The Babylon 5 Novels
updated May 11, 2000

First series: The Dell novels

I've read book 2, "Accusations," and book 9, "To Dream in the City of Sorrows," and much of book 8, "The Shadow of Your Touch" and have attempted to read book 1, "Voices" and book 3, "Clark's Law."   The main problem with the majority of the Dell books is that they were written early in the life of the series, and the writers were hampered by both a lack of information on the characters and situation, and by no real room in which to work.

Originally, the idea was to novelize the entire television series.  This proved impractical, and the next thought was to tell stories outside the main thrust of the show.   But this fell through because the publishers felt that fans would only want to read about the adventures of the characters they already knew.  This left the "Star Trek" approach of writing "untold tales" of the cast.  Since the continuity on B5 is so tight, there wasn't much room to tell a story outside of the main arc, and it shows with these books.  Only with the later books, "Shadow of" and "To Dream," is the way open enough to tell tangential stories that still involve major threads from the series (as with Sinclair on Minbar or Anna Sheridan on Z'ha'dum).

For the record, "Accusations" is a tolerable if not particularly dramatic or well-written Ivanova story.  With "Clark's Law," which has received relatively good reviews, I simply couldn't get past all the factual mistakes in the first few chapters.  "The Shadow of" is a decent account of Anna's last days before encountering the Shadows, and "To Dream in" is far and away the best of the Dell lot.  Written by JMS's wife, Kathryn Drennan, it's a powerful and vivid tale that reveals (perhaps) exactly what happened to Sinclair and Catherine Sakai, both on Minbar and beyond, as well as giving us a bit of Marcus and his thoughts and background.

Second Series: The Del Rey trilogies

The move of the B5 franchise from Dell to Del Rey should have provoked cheers from the fans, because Del Rey has a grand tradition of handling SF with respect and in a classy manner.  One advantage for Del Rey was that, by the time they got the franchise, the series was nearly over, meaning that their books could actually tell both "backstory" and "future story," carrying certain plot threads and character arcs on to their ultimate resolutions, beyond what was shown on the series. The other great development for the Del Rey books was the securing of three very talented writers to pen the nine books-- J. Gregory Keyes, already earning a top-flight reputation for his SF/fantasy novels; Jeanne Cavallos, who wrote the well-received Anna Sheridan novel for Dell, and Peter David, who, as scripter of several B5 episodes and creator of Londo's wives, needs no introduction to B5 fans.

The Psi Corps Trilogy

Del Rey brought in J. Gregory Keyes, an established SF writer, to undertake the "Psi Corps Trilogy," telling the story not just of his protagonist, Bester, but of the Corps itself, from beginning to end.   The first volume contained a great deal of distant background, but was a fine read, and the second volume simply rocked, as it followed Bester from his childhood training with the Corps, to his early adult adventures.  Keyes gives us a Bester entirely true to his nature on the series;  a Bester the reader alternately loves and hates.  We also see numerous ancestors of the B5 characters we know.  The second volume ends with Bester on the way to B5 for the events of "Mind War," his first appearance on the station and on the series, and the third volume presents the rest of his story.

While the second book was splendid, I have to say that the third volume was easily the best SF book I've read this year.  Keyes gives us a Bester that is totally true to character, in turns appallingly bad and stunningly likeable.  At the same time, we see a Garibaldi behaving dead-on to character, one we completely sympathize with but also worry about (in terms of his obsession with Bester).  The ending is perfect.   Everything is wrapped up nicely, yet with a lingering sense of dread.  I don't know how much of this book was JMS's outline, and how much was Keyes fleshing things out, but the combination made for a wonderful, exciting read.  I cannot recommend this book highly enough.  And, quite frankly, I am a bit stunned by the level of skill with which Keyes portrays these characters.

The Centauri Prime Trilogy

Legions of Fire: The Long Night of Centauri Prime is Peter David's first novel in his Centauri Prime Trilogy.  All I can say is, "Wow."  While this book did not contain quite as much in the way of previously-unseen character drama as the last of the Bester books (Bester's final story was completely new, while we've already seen, or seen hints of, most of Londo's travails in this story), Peter David's writing of Londo, Vir, and the other Centauri characters is comparable only with JMS's, in terms of making them sound exactly as they should, and behave exactly as you'd expect.  JMS has gone so far as to say, "Peter David IS a Centauri," when explaining why he was happy to have David write these books.

