David Newgreen (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
4thofeleven) wrote2009-10-04 10:24 pm
4thofeleven) wrote2009-10-04 10:24 pm
Rereading B5 Books - "Voices"
Over at the b5_revisited community, the Centauri trilogy of novels came up in a recent discussion, and it reminded me that I haven’t re-read any of the B5 novels I own in a while. That’s understandable, most of them aren’t very good – still, I thought I’d dig them out and give them a look once again.
I find tie-in novels written while the series was still on the air fascinating; there’s generally not much literary value in novels produced as merchandise for an incomplete series, but there’s something interesting about seeing what elements of the show were considered important by other authors at such an early date.
John Vornholt’s “Voices” was written very early in the second season of B5 – Sheridan is kept very much in the background, and I strongly suspect Vornholt hadn’t had the chance to see any episodes with the character. Interestingly, this book brings back Bester, who at this point had only appeared once, and he’s surprisingly well characterised considering how little screen time the character had received at this point; he’s already demonstrating razor-sharp perception and an odd sense of humour, and actually sometimes feels more like the Bester of the later series than the Bester of season two’s “Race Through Dark Places”. Also making appearances are Harriman Grey from “Eyes” and Deuce from “Grail” – I wonder, did Vornholt bring back these characters because he thought they’d be important, or because he thought they were safe characters to play around with who wouldn’t be returning in the series proper? If the latter, I guess two out of three’s not bad.
A decent chunk of the story is devoted to the Psi-Corps, and there’s an odd bit of unintentional foreshadowing for season four, as Garibaldi uncovers a plot against the Corps only to have Bester show up at the last minute to take care of things in his own ruthless fashion. There’s an interesting storyline here that would have been fun to see developed a little on the show; the Psi-Corps presented here is not a unified force – the commercial wing is quietly trying to seize power from the military and Psi-Cops.
Particularly nicely characterised in Garibaldi, as an element of his character is dealt with that was somewhat ignored in the series itself; that Babylon 5 is really his last chance, and one he only got because of his friendship with Sinclair. It’s mentioned several times here how surprised he was that Sheridan kept him on and that he’s extremely careful around Sheridan not to do or say anything that would make him reconsider.
One minor world-building detail I enjoyed – the novel has a few minor scenes involving “Bilagaani”, white Americans who’ve adopted a sort of reconstructed Native American culture as their own – and who aren’t particularly respected by actual Navajo. It’s a cute idea, and it’s nice to see new cultures and sub-cultures that have emerged on Earth between our time and the twenty-third century.
Nitpicking, there are quite a few continuity gaffes that should have been caught. Vornholt seems to have been under the impression that telepaths can’t read the thoughts of non-humans - not sure where that came from, considering Lyta scans a Vorlon in the pilot! Also, he seems to have gotten the Kelvin and Celsius scales mixed up at some point; at least I hope he didn’t mean for Mars to be more than three hundred degrees Celsius!
More significant to the plot, Vornholt either forgot or was unaware that telepaths are normally raised by the Corps – this was established as early as “Midnight on the Firing Line”. Talia should not have an uncle on Mars; at least, not one she knows of or thinks of as ‘family’. Not sure how this slipped through; the portrayal of the Corps elsewhere in the novel is actually not to bad considering how little information existed at this point in the series.
As a whole, the book was a lot more enjoyable than I remembered; the writing’s pretty rushed in places, and I think it’s obvious this was rushed out to get something on the shelves. Still, the story largely holds together and flows fairly well, and Bester’s well handled.
I find tie-in novels written while the series was still on the air fascinating; there’s generally not much literary value in novels produced as merchandise for an incomplete series, but there’s something interesting about seeing what elements of the show were considered important by other authors at such an early date.
John Vornholt’s “Voices” was written very early in the second season of B5 – Sheridan is kept very much in the background, and I strongly suspect Vornholt hadn’t had the chance to see any episodes with the character. Interestingly, this book brings back Bester, who at this point had only appeared once, and he’s surprisingly well characterised considering how little screen time the character had received at this point; he’s already demonstrating razor-sharp perception and an odd sense of humour, and actually sometimes feels more like the Bester of the later series than the Bester of season two’s “Race Through Dark Places”. Also making appearances are Harriman Grey from “Eyes” and Deuce from “Grail” – I wonder, did Vornholt bring back these characters because he thought they’d be important, or because he thought they were safe characters to play around with who wouldn’t be returning in the series proper? If the latter, I guess two out of three’s not bad.
A decent chunk of the story is devoted to the Psi-Corps, and there’s an odd bit of unintentional foreshadowing for season four, as Garibaldi uncovers a plot against the Corps only to have Bester show up at the last minute to take care of things in his own ruthless fashion. There’s an interesting storyline here that would have been fun to see developed a little on the show; the Psi-Corps presented here is not a unified force – the commercial wing is quietly trying to seize power from the military and Psi-Cops.
Particularly nicely characterised in Garibaldi, as an element of his character is dealt with that was somewhat ignored in the series itself; that Babylon 5 is really his last chance, and one he only got because of his friendship with Sinclair. It’s mentioned several times here how surprised he was that Sheridan kept him on and that he’s extremely careful around Sheridan not to do or say anything that would make him reconsider.
One minor world-building detail I enjoyed – the novel has a few minor scenes involving “Bilagaani”, white Americans who’ve adopted a sort of reconstructed Native American culture as their own – and who aren’t particularly respected by actual Navajo. It’s a cute idea, and it’s nice to see new cultures and sub-cultures that have emerged on Earth between our time and the twenty-third century.
Nitpicking, there are quite a few continuity gaffes that should have been caught. Vornholt seems to have been under the impression that telepaths can’t read the thoughts of non-humans - not sure where that came from, considering Lyta scans a Vorlon in the pilot! Also, he seems to have gotten the Kelvin and Celsius scales mixed up at some point; at least I hope he didn’t mean for Mars to be more than three hundred degrees Celsius!
More significant to the plot, Vornholt either forgot or was unaware that telepaths are normally raised by the Corps – this was established as early as “Midnight on the Firing Line”. Talia should not have an uncle on Mars; at least, not one she knows of or thinks of as ‘family’. Not sure how this slipped through; the portrayal of the Corps elsewhere in the novel is actually not to bad considering how little information existed at this point in the series.
As a whole, the book was a lot more enjoyable than I remembered; the writing’s pretty rushed in places, and I think it’s obvious this was rushed out to get something on the shelves. Still, the story largely holds together and flows fairly well, and Bester’s well handled.
no subject
IIRC the usenet discussion of this book, he knew it was either hot or cold and checking would have been too hard so he just guessed.
This is the book where we learn space ships have emergency brakes the passengers can pull, right?
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no subject
*flips through book again*
...yes. I think I'd mentally moved that scene to being on a station monorail going to the docking bay, not on a transport itself.
This is why I don't read books on the bus when I actually care about the details...