The Babylon Project Podcast

We rolled right into the second book of the Legions of Fire trilogy: Armies of Light and Dark, and we weren’t disappointed! This book flows seamlessly from the first, with the story shifting from focusing on Londo to putting Vir center stage.

Armies of Light and Dark was written by Peter David and based on a script written by JMS. The story opens in 2267 and carries us into 2277. These dates come directly from references early, and also late in the book.

Vir, the Centauri Ambassador to Babylon 5, takes center stage as we see his life balancing between being marginalized on the Station by everyone else there (due to the Centauri Republic’s failed moral standing and subsequent war with the Alliance); and a status back on Centauri Prime that almost feels like he’s been deemed Persona Non Grata by his own people. When home, he goes almost unnoticed. When he’s noticed by most in power (except for Londo) the attitude toward him seems to be annoyance. Consistent with what we already know about the Drakh control of the Republic, we clearly see Vir’s been cast aside to serve on Babylon 5 to keep him out of the way, while the truly powerful (under Drakh control) rebuild the Republic’s cities openly, and the military (secretly), to wage war once again.

We watch Vir grow up...maturing personally and professionally. He’s changing from the naive aide to the previous ambassador, into a mature and very politically savvy politician and strategist. This matters because of what he learns, and as a result, the action he takes to save his own people and home world—all facilitated by his perceived insignificance in the eyes of everyone else. It becomes obvious to Vir that while Londo is the Emperor, Minister Durla is exercising a signifiant and growing amount of power as the defacto ruler of the emerging police state. Before the book concludes, Durla maneuvers himself into the position of Prime Minister (facilitated by the Drakh), and is publicly the second most powerful member of the government, with only to Emperor Mollari to answer to. With Londo under direct Drakh control, Durla is effectively running the government, building a powerful military in secret, and using some forces openly to invade and take control of smaller words who are outside of the Centauri’s real vital interests. This is all done under the guise of putting down threats to the Republic, and on a more peaceful (sounding) note, to create jobs and gain the resources required to help rebuild what the Interstellar Alliance destroyed in the war. While these actions are offensive and almost imperial in nature, because of the relative insignificance of the worlds falling to the diminished Centauri Republic, the IA looks the other way. In reality, these are intended as bases from which to draw resources in order to establish the military the Republic needs to confront the IA.

Vir quietly and expertly establishes credible intelligence networks among the Centauri people, specifically those who have grown aware something sinister is going on. He also continues to work with the Technomages, granting him information and some capabilities that only they can bring. While things play out with Londo and Durla, Vir has become the primary influencer, if not the leader, of an increasingly powerful resistance movement on Centauri Prime. Allied with the Technomages, Vir is putting the pieces in place for this maturing resistance movement to eventually take back the Republic from the Drakh. With the help of the Technomages, he also finds the secret Planet Killer facility. Time is running out for Vir, the Technomages, and the resistance on Centauri Prime to set the necessary conditions to take action and end the war that’s about to be unleashed by the Drakh against Earth and the IA.

An incredible book, full of action, and driving us toward what can only be an incredible ending. We were all eager to jump right into the next book. Our ratings were a 5, 5 and 5 (out of 5), giving us an overall Boom Scale rating of 5!

Next time we’ll discuss the third and final book in the series, optimistically called Out of the Darkness. As always, we hope you can read along with us, and join in on the conversation.

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes. You can email us at [email protected]. We look forward to hearing from you.

Just remember... If there’s no boom today, there’s boom tomorrow. There’s always boom tomorrow!

With the second book in the “Psi Corps Trilogy” under our belts, we’re back to discuss the continuing story as captured in Deadly Relations: Bester Ascendant. As mentioned previously, this set of books was based on a script written by JMS, and are considered canon, and all three were written by J. Gregory Keyes. The second novel in the set begins in about 2190 when Al Bester was just six years old, and tells us his story right up until his first visit to Babylon 5, covering another 60 years of time. This novel really is Bester’s story.

