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Babylon 5 Novels
- Thread starter oldpaddy
- Start date
Sindatur
Regular
Lurker's guide Page for the Novels
http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/novels/index.html
Of the ones from 1997 and earlier, there are only two that most people feel are really good, and have a pretty high degree of Canon to them (The Shadow Within, and To Dream in the City of Sorrows). The ones from 1998 and later (The 3 Trilogies) are all considered a high percentage of Canon, and are liked by most folks.
I have read them all but, one of the original 9, and even the ones that are not considered very canonical, I enjoyed.
http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/novels/index.html
Of the ones from 1997 and earlier, there are only two that most people feel are really good, and have a pretty high degree of Canon to them (The Shadow Within, and To Dream in the City of Sorrows). The ones from 1998 and later (The 3 Trilogies) are all considered a high percentage of Canon, and are liked by most folks.
I have read them all but, one of the original 9, and even the ones that are not considered very canonical, I enjoyed.
RW7427
Super Moderator
I've read all 9 of the numbered books, all of both of the Technomage and Centauri trilogies, the first and last of the Psi Corp books, and the novelizations of A Call To Arms, Thirdspace, and In The Beginning. I enjoyed all of them. 
I just got the second Psi Corp book, and will get to it when I have time.
I just got the second Psi Corp book, and will get to it when I have time.
vacantlook
Super Moderator
The next sights for me on my B5 novel reading are the telepath trilogy and The Shadow Within. So far, I've only read the Centauri and Technomage trilogies and To Dream In The City Of Sorrows.
Personally of the original 9 I have only read “Shadow Within” and To Dream “In the City of Sorrows.” Granted they are both great and when you read Shadow you will have a little more respect for the crazy combat thing in LotR Since it plays a large role in the Agamemnon in this book. As for the trilogies, I think they all are worth reading but I personally like the work of Peter David (Centauri) and Jeanne Cavelos (Technomage). Keys does a good job with the Psi Corps history but its really hard to get into the first 100 pages of so of the first book since it is trying to cover so many events at once its hard to follow the plot. The others are better since they focus on Bester.
Thank You Markas, I just found this place yesterday. Always looking for a good B5 sites.
As for the Novels the 11 that JMS considers Canon are all great, There not prefect, the things that you would argue about are all fairly small, and work in there own way.
And thier are more novels on the way for TMoS. I hope they bring back Jeanne Cavelos to write them. But how ever it is I'm sure it will be a good read.
As for the Novels the 11 that JMS considers Canon are all great, There not prefect, the things that you would argue about are all fairly small, and work in there own way.
And thier are more novels on the way for TMoS. I hope they bring back Jeanne Cavelos to write them. But how ever it is I'm sure it will be a good read.
KoshN
Super Moderator
"...when you read Shadow you will have a little more respect for the crazy combat thing in LotR since it plays a large role in the Agamemnon in this book"
??? What?
Just because of the cumbersome firing system of the EA Omega, you gain respect the firing system of the Liandra? .... No, nope, no way, not me anyway.Agreed, and then there's the extensive use of aliases and occasional lack of attributions in the "Dark Genesis" which makes it hard to follow at times.
KoshN
Super Moderator
My recommendation is to start with "The Shadow Within" (...because it's good to start with a good book
, not like I did with Dell #5. ) Then, you can naturally flow into the Technomage trilogy. From there you can go on to the Centauri trilogy (since it continues some Technomage elements. ) "To Dream..." and the Psi Corps trilogy can be read anytime, because they're pretty much independent of the other books. Psi Corps does overlap the time period of the Centauri trilogy, but they're separate paths. Hope that helps.BTW, I'm most of the way through Dell #6 and am liking it.
Initially, its chacterizations seemed to be "off," but it's grown on me. It might have been that I was used to how the characters were after Season 5, and this takes place during the Narn/Centauri War (which was earlier in their development).After Dell #6, there's only Dell #8 (with its bad rep.), and then I'll have read 'em all.
Markas, you've got a lot of catching up to do.Ok KoshN you're right the firing system on the Liandra is stupid but when it the manual back up for the Agamemnon and that you find out that the whole Earth-Minbari war was fought on the human side that firing system you gain respect for its history even if on TV is looks really dumb.
KoshN
Super Moderator
Don't close yourself off.
1, 2, and 3 are tolerable. Some errors, but not bad.
4 is bad.
5 is HIDEOUS. A massive waste of time. Best thing about it is the cover art.
Remember Londo's reaction to G'Kar tossing his cookies in their cell? Well, that's my reaction to #5. 6 is actually pretty good.
I hear 8 is just as bad as 5.
"In the Beginning" is good. Adds to the story.
"Thirdspace" is good. Adds to the story.
"A Call to Arms" is so-so. Has errors but makes some things clear, that are not clear from the movie.
rangerPHIL
Beyond the rim
the technomage trilogy is a fairly good read.
Well in my in all true "To dream in the city of sorrow" and the Technomage trilogy are mostly like the best of the novels, but the background you gather from all of the other novels makes them all worth reading. Heck find out what the story behind David is all I need to know about the Centari trilogy. As for 1-6, and 8 I honestly have only started reading the books in the last two years so I have found it hard to find the books is stores and have not giving in to amazon.com yet.
RW7427
Super Moderator
I loved the Technomage and Centauri trilogies, but like KoshN, I didn't care much for the Psi books. For some reason, I never read book 2 of the Psi series, so I ordered it recently to give it a try. I haven't had time to start it lately because I'm still working on the latest Dragonlance book. Once I finish it, I'll start book 2.
vacantlook
Super Moderator
Which one? The most recent thing I read of Dragonlance was the War of Souls trilogy.
Sindatur
Regular
Marshal, Where are you getting the information that TMoS will spur more novels? I realize more novels are a possibility when considering JMS's surprising revelation "...is the previously mentioned NOT list has now become an adjunct to TMoS" (paraphrased), but we have not been told what those adjuncts exactly are, to the best of my knowledge. Do you have information I haven't seen yet?
