Rating: 
Summary: There is a hole in your book.
Review: Let me start out by saying that I think this was a good book and a pretty fast read. I does answer questions about Bester.But what me and everyone else is saying that we are missing a good 10 years between 2262 and 2272 when the book takes place. God people should know not to let JMS out line endings because he just doesn't know how to wrap things up.
Rating: 
Summary: Wonderfully crafted, engaging story.
Review: Those who have complained about the questions left unanswered need to realize that this isn't the end. There is no limit to the books that can be written about B5 and its universe, and I would encourage you to stop trying to force the books to conform to your expectations and enjoy the content offered to you. You may not learn about the Telepath war in this book, but you might in another. I'd rather have the detail than skim over the story for the sake of including more. I really enjoyed the characterization of Bester (as I have throughout the trilogy), and the ethical questions he pondered in this final chapter of his life. Keyes and JMS raise several pertinent questions that affect our society even today...and that show us the blindness we sometimes afflict ourselves with. A wonderful book, thought-provoking and full of the philosophical content we've come to know and love in the B5 universe. A good read, I recommend it heartily.
Rating:
Summary: The End of a Legacy . . .
Review: First off, this book was great. I think it was a good ending to the Alfred Bester Legacy. It was just so great, you really got to know Bester, feel for him. Some parts of the storyline were just downright funny, I mean, a book critic? Though some of the other reviews do sound like Bester's own . . . what does that mean? Oh well, I don't know. All I know is that I walked away feeling complete. The first book is about the birth of the Corps. The second about it's maturity and the beginnings of Bester. The third about the last of the man you love to hate, B5's own Q, good ol' Al Bester, Psi-Cop extrordinaire.
Rating: 
Summary: Fundamentally disappointing
Review: I waited eagerly for this book, because, based on the sweeping scope of the first two, I thought Babylon 5 might appear and we might gain further insight into the Telepath War. Apparently that is still being held back for a feature film, and we are given virtually no picture of the changes in society (beyond the fact that telepaths no longer wear gloves). The story focuses only on a few months in Bester's life, in Paris, where he attempts to cover his tracks, falls in love, and writes a book review column....Fair enough, although given the brief length, small scope, and essentially non-dramatic events, this book seems more like an epilogue to the second volume which portrayed Bester's early life exhaustively. Lyta gets two or three mentions which are so small and frustrating it would have been better if she'd never been alluded to. Garibaldi has a token appearance, but his character is fundamentally disappointing. Worst of all, Bester's ability to go underground and keep the secret of who he really is depend on a flawed premise. Although Bester's genetic code is on file, his parent's supposedly aren't, because (so J. Michael Straczynski has recently said on-line) they weren't part of Psi Corps -- although his parents were both held by the Corps, and at one point in the first book there is a specific reference to his mother's genetic code being registered for breeding purposes. Buy the second book, read the first one, but ignore this one.
Rating: 
Summary: Too many unanswered question
Review: In the first two books of the Psi-Corps trilogy, we received background information on the Psi-Corps and Bester in the time preceding the Babylon 5 TV Series. At the conclusion of the Babylon 5 series, there were several questions about Talia, Lyta, and the forthcoming telepath war. Rather than give us the details of the telepath war or Lyta's role or what actually happened to Talia, the book begins after what would have been the conclusion of Crusade if that series had had its full run. It tells us the story of Bester on the lam as a war criminal with a little bit of Garibaldi's hunt for him. It adds little to the insight into Bester that we already had from the second book and the TV series. In short, this book should have been condensed and made into a second part to a book in which the first part (like substantial parts of the first book) would have focused on the rogue telepaths and the struggle in the telepath war. In the end, Gregory Keyes and J. Michael Strzynski continue to short change Lyta Alexander and their audience. We can only hope that the Centauri Prime series will answer these questions left by the series: 1) Why is Centauri Prime in flames 18 years after the end of the series? 2) How did G'Kar get there? 3) What has G'Kar been doing? 4) How did Delenn and Sheridan get there? 5) What happened to the keeper intended for David Sheridan? and finally 6) How are the Draak removed from Centauri Prime? Clearly the only questions left from the series answered in this book were 1) Was Garibaldi's block removed (but we still don't know how or when) and 2) What happened to Bester. Unfortunately, there were many more questions raised by the series and Crusade about telepaths which are left unaswered.
Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Conclusion To This Series Strand
Review: I'm afraid I must disgree with the negative reviews of this book. I liked the way that Keyes depicted Bester on the run, and embittered at the telepath schism, although I see Keyes does end up resolving Lyta's fate. Keyes does an excellent job when he depicts an outcast who is fleeing from the consequences of his actions before and during the series. Quite frankly, I am afraid that this is a far worthier successor to B5 than Crusade, although TNT is to blame for that, not JMS. Only the ending was a little flat-after all this, Bester dies in his sleep? Still, Keyes has done a masterful job of characterisation here.
Rating:
Summary: Engaging, but not the B5 you know and love
Review: I'd read the first two installments in the Psi-Corp trilogy only because I wanted to be able to read the third, knowing (or rather, assuming) that it would deal with Bester and Garibaldi. Those first two novels are among the better media tie-ins I've read, and I was looking forward to reading "Final Reckoning". When all was said and done, however, the third book left me a bit wanting. Hints are made at what exactly happened during the telepath "crisis", allusions are made to other characters we know from the series and what they're up to (or not), but nothing is explicitly stated, not even when you'd think it would be somewhat related to what's going on in the book itself. Keyes sets most of the novel within the confines of Paris, and while it was nice to get away from space for awhile, I found I did miss it. After all, this is B5 we're dealing with here, and the novel ends up more caper than sci-fi. Still, the book ends quite well, not as I expected, but I have no regrets reading it.
Rating:
Summary: Reads just like B5 felt
Review: What can I say I hated it and loved it because it was everything I have come to expect from B5. It bothered me because: 1) I can't hate Bester like I used to, 2) Bester is probably right in his final speech and his references to another telepath war to come, 3) the identity of the baby statue will ironically forever remain a mystery (likely), and 4) his life and ideas will live on in his memoirs. Also who knows how many people are still walking around that were affected by him. A good read but creepy stuff. I loved it because it made me think and was unexpected and fresh. Read it, read it now.
Rating:
Summary: Zahn and Keyes; The Best in TV Show Based Novels [SPOILERS]
Review: I think we can all agree that J. Gregory Keyes is the Timothy Zahn of Babylon 5 Novels. Along with the knowledge of Bester from the television show, he made Bester an enemy a man that you could love, and a man that you could hate. I paused for at least a few minutes when the fate of his beloved Carylon was revealed. I felt as if I wanted to aid Garibaldi, but defend Bester when ever I could. The ever secretive hints of the *Crusade* for the Drakh plague kept me deep inside the book, I kept reading on and on. Buy it! If you want the best in Babylon 5 books, this is it!
Rating:
Summary: "why should I review something I like?" ~Bester
Review: But for you who require the extra push to read this book, I offer the following. J. Gregory Keyes has woven a tapesty of dichotomous themes; pain/happyness, fear/hope, trust/betrayal, truth/lies, apathy, hate and love. Through this account he causes the examination of life, redemption and our own warped sense of history. I was surprised by the emotions this story invoked in me. In Babylon 5 Bester was seen as a true Machiavelli, hated and admired for his wit and cunning. Garibaldi was a no-nonsense, get it done some how guy. But are they not the same? In 257 pages Keyes has over turned what was thought to be the near black and white roles of Bester and Garibaldi. Keyes, unlike many authors writing from other peoples plots, has kept continuity in the charicters, while opening a window into those parst of these men normally kept hidden. I feel I have found a new friend and confidant. By whatever name Bester uses he is wise, loyal and the best. While Garibaldi, like all fish, has acquired a stench. However you feel at the end of this book I'm sure you will agree with Mr. Bester, "We can cut away chaff, but we can't improve the quality of genious in a good writer . . ." NOTE: When you get to the end DO NOT read the excerpt right then. Come back to it later. All quotes are from the novel
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