Rating: Summary: Good for Fans Review: If you are not a fan of B5. The book does not stand on its own. If you are a fan, you may enjoy learning the background of the Psi Corp and the genesis of the B5 Universe. That said, the book does little to move the characters forward (it takes place in the past) and in a few places conflicts with things in the TV show. Entertaining, but nothing to write home about.
Rating: Summary: Tries to do too much. Review: I went into this book looking forward to learning more of the history of the Psi Corp, the group I loved to hate from the Babylon 5 TV show. I was disappointed, however. This book covers the birth of the Psi Corp after the discovery of Telepaths on earth. It also covers the resistance movement during the early years. However, it tries to cover too much territory. The action takes place over 100 years and includes a couple generations of characters. As a result, it doesn't appear to be really focused on anything or anyone. It comes across as more of a history then a novel.This book is interesting reading for the Babylon 5 fan, but not an engrossing novel. The other two books in this trilogy do focus the characters and action more, so I hope that when I get a chance to read them I will like them better.
Rating: Summary: The beginning of a wonderfull trilogy Review: The first book in a series of three, that individually are not as good as the hole trilogy they make. The strenght of this particular book is that it spands a century, thus resulting to an epic tale wich enlightens many of the non-resolved aspects of the B5 universe. And perhaps the best thing is that it centers completely on original, new characters. There's no plot, really, but it prepares us for the twists on the two following books. A definite must-read.
Rating: Summary: Very Good Reading Review: This book is really only chapter 1 of the story. It is a bit disjointed, but after the first couple of chapters I figured out the style and was able to flow with the book. You have to read all three to appreciate them. The story is not about Babylon 5, the Earth Mimbari War or the Vorlons and Shadows, it is about Bester. It is in essence a Bester biograghy. Read it!
Rating: Summary: When Good telepath organisations turn Bad Review: I was glad that I read Anne McCaffrey's "To ride Pegasus" before I touched this book, because I would never have been able to put up with it afterwards. Both books are episodic in nature, but Dark Genesis tells a grim story with real human people - and McCaffrey's story is a sweet fairytale by comparison. In fact, I thought that McCaffrey's book read rather like a piece of Psi Corps propaganda. Although Dark Genesis is set in the B5 universe, the characters that we know have not yet been born. It is an excellent book, however.
Rating: Summary: That old unflagging Terran Bigotry Review: We always face the new and unknown with fear masked by hate and rage it seems. In Babylon 5 it manifests itself in the Earth-Minbar war, started by a paranoid Commander spurred by tales of alien conquerers from beyond, curiously enough spread by another alien race, the Centauri. In this work we predate the B5 we know and love by a century and a half. Among us appear telepaths, suddenly and unexpectedly. As science struggles to understand these new Homo Sapiens good old fractious big brother steps in and attempts to calm a populace that was mildly curious at best and slightly nervous at worst. Then the stuff hits the fan. Opportunists spring upon the fanned fears of the people and the telepaths are killed, maimed, or put into concentration camps."Teeptown". Docile, some go for safety's sake. Others, the baddies, the ones who will breed the future are driven off planet to death and worse on the colonies. In the midst..Psi-Corps arises. Set up by committee to ferret out their own kind... Who could blame them? Gathering their kind away from the mundanes. Unknowingly obeying the will of the machinations set up to destroy them. No wonder those of Bester's ilk arose. To us B5 loyalists, a lot of familiar names... and old familiar problems. Our Babylon 5 world fleshes out more back toward our time than ever before. Read this book if you want to know what would happen if telepaths were revealed tomorrow.
Rating: Summary: insight into Psi Corps Review: I was intrigued and disappointed by the telepaths in the Babylong Five television series -- too much about the normals! I snatched up this book as soon as I found it. I was not disappointed. The characters seem believable and the action fast paced. Leaves you wanting more.
Rating: Summary: Seems like his outline was overly broad Review: The book covers a huge swath in time and a great many characters. Unfortunately, I found it hard to focus on any aspect of the story line because of this. The writing shows some workmanship, but I never got the impression that he really took ownershup of his subject. Don't be fooled by the book cover, either, there's only the tiniest bit of the Bester character in this one.
Rating: Summary: A good book Review: After reading (and enjoying) this book, I realised that it should not be judged in relation to the TV show. It is canon, as are most of the Babylon 5 books, but it does not somehow completly click together with the TV show, and the arcs in it. The telepath arc here is far too Earth-tied to do that. But as a book itself, it is very good. We get to see what happened since the beginning of the telepaths, through the arrival of the Centauri and so on, up until the birth of (SPOILER). We see brilliant political machinations, ancestors of telepaths in the show (Lyta Alexander, Talia Winters), and how the Psi Corps slowly gets more and more power. We also get well thought out characters, and most of them are not what they seem, although I felt that some stories were rushed. I would say that this book is worth buying by Babylon fans, especially if they like the telepaths stories. Those who prefer space battles/aliens/wars should maybe look for it at a friend's house.
Rating: Summary: A gripping start. Review: An in-depth look at how Telepaths came to "appear" on Earth and a somewhat controversial background on the development and rise of the Psi Corps. The book lacked the development of some of the characters, but it was necessary to move the story along. There were a few hidden agendas ala Bester, I might add. Overall, this is a wonderfully, well-written book. The one thing that was not covered was the method used to rate the telepaths. It would have been interesting to see where they drew the line in telepathic abilities to classify the 'P' rating (P1 - P12 or higher). It didn't stop me from reading the trilogy twice so far, and I have begun reading this book a third time. This is an interesting and engaging Trilogy. I highly recommend this book.
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