When my wife and I met we were both participating in a local production of the musical "Fiddler on the Roof." Many long nights and memorable Saturdays later Sherrie and I got married and I became an instant father to a two year old bundle of inexaustable energy named Haley. Now most anyone who has any experience in live theater will tell you the hours are challenging when you're married, and even though we've been married for almost three years, it's still difficult for me to go to sleep if Sherrie has to pull long hours at the local college costume shop.
It was a night like this one in particular when as I lay in my bed trying to make myself hit PLAY on the VCR so as to yet again go to sleep to six hours of Red Dwarf on video that I decided I wanted to put down the handful of intense fantasy novels I was trying to finish reading and read something light. So my gaze scanned the bookshelf at the foot of our bed and fell upon exactly what I was looking for: Robotech. I remember buying the tenth book in the series which is based on the anime series because it picked up at the point in the series plot that I watched as a young?un.
"Invid Invasion" is written by Jack McKinney as, near as I can tell, are the rest of the book adaptations. This particular segment of the Robotech saga is about a disastrous initial attempt by Humans to reclaim Earth from the Invid horde. What results is a ragamuffin team lead by a single active soldier. Together they travel over ground trying to reach Reflex Point and destroy it. Most of Volume # 10 is character development and the team trying to gear up to ride together. I found it really interesting to read since it's based on a TV series. Rather that getting a play?byplay of each individual episode I was pleasantly drawn into a story of love, loss and intrigue. Each chapter is opened with a quote from a character source in the Robotech universe and there are even a couple of chapters taken from the journal of one of the main characters a roadwarrior named Rand. I actually found these chapters to be some of the funnest reading as I got a chance to see his thoughts and know exactly what he was feeling from a firstparty point of view.
All in all I thoroughly enjoyed Volume #10 of the Robotech novels. Though I doubt anyone not familiar with the series would be lost on some of the finer details. Once in a while I found myself backtracking a bit to reread something which hadn't quite triggered the right memory I had of the TV series. But all-in-all I look forward to reading the rest of the books that deal with this makeshift ground assault team. In case you're similarly inclined, now would be a good time to get these novels, as Del Rey has released them in 3-book volumes, books 1-3 are now Volume 1, books 4-6 are Volume 2 and so on. (Unfortunately for me, the volume that coveres the "Invid Invasion" was sold out. Guess I'll have to order it.)
If you're a fan of the anime series and like to read I highly recommend picking up one of these books. Along with that why not try reading just the storyline plot segment you like the most like I did. I don't feel like I missed out on a whole lot plus I was able to get straight to the meat of a story I really like; you may be able to as well.
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