Legacy Review #21 – ROBOTECH BOOK 9 (The Final Nightmare)
Release Date: August 1987
Author: Jack McKinney (James Lucerno and Brian Daley)
Page Count: 248 pages (includes the Prologue from Invid Invasion)
INTRODUCTION
The third of the three-book series covering the “Second Generation” of the Robotech franchise; at least as portrayed to North American audiences. Thus continued my rabid obsession with continuing the novelization of the anime I once enjoyed on Saturday mornings, and playing the Palladium Books ROBOTECH RPG years later.
REVIEW
Episode Counter. The first book encapsulates the events from Episodes 15 to 24:
Synopsis. The crippled remnants of the Earth strike force, now under command of Marie Crystal, have taken refuge at the Earth base ALUCE. Meanwhile, Leonard pushes for a second-strike force to be mustered to launch a final, all-out offensive using ALUCE as a second front; of course he appoints Emerson to lead this assault. Meanwhile, Nova Satori and the GMP search for an insider feeding information to the Robotech Masters. Repeated attacks on the Robotech Masters strain the Southern Cross resources but also place the alien invaders in a precarious position that forces them into more desperate decisions. Meanwhile, the Flower of Life is becoming a key factor in the outcome; the source of Protoculture and precursor of the Invid’s probable invasion is blooming. The Masters throw everything they have in getting the vestiges of the matrix before the Terrans can stop them, or the Invid arrive.
Human Trinity of Influence on Dana Sterling. There are three secondary characters that each play a pivotal role in the development of the plot, either knowingly or unknowingly affecting Dana Sterling’s destiny. Dana is the obvious crux to the storyline, but these three will influence things in ways that deliver to the reader in a way I found immensely more profound from the page than when watching the episodes. Sure, their influence was there, but McKinney added something to each of the characters that made them more than a two-dimensional force, something to be speed-read through and hand-waved away after.
Commander Leonard. While always presented as the blowhard who has it in for any aliens, regardless of their motivations, Leonard drives the confrontation to push the boundaries, force the clash and violence that results in change. He isn’t aware how overmatched they are, nor how weak his personal position is, but we get hints that he is beginning to realize it. For him it is an all-out, pathologically full-throated yell that commands the charge straight up the middle to the enemy, be-damned the odds. He is the chaos-maker of the bunch.
Major-General Rolf Emerson. In many ways the foil to Leonard, he brings tactical analytics and both personal and professional maturity to any scene he engages with. He knows the limitations that Southern Cross personnel and their forces are capable of achieving, and it is despite Leonard’s promises to the contrary, we see Emerson produce decision and influence that allows the sum of the parts to become something greater. His dedication and sense of honor is such that, even knowing the odds, he accepts command of the fleet that would make the final attack against the Master’s ships in orbit; Carpenter’s lessons learned, he makes the most of the bad hand he’s dealt. He is definitively the professional in the room.
Lazlo Zand. By virtue of his sociopathic nature to eclipse his mentor for perceived slights, and his desperate need to have a near religious conversion level understanding of protoculture, he enacts a number of plots that trigger the whole ‘deific protoculture influence’ effect introduced in this series; incidentally it gets carried through to the other series as well. Only Zand seems to have a much more direct hand or involvement. His obsession with Dana also folds into Leonard’s obsession, as war/conflict is the mechanism Zand feels will unleash Dana’s nascent powers. His devotion and ultimate fate to the Deific Protoculture doesn’t make up for the choices he made, or the experiments her tried to enact on Dana Sterling. Herein lies the religious zealot, the one that awakens the mysticism of the tale.
Zor Prime, Agent of Change. For all the devious intents of his placement among the Southern Cross personnel, Zor Prime ultimately broke his ‘programming’ and started to work with the Southern Cross. His membership of Dana’s assault group into the Masters’ mothership sees him once again under their clutches, forced into experimentation to try a last-ditch extraction of Zor’s memories of the protoculture matrix. His eventual rescue by Dana, and sparks of memory allowed him to fight back, crippling the mothership and escaping before it’s demise. His real purpose comes to fruition when he leads Dana, Nova, Musica and Bowie into the burial mounds of the SDF-1/SDF-2 and Khyron’s battle cruiser. There they make a discovery that ultimately changes the nature of the conflict.
Clone Individualism. Something of a plot crutch, the arrival of the 15th ATAC as they invaded the Robotech Masters’ mothership, just coincided with a significant uprising amongst the clones. Of course we find Musica amongst them, one of the key figures to initiate the flux in their worldview as she reunites with Bowie. As more of the clones discover the true liberation of their individuality, this places further pressure on the Masters’ capability to wage war. Ultimately, the Masters take these individualistic clones, brainwash and pump them full of chemicals to create a sort of zombie shock troop inured to small arms fire.
