| Title: | Boom Today |
| Notice: | Have the Shadows returned to Z'ha'dum ? |
| Moderator: | HIPS::WATSON |
| Created: | Thu Oct 27 1994 |
| Last Modified: | Wed Jun 04 1997 |
| Last Successful Update: | Fri Jun 06 1997 |
| Number of topics: | 182 |
| Total number of notes: | 2948 |
Hmm, couldn't find a separate title for B5 books, so...
Just finished "The Shadow Within" by Jeane Cavelos. The general
consensus around the net has been that this is the best B5 book
to date. I think I have to agree (having read all the others too...)
The other books have all been in the B5 universe, and take place
mostly on B5, but they have that somewhat contrived feel about them.
"Let's take a major character, totally destroy their lives so
they have to leave B5, but then clear everything up by the end
so it doesn't violate the fact that they are still on the show."
"Voices" does it to Talia, and a bit to Bester; "Accusations"
does it to Ivanova; "Blood Oath" to G'Kar. The next three just
go into various nefarious or violent things happening on the
station, everything back to normal by the end. Lots of our
favorite characters are stabbed or hurt or thrown into threatening
situations, but not quite as badly as the first three.
But "The Shadow Within" takes a different tack. It follows Anna
Sheridan to Z'Ha'Dum and details what happens there. It weaves
back and forth with what John Sheridan was doing at the time,
taking over as Captain of the Agamemnon, and the difficulties
he had. There is only a slight tie in to B5 itself, which touches
with Captain Sheridan's trouble whipping his crew into shape
as some resist his taking over the Agamemnon. We do get brief
glimpses of Sinclair, Garibaldi, Delenn, and Kosh, but all of
that probably covers only 10 or so pages in the book. What we
do get to see a lot of are Anna, Morden, and John (not together!).
While some of the other books seemed too far gone to seem all
that plausible, this one seems to have hit the right note, and
all the stuff that happens with Anna on the Icarus has been
deemed as canon by JMS. We even get to feel a little sympathetic
towards Morden! From what I could gather, this is Cavelos's first
book, but it was rather well done.
For those in the ZKO region, I saw a bunch of these over in Walden
Book's in the Pheasant Lane Mall. They didn't have any in Barnes
and Noble last Friday, but that may have changed by now...
PeterT
| T.R | Title | User | Personal Name | Date | Lines |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 182.1 | Jeanne Cavelos | STAR::JCROWLEY | Do You Think I'm Spooky? | Tue Apr 08 1997 21:26 | 28 |
If anyone is interested, Jeanne Cavelos will be at RebelCon
August 8-10 at the Holiday Inn in Taunton, MA. She has also
made some appearances at some NE bookstores.
So if you want to get your book signed... :-)
Some bits taken from the Ed Wasser (Morden) Fan Club Newsletter:
- in addition to being an author, Jeanne Cavelos runs Jeanne Cavelos
Editorial Services, a full-service freelance company offering editing,
revising, ghostwriting, and consulting services to publishes, book
packagers, agents and authors. She has freelance edited all B5 novels
to date, except her own.
- Jeanne Cavelos is also a teacher. She is the director and primary
instructor for Odyssey, the annual 6 week summer writing workshop for
writers of fantasy, science fiction, and horror held at New Hampshire
College.
- Jeanne Cavelos is a resident of NH (moved here 2 years ago) and has an
MFA in creative writing and a BS in astrophysics and mathematics and
worked for NASA at one time.
- Being a fan of the show herself, she was responsible for the B5 novels
to become reality. She was a senior editor at Dell Publishing at the
time and approached JMS with the concept. Her pitch to the "blank face"
response of the editorial board at Dell, "These books will sell just like
Star Trek!" They gave the okay.
| |||||
| 182.2 | RIOT01::SUMMERFIELD | Sic Transit Gloria Mundi | Wed Apr 09 1997 11:54 | 7 | |
re .182
>> She has freelance edited all B5 novels to date, except her own.
Not something I'd be very proud to admit to.
Clive
| |||||
| 182.3 | more books and articles... | QUARRY::petert | rigidly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty | Mon Apr 14 1997 23:32 | 12 |
I was just at Barnes&Noble in Nashua, NH, and I noticed Babylon 5, book 8 was out. Now I forget the title, but I'm searching on the Lurker's Guide for it. It is about G'Kar during the time he was held captive on Centauri Prime, with Londo and Vir as the other main characters, apparently. Ok, got it now: Personal Agendas by Al Sarrantonio. Decided to wait a bit till the cash flow situation calmed down a little. Also noticed the A to Z Guide to Babylon 5, and that SF Universe, has an article along the lines of "Star Trek vs. Babylon 5". Silly title, but the article looked somewhat interesting, and each star (Boxlietner, Furlan, etc) has a separate page dedicated to them. PeterT | |||||
| 182.4 | RIOT01::SUMMERFIELD | Sic Transit Gloria Mundi | Tue Apr 15 1997 14:35 | 6 | |
re .3
From what I've read in rastb5m, I'd avoid Personal Agendas like the
plague. If you've read The Shadow Within, don't expect similar quality.
Clive
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| 182.5 | The Shadow Within | STAR::JCROWLEY | Do You Think I'm Spooky? | Tue Apr 29 1997 17:50 | 6 |
According to JMS, the best books out of the series is #7 and #9 (not yet released). FYI - Jeanne Cavelos will be at Rebelcon August 8-10 and will also be at Barnes and Nobel in Nashua on June 12 at 8:30pm I think. | |||||