ATTN JMS: New B5 book
Joe Biles
think) called the Babylon 5 Omnibus I. It says it is written by J. Vornholt
and L. Tilton. Would this be a collection of the 1st three Dell novels?
What do you know about this, and will the rest of the novels be republished
also? And will this sell in the US as well? And will we ever get the B5
cookbook?
Okay, too many questions. You'd probably better keep working on that new
major network project with the mystery producer.
Joe Biles
Jms at B5
>think) called the Babylon 5 Omnibus I. It says it is written by J. Vornholt
>and L. Tilton. Would this be a collection of the 1st three Dell novels?
Yep. Don't know if they'll be doing any more.
jms
(jms...@aol.com)
B5 Official Fan Club at:
http://www.thestation.com
Gharlane of Eddore
>
> Noticed that there will be a new B5 book coming out in the UK in
> November(I think) called the Babylon 5 Omnibus I.
> It says it is written by J. Vornholt and L. Tilton.
> Would this be a collection of the 1st three Dell novels?
>
In <19990826013228...@ng-ck1.aol.com> jms...@aol.com (Jms at B5) writes:
>
> Yep. Don't know if they'll be doing any more.
>
I'd expect not, not after the potential future customers get a good look
at the first three.
Simo Aaltonen
>I'd expect not, not after the potential future customers get a good look
>at the first three.
(There to be more novel omnibuses.)
Actually, it is possible to get a decent amount of enjoyment even from the
weaker B5 novels. That's what I think, anyway. But can someone explain
to me why Pocket Books thinks stand-alone ST novels are not such a good
idea anymore? Have they lost all their good writers (and there were
plenty of them writing the things in the past) and are now having to
resort to tricks like stupid, endless, unimaginative crossovers?
Fortunately, B5 books have gotten better and better.
-Simo Aaltonen
Curt
Simo Aaltonen wrote:
>
> On 28 Aug 1999 13:33:58 -0600, Gharlane of Eddore wrote:
> >I'd expect not, not after the potential future customers get a good look
> >at the first three.
>
> (There to be more novel omnibuses.)
>
> Actually, it is possible to get a decent amount of enjoyment even from the
> weaker B5 novels. That's what I think, anyway. But can someone explain
> to me why Pocket Books thinks stand-alone ST novels are not such a good
> idea anymore? Have they lost all their good writers (and there were
> plenty of them writing the things in the past) and are now having to
> resort to tricks like stupid, endless, unimaginative crossovers?
They just rereleased the John M Ford books as a series.
(Worlds Apart - Final Reflection and How Much For Just The Planet)
Of course they were written when no book should reference anything else that
happened in another book. Based on the descriptions I suspect that
they don't have much in common. PAD had mentioned at some point
not being allowed to reuse characters although he did sneak in the
half Human Klingon character from his Trek comics into one of the
ST:TNG novels.
I think that this is more evidence of the B5 arc mentality being
absorbed into the Trek Universe. They just veered from one extreme
to the other. I don't mind ST:TNG, ST:DS9 and ST:New Frontiers meandering
through each other's novels but ST:VGR and ST:TOS are just too much of
a stretch. Of course if the history of the PSI-CORPS and Centari
novels sell well we may finally get a Trek history series to fill in
before Captain Pike.
Curt
Clay1018
>novels sell well we may finally get a Trek history series to fill in
>before Captain Pike.
>
It's already here. At the end of every new Trek novel for the last two
months has been a serialized novel by Michael Jan Friedman called "Starfleet:
Year One." Of course, right now you have to buy all the ST books, regardless
of series, to get all the chapters; but I won't be too stunned if Pocket makes
the whole thing available in a "Classic Collector's edition" or some such when
the whole thing is finished.
Now if only jms could get a share in the profits from all the ideas Trek
has appropriated....
James Stutts
Clay1018 wrote in message <19990908232031...@ng-ck1.aol.com>...
>>Of course if the history of the PSI-CORPS and Centari
>>novels sell well we may finally get a Trek history series to fill in
>>before Captain Pike.
>>
<snip>
> Now if only jms could get a share in the profits from all the ideas
Trek
>has appropriated....
>
Following that logic, JMS will then have to pay for all the ideas he
appropriated from
others. There are very few original story ideas.
