In the previous reissue of the novels, changes had been made throughout the novel series against the authors' intent. Support James Luceno and Brian Daley's true work.
On February 16, 2013, Harmony Gold announced at the Animation On Display convention in San Francisco that it was rewriting parts of the first 12 Robotech novels for the sake of "canon." Since the 2000s, apart from the TV series, its idea of canon has been some WildStorm comics; two post-Sentinels animated videos with glacially paced story advancement; changed dates to the timeline; no Sentinels books and other novels such as "The End of the Circle"; and little else. For a number of years in the new millennium, only the first 12 novels were reprinted or made into e-books. The fact that HG was working on rewriting much of those 12 to fit its restrictive view of the saga was alarming.
By limiting publication of the novels, the franchise was limiting itself. Meanwhile, the remainder of the 21 books just sat on the sidelines, not making money and not helping Robotech show more of a presence at bookstores. By altering the books and putting things in that the authors never wrote, HG was overlooking that the authors gave the books a number of admirable traits, such as more of a military feel and a compelling and thorough continuation of the saga.
This page makes no claim as to whether it affected later decisions made by the franchise, but it does list the following instances since its inception. Since the creation of this cause page on Facebook in early 2013, support for the work by the authors has grown, especially support against any tampering with their writing. In addition, following the founding of the "Robotech Novels – Support the True Books By the Original Authors" page, some of the planned alterations to Jack McKinney's work were dropped. And another development occurred: 8 of the other 9 books in the series were reissued on April 30, 2014. Getting the remaining 9 novels re-released always has been a desire of this page since the beginning. But other issues existed.
Much more work needed to be done. The novels still needed to be presented with material suitable to their content. After the '90s editions, subsequent editions had timelines and so-called appendixes that misrepresented the work and were obviously not by the authors.
To make matters more troubling, numerous e-book-formatted, post-author changes were made throughout the prose of the reissued books, whether it was the first 12 or the more recently returned 8. These changes were made against the authors' intent and without consultation — the authors being James Luceno and the late Brian Daley, both comprising the pseudonym Jack McKinney. Listed alterations, featured in the revised "new" appendixes, were thought by Harmony Gold as not too disruptive to the original prose, but since phrases in the novels were changed into things that did not fit either the context of surrounding passages or simply what Jack McKinney intended or both, we are of the mind that they were disruptive. And major changes for dates within the electronic editions went against how characters are still portrayed in a number of places throughout the prose. Toward the end of the saga and of course throughout, the authors wrote the characters with viewpoints that reflected their respective ages for specific years in the chronology, not at ages that would make all of the main characters many more years older before the SDF-3's final spacefold. Further, even in HG's efforts to make the novels more like HG's selected canon, its actions were not very thorough, and as a result, the text was far from abiding to what is the supposed canon. HG's changes resulted in something that did not serve its canon and certainly did not serve the novels. And all that had to be done to avoid this situation was be true to the work that is by the "pen author" whose name is on the books – Jack McKinney.
Exactly who was HG trying to satisfy? Was it the longtime fans of the novels or those who never liked them? Was HG trying to convince itself into somehow accepting them via its tampering? (Along with changed dates, wiping away much of the authors' text in the "Robotech Chronology" section within the digital editions of "Rubicon" and "The End of the Circle" became one of the most disturbing things about the electronic travesties.) But HG does not accept the novel series in its canon, even after the alterations, and somehow HG has avoided one of the simplest, respectful, and profitable ways to reissue the novels – through a Star Wars- like "Legends" label that would publish the Robotech novels as they were written in the ’80s and ’90s. Of course, the Robotech novels don't even need such wording from a label; Disney/Lucasfilm is far from alone in publishing past content appropriately. For instance, comics publishers Marvel and DC have reprinted numerous past stories from their catalogs over many decades in a manner that respects the creative intent of those who had worked on them. More examples abound throughout the prose and comics fields that show revered, classic material being published as intended by the writers and/or artists and coexisting on bookshelves and virtual spaces with new, company-appointed canon material.
Somehow, some of the recently reprinted classic Robotech comics got a pass when it comes to tampering with the material; other than the comics being shrunk to fit the dimensions of print omnibuses, no widespread tampering has been seen for those comics. Then in early 2021, it was brought to the attention of this page that online stores, such as Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and iTunes, were no longer able to sell the digital editions (albeit digital travesties) of the Robotech novels. However, consumers who already bought the digital travesties before they were pulled from the lists of online locations still have them in their personal library via whatever service they use. More recently, though, things have been looking up. Current publisher Titan Books has released new editions of the first couple omnibuses in paperback and digital forms, and while new typos have been an issue, the text is from the authors' authentic work, no more, no less.
Speak out at conventions and shows, get on the web forums, use social media, keep reading, and write Titan Books and Harmony Gold to show that you want new editions of the authors' original, *pre-millennium* books to continue publication:
https://titanbooks.com/contact/form/
info@robotech.com
Furthermore, you can help show support in another way by signing a petition for the proper re-release of the Robotech novel series as it had been originally published. In addition to specifying the value of the novels in regards to the overall Robotech epic, the petition at Change.org outlines the many financial benefits for those in charge should they properly bring the books back to print. (Note: MegaSciFi.com, "Robotech Novels – Support the True Books By the Original Authors," and its sister online presence, "Robotech Timeline for the Animation, Novels, and Comics," are not affiliated with "Robotech Novels Universe," which is the developer of the petition.) Please read and sign this petition at the following web address:
https://www.change.org/p/crunchyroll-re-release-the-robotech-novelizations
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