I know these threads pop up from time to time but until yesterday I never really bothered to pop my head in. My local library has quite a few in stock (the first 10 at least, didn't see the Centauri trilogy though). I was wondering which ones are worth a read, which to avoid, which are JMS sanctioned, etc.
Of the numbered books, 7 and 9 are considered to be almost completely canon. All three trilogies are well worth a read and were written from outlines penned by JMS. My favorites are the Psi Corps trilogy and the Centauri Prime trilogy. Jan
The only one I've read is To Dream in the City of Sorrows, which is written by Mrs JMS and is about Sinclair's time on Minbari Prime, after he left the station. JMS says it can be regarded as canon. I enjoyed it. Can't say if it's better or worse than the rest, but it's highly regarded and if you're checking out B5 novels, I'm sure it's a pretty good place to start.
Most of the first nine books aren't really worth bothering with -- not because they're not canon, but because they're not very good. Few of them get the characters or the feel of the show right. At least with the trilogies you've got stories plotted by JMS and written by people with some familiarity with the series.
Book #7 of the Dell paperbacks "The Shadow Within" was written by Jeanne Cavelos who later wrote the Technomage Trilogy. As I recall (it's been a while) it dealt with the mission that the Icarus was on when it went to Z'ha'dum. Book #9 of the Dell paperbacks "To Dream in the City of Sorrows" was written by Kathryn Drennan (Mrs. JMS) and as Captain Demotion said, deals with Sinclair's time on Minbar. It also covers how Marcus became a Ranger. Jan
Jan has it right. Don't waste your time on any of the other books besides the two numbered novels she's listed (which have been re-released in a non-numbered form) and the three trilogies (of which three of the books are very difficult to find for a reasonable price).
Shadow Within also serves as the prequel to the Mage trilogy. In many ways, it is "The Hobbit" to the Mage's "Lord of the Rings". It's certainly not required reading before the trilogy, but you'll get a whole lot more out of it if you do. They can be read on their own, make no mistake, it's just a better experience if you can read em all. With that all said, avoid book #8 "Personal Agendas" like the fucking plague.
Which 3 are they? Thanks everyone, will go down there after lunch and see if they have those ones in.
The third books in the Legions of Fire and the Psi Corps trilogies are highly priced on the secondary market, and so is one of the Techno Mage books (the second, I think). If you can find the books at the library and have the time, you should read all that sound interesting to you. I loved Personal Agendas and hated the Techno Mage trilogy. I liked the first three numbered books and found the middle three utterly forgettable. We're all going to have different opinions, so take our advice on the content quality with a grain of salt.
I've only read the Centauri trilogy. If your library gets it, I highly recommend it. I found the Psi Corps trilogy at a used bookstore, but I haven't read it yet.
The third book in the Legions of Fire Trilogy (Out of Darkness) is very hard to find, as is the first book in the Techno-mage Trilogy. I've also found the second book in the Techno-mage trilogy to be fairly hard to get ahold of.
I've only read the three trilogies but I thought they were excellent... sounds like it's a good thing I got them when they came out lol!
#1: Technomage Trilogy: the origin of Galen and the Mages set against the backdrop of the Shadow War. Incredibly moving story, and a better depiction of the Shadow War than the tv series ever managed. Classic. #2: Centuari Prime Trilogy: basically the "series finale" of the B5 story showing what happens in the 20 years after the series ended. Has some really touching stuff in it, lots of major events happening. #3: Dream City of Sorrows: great story important to the plot #4: Psi Corps Trilogy: didn't care for the first book but the last two were pretty good. Doesn't really reveal much story/plot wise though its basically the life story of Bester. #5: Shadow Within: I just found this one adequate, it's not particularly epic or anything and has a real filler B-story.
You can still find them on eBay and in half-price bookstores. I have seen quite a few. Do yourself a favor and at least read "The Shadow Within" and "To Dream in the City of Sorrows". Those two really do add to the overall story and appreciation of the series.
I dunno... some of the "non-canonical" Dell novels are at least entertaining reads, and might be worthwhile as slightly alternate-reality versions. JMS has said that most of the Dell novels contain at least some "canon elements." I seem to recall #2-4 -- Accusations, Blood Oath, and Clark's Law -- being fairly interesting, although the latter is a little over-the-top in some ways. The rest are mostly mediocre, fairly typical media tie-in stuff. But Dell #5, The Touch of Your Shadow, the Whisper of Your Name, should be avoided at all costs. It's an incoherent, pointless tale that ignores basic physics (for instance, the people on B5 are able to visually observe an event light-years away in real time). And the title is misleading, since it has absolutely nothing to do with the Shadows.
Agreed. It's a complete and utter travesty (for example, it trivialises the events of "Falling Toward Apotheosis"), to put it extremely politely. Jan and others have mentioned the ones to get. I really need to make time to re-read them.
Well it does tell how the Psi Corps and Underground both formed; and Bester's life; and the final chase of Bester by Garibaldi. I would classify that as story/plot. I thought all three books were well done.
The trilogies prove that B5 could work in literary form. It's a shame that they didn't do more. Unfortunate that Joe couldn't continue Crusade and complete it in novel form.
Clark's Law - though, declaring an interest, the author's a friend so I might be biased - is worth reading, if only as the only one of the Dell books outside of City of Sorrows and Shadow Within that really gets round the big problem those books had: how to do an interesting standalone episodic plot when it was the ongoing story that the readers probably wanted, but couldn't possibly get within the novels (lead times, etc). The first two books went for the obvious, but dull, option of 'Regular castmember gets framed, has to prove innocence.' The third (Blood Oath) just rehashes the 'Assassin after G'kar' episode from early season one. And as Christopher says, book five is near unreadable from what I remember of my one read of it at the time (it's sad that that's the one I've got autographed by Bruce Boxleitner). But Clark's Law has a decent try at being an episode like season one's Believers - it has little or no impact on the big story, but does showcase the sort of ethical and philosophical issues that only Babylon 5 was willing to handle so directly at the time, in terms of TVSF (I was going to explain, but thought better of potential spoilers). I would comment on the other two books from 6-9, but find that without checking wikipedia, I can't remember anything about them, which is probably significant... EDit: Ok, I checked wikipedia, and found something interesting (if it's to be believed), which is that whatever the credit might claim, the fifth book Touch of Your Shadow is actually written by the author of the eighth one, which gets a bit of a slating elsewhere in the thread...