JCS
Clay1018
>>>novels sell well we may finally get a Trek history series to fill in
>>>before Captain Pike.
>>>
>
><snip>
>
>> Now if only jms could get a share in the profits from all the ideas
>Trek
>>has appropriated....
>>
>
>Following that logic, JMS will then have to pay for all the ideas he
>appropriated from
>others. There are very few original story ideas.
>
>JCS
>
*sigh* No kidding. I had hoped it would be clear that my comment was a joke,
with specific reference to the increasing debt recent "Trek" has owed to B5.
Of course there are few original ideas; but if we have to take this issue
seriously, well...as jms has so often stated, people are constantly asking him
if "Babylon 5" was LoTR/Arthurian myth/etc. with the numbers filed off. It's
also been fairly well established that Paramount did not announce plans for a
station-bound series until after B5 had been pitched to them, and indeed that
DS9 did not establish an "arc" format until after B5's arc had been proven
successful. I don't think anyone, jms included, would tell you that there
aren't elements of B5, or come to that any of Straczynski's other works, that
aren't in some way *like* something else, written by someone else. But the
similarities between recent Star Trek and certain elements of Babylon 5 are
difficult to ignore unless one is determined not to see them.
Look, I'm a fan of "Star Trek," and have been for years, although admittedly
less so since "Trek" has become such a cash cow for Paramount to exploit; "Star
Trek" hasn't been about the story for a long time, the quality of various
installments during this period notwithstanding. Hell, the first episode I saw
of "Crusade" led to me to think at the time that it was the best episode of
"Star Trek" I'd seen since the original series. Does that mean I think jms
decided to do a ripoff? Of course not. But he *did* reuse the basic setting
-- a starship show, with a crew who were Out Looking For Things -- in a new
way, with ideas and concepts that were clearly his own. By contrast, though, I
find the recent B5-esque (oh, look, a new adjective) elements of "Star Trek" to
be far less original and far more derivative, if not necessarily outright
plagiaristic. So no, if we're being literal, I don't think jms should get a
cut of the profits from, say, the novelization of the last DS9 episode. But
just because "there are very few original story ideas" doesn't mean there isn't
an extreme lack of originality among the increasingly complacent writing staff
of "Star Trek."
"Of course, that's just my opinion...I could be wrong."
Budmayes
of the bibles for Starblazers and Crusade might make you wonder. I posted the
below a while back.
Forgive me if this has been noted before. I hadn't seen it commented on in any
post heading's from the last month or so, so I thought that I would ask.
For awhile now something has seemed to be very familiar about Crusade's format,
but I couldn't figure it out. Then it came to me. "The main gun"- the ship
looses all power when they fire the main gun. And then I remembered
"Starblazers".
For those of you who never saw it, "Starblazers" was an half hour animated
series from around 1980 or 81. In it Earth was underattack by an alien race,
the Gamalon's, bombarding it with "meteorites" or some kind of bombs, killing
the ecosphere. Earth was going to be unlivable in one years time. Earth's
military, the Starforce, recieved a message from Queen Starsha of Iskandar. The
message offered the Starforce the means to save the Earth, but they had to come
and get it. Starsha could not come to them. To help the Starforce, Starsha sent
them the plans to a super battleship. In desperation, Starforce builds the
ship, using the hulk of an old sea navy destroyer as the frame for the ship.
It's main weapon is the wave motion gun, a super weapon powerful enough to take
out an entire fleet. However, it also drains the ship of all energy leaving it
vulnerable. A crew is chosen of varied and unusual characters and the ship
leaves on it's mission. To get to Iskandar and back to Earth within one years
time, fighting the Gamalons and various other menaces. To save Earth.
This show was not your typical children's fare. It was based on the
Japanimation show 'Battlecruiser Yamamoto". It was serious in tone with
occasional comedic elements. It also had a beginning , a middle and an end
covering about 26 or so episodes. Also two sequels of similar number and style.
Iain Rae
> ship, using the hulk of an old sea navy destroyer as the frame for the ship.
<nitpick> if it's the series I'm thinking of I'd hesitate at calling the
worlds largest Battleship an "old sea navy destroyer" though if it were
for an American audience they might draw the line at having the INS
Yamato as the saviour of the earth :)