The Babylon 5 Books

[KoshN]

<blockquote><font class="small">Quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Kribu:
<font color=yellow>I actually enjoyed both Accusations (which I even considered a pretty decent suspense novel even if it hadn't been a B5 book) and Blood Oath. *Shrugs* To each their own!

But I guess my pain level is pretty high when it comes to B5 books. /ubbthreads/images/icons/laugh.gif</font color=yellow><hr></blockquote>

Notice that she conspicuously does not mention 5: The Touch Of Your Shadow, the Whisper Of Your Name.

Nobody's pain threshold is that high. /ubbthreads/images/icons/eek.gif

 

[Kribu]

<blockquote><font class="small">Quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by KoshN:
<font color=yellow>Notice that she conspicuously does not mention 5: The Touch Of Your Shadow, the Whisper Of Your Name.</font color=yellow><hr></blockquote>
Sorry, got to disappoint you - I simply haven't read it. Or Voices, for that matter. /ubbthreads/images/icons/laugh.gif

But TTOYSTWOYN (ouch, even the acronym is way too long!!) has got fairly bad reviews everywhere, so I never bothered to try and get hold of it.

 

[**DONOTDELETE**]

<blockquote><font class="small">Quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Lyta:
<font color=yellow>
As for which books are canon? All the trilogies are since they are based off of JMS' outlines. Some trilogies are more canonical than others but I would say 80-90% on average. The only two Dell novels (the books that came before the trilogies) considered canon are To Dream in the City of Sorrows (written by his wife and about 90-100% canon) and The Shadow Within (written by Cavelos who also wrote the Techno-mage trilogies and this one is about 70% canon). /ubbthreads/images/icons/smile.gif</font color=yellow><hr></blockquote>
Where do you get these canonicity percentages? As I recall, JMS' foreword to To Dream stated that all of the books are canon to some degree, but that To Dream was the only one that was fully canon. Then I see posts like this, and I wonder at the discrepancy.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

<blockquote><font class="small">Quote:</font><hr>Where do you get these canonicity percentages? <hr></blockquote>

Various JMS posts over the years, mostly. While he did say that To Dream was 100% canon in the introduction, he later backed off this a bit. To Dream was written while the show was still in production, and I think he later decided he didn't want to be bound by everything that Drenan had written, in case he wanted to go off in another direction in some aspect of the story. Ditto the Del Rey books, in which there are chronology errors that slipped past him in the editing process, and where he let stand certain elements that writers needed to flesh-out their stories without necessarily committing himself to making them permanent elements of the B5 universe.

His statements are partly a CYA. If there is ever a B5 feature film and he tackles some part of the story he's never dealt with in detail, but one of the novelists has, he wants to be able to do his version without somebody saying, "But in Dark Genesis on page 119, paragraph 3, Bester says..."

Regards,

Joe

 

[Quagmire]

Kin of Zathras you're right, most people don't consider the books you've read to be worth the paper they're written on. On the early books there was no effort made to keep the books in line with the show. They were kinda busy making the show.

I agree with Joe(there's a shocker) on the later books though. I would also recommend you pick up one of these before judging all B5 books to be crap.

 

[crazybillyo]

<blockquote><font class="small">Quote:</font><hr>"But in Dark Genesis on page 119, paragraph 3, Bester says..."<hr></blockquote>

Ha! Another continuity error!

<font class="small">Spoiler:</font>
<table bgcolor="#000000" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="2" border="0"><tr bgcolor="#000000"><td bgcolor="#000000" id="spoiler"><font color="#000000">Bester wasn't BORN until the end of Dark Genesis, let alone could he say anything.</font></td></tr></table>


/ubbthreads/images/icons/grin.gif

*giggles*

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

See, that's just the kind of thing I was talking about. /ubbthreads/images/icons/smile.gif

Joe

 

[KoshN]

<blockquote><font class="small">Quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Kribu:
<font color=yellow>Sorry, got to disappoint you - I simply haven't read it. Or Voices, for that matter. /ubbthreads/images/icons/laugh.gif

But TTOYSTWOYN (ouch, even the acronym is way too long!!) has got fairly bad reviews everywhere, so I never bothered to try and get hold of it.</font color=yellow><hr></blockquote>

On Book 5, spare yourself! /ubbthreads/images/icons/eek.gif

 

[KoshN]

<blockquote><font class="small">Quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Joseph DeMartino:
<font color=yellow>If there is ever a B5 feature film and he tackles some part of the story he's never dealt with in detail, but one of the novelists has, he wants to be able to do his version without somebody saying, "But in Dark Genesis on page 119, paragraph 3, Bester says..."
</font color=yellow><hr></blockquote>

Now there's an IF. I wonder what point size that "IF" should be printed in? 40 billion point? .... The books are safe. /ubbthreads/images/icons/wink.gif

He should largely be bound by books 7, 9, the three trilogies, and the short stories. While he obviously should not be bound by the little details and little mistakes (e.g. some of Peter David's dates in the CP trilogy), he should be bound by the overall stories.

 

[RW7427]

I am just about to finish reading book 3 of the Psi-Corp trliogy and I find that it is really not all that bad.

After I finish that book, I am thinking about re-reading all of the numbered books again in order from book 1 to book 9. /ubbthreads/images/icons/smile.gif

 

[kin_of_zathras]

DR GONZO
those early books have in no way turned me away from reading future B5 novels. It's just I'm still waiting for the trilogies and shadow within and to dream..to get to my library.
They've got close to 300 dime a dozen trek novels and only 5 B5 ones. Worst of all there's only 1 Harlan Ellison book.