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Battlehymn | Rating | |
| A | |||
| Jack McKinney | |||
| Series | Related Books | ||
| Robotech: First Generation | Genesis, Battle Cry, Homecoming, Battlehymn, Force of Arms, Doomsday, Southern Cross, Metal Fire, The Final Nightmare, Invid Invasion, Metamorphosis, Symphony of Light, The Devil's Hand, Dark Powers, Death Dance, World Killers, Rubicon, The End of the Circle | ||
The SDF-1 is on Earth. But the Council that has come to rule the planet after the Global Civil War had covered up the disappearance of the ship and nearby Macross Island, fearful that the truth would set off a panic despite how preparing for an alien invasion was their excuse for all the military research and construction that the SDF-1 jump-started. So now, trapped by their own lies, they cannot afford to let the fifty thousand civilian residents of Macross City debark from the ship and get away from the fighting - a stance that Captain Gloval isn't too happy over. Meanwhile, Khyron the Backstabber continues his relentless attacks, and the alien infiltrators have returned to Breetai's fleet and are beginning to seriously undermine the Zentraedi will to fight.
I liked this one quite a bit. There's a lot going on, not just dogfight after dogfight intermixed with Rick trying to get some time alone with now-superstar Minmei. All those plot elements I mentioned above are present. The political conflicts with Earth's Council really help the book; they are important and interesting without trying to be exciting. Of course, there are exciting parts, the requisite fights with enemy mecha or starships, but the other issues offset it and keep the pacing at a good level.
If there's one really bad thing about the book, it's the author's habit of pointing out to readers when a twist of some kind is coming. A battle or issue would be going one way, then the author would figuretively draw me aside and say, "It won't be like this for much longer, wink wink." He does this in previous books as well, but it happened over and over in this one and got truly annoying after a bit.
Still, those are momentary problems. The book as a whole is really quite good. Things are, finally, getting a little deep and twisty. Let's just hope they stay that way.
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