by the fans for the fans

Ive gone and purchased the omnibus versions of the Macross Saga, The Masters, and New Generation. Ive also bought all five of the Sentinels novels. Unfortunately I'm finding that I cant stand reading the adaptations of the TV series because it seems to be pretty much word for word, and I would rather just re-watch the show. There does seem to be some new stuff though, and that's got me wondering if its okay for me to just skip the adaptations or not. Can anyone who has read all the books let me know if it is okay to skip the adaptations and go right to the Sentinels?

Thanks

HMMMMM...

YOU KNOW, YOU MIGHT NOT IF YOU KNOW THE STORY OF MACROSS PRETTY WELL.

Thanks for the reply. Ive seen the series many times, so I do know the story pretty well. I was just worried that there might be important information in the books that wasn't in the series. Information that might be vital to the Sentinels series.

I believe you're the first person I've ever heard who criticized the novels for being TOO SIMILAR to the show...

Anyway...
Mobius Archer wrote:

Thanks for the reply. Ive seen the series many times, so I do know the story pretty well. I was just worried that there might be important information in the books that wasn't in the series. Information that might be vital to the Sentinels series.

Yeah, there kind of is. Not so much in the Macross Saga, although as I recall, Emil Lang gets a dramatically boosted role, but Jack McKinney DEFINITELY uses the Southern Cross novels as the launching pad for a lot of the Sentinels.

(That said, I think ALL the novels are eminently skippable...but that's me. Some people love 'em.)

Well, I guess that means ill have to tough it out. Thank you very much for letting me know. I do very much appreciate it.

Mobius Archer wrote:

Well, I guess that means ill have to tough it out. Thank you very much for letting me know. I do very much appreciate it.

A warning: The Sentinels ends on a cliffhanger. And if you want to find out how it all ends, you'll have to read The End of the Circle, which is...um...not well-liked by the majority of Robotech fans.

Personally, I remember almost nothing about it, except the very, very end. But even fans of the novels tend to cringe when it's mentioned.

Gubaba

I believe you're the first person I've ever heard who criticized the novels for being TOO SIMILAR to the show...

Anyway...

DON'T GET ME WRONG. PRETTY GOOD READ. THEY ARE WHAT THEY ARE. A TELLING OF THE SHOW.

Mobius Archer

Well, I guess that means ill have to tough it out. Thank you very much for letting me know. I do very much appreciate it.

WHATEVER THE REASON TO START WHERE YOU WANT TO START READING, I GO WITH GUBABA'S POINT.

IF POSSIBLE, GO BACK AND READ THE BOOKS LATER. NOT SURE IF YOU MOVING INTO SENTINELS BECAUSE THE THE PRELUDE COMICS AND SHADOW CHRONICLES, MAYBE SENTINELS IS A GOOD START. THEN I WOULD UNDERSTAND THAT REASON.


END OF CIRCLE FOR ME WAS LIKE END END OF ROBOTECH. AND IN AN UGLY WAY. I WAS READING SO FAST THROUGH THAT BOOK I THINK I WAS SKIPPING SENTENCES JUST TO END THE BOOK FASTER.

HOPE YOU GET A CHANCE TO READ THE OTHER BOOKS. BUT YOU STILL CAN START WITH SENTINELS.

I think ill try to start from the beginning. Maybe it wont bug be so much once I get used to it. I've never been able to read any movie adaptation before, but I never gave it too much of a chance either. I want to read the Sentinels so I have some idea what happened with the expeditionary force, and your right that Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles has something to do with it. I bought the books a while back, but once I heard that Prelude was coming out in a TPB, and that I would finally get a chance to read it, I felt that now was as good a time as any to finally read the books.

Mobius Archer wrote:

I think ill try to start from the beginning. Maybe it wont bug be so much once I get used to it. I've never been able to read any movie adaptation before, but I never gave it too much of a chance either. I want to read the Sentinels so I have some idea what happened with the expeditionary force, and your right that Prelude to the Shadow Chronicles has something to do with it. I bought the books a while back, but once I heard that Prelude was coming out in a TPB, and that I would finally get a chance to read it, I felt that now was as good a time as any to finally read the books.

Yeah...most movie or TV adaptations (or tie-ins) are crap. I suppose if you really just want the Sentinels, you can leap straight into those books and the fine, upstanding (and very clean) members here can answer your questions about any references you don't get.

The NEXT big problem though is that Sentinels in every form has been retconned to fit the new chronology. So the comics didn't "happen" and neither did the books. Something like them "happened," but Tommy and HG haven't told that story.

As such, whatever version of Sentinels you read, it won't connect up with Prelude very well (I hasten to add that I haven't read Prelude, but I've read about it, primarily on Captain JLS's blog...so if I'm wrong about all this, I hope someone will correct me). But I've also heard that Prelude doesn't make much sense without knowing about the Sentinels.

So I guess it's analogous to, say, George Lucas making Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back, and then taking back Empire to rework aspects of it, which change the story considerably. He doesn't release the reworked Empire, but instead goes forward with Return of the Jedi, making it conform to the reworked Empire. Fans then have to guess what he changed in Empire in order to figure out what's going on in Jedi.

Kind of an annoying way to go about it, but hey, whatcha gonna do?

Gubaba wrote:

The NEXT big problem though is that Sentinels in every form has been retconned to fit the new chronology. So the comics didn't "happen" and neither did the books. Something like them "happened," but Tommy and HG haven't told that story.

That was pretty much my understanding. "Something like them" is fine by me. Ill use my imagination to fill in the blanks and change what needs to be changed until there is something more official (if that ever happens)

Thanks a bunch to both Gubaba and MEMO1DOMINION. You guys have pretty much answered my question.