Q: B5 books

Chris Abbey

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Jul 23, 1996, 3:00:00 AM7/23/96

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Has anyone read all six books? or at least a majority
of them? I was wondering if they need to be read in
numerical order, or doesn't it matter? and does any
one know where (or rather, when) they fit into the
tele series?

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Annemarie Taylor

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Jul 24, 1996, 3:00:00 AM7/24/96

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Chris Abbey <cab...@vv.cta.com> wrote:

>Has anyone read all six books? or at least a majority
>of them? I was wondering if they need to be read in
>numerical order, or doesn't it matter? and does any
>one know where (or rather, when) they fit into the
>tele series?

I have read all 6 books. You don't need to read them in order, each
book stands alone fine. On one of the front pages of each book, it
tells you when each book fits into the series.

IMHO I would read book 6 (Betrayals) first. Why you ask? Because it
is the best book written so far, it reads more like the series than
any of the others. The characters stay more in character. I read a
great review of Voices from the Babylon 5 Review list which did a
great job explaining how Talia was totally out of character in that
book. I have to agree with the author of the review, Talia's
charactorization in the book was not the Talia of the TV series.

I know that it is very difficult for a writer to take on a story that
another person has started, BOTOH, they have the series on TV
currently and can watch a few episodes to find out about the
characters and how they interact etc. S. M. Sterling has obviously
done his homework. Many people have nitpicked about some of the
things that were incorrect in the book (such as Ivonova's name) but at
least it appears that he knows the characters and writes more like JMS
than the rest of the author's have. I hope that he writes another
book, because he does such a great job with them.
ataylor

Lawrence King

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Jul 26, 1996, 3:00:00 AM7/26/96

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Chris Abbey < cab...@vv.cta.com > writes:

|> Has anyone read all six books? or at least a majority
|> of them? I was wondering if they need to be read in
|> numerical order, or doesn't it matter? and does any
|> one know where (or rather, when) they fit into the
|> tele series?

CLARK'S LAW (4) and BETRAYALS (6) are the only particularly
good ones. If you must read television-based SF books, I'd choose
those two.

Check out the B5 Chronology at
http://www.math.washington.edu/~lking/b-five.html
to see where the books fit in the timeline of the show.

(Note that the info on the start of the Earth-Minbari War in CLARK'S LAW
has been superseded by the info in A LATE DELIVERY FROM AVALON.)

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