I dunno... They are probably still a good read, but I remember they got a bit goofy with the Sentinels books. Just read up to #18 and not beyond that. "Jack McKinney" was two people, Brian Daley and James Luceno. I have a feeling that Daley was the true talent. After he died, Luceno tried making a few more books. I read #19 and 20 and they were terrible. Not only were they full of errors (for example, saying that Rick was shot down in the same battle that Roy was killed), but they really lacked any solid plot whatsoever. They were mainly just filler, and bad filler at that. Book 19 touched on the events of the excellent Malcontent Uprisings comics by Michael C. Ling, but instead of just novelizing that story, it's just glossed over. It was a really cool story, about how a war nearly breaks out between the RDF and the Army of the Southern Cross. Instead, you just get a thick book full of meandering. Book 20 was the Master's Gambit (misspelt "giambit" on the book's spine), and that was even worse. No real plot to it at all. I don't remember anything being accomplished in that book at all. I think a book 21 was made, but I didn't even bother with it.Path wrote:Long after Robotech was off TV I discovered those novels in my high school library. Must have been fifty or more of those things and I consumed them like a moth in flames. I wonder if those hold up either?
The novels did a good job at making Robotech serious, and even making some of the lame dialogue work. The TV show had so many problems with it, one being the damn narrator. "Max and Miriya were happy to get married...." No, really? I'm glad you're telling me these things! I couldn't tell by the way they are smiling so much. The novels did a good job at bringing the three series together seamlessly in a way that the cartoon couldn't. They were very influenced by Frank Herbert's Dune, supplanting the Spice with Protoculture and such. The books even emulated the chapters from Dune by beginning each chapter with quotes from fictitious historical books and such.
I'm not sure if I could go back to reading them. That's why I sold them to a guy on the Net a few years back. I didn't want to pay to have them shipped to Japan just for them to become dead weight and a waste of space.
EDIT: I've split this thread from the old-school DVD news thread because it's become its own topic. Also, this was practice on how to use the moderating features (I want to learn how to do this stuff).