Mobile Suit Gundam: Hathaway's Flash

by Yoshiyuki Tomino, Haruhiko Mikimoto (illustrator)

Paperback

Published January 1, 1990

About the author

富野 由悠季 in Japanese, best known for creating the "Gundam" franchise.

Reviews

[LightIssues · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderfully downbeat, like half the novel has Hathaway caught, his rebellion conclusively over, his goals unmet, his actual chances for connection destroyed by himself, Gigi and Kenneth reeling, while the only things of importance are waiting for death and related bureaucratic procedures and then the immediate psychological aftermaths of that death--the mythic is gone, the present is dreary, the only hope is that the Feds will lose even more support, and if somebody like Kenneth has had his delusions and aspirations destroyed by this organization's incompetence and finally realizing the weight of violence, then how fucked are the Feds really long-term? Are they at all? What has been the meaning, the weight of all this? Tomino's inadequacies as a novelist and/or the fan translation's inadequacies as a translation aside, these are really great and interesting novels IMO, full of interesting character work, surprisingly evocative imagery, and plenty of interesting themes, this sad end not being different in the slightest, its concerns with the tragic and unhappy natural culminations-continuations of everything previously written and considered about cyclical violence, systemic evil and incompetence, the necessities/practicalities/obligations of resistance, the psychological of the political and vice versa, the ease and hardships of connection, the import of the past, moral obligations vs personal happiness and what these things constitute in a history of seemingly endless violence and evil, the mythic vs the banal in life and history etc; wonderful stuff, really, and Hathaway/Kenneth/Gigi a fascinating triangle in so many ways. Would love to know whether both Gigi and Kenneth calling Hathaway a "friend" despite him clearly being so much more for her comes directly from the Japanese original, because that's a chance for looking at this triangle in a radically different way.

[No_One · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dammit Tomino!!!

Excellent end to the trilogy and I can’t wait to hopefully see the remaining to books animated.

[Eric "try to read more than two books this year" Unterkofler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Intense. A 35 yr old story feeling so relevant and timely is astonishing. Perhaps some of tomino's best work, riveting and emotional

[Giancarlo Pieri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hathaway is up there with the greats of gundam protags for me. truly tragic. I have to reread this again soon

[Kaitlyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

That ending 😭

Lowkey this might be my favorite UC Gundam story