About Books...

[Zathras]

I'm sure that this has been addressed before, but I couldn't find a thread to answer all my questions. Can someone tell me exactly which books are considered canonical? I have a pretty good idea, but have never heard a definitive list. The ones I'm familiar with are...

To Dream In The City Of Sorrows
The Shadow Within
The Centauri Trilogy
The Technomage Trilogy

Are there others? What about the books about the birth of the Psi Corps and the one about The Fate Of Bester? ...City of Sorrows is the only one I've read, but it looks like I have some more free time on my hands now, and I'd like to start some of the trilogies. What timeframes does each book/trilogy cover? Is it better to read one before another? Somebody familiar with the material please let me know.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

Like the Centauri and Technomage Trilogies, the Teep books by J. Gregory Keyes were based on outlines by JMS and are considered canon. That's the whole list.

The Technomage books start in 2258 and end not long after the Shadow War does.

The Centauri novels begin in 2262, at the time Londo takes the throne, and conclude in 2278, with a coda a little later than that.

The Teep books cover the most temporal ground. Volume one tells the story of the emergence of Human telepaths in the 2150s, and traces the impact this event has on society, on the mundanes and on the teeps themselves. It ends with the birth of a telepath who will one day be known as Alfred Bester. Book is almost Bester's biography, taking him from childhood to his career as a Psi Cop. It ends with Bester leaving to visit Babylon 5 for the first time, in pursuit of a teep named Jason Ironheart. The final volume picks up the story many years later, well after the Telepath War (all of the sequel series, TV movies, stories and novels pass over this period in silence except for a few broad hints and the obvious result - the disbanding of Psi Corps.) It finds Bester a fugitive war criminal, staying one step ahead of EarthGov, the Alliance, and Michael Garibaldi and follows his story until the end of his life.

Regards,

Joe

 

[ElScorcho]

The Psi-Corps, Centauri and Technomage trilogies were all based on JMS outlines. Other than those, only the last three of the Dell novels ("The Shadow Within", "Personal Agendas" and "To Dream in the City of Sorrows") are considered to be "canonical" in the B5 sense. On the original printings, they were the only ones to have the WB logo on them. The first six were written by genre writers who were only given a rough sketch of what the story was about. Anyone who has read them can attest to the fact that they are "apocryphal".

 

[HockeyPlayer47]

I have read all three trilogies, To Dream , and The Shadow. I can't speak for anyone else here but I personally enjoyed the Technomage trilogy the best. There were tie-ins with several characters but I can't really tell you more than that without giving something away. Anyway, I recommend the technomage trilogy first.

 

[Zathras]

Thanks for the info, everybody.

I read about half of Book 1 in the original 9-book series, but got so frustrated with it's lack of content and continuity that I stowed it away and never looked for it again. That got me pretty disillusioned with B5 books until I read To Dream In The City Of Sorrows. That book was great and was incredibly faithful to the characters and themes of B5 (which I guess it'd have to be with JMS probably looking over his wife's shoulder to make sure the characterization and dialogue was correct ).

Anyway, I've been in grad school for the past few years with not much time on my hands for anything but required reading. I graduated just over a year ago and have been reading non-stop since. I just finished The Hobbit and The Lord Of The Rings, along with several other books that I've been promising myself I'd get to one day. Time to get back into Babylon 5. Thanks again.

 

[Lyta]

Other than those, only the last three of the Dell novels ("The Shadow Within", "Personal Agendas" and "To Dream in the City of Sorrows") are considered to be "canonical" in the B5 sense.

I am not too sure that PA is considered canon. This is what JMS had to say about it...

JMS AT COMPUSERVE SAID:
4.15.1997
I've said that while this one is okay, the characterization is off, and it tries way too hard to be funny, ignoring the notion that if everything is funny then *nothing* is funny. Unfortunately, I didn't get the actual manuscript until it was too late to do anything short of commissioning a full rewrite, which they wouldn't do.

On the original printings, they were the only ones to have the WB logo on them. The first six were written by genre writers who were only given a rough sketch of what the story was about. Anyone who has read them can attest to the fact that they are "apocryphal".

Actually, all nine had the WB "Babylon 5" logo on them but you are right about the rough sketch part. I haven't read any of the original novels but #7 and #9 and definitely thought #9 was the best.

 

[ElScorcho]

...all nine had the WB "Babylon 5" logo...

I was actually referring to the Warner Bros. logo on the spine, indicating that those novels were sanctioned by WB.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

I was actually referring to the Warner Bros. logo on the spine, indicating that those novels were sanctioned by WB.

This would have been a design/marketing decision, or maybe WB deciding to throw its weight around, but not some kind of "seal of approval". All of the books were "sanctioned" by WB in as much as they were produced under license from the studio. (If Dell had just up and started printing B5 novels on its own, WB would have sued.)

Most of the Dell books were written fairly early in the production cycle of the series, and few of the writers ever had a chance to read a script much less watch any episodes. (Jeanne Cavelos who became the series editor for a time before writing her own book was one of the few to get tapes of episodes and at least pose a few questions to JMS via e-mail. Kathryn Drennan obviously had more direct access. The series was halted just about the time that production was down to such a science that JMS might have had more time to devote to helping the writers and keeping the books on track.)

In any event, Shadow and To Dream are the only ones that JMS has ever said were to any degree canon, and he, not Warner Bros., makes that call.

Regards,

Joe