"Jack McKinney - Robotech 18 - The End of the Circle" - читать интересную книгу автора (McKinney Jack)

Robotech: The End of the Circle
Book 18 of the Robotech Series
Copyright 1989 by Jack McKinney


FOREWORD

The publication of The End of the Circle, the eighteenth book of the series,
concludes the Robotech saga. The story now spans five decades, from 1990 to
2040 or thereabouts, save for a period of "lost years," covering the rise of
Mon-ument City and the Army of the Southern Cross, an account of which may yet
see the light of day. Some of this material is in fact already being covered
by other sources.
With nearly one million words of print in the Ballantine/Del Rey series
alone, eighty-five episodes of powerful ani-mation, an equal number of comic
book adaptations, numerous art and role-playing books, and supplemental source
material—including several college theses—it should be clear that Robotech has
traveled a great distance since "HAL," Haruhiko Mikimoto, sat down at his desk
one day and inked the first sketch of raven-haired songbird, Lynn-Minmei.
As most readers of Robotech are aware, the eighty-five "continuous"
animated episodes (which still show up in U.S. television markets) were
actually a complete reworking—in terms of music, dialogue, and storylines—of
three separate anime series that appeared in Japan over the course of several
years: Macross, Southern Cross, and Mospeda. Credit for this unique
accomplishment goes to Carl Macek, as well as Harmony Gold U.S.A. Inc.
Together with a talented team of writers, voice-over artists, and production
personnel, Robo-tech Master Macek found an overall grand visual theme in the
Japanese series and redefined both Robotechnology and Protoculture.
It is a source of continuing disappointment that the project, as
envisioned by Mr. Macek, was never brought to completion. The result would
have been an additional sixty-five ep-isodes of animation detailing the
exploits of the Sentinels, and who knows how many more devoted to the material
cov-ered in this final book, presented here for the first time.
But perhaps Robotech's most important contributors have been the fans
themselves, who have kept this project vital for five years running. More than
seventy thousand strong have been aided and abetted in their efforts by the
following, to whom the author wishes to express his heartfelt gratitude:
Comico Comics, especially Markalan Joplin, who died shortly before completion
of the illustrated series; Eternity-Comics, which has inherited the mantle and
is currently pub-lishing twice-monthly issues of the Sentinels; Kevin Siem-
bieda and the staff at Palladium Books for their role-playing games; Kay
Reynolds and Ardith Carlton, creators of the Starblaze Robotech Art Books;
Kevin Seymour of Books Nippan; and a special thanks to Claude Pelletier,
Michel Gareau, Alain Dubreuil, and the staff at Protoculture Addicts, the
official Robotech fanzine.
We should all do it again sometime.


PART I
WHEEL IN SPACE