Lt Marie Crystal. It was interesting to see a second lead pilot character, particularly a female lead in a series with a female protagonist. Her relationship with Sean Phillips extends throughout the storyline as well, something I didn’t initially expect given the body count of the series. This plays a secondary role to her part, as she is the ace pilot of the Southern Cross, much like Max Sterling in the Macross Saga. As one of the sole pilots to square-off with Zor and keep up with him (along with Dana), Marie plays a critical role in this third act, saving the Cavalry Squadron sent by Leonard to reinforce ALUCE before the military assault lead by Emerson. She seemed to accomplish a heck of a lot more in orbit, and in an AJACS than she ever did in a Logan. As always, she shows up to save the day in the crucial battles throughout; includes saving Emerson from a suicidal last stand.
Prelude to the Invid. From the outset of this novel, we see the Masters worry over the phantoms that oversee the trio of burial mounds (triumvirate?), as well as the Invid Sensor Nebula encroaching from a distant sector. For them, this entire journey has been about one thing, regaining the protoculture matrix that would provide the endless energy needed to refuel their dreams of intergalactic conquest. Given their current condition, the constant pressure from the Southern Cross, and the subtle yet ruinous influence of the humans on their society, things are definitely not going as planned.
A Peak at the Sentinels. In one of the more… psychedelic pieces of the book, Dana gets premonitions through hyper-connections to the Zentraedi half of her DNA. In it, she has a connection with her sister, second child born to Max and Miriya Sterling in the far-flung sector of Tirol and the adventures of the Sentinels. Here is yet another premonition of the Invid and the threat of the spores of the Flowers of Life.
Frenetic Pacing. Something of note, and understanding this is based on the pacing of the anime and summarizing a flock of episodes, the writing of this novel can become a hectic blur shifting perspectives. In some cases, you will hit three or more different character points of view in the span of two pages, turn the page and find yourself flipping back to one of the first two or on to a fourth or fifth! While I understand the basis for it, the style of writing flaps around in certain chapters. The reader is left to try to keep up in a way that hasn't occured in any of the previous entries. It’s an annoyance, and something worth mentioning that does, unfortunately, detract from the success of the story.
CONCLUSION
With Zor Prime’s final act of contrition and revenge against the Robotech Masters, the end of the current threat to the humans of Earth has been eliminated. With the end of this threat though, the deific power of Protoculture sees to it that meta plot continues. The fiery destruction of the last remaining Masters’ flagship blasts into the remains of the SDF-1/SDF-2 and Khyron’s battlecruiser. The wraith’s guarding the three burial mounds, whose duty thus far has been to contain the spread of the spores of the Flower of Life, are now released from their duty and propagate the spores through the air currents.
The Southern Cross comes out of this as the “victors” of the encounter, as much as one could consider the least mortally wounded of a duel left standing at the end of a fight. There is little left in terms of a central government, torn asunder by the death throes of the of Robotech Masters, and the Southern Cross military that could have held things together is spent beyond any reasonable capability. Whatever that future looks like, it will have to find its way without Dana Sterling, as she embarks on a mission to find her parents, her sister, and the answers to her questions among the enigmatic group called the Sentinels.
Current Assessment (6/10). At the conclusion of the Second Generation, the Robotech Masters have come to Earth with the arrogant intent of forcing Humanity aside, to allow retrieval of the protoculture matrix, and rebuild their empire. The Robotech Masters were in an “all in” position; what they didn’t realize was that the Southern Cross were pretty much the same. With a wild combination of action and metaphysical scenes, various plot lines came to a wild ending, violently concluding, converging and colliding together.
The book has some failings, true, but they are limited to working from the original anime. The frenetic change of perspective or point of view is jarring at times, but it does give a certain weight to the desperation and the various entities at play reaching the finale. Unfortunately I don’t credit the pacing and the flashing back and forth for the benefit it provides. We continue with the Leonard/Emerson dynamic, which is always a bit of a treat for anyone with a military background. The development of the Zor Prime arc gets fleshed out rather quickly, but the members of the 15th ATAC help develop this nicely without making too much of it. It becomes a critical vein to the finale, something I appreciated. We also get a surprise flash into the Nova Satori character.
I’d like to say this book took a perspective and held the story throughout the plot with a cohesive flow. It like to say it, but it would be a solid lie. While I try to fight the nostalgia that this series and the Southern Cross RPG has for me, and the general affirmation I have for McKinney’s adaptations of the anime, this novel and the finale to the trilogy of books is a hard sell. It completes the story, and for that it is definitely worth reading. If this was the only reason, I wouldn’t rate this more than a 3/10; the score obviously reflects better than that. Is the Southern Cross trilogy worth reading? Absolutely. Does it hold up to the original Macross series? Not a fair analogy. Is it a fair successor though? That, I think, I can certainly buy into.
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