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To Dream In the City of Sorrows (Spoilers)

H

HockeyPlayer47

Regular
If you haven't read the book yet I strongly recommend that you leave this post and go read it.

















































Ok. I just finished the book To Dream In the City of Sorrows today. In the epilogue Marcus gets a letter from Sinclair. The book makes it clear that Marcus doesn't know if the letter was writen one thousand years ago or only a month ago. Now, my first thought was, why doesn't he just use something like carbon dating to determine when the letter was written. Then I thought it was a brilliant move by Kathryn Drennan to leave it open the the readers imagination. But then I thought about the "legend" of Valen. Didn't he have Minbari children? Now, if that's the case, did Sinclair actually meet up with Sakai and write the letter one thousand years ago? How could Sinclair have Minbari children if Sakai is human. I know that they could have children as we learned with Sheridan and Delenn. But then they wouldn't be "Minbari" children. So now we're down to two options, that I'm aware of.

1) Sinclair met up with Sakai again and she also underwent the transformation. Or...
2) The letter was only written a month before Marcus recieved it.

Anyone have any opinions?
 
I go with choice 1:
Sinclair met up with Sakai again and she also underwent the transformation.

In the comic book, In Valen's Name (Part 3), a message from Valen found on the remains of B4 says something along the lines of "I've found her... I've finally found her."

And so the human DNA floating around the Minbari population comes from a transformed Sinclair and a transformed Sakai... you can sorta see the resemblance with Delenn :)
 
I know that they could have children as we learned with Sheridan and Delenn.
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No, they couldn't have, as we learned from Sheridan and Delenn. Despite her superficial Minbari characteristics, the post-transformation Delenn was essentially Human. She would have had to be in order to be impregnated by Sheridan. B5 operates under the real rules of genetics, not some fantasy substitute the allows for cute interspecies romance. David Sheridan is Human in all respects, Delenn in all but a few cosmetic ones. (We know that her whole reproductive system was transformed from a certain question that she asks Ivanova a few weeks after emerging from her Chrysalis.)

The only way Sinclair could mate with Catherine Sakai after he became Valen is if she were to undergo a Chrysalis transformation of her own. Luckily that isn't a problem, provided that he can locate her in the 12th century. He has the Chrysalis device and all three Triluminaries with him, after all.

While the original Dell printing of To Dream is out-of-print, there's no need to resort to eBay or used bookshops. Drennan's book was the second* of the old Dell novels to be republished by Del Rey books (publishers of the recent B5 trilogies and current holders of the paperback merchandising rights.) You can buy a brand-spanking new copy of the book from any on-line bookseller and can even find copies in most larger brick and mortar retailers.

Regards,

Joe

* The first was Jeanne Cavelos's The Shadow Within about Sheridan's first mission aboard the Agamemnon and the Icarus expedition to Z'ha'dum. The book is good in and of itself, has been certified "mostly canon" by JMS himself and also works nicely as a prequel to the Technomage Trilogy, which Cavelos also wrote.
 
No, they couldn't have, as we learned from Sheridan and Delenn. Despite her superficial Minbari characteristics, the post-transformation Delenn was essentially Human. She would have had to be in order to be impregnated by Sheridan. B5 operates under the real rules of genetics, not some fantasy substitute the allows for cute interspecies romance. David Sheridan is Human in all respects, Delenn in all but a few cosmetic ones. (We know that her whole reproductive system was transformed from a certain question that she asks Ivanova a few weeks after emerging from her Chrysalis.)
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You're right Joe, as always. I wasn't thinking clearly. What I meant was that Sinclair could have Minbari children just not with Sakai unless she too underwent the transformation. Sorry. What can I say? It was 11:00pm when I typed that. :p :eek:

Snatcher was right. I was asking about how I might get a hold of the comics. I already have a copy of To Dream, a new one. :D
 
I was asking about how I might get a hold of the comics.
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Like it was suggested before, there is always eBay for the signle issue comics but there is also a trade that is available on Amazon UK:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/185286981X/
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/185286981X/

There is a trade I believe that was published in the US too but can't find it easily.

Also, you can always try your local comic shop as they might have something. I found my set at a comic store for less than $10. ;)

More info on the comics here:
http://abyss.hubbe.net/comics/b5/misc.html
 
The ebay remark was regarding the In Valen's Name comic books, Joe.
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Yeah, for some reason my eye slid right over the word "comic" when I read that. :) Oh well, what I wrote might be useful information for someone else who reads this thread looking for information about the book. <Trying desperately to put this in a good light> :)

Regards,

Joe
 
B5 Comics...

I'm a little confused. How many B5 comics are there. The link that you provided, Lyta, says that there are only 11 issues out there. Outside of that site, I can only track down 3 issues, supposedly 1, 2, and 3. Now that site, http://abyss.hubbe.net/comics/b5/misc.html, also adveritses things like issues 1-4 or 1-4,11. Does that mean that those copies have issues 1-4, or 1-4 and 11, all together in that copy? I'm confused. :confused:
 
Re: B5 Comics...

Wait... There are only 3 comics involving Sinclair traveling into the past (In Valen's Name)? So there are more than 11 comics out there, right?
 
Re: B5 Comics...

I'm a little confused. How many B5 comics are there. The link that you provided, Lyta, says that there are only 11 issues out there. Outside of that site, I can only track down 3 issues, supposedly 1, 2, and 3. Now that site, http://abyss.hubbe.net/comics/b5/misc.html, also adveritses things like issues 1-4 or 1-4,11. Does that mean that those copies have issues 1-4, or 1-4 and 11, all together in that copy? I'm confused. :confused:
Click to expand...

There are 11 original B5 comics (issues #1-11). Originally it was supposed to be a 24-issue series but only 11 got published.

After that series was canceled, another B5 comic was serialized in the official Babylon 5 magazine in the UK. These comics were then collected and published as the In Valen's Name mini-series (issues #1-3 that might be what you are referring to being able to find now) in the US.

It also sounds like you might not know what a trade paperback is either? It is usually a collection of single issue comics that have been re-published into a small book format called trade paperback (also known as TPB).

The Price of Peace TPB contains issues #1, 2, 3, 4, and 11. This version was only published in North America and for some reason included issue #11 which the UK version did not.

All of this is explained on the web site so if there is a better way to convey this information, please let me know. I am always looking to improve it. :)
 
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