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The Final Nightmare | Rating | |
| C | |||
| Jack McKinney | |||
| Series | Related Books | ||
| Robotech: Second 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 Robotech Masters are getting desperate. Their protoculture supplies are falling rapidly, each battle consuming the precious resource. But Zor Prime is still amongst the humans, their unwiling spy. With his help, the Masters hope to win after all, and proceed with an all out offensive to take back the Matrix once and for all!
Unfortunately, the book just starts out badly, with some major flaws. I find it difficult to believe Dana can be that blind to Zor's obvious spying, or that Angelo never takes the issue to someone further up the chain when she refuses to hear the evidence. There is also a multitude of romances blooming; Bowie and Musica, Sean and Marie, and Dana, Zor Prime, Nova, and Captain Komodo in a little love tetrangle. A good portion of the start of the book is filled with the same crap that killed the sixth book, Doomsday.
Luckily, the story eases back on the romantic angle after a while, though of course it never completely disappears. Even so, however, I had some problems with how the characters were acting. People talk about things they logically should know nothing about, people are let off the hook for crimes and pranks no military would ever let them get away with. I was particularly struck by three things: the techie Louis' reaction to finding his super targeting system wouldn't just be used in simulators (Making the soldiers more efficient in a war! That's criminal!); Nova's hatred for Dana through the entire war is never justified or explained; and when one of the 15th's soldiers essentially goes AWOL, the 15th itself is detailed to find the guy. All three just had me scratching my head, wondering what the hell the writers were thinking.
And I don't mean McKinney, here. He does the best he can. But he was given such bad material to work from...
About two-thirds of the way through the book comes an extended section that isn't too bad. This is when the climax starts ramping up, and the final battle of the war is clearly at hand. People act more consistently, more logically, and the plot in general improves. Unfortunately, it then devolves into an ending that was meant to by mystical but only ends up being mystifying. Keep spirituality out of my action stories, please. It so rarely works.
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