The story is told in four parts (five if you count the epilogue), interestingly titled Thesis, Antithesis, Synthesis, and Ascendance. As the story unfolds, we see how Alfred Bester became the Bester we all know and hate—or perhaps love to hate. As an orphan, entrusted to the Psi Corps, Bester is one of the very first true children of the Corps, giving particular weight to the statement we’re all familiar with, “The Corps is Mother, the Corps is Father”. His training is difficult, and as a social misfit, life as a student and child of the Corps isn’t necessarily suited to his personality. Even so, he’s inspired by a particular teacher/mentor, finds his way, and in fact becomes truly invested in and zealously embraces the Corps. As a young man he has enough confidence in himself that he attempts to capture a wanted “Blip” (a rogue telepath). This doesn’t go well at all, his motives and loyalty are questioned, and as the dust settles, his punishment is severe. After his punishment ends, his mentor, who sees a lot of promise in Bester, brings him on another hunt. The danger of these hunts convinces Bester even more that the Corps is right and best for all teeps, and his loyalty is cemented into place.

Also during this time, Bester falls in love, and is completely devoted to the young woman until she decides to go rogue. In a heartbreaking moment, he chooses the Corps over his love for her, turns her in, and she’s arrested.

As the story continues, Bester is finally sent out to apprehend a Blip named Stone. During this pursuit, he and his partner get information on another (more dangerous) Blip named Walters, the leader of a rogue movement. Things go with difficulty and Bester ends up in the hospital, where he makes himself useful scanning dying people for information for the Corps. This experience also takes a toll on him. Once recovered, he is paired by the Corps with a wife, giving us some insight into the Corps’ breeding program. He doesn’t love her, but he stays with her because of his loyalty to the Corps. Bester also works an assignment to Mars.

On Mars he meets Lyta, who assists him with a murder case. He’s also sent to an asteroid for a secret meeting with Director Johnston, who it turns out harbored a severe bias against Bestor. The meeting was arranged to allow the Director to kill Bester and remove what he perceived was a problem within the Corps. Instead, Bester kills him in a staged accident. Along the way we’re introduced to Byron—yes, that Byron—and at the end of the novel, Bester is sent to Babylon 5 to capture Jason Ironheart.

Like the first novel in this trilogy, the second one covers a significant span of years. Even so, it was incredibly readable, held great continuity with the first novel and within itself, and set the stage for what can only be an incredible conclusion in the third and final novel of the set. We’ll suggest to you that these first two books might give you a dizzying view and perspective of Bester than you’ve had before. Our ratings were a 5, 5 and 5 (out of 5), giving us an overall Boom Scale rating of 5. None of us could wait to get the next book started!

Next time we’ll discuss the third and final book in the Psi Corps Trilogy, called Final Reckoning: The Fate of Bester. We have no doubt it will be a powerful and fitting end to the story.

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes. You can email us at [email protected]. We look forward to hearing from you.

This is our fourth movie review of five for your hosts. “Legend of the Rangers: To Live and Die in Starlight” takes place in 2265, between the end of Season 5 (2263) and A Call to Arms (2266). It originally aired on January 19th, 2002 on the Sci Fi Channel. Written by JMS, it was intended to be a pilot for a new series, although it did not go to series due to low ratings.

The consensus from your hosts going in was this may be the least favorite of the movies we’ve looked at. As we’ve seen with other movies in the set, the volume of content in the movie probably warranted an episode-length effort, but it was drawn out to fill the time required of a feature-length film. There was so much promise for some incredible Ranger-focused story, providing real depth to a very interesting character set in the B5 universe. We were a little disappointed. The movie opens with some boom, and with a new ship, a new threat, and a mystery that the Interstellar Alliance has discovered: or perhaps awakened.

The storyline for the movie begins when we see a Ranger (David Martel), who chooses to withdraw and survive a lost battle to fight again another day, being reprimanded and punished for staying alive. At this time in the history of the Rangers, with the Shadow War behind them and so far from a credible interstellar threat, there is emphasis on the Ranger’s motto—an oath—that obligates them to “live for the one, and die for the one.” G’Kar, still a delegate for his world, is present on Minbar and takes the opportunity to add his thoughts (wisdom) to the debate about the Ranger’s fate, resulting in some softer options for how to punish Martel for surviving.

We learn the new ship we saw is called the Valen: a first-of-a-kind cruiser class Ranger vessel, with capabilities different from the White Stars. Another ship is also brought into the story: an old Ranger attack ship called the “Liandra”, supposedly haunted by its former crew who died onboard. As a result of the discussions about Martel’s future, he is detailed to command the old and under-maintained Liandra, along with a small, rag-tag crew. The little bit of background we get about this diverse crew could have been (should have been?) a much more significant and interesting part of the story, but this is one of the places movie fell short. The Liandra and Valen launch on mission to take an Alliance delegation to a secret conference on Beta Durani 7.

