Book 19: The Zentraedi Rebellion

by Nathan Stout (of AccordingToWhim.com)

Don't be sacred because the title says Book 19. Since I am reading/watching the entire Robotech saga in chronological order this book (printed last) takes places after the 6th book (between the end of the Macross Saga but before the Sentinels).

Finally!!!! I did it! I finished reading Jack McKenny's Zentraedi Rebellion. It was a bit like eating cotton wool. As many of you know I dreaded this book quite a bit. It's not because it's bad, but it is not very action packed and it is kinda slow. I read it back when it first came out so I kinda knew what to expect. It is great for diehards because it fills in gaps between The Sentinels and the 2nd Robotech War. It answers many questions like:

1. Why did Max and Miriya leave Dana on Earth?
2. How did the Army of the Southern Cross come about?
3. Why did it take so long for the SDF-3 to launch?
4. How in the heck did Janice Em come about?
5. What's the deal with Lazlo Zand?
6. Why are there no full-sized Zentraedi in the 2nd War?
7. Who is the Wolff guy anyway?

...and many other questions. This is why I feel two ways about this book. It is a tad bit dull but it fulfills a need that the fan wants. I think I might have problems 'getting into it' because I'm not a big fan of the 2nd War or any part of the Southern Cross.

The Zentraedi Rebellion fills in the gaps after the destruction of the SFD-1 and start of the Expeditionary mission to Tirol. While Rick and Lisa are trying to get the REF's mission rolling we see how the surviving Zentraedi are having a tough time of it. Lots of bands of 'Malcontents' are forming and riots and segregation is happening all over the place. Miyria is caught up in it all. The Zentraedi Rebellion seems to be Jack McKenny's reinforcement of Eternity's Malcontent storyline from 1994. It is kinda cool to see how the two mixed together. Infact the events in Eternity's comics begin in chapter 23.

So I am not sure why Breetai and gang wanted to make his flagship look like the SDF-1. Surely that wouldn't fool the Masters. I am guessing that Carl Macek wanted something to 'harken back' to Macross.

The early, secret meetings between Moran, Leonard, and the rest of their cronies makes you think of how the South must have come together before the Civil War. Let's make sure to call it what it is... this whole Malcontent/Rebellion storyline is a analogue of the Civil War.

Jan Morrison (remember her, the former screen queen who Minmei defeated at the Miss Macross pagent) went on and became this sort of New Age hippie. Well, there is this bit at the beginning of one of the chapters that quotes her from her 'audio book'. I just found that funny. That's how I get most of my 'reading' done now-a-days.

As a side note, the comics and the Palladium RPG supplement: The Zentraedi Breakout came out the same year. I took a gander through it but there wasn't any sort of adventures based on the events in the comics. It does do a lot of RDF/Southern Cross blending which is a nice cross over.

The book mentions Conrad Wilbur and the Faithful (from the comics) which is a nice continuity touch.

The Bartley's are introduced here (including a 6 month old Rook). Apparently Rook is related to Lang. That is an interesting tid bit.

We are introduced to T.R. Edwards here, working as a double agent. I just don't care for this character. Sure, we need bad guys but he is too much like Breetai (with the face plate thing) and his reason for hating Hayes and Hunter is a bit much.

Good old Walmart is mentioned in Chapter 15.

We all know Zand is the protégé of Lang but he is super jealous of Lang's mind boost at the hand of the SDF-1's computers. Zand does everything in his power to give himself that same mind boosted advantage. We see him actually give himself Invid cockpit juice intravenously... yuck!

Towards the end of the book Seloy (the female Zentraedi pilot who delivered Miriya onto the SDF-1 to find and kill Max way back when, is the main protagonist of this book (at least of Miriya's part anyway). She pretty much hits the nail on the head when she predicts that in about 20 years the Invid will arrive.

One final thought, Seloy's child Hirano could have REALLY been something interesting to explore but for some reason they didn't.

If someone were going to follow my trek through the Robotech universe I'd almost advise them NOT to read this book in order. There are a few surprises in the Sentinels that would get spilled here. I won't mention characters or events (like character's deaths) but a few of the chapter intros (those little and sometimes not so little blurbs) and some content give away stuff. Jack McKenny assumes anyone reading this book already read The Sentinels and wouldn't think anything of it.

P.S. Someone uploaded it in PDF format if you want to read it...

Book 5: Robotech: Force of Arms

by Nathan Stout (of AccordingToWhim.com)

The next book in my year+ long look at Robotech is the fifth book in the Del Ray series Robotech: Force of Arms. This book covers episodes 19-24 which cover the big events of the first Robotech War. Before we go on you will undoubtedly notice that I now am calling this my 'year+ long look at Robotech' as opposed to my 'year long look at Robotech'. As the middle of the year zipped by I started to figure out that my schedule will not permit me to finish this within the year. This will probably drag into the majority of 2013 now. No big deal but I would have liked to have completed this task before the year was out so I could read other stuff. Watching the show is a breeze but the reading of the books and the comics have become a real time drag. Oh well, more Robotech fun!

