BPP The Passing of the Techno-mages #2: Summoning Light

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!

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