Del Rey, 2001, $6.50, ISBN 0-345-42721-1, 336 pages, paperback

I though Babylon 5 was a pretty good TV show, but then again, I enjoy science fiction. However, just about every book that extends a series is “milled”--a deadline-driven, slapdash, half effort that reduces the craft of writing to piecework processing. Think not?

I met someone who writes Star Trek novels--three books a year contract done in two months. I’m not saying there’s not an idea or two tucked away inside, or that there isn’t a good turn of a phrase from time to time. But by and large, originality and style are less important than churning out copy.

In any case, I rarely purchase such novels at book stores, but I do make exceptions at flea markets and used book sales. Thus, I picked up this B5 book for 50 cents. And it’s not bad.

That’s a shock. A community of technology-enhanced people who manipulate matter sit around the B5 universe and gather knowledge. Only there’s the big war coming and they have to choose sides. The book follows a young apprentice mage as he becomes an initiate mage and goes off on a quest for knowledge, all the while in contention with the strictures of the Techno-mage Code.

It’s all well-arranged and it’s nicely interwoven with my dim memories of the TV show. It is one of the very few that kept me interested throughout the book. As I said, it was a surprise and a pleasant one at that.

Cavelos, Jeanne: Babylon 5: The Passing of the Techno-Mages Book I: Casting Shadows
Cavelos, Jeanne: Babylon 5: The Passing of the Techno-Mages Book II: Summoning Light
Cavelos, Jeanne: Babylon 5: The Passing of the Techno-Mages Book III: Invoking Darkness

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