They arrive to discover the colony destroyed, and they’re attacked by three vessels sent from a previously unknown entity called The Hand. Both ships end up disabled, the dignitaries are moved to the Liandra (living for the one), and in a heroic effort the Valen is destroyed when it rams one of the threat ships (dying for the one) to allow the survival of the dignitaries.

The last half of the movie revolves around learning more about The Hand, and how to deal with the threat. The Hand appears to be another old race (never mentioned in the original series or other movies) who have arrived from another space (but not Thirdspace)—a place of apparent total darkness. We also learn there’s a traitor onboard the Liandra and among the Alliance ambassadorial delegation, further frustrating the effort to defeat the threat.

When it’s all said and done, The Hand is defeated through a plan involving a minefield, selectively shooting mines, the use of grenades, and a race back to the nearest Jump Gate. When the battle is over, our heroes have destroyed The Hand’s capital ship with 50 grenades, making this whole part of the storyline almost comical. The known universe is saved, and as things begin to wrap up back on Minbar, the Council seems apologetic for its earlier philosophical stubbornness, closing the loop on what may be a more balanced approach to the motto: to live for the one and die for the one; and attempting to make it clear why the movie’s subtitle was “To Live and Die in Starlight”.

Was it hideous? No. Was it good? Not really. There was a lot of promise with what the story was built around, but if the movie was intended to sell someone on the production of a new series, it miserably failed. Frankly, it was surprising to us that it was written by JMS, and left us with the impression the movie may have actually convinced producers that he wasn’t really serious about this concept as a new series.

Please join us next time as we review the final movie of the set: A Call to Arms.

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes. You can email us at...

The next stand-alone novel we read and reviewed is Jim Mortimore’s Clark’s Law. This is the only novel he wrote within the B5 universe, although he has writing credits for novelizations within the Dr. Who universe. The print copy was published by Dell in February 1996, and ran 288 pages. The story takes place in 2259, at the end of Season 2 and occurs between “Comes the Inquisitor” and “The Fall of Night”. sometime prior to “The Coming of Shadows” (Season 2, Episode 9). This book is not considered canon.

Well, we went from liking the previous novel quite a bit to not liking this one at all. Here’s the story: A newly discovered species called the Tuchanq come aboard Babylon 5 and in short order an unfortunate series of events results in several of the Tuchanq losing consciousness. This species never sleeps, but instead gains rest and maintains individual identity through a complex series of songs. What wasn’t known or understood by station inhabitants (including the command team) is that when a Tuchanq loses consciousness, they essentially lose their minds. D’Arc, commits a murder, is rendered unconscious and is left with the mind of an infant or child. The moral discussion that ensues and guides the story is that this “new” creature with no memory or identity related to the one that committed the murder, can not be held responsible for the crime. In a tangential power play, President Clark is trying to bolster his growing dictatorial control of Earth, and uses the incident to to prejudge D’Arc and mandate the death penalty for the crime, showing he’s a strong president and wiling to do what it takes to maintain order and discipline to protect the people and allies of Earth. This sets the stage for the tension of the primary storyline, as Capt Sheridan and his officers struggle with how to handle what’s morally right versus the unjust mandate to execute D’Arc.

In an odd and very unbalanced side story, we are shown a Babylon 5 where significant rioting is occurring while it seems the station officials are either unwilling or unable (or both?) to simply maintain the peace. It’s through this series of events we noticed that almost all the major characters were written inconsistently with those we know from the series. Also unfolding at the same time is the primary side story of G’Kar and Londo, in which G’Kar attempts to brutally murder Londo and then commit ritual suicide. In an incredibly planned and deliberate act, G’Kar stabs Londo brutally, and leaves him to die. The author leaves us with the impression, this was a major decision, but not really a big deal for G’Kar. These weren’t the characters of the TV series. The same was particularly true of Ivanova and Vir, Franklin, and to some extent Sheridan.