David, in an interview with BABYLON 5/CRUSADE Magazine in January, said that JMS provided him with an outline from which he worked, but that parts of the outline were intentionally vague or open-ended, allowing David the opportunity to work out much of the storyline himself.

This novel is particularly notable for its guest-stars, both those we've seen before and those of a type we've seen before, and for its detailed look at the Drakh.  This book leaves you incredibly anxious to read the next, even though we all have a general idea of how this all will end.

Armies of Light and Dark is the second volume of this trilogy.  While not quite as compelling overall as the first volume, the book contains several very memorable and priceless moments, and introduces a few unexpected twists and developments.  The degree of involvement of the Techno-mages (not a spoiler, since Galen is pictured on the book's cover) was somewhat surprising to me, but then, a careful look at the events of "A Call to Arms" and "Crusade" revealed that the Techno-mages would play a substantial role in the war with the Drakh.  

We don't get as many cameos from various minor characters as we did in the first book, but we do have noteable appearances from a few very important and a few very minor characters.  Also pictured on the cover is G'Kar, who has a few scenes--which Peter David gets just right, of course.  But we also see a few of the Interstellar Alliance noteables in action, and even get a momentary appearance by a character you might never have expected to see. 

Clearly, Peter David has chosen Minister Durla to be the villain of the piece who can actually get a comeuppance at the end.  Since it is doubtful JMS will allow David to wrap up the entire Drakh storyline within the next volume, David needed a villain who could be defeated, to give his story some sort of satisfactory conclusion, and Durla surely is the one he has chosen.  I fully expect a dramatic showdown between Vir and Londo and Durla in book three.

While this book is probably the least accessible for newcomers to B5 of any of the Del Rey books thus published, old fans will find plenty to savor and enjoy.  This is, at heart, Vir's book, and it is a book any fan of the show should not miss.

Crusade fiction

No word as yet on any Crusade fiction in print, though the adaptation of the TNT movie prequel, A Call to Arms, was published by Del Rey in '99.  Presumably, JMS feels he should hold off on giving away too much of the Crusade storyline until it has become utterly, irrevocably clear that we will never see any more of it on television or on film.  An understandable position, certainly, but in the meantime, we face possibly years of knowing nothing more about how the story would have continued!  Ahh, the sweet agony that is Babylon 5 fandom...

Short Stories

The Shadow of His Thoughts
J. Michael Straczynski contributed a short story to Amazing Stories magazine during the Summer of 1999, entitled "The Shadow of His Thoughts."   This is a Londo-centered piece set during the first days of Londo's reign as Emperor, probably early in 2263.  A very well-written story, as might be expected, though not of dramatically important impact to the B5 universe.  It does, however, answer the question of why no one on Centauri Prime figured out that someone was controlling Londo during his reign, given the supernatural powers of some Centauri.

The second JMS story for Amazing Stories magazine came out in November of 1999, in issue #599, entitled "Genius Loci."   It focused on the adventures of Lyta and G'Kar after the events of "The Wheel of Fire"/"Objects in Motion."

It turned out to be a much lighter piece than I'd expected.  Certainly both characters were threatened with great violence, and had to work their way out of a bind, but in all, this was more of a light-hearted romp.  Perhaps the main reason is that we have come to know both of the characters so incredibly well, that not only do we have tremendous confidence in their abilities to get out of a jam, but we see (via JMS's writing) their natures showing through-- G'Kar's amorous personality returns after a long absence, and Lyta's newfound confidence--arrogance?--in her powers radiates from her.  The fun is not in wondering if they will escape, the fun is in watching their thought processes and reactions as they inevitably win the day.

The BABYLON 5/CRUSADE Magazine is currently running original short fiction set in the B5 universe.  The first installment, by JMS himself, had its subject/setting decided by a vote of readers of the magazine.  While I voted for "the new crew after Season 5," in the hopes of seeing a story involving perhaps Ta'Lon and Number One, the winner was "the original crew, during the arc."   I originally feared this would only lead to a rehash of material already covered in the series, but I should have known better.  JMS instead gave us a very interesting visit to the station by someone we perhaps thought we wouldn't see again, or at least not for nearly twenty more years, show-time, and a couple of loose ends are neatly tied off.   I enjoyed this story even more than the previous two AMAZING STORIES efforts.

Coming soon: reviews of the upcoming stories in B5 Magazine by Fiona Avery and J. Gregory Keyes, and JMS's third and final (for now?) AMAZING STORIES tale, which he promises will be something of a shocker.

--Reviews by Van Allen Plexico