This is the big one... the book covers the near destruction of the human (and Zentraedi) race. After the events of the Zentraedi attack the story takes this lurch of 2 years and slows way down. Yeah, I know this is all spoiler material but you probably know everything that happens anyway, right?

This is also the book that covers the fun events of Max and Miyira's meeting and wedding. Wow, a lot happens here. The novel does a lot to explain some of the weirdness of their meeting like the fact that Max meets this stranger in a park at night and why all the sudden he falls so in love he doesn't care that she is trying to kill him.

They fall in love and marry and all that jazz. Suddenly the military lets Miyira get in a Veritech and fly around with him in battle?! Does anyone find that a bit strange? The author does his best to explain it but you can only do so much.

As you know I have had my suspicions as to who was writing which book (Daley or Luceno). It used to be somewhat obvious but now I am not 100% sure. I would bet that Daley did this book but he didn't stick so closely to the show like he did before.

Back to the action: so Max and Miyira are in the battle and she tells him to shoot the pods so the pilot will survive. What Miyira does is more cruel to the Zentraedi pilots that just blowing them up. She is basically disabling the pod, stranding the pilot in deep space to presumably to die of starvation. They are a warrior race that seems to care little for their troops. Do you really think higher-ups will bother to go retrieve a few measly pods? I doubt it. Also, these are warriors, to deprive them of a honorable death in battle is humiliating! That Miyira... what a bitch!

During Rick's rescue of Lisa (in the show) his canopy gets broken. It's very faint (thanks to the fact that is transparent) but you can see it. In the book this doesn't happen. I think the source tape the author was watching was bad enough for him to miss this fact.

In the final attack of the SDF-1 on Dolza's headquarters the main gun is NEVER used. I just found that interesting since it was always such an important part of the ships offense and the storyline.

In the show several direct hits on the SDF-1 and the destruction of Macross City. It looks like they animated the destructing at 32 frames a second (twice as normal). It is kinda heart wrenching but the book just mentions it briefly.

When the SDF-1 launches it final attack and turns on the shield barrier the book never mentions that this is the same overload type explosion that happened to Ontario. A very clever twist by the writers. The book says the alliance attacks Dolz'a base's reflex drive. This just sucks. The deliberate use of the faulty overloading shield is much cooler.

Dolza seems to change his mind at the last second when he sees the power (and cunning) of the SDF-1 in the hands of the humans. I doubt this behavior would be the Zentraedi way. Again (as in an earlier book) the Zentraedi high-command considers attacking their masters (the Robotech Masters). I think this is off-base with their character as a whole. They are Zentraedi, bred for war. I doubt it would have even crossed their minds to betray their masters.

I have never really even though about this part but Breetai and Azonia's forces fight along side the SDF-1 where do they go when the SDF-1 goes in and blows up Dolza's ship? The explosion takes out ALL of the Zentraedi forces. How did Breetai and Azonia escape?

In my RPG books and in other material it looks like the SDF-1 lands in North America after it destroys Dolza's fleet. Now... Rick and Lisa are on hand to see it fall from the sky. Rick saved Lisa from Alaska base. You mean to tell me that Rick and Lisa flew that far? Remember Rick ditched his Veritech's canopy after it was damaged. So they flew unprotected all the way down there? Whaaaaa????? lol.

Chapter 22 (the beginning of 'Reconstruciton Blues') recaps the destruction of the Earth at the hands of Dolza's fleet. It is very good. Bravo!

Sorry this took so long to post. I have been trying to sell my house and all that jazz so it has taken extra long to get this stuff done. Not to mention I finished watching the Flash TV series and Birds of Prey series (on DVD). I'm such a slacker!

Macross Perfect Memory

by Nathan Stout (of AccordingToWhim.com)

Right up there with the Robotech Roleplaying books, Macross: Perfect Memory is the other 'must have' for any Robotech fan. Perfect Memory is a Japanese book (easily available on EBay) that shows almost every concept sketch, character models, as well as the majority of the show (through screen caps). Although it is in Japanese it won't stop your enjoyment of this visual feast.

Perfect Memory covers the Macross saga only (the first 36 episodes of Robotech). As a side note Macross was intended to only last the 24 episodes but the show turned out to be so popular that more episodes were added (everything after the Zentraedi armada defeat). You can also find other animation art books online for Southern Cross and Mospeada (the other 2 parts of Robotech).

