus Editions and a recommended reading order which is roughly chronological, except that the events in books #13-17 ("The Sentinels") are actually concurrent with books #7-12:

Individual Editions	Omnibus Collected Editions	Suggested Reading Order
#"Genesis" #"Battle Cry" #"Homecoming" #"Battle Hymn" #"Force of Arms" #"Doomsday" #"Southern Cross" #"Metal Fire" #"The Final Nightmare" #"Invid Invasion" #"Metamorphosis" #"Symphony of Light" #"The Devil's Hand" ("The Sentinels") #"Dark Powers" ("The Sentinels") #"Death Dance" ("The Sentinels") #"World Killers" ("The Sentinels") #"Rubicon" ("The Sentinels") #"The End of the Circle" #"The Zentraedi Rebellion" #"The Masters' Gambit" #"Before the Invid Storm"	* "The Macross Saga: Battlecry" (#1-3) * "The Macross Saga: Doomsday" (#4-6) * "The Masters Saga: The Southern Cross" (#7-9) * "The New Generation: The Invid Invasion" (#10-12) * "The Sentinels 3-in-1" (#13-15)	* 01. "Genesis" * 02. "Battle Cry" * 03. "Homecoming" * 04. "Battle Hymn" * 05. "Force of Arms" * 06. "Doomsday" * 19. "The Zentraedi Rebellion" * 13. "The Devil's Hand" ("The Sentinels") * 14. "Dark Powers" ("The Sentinels") * 15. "Death Dance" ("The Sentinels") * 16. "World Killers" ("The Sentinels") * 17. "Rubicon" ("The Sentinels") * 20. "The Masters' Gambit" * 07. "Southern Cross" * 08. "Metal Fire" * 09. "The Final Nightmare" * 21. "Before the Invid Storm" * 10. "Invid Invasion" * 11. "Metamorphosis" * 12. "Symphony of Light" * 18. "The End of the Circle"

Books #1-12 (First Generation (Macross Saga: 1-6), Second Generation (Robotech Masters: 7-9), Third Generation (Invid War: 10-12)) novelize the story of the TV series. Books #13-15 (The Sentinels) document the story of the failed . Book #18 is an alternate version of and Invid War: Aftermath. Book #19 is a novelization of the comic Robotech: The Malcontent Uprisings

References

External links

* [http://www.robotech.com/infopedia/bibliography/novels/ Robotech Bibliography] - List of Robotech novels in and out of print
* [http://www.randomhouse.com/delrey/authors/results.pperl?authorid=20044 Del Rey Online] - Robotech novels by Jack McKinney