The Last Robotech Novel [That I Read Out of Order]

[incisivis]

I have an ambivalent relationship with the series of Robotech novels, based on the 1980s anime mash-up. On one hand, some of the novels introduced concepts that helped to soothe the various issues I had with the way other continuities handled my favourite characters and things, and also provided me with fanfic fodder. On the other, the novels are

Comments

[krpalmer]

I suppose I still wonder a bit if I ought to apologise for sending you a copy of "Before the Invid Storm," but now I guess I won't have so much to think about should I see "The Masters' Gambit" in a used bookstore... In any case, that middle "late" novel didn't make much of an impact on me when I first read it, but that did happen to be a little while before I first went online, wondered if anyone else remembered Robotech, and ran into a little group of fans with a wide variety of objections to the way the assorted spinoffs had developed. I've since seen Megazone 23 and even Robotech: The Movie itself, and the novel has very little in common with them. Somehow, though, I've managed in recent years to find amusing its Japanophilia... I suppose I contrast it to the interest some people take in anime as "stories from a foreign country" and think of the novel as "a story about a foreign country." While I admit to not having your particular focus on Robotech, I suppose the way the last two novels spelled out the quick, casual references to

[incisivis]

You don't have to apologize: I wanted to read them anyway, and it's better than not knowing.

I stopped short of declaring "Japanophilia" on the novel, because I didn't want to be insulting to the original author. In hindsight, it's pretty obvious that is what it was. Perhaps not quite "Weaboo" level, but nonetheless.

[krpalmer]

I hadn't intended "Japanophilia" as an insulting term, but maybe it is. (Of course, I understand just what's packed into "Weaboo"... although I try not to approach the topic too much beyond not being entirely pleased with the modern habit of complaining about "leaving the honorifics" out of subtitles.)