Years ago I got a hold of 'This Is Animation' volumes 1, 2, and 3 which covers most of the stuff in Perfect Memory. For some reason I had sold or traded away those. I found this book on EBay and it has been fantastic. The book is divided into several sections that cover the story of the show, artwork, concept art, character model sheets, mecha and Macross city model sheets. There are also story boards, 'the making of', and staff comments.

The first part of the book is an episode summary of the show. There is the episode's synopsis (in Japanese) and multiple screen shots. It is interesting to see the Japanese names of the episodes (which are in English). Some of them are exactly like the Robotech ones and some are downright funny like: 'Pine Salad', 'Kung-Fu Dandy', and 'Virgin Road'. It is also interesting to see some of the stuff that was cut out of Robotech like seeing Lynn Minmei's naked butt in 'The Long Wait' or Roy Fokker's bloody back in 'Farewell Big Brother'.

The next part of the book is Macross 'Outside Story' which appears to be what happened after episode 24 of the series (assuming that it was the end of the show). It's all in Japanese but from what I can gather from the pictures is that Rick and Lisa went on being in love, Minmei and Lynn Kyle lived happily ever-after, the Zentraedi that were left peacefully integrated with the humans, and New Macross city grew up around the old SDF-1 (like in the show). Of course all this was somewhat altered with addition of the 12 extra episodes.

The next section deals with the last 12 episodes and is just like the synopsis for the first 24. After that 'Combat Action' shows the animation cells used the action scenes of the show. There are a bunch of cutsie-type pictures of super deformed mecha and characters in funny poses throughout this section.

Miss Macross "For Space Life Casual" is the next part of the book. It is basically some color art work of the women of Macross in various outfits.

The next section (page 101-136) is filled with the character model sheets for the series. There are hundreds of sketches of the characters (major people and background ones too).

My favorite section is the next one: Mechanic of Macross. This section contains the sketches of the ships, configurations, details, and every location in loving detail. I think this section alone could be sold as a book. There are soooooo many great drawings here! If you are following my year long Robotech experience I have often commented that the comics will use some of original sketches as a basis for their art work. Just look at the SDF-1 on page 140 or the Veritechs on page 151 and you will see lots of shots that look familiar. As an interesting side note there is a drawing of the SDF-2 on page 150. You can see how similar (and dissimilar in some ways) to the original SDF-1. The SDF-2 looks very similar to the SDF-1 in the Macross movie: Do You Remember Love.

The next section has concept artwork for the characters. You will some strangely familiar figures in this section. The early Rick Hunter looks like he would be more comfortable in Starblazers then Robotech. Minmei didn't change one bit while Roy went from looking more like Ben to the character we know and love. The final character changes were all for the better! There are also some very interesting concept art work for the SDF-1 and other mecha. The SDF-1 looked very Gundam-like in it's robot mode and I have to admit I liked the Gladiator better in it's concept drawing than the final product.

The next section I can't figure out at all. It seems to be a page from a manga but I am not sure if it's something that inspired Macross or just some test manga or what. Nothing really looks like Macross with the slight exception of the big ship in the background. I wish I could read Japanese...

The last section deals with (in Japanese) the staff and the voice actors of Macross. There is a saucy little picture of a naked Myria inside her Quadrono battle suit too!

That's all! This book is work every penny I paid for it. If you are fan of either Macross or Robotech this book is a must!

Book 4: Robotech: Battlehymn

by Nathan Stout (of AccordingToWhim.com)

Welcome to the next post in my 2012 Robotech experience. Today I will be covering the fourth book in the Del Ray Robotech series: Battlehymn.

The book covers six episodes but I am watching the show one episode at a time then reading only the part of the book that covers that episode. Finally I will be reading the comic that corresponds to that episode.

The opening chapter is an invention of the author and it deals with what it might have been like to be on Earth when the SDF-1 showed back up after it's long voyage. It was neat to consider the surprise and panic it would have caused.

How even more fantastic would it have been for the people of the city who the SDF-1 first flew over (in the show). That would be awesome!

Yes, the two authors must be doing alternate books. This is the author that paraphrases what's going on as opposed to the other guy who is sticking very close to the show.


One thing I liked is that more emphasis was placed on the SDF-1's departure from Earth. It was a big moment in the story and in the lives of everyone on the ship and it was nice to see it given more here.

Dolza recalls Azonia and puts Breetai back in charge of the mission. If you payed attention you would have noticed that Azonia did absolutely nothing during her command. It was Khyron that kept going in and getting his ass handed to him.

I'd like to know where the spies got the ship to escape back to the fleet... in the previous book they mention that the pod dissolves so no trace is left but no one seems to know where the escape pod came from. My guess is that in the series it is the same pod they arrived in.

