Jack McKinney was a pseudonym used by American authors James Luceno and Brian Daley before the latter's death.
A pseudonym or alias is a name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which can differ from their first or true name (orthonym).
James Luceno is a New York Times bestselling author, best known for his novels and reference books connected with the Star Wars franchise and the Star Wars Expanded Universe, and, novelisations of the Robotech animated television series. Luceno is also the author of several original novels along with film novelisations and other franchise tie-ins. He has also written for television cartoon series.
Brian Charles Daley was an American science fiction novelist. He also adapted for radio the Star Wars radio dramas and wrote all of its episodes.
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As well as adapting Robotech into novel form, they were also responsible for the Sentinels series which continued to expand the Robotech Universe. They also wrote the Black Hole Travel Agency series.
Robotech is a science fiction franchise that began with an 85-episode anime television series produced by Harmony Gold USA in association with Tatsunoko Production and first released in the United States in 1985. It was adapted from three original and unrelated, though visually similar, Japanese anime television series to make a series suitable for syndication.
In 1987, the Robotech animated series was adapted into novel form by authors James Luceno and Brian Daley and published by Del Rey Books. Having previously collaborated on the animated series Galaxy Rangers, the pair's Robotech novels were released under the unified pseudonym of "Jack McKinney". Using fictitious epigraphs in the style of Dune, McKinney's novels escaped the limitations inherent in the dubbed cartoon and fleshed out its chronology in greater detail; most significantly, by adapting the storyline of the aborted sequel project, "The Sentinels". The entire series lasted for twenty-one books, the first fifteen of which were later collected into five three-book omnibus compilations in the early 1990s.
Robotech II: The Sentinels was an attempt by Harmony Gold USA to continue the original 1985 Robotech television series. Only three episodes were ultimately animated before the project was canceled in 1986, and a feature-length film was released from footage taken from the completed episodes. The aborted 65-episode Sentinels series would have followed the ongoing adventures of Rick Hunter and Lisa Hayes and the rest of the Robotech Expeditionary Force (REF) during the events of The Robotech Masters and The New Generation series.
