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.
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