When Gloval announces that the SDF-1 has been ordered back into space Minmei breaks out in song... right there in the middle of the newscast. What an entertainer!

The writer makes a goof here when he is writing about Rico and the other spies talking. He says that Rico has only 'one good eye'. It's almost like he got Breetai mixed up with Rico.

When Rick and Lisa are trapped in the SDF-1 during the battle/drill/what the heck ever it was the book doesn't handle it as well as the show. The language is a little more natural but the feelings conveyed are not a 'blooming love' as they appear to be in the show.

I'm still stunned that Breetai would use his own ship and risk its destruction when he tries to get his troops inside the SDF-1 via the Dadelus attack. Seems awful risky...

I don't have a lot more to say about Minmei in this book. She takes a back seat to the action of the spies, Rick and Lisa, as well as the Zentraedi bungling.

It's funny the way the writer deals with previously unaddressed things in this book. Myria sees the defected aliens working right after their arrival on the ship and assumes (wrongly) that they were planted there for sabotage. Khyron is stunned to find out that Myria is there and assumes (wrongly) that she is there to find and kill the defectors. All the while Breetai takes credit for Myria being there, never telling Khyron it wasn't his idea.

Book 3: Robotech: Homecoming

by Nathan Stout (of AccordingToWhim.com)

Welcome to the next part in my 2012 Robotech Experience, a quick review of the third book in the Del Ray books series adaptation of Robotech episodes 13-18. If you need to start from the beginning to find out more about my year long look at Robotech, click here.
This next six episodes (I have been basically watching/reading six episodes at a time since the books cover that much each volume) I decided to read the book first, then watch the show then read the comic. I want to see how I perceive it when I experience it in that order.
In the last review I went on and on about how I had a memory of reading this series of books and was impressed as to how closely the followed the show BUT in this reading (it's been years since I read them last) I got this nasty surprise. For some reason it seemed like the books didn't follow the action quite as closely as I had remembered. Well... lo and behold it's happened again! This book seems to be following the shows very closely. I think I figured it out! I think that Brian Daley and James Luceno each wrote alternate books. One of those guy's style was very 'loose' and one was very 'strict' when it came to adapting the show. There, I hope that covers it. BTW, I happen to like the closer following of the cartoon.
This book picks up where the last one left off. The cartoon is added to by having a bit of suspense added to the return of Lisa, Rick, Ben, and Max. This wasn't in the show but it gave a nice buffer of new material which basically caught the reader up to the current events.
After the escapees make it back the book focuses on the spies. This is some great stuff and I'm glad the writer that sticks to the cartoon got this part. There is some really funny stuff here.
After they make their transition into Macross city it is noted that their pod 'dissolved'. I guess that would be the smart thing to make happen since it might have been discovered.
Minmei's rise to stardom happens here and the more popular she gets the more we hate her. She hits this point where she has made it to the top and she begins to level out and become more human (not such a flighty air head) as she yearns for the simple life again.
Earlier on in the book the SDF-1 needs to change into a giant robot mode to fire the guns. Once again Macross city is destroyed in many places (this time with Rico, Konda, and Bron in the middle of it). Wouldn't the engineers on the SDF-1 have figured out what parts of the city would be destroyed from the first transformation and NOT rebuilt the city in those areas? Just asking...
Also there is a bit of a visual misstep of the author during the transformation. I am assuming they watched the show on VHS when they were writing this book so the detail on the screen wasn't as crisp as it would be in the DVD age. When the author describes the transformation there is a spot where 2 giant servo motors join and cables snake out to attach themselves to the motors. In actuality you can make out the cables snaking out are infact guys in space suits. I didn't realize this until I saw the DVD many years later.

Vern (the tall skinny buddy of the Mayor) is finally given a last name here. He was always just a background character there to get the dialogue going. He name is Vern Havers. I guess that was the author's creation.

'Gloval's Report' and 'Phantasm' are MERCIFULLY cut waaaaayyyyyy back for the books. Those have to be the most tedious episodes to sit though.
Captain Kramer (much like Vern Havers, a plot device) bites the big one in this book. He is talked to and mentioned a couple of times during the first 12 episodes and I guess the author noticed that he wasn't mentioned again in later episodes. He death helped explain why Roy didn't receieve proper medical care (leading to his death) since he was distraught and left the hospital. P.S. I think he name was Kramer after script editor Steve Kramer.
That is the end of this book. Knowing the backgrounds of the two authors I am guessing that Brian Daley wrote this book (an all subsequent books that are very close to the cartoon in action). James Luceno was a Vietnam Vet and I am guess his writing style is the one that has a lot of military jargon in it. That jargon appears in the books that are more 'loosely based' on the action in the episodes. Both are fine, I just take a shine to the closer representation of the show.