The significant events that took place in this novel didn’t come close to fitting into the B5 story arc we all know and love. It was truly as if Mortimore was given basic plot points and the B5 story bible, but he never actually watched an episode of the show. Outside of the specific disconnection of the characters as written, versus the show, none of these very significant events ever manifest in the series: G’Kar’s attempted murder of Londo, the existence of a species called the Tuchanq, many other species also mentioned that we’ve never seen, rioting on the station, a very muted and passive Commander Ivanova, etc.

All the themes we could identify in the book have run through the previous novels. Your hosts presumed that there was probably a master list of themes provided by JMS to all these authors to incorporate into their writing as the specific stories allowed. In Clark’s Law, we saw elements of crime and punishment, deceit and false accusations for political gain, corrupt government (specifically Earth), capital punishment, conflicts of morality and the growing tension between Earth and Mars.

One final note: we all agreed the author appeared to use the novel as an instrument to lecture his readers on his particular views of several of these moral issues, especially capital punishment. He also seemed to take a very odd shot at liberal democracies in general, and arguably the specific form of a federal republic. Well written Science Fiction has always had a significant role in examining social and ethical issues (contentious ones in particular) by placing the issue at the heart of fictional events and writing about them in a way that the reader is outside of the issues. In this case, the author failed to do this. The story was so badly written, he came across as lecturing us with his perspectives rather than letting us work out our own perspectives based on the story.

We unanimously disliked this book. Our ratings were a 1.5, a 0.5, and a 1 (out of 5), giving us an overall Boom Scale rating of 1. We’d never tell someone not to read a book, but this is one we’d warn you away from unless you have nothing better to do.

Please continue reading along an...

Picking up right where Casting Shadows left off, Summoning Light chronicles Galen’s assignment immediately after becoming a Technomage, focusing on the order’s assessments and preparations for the coming Shadow War. Driving the storyline here: the Technomages know their order is a risk of extermination and wrestle with whether to stand and fight (and just how to do that), or to go into hiding and save the order for another day, hopefully in a post-Shadow War universe where they’d be able to operate and remain true to the purpose of their order. The information that drives the ultimate decision, and the most exciting wrinkle revealed in the book: the technology the Technomages rely upon is of Shadow origins! This creates a number of problems. Morally/ethically, the order seems to stand against everything the Shadows stand for. Practically, can the Shadows essentially hijack the Mages’ tech and use them for evil. Related, and finally, with this fact now in the open, can the Mages truly ally with the rest of the universe, operate freely, and even potentially count on working with the Vorlons (the bitter enemies of the Shadows)?

The biggest problem this knowledge creates is a schism among members of the order itself. Many, especially Galen, are more than offended by the members of the Circle, who have known of the origins of their tech and kept it secret. All this while leading an order that explicitly doesn’t keep secrets from itself. Confidence and trust in what is viewed as betrayal leads to uncertainty and some amount of chaos. When the Circle decides the order to go into hiding, some disagree and would rather fight the Shadows, consistent with the Order’s purpose. The Technomages can’t trust their leadership, and to add fuel to the fire, members are actively being engaged and manipulated by the Shadows. If they won’t come to heel, they will destroy them. Through the several months covered by the story, we see Galen maturing as a man and as a Technomage, growing in his understanding and use of the unique power he has (and boy is he powerful!), and he begins to realize his unique place and role in the upcoming war.
One of the major storylines in this book is just how the Technomages orchestrate their movement into hiding. Parts of how this was done were captured in the original Babylon 5 series, Season 2, Episode 3 (Geometry of Shadows). Jeanne Cavelos does a great job of expanding on the little bit we saw, and explaining the Babylon 5 station’s role in the deceit the Mages created to allow themselves to hide the members of the Order.

Summoning Light was written by Jeanne Cavelos. The story takes place immediately following the last book, beginning in January 2259 and covering only a few months. It definitely bridges the gap between the first and third novels in the series, and serves very well to set up the events in the final book, and the final chapter in the story is this aptly-named trilogy “The Passing of the Technomages”.

Our ratings were a 4.5, 5 and 4 (out of 5), giving us an overall Boom Scale rating of 4.5!

Join us next time for the third and final book in the trilogy: Invoking Darkness. As always, we hope you can read along with us, and join in on the conversation!

You can find us at http://www.BabylonProjectPodcast.wordpress.com, on Facebook at The Babylon Project Podcast or on iTunes. You can email us at [email protected]. We look forward to hearing from you.