Albert's Babylon 5 Book Review Page
Babylon 5 Novel Series
My comments are available. Read the reviews only if you have seen enough
episodes, although there are only real spoilers for the
series in the reviews of books 7-9. Also, don't read the
books before you have seen the episodes that are mentioned for each book.
#1 Voices
My Rating: 5
The events take place after "Points of Departure" and
before "A Race Through Dark Places".
#2 Accusations
My Rating: 6
The events take place after "The Coming of Shadows" and
before "All Alone in the Night".
#3 Blood Oath
My Rating: 4
The events take place before "The Coming of Shadows".
#4 Clark's Law
My Rating: 8
The events take place during/shortly after "The Long, Twilight Struggle".
#5 The Touch of Your Shadow, the Whisper of Your Name
My Rating: 6
The events take place in early 2260, before "A Day in the Strife".
#6 Betrayals
My Rating: 7
The events take place during the Narn-Centauri war.
#7 The Shadow Within
My Rating: 9
The events take place before "Shadow Dancing".
#8 Personal Agendas
My Rating: 8
The events take place in 2261, before "Falling Toward Apotheosis".
#9 To Dream in the City of Sorrows
My Rating: 10
The events in the book are mainly taking place during the time from
"Chrysalis" upto "Matters of Honor".
Psi Corps #1 Dark Genesis: The Birth of the Psi Corps
My Rating: 9
Some revelations, some things we suspected, but all too many people
to handle comfortably. However, this can not be avoided as the book
goes way back into the history and covers a whole lifetime.
Psi Corps #2 Deadly Relations: Bester Ascendant
My Rating: 9
When I think about the book now, it has no other major plot than
to follow the main character's development. In a way, the book
consists of short stories, which is also reflected in the way
the book is divided into four parts. Some things are answered,
some we knew, some I would've left to the imagination. Why?
Because a character easily loses interest if you've got it
figured out completely.
A handful of events and/or references tie the book to the series
and to the other books.
Contains spoiler material upto "Phoenix Rising".
Movie Novelizations
Peter David: In The Beginning
Although the movie is intended for first-time viewers, it offers in my
opinion way too much advance information for a person having not seen
at least the first two seasons. The novelization is no different.
One odd remark point to fourth season's "Rumors, Bargains and Lies",
and another to "Rising Star" even.
I strongly urge you to watch at least three seasons of the series
before even contemplating watching or reading In the Beginning.
Now that the spoiler-warnings are given, I can really recommend the book
to even those who have already seen the movie. In fact, I think it is
the best order to "consume" them, i.e. see the movie first. The text is
very fluent and has a lot of explanations and rationale that the movie
didn't have time to delve into.
My Rating: 9
Robert Sheckley: A Call to Arms
A very standard novelization. The book follows the movie more
closely than would be advisable, upto the scene cuts. On the other
hand, it still offers new scenes that never were in the script or
were cut from the movie. Some of these are very interesting while
others seem somehow detached. IHMO works better as a movie,
although is not a total waste of reading.
A couple of references to "Sleeping in Light" should make you wait
until you've seen the whole series. I would also watch the movie
first because the book hints to one fact in a bit too obvious way
that is only revealed in a later stage in the movie version.
My Rating: 7
Other Books
David Bassom: Creating Babylon 5
Contains wealth of high-quality color pictures, background information
about the Babylon 5 and its history, long and small interview snippets,
short character introductions and an episode list for the first four
seasons. Contains spoilers upto third season's "Ship of Tears"
(as far as I could notice).
Reviews by a1bert@iki.fi