Rating: 
Summary: Too much, too quick, too sloppy
Review: As a bigtime Babylon 5 fan, I was eagerly awaiting this book. Guess I shouldn't be surprised that it feel victim to Sturgeon's law, that 90% of all media SF is crud. The major problem with the book is that it hops through time, with no consideration towards the readers. It would be nice to be told the date, instead of just having a character suddenly get really old. Major events are skipped over, characters switch names so as to make it impossible to keep track of them. There's little description, so keeping minor characters set is next to impossible. Major characters are just hard to keep track of. I mean, who the hell can keep track when you've got Blodo and Larry and Ms. Alexander and Monkey and Mick Foley and Dude Love alll over the place. Put basically, it staggers like an epilectic who just suffered a severe electric shock. I look forward to B5 books that maintain the great storytelling quality that the show is renowned for. I just won't hold my breath.
Rating: 
Summary: Would make both Besters proud
Review: I went into this book with high expectations. Sure, it is a tv tie-in, but it's Babylon 5 and JMS has really clamped down on the book series recently. I was not dissapointed. This book created characters filled with hidden agendas, turmoil and divided loyalties galore. The small touches added a lot too. I know I'll be saying "abacus" in conversations for quite a while. As a huge fan of Alfred Bester's the Demolished Man I appreciated the respect the author showed to this great novel. In the end, the book is almost an homage to Bester's legacy; something truly worthy of JMS. I highly recommend this book to not only Babylon 5 fans but fans of good fiction in general.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent addition to the B5 canon.
Review: Since becoming a B5 fan, I've only read two fictional books based off the series, "The Shadow Within" and "To Dream in the City of Sorrow." Both were great books in my opinion, but this blows them away! A very dramatic telling of the birth of the Psi Corps. What I liked most, though, was the feel of the book. It is a B5 book, but it gives off a vibe that is only slightly fimiliar to that of the Babylon 5 universe. Some might complain, but I think it adds wonderfully to it's realism. This isn't the same time as the current B5 plotline, and this vibe I'm talking about seems like an "inbetween point" that links our time with that of B5's. Appropriete, givin the fact that it takes place a hundred years in our future and B5's past. A wonderful read, I recommend it fully. Enjoy!
Rating: 
Summary: "Dark Genesis": Quality Brain Candy
Review: Media tie-in books are, to me, to be avoided at the expense of all other considerations. They are universally terribly written and fail to capture the appeal of the source material (assuming, of course, that said material is any good in the first place). Then came "Dark Genesis." Amazingly enough, the book is actually entertaining--quite a feat unto itself. But it manages to do justice to the immensity of the "B5" canvas and provides a socio-political scenario that--if lacking the intellectual rigor and imagination of true SF--at least rings true as being something more than cardboard. Finally, the author even manages to insert some stylistic touches of his own--rather a miracle in the bleak, paste-grey world of mass market media-spinoff paperbacks. Also of appeal to "B5" fans is the way in which Keyes deftly turns the philosophical and thematic underpinnings of the show on their heads...where our President Sheridan & co. represent individuals willing to give their lives for a greater cause, we see the Psi-Corps as a highly-organized collection of amoral people who have banded together for the cause of more efficient self-promotion. This has the effect of making our friends in "current" chronology--even Londo--seem the nobler in constrast. Make no mistake, "Dark Genesis" is nothing but junk food for the brain. It cannot substitute for the literary and artistic value that informs the best SF. However, there is quality content lurking within those pages--even a few moments that made me forget I was reading a cheap paperback with a lurid dimestore cover. And its value to the "B5" fan is immense...I would rate its fleshing-out of Straczinski's backstory above even Kathryn Drennan's more emotionally-charged "To Dream in the City of Sorrows." In other words, it's worth $6 and a few hours of your time. Buy this book.
Rating:
Summary: Best Babylon 5 Original Novel yet.
Review: I heartily recommend this book. It details from 2115, to 2189 or 2190. Not totally sure there. The writing is great, and so are the characters. I feel they dropped a few too many Ancestors of a few of the characters, especially Lyta's. They have 4 of her ancestors in the book and two of them are more or less main characters. And while they show Alfred Bester's parents and half of his grand parents in this book, it seemed a little force. But other then this stuff it is a great book. Pick it up if you're a fan of the series, you won't be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: Well written, engrossing and plot twists till nest Tuesday!!
Review: I really enjoyed this book, filled with info on how the Corps came about. Keyes wrote a book that I think creator JMS will be proud of, giving us three dimentional charaters, and incredible details. I am glad that I purcahased the book, and believe me, I will be back for part 2 of the trilogy (Deadly Relations)!!!
Rating:
Summary: A bit of a rush, and two nits, but a great B5 addition
Review: The first of the new original "Babylon 5" novels from Del Rey is with us. The earlier nine from Dell weren't much more than filler, apart from the good #7 and the excellent #9, but Del Rey knows SF, and it shows. The book takes place from about 2115 to 2195, and gives the history of the beginnings of the Psi Corps. (By the way, although the DC B5 comic book #11, "The Psi Corps and You", is a "reprint" of a "real" Psi Corps propaganda piece, this book takes care to be consistent with those parts of the comic that one would reasonably expect to be true in the B5 universe -- a nice piece of work, keeping the B5 universe seamless.) We see the first discovery of telepaths by scientists, the public panic, the growth of government control, and the growth of the first resistance movement. We meet the ancestors of a few old friends, and answers are suggested to several questions about just what Psi Corps is up to in B5's time. The time period of the book also covers the first contact with the Centauri, but this is played down, except insofar as it influences the characters. My complaints are few. First of all, this is a short novel for an 80-year plot, and it sometimes made me feel like a child running downhill, shouting, "I can't stop!" But that was really implicit in the book's agenda. Second, I suspect an offhand reference to an already-free Narn is chronologically too early, though I could be wrong; if it is an error, it could be corrected with a word or two. Third, one simply cannot establish a synchronous orbit over the polar region of a planet -- but this, too, could be corrected as easily as a typo. All in all, a very good beginning for Del Rey's new series, and a _must_ for "Babylon 5" fans.
Rating:
Summary: Good future history
Review: This is one of my favorites of the B5 trilogys. Probibly no. 4 after the Techno mages volumes. It does not have any of the series characters in it but instead it has their progenetors. it moves around fast teling various episodes of a splintered story. yet it is put together very well. i think i will read it again.
Rating:
Summary: I don't watch B5 but I really enjoyed this book...
Review: I found this book sitting on my bathroom sink. I just picked it up and started reading it. This book is trying to tell a very large story in a very short way...it's like reading AP news clippings instead of a full article. However, I really enjoy cultural geography...how people move/change and why. This book is futuristic cultural geography. You don't have to know anything about B5 to read this book. I think it could be longer and more in depth.
Rating:
Summary: If you're not a fan of B5 don't read; don't expect too much
Review: I am a die hard fan of B5 and have watched all of the series and movies more than once. I had high expectations for this book but the book let me down. Basically, you will not learn anything new from the book. If you watched the series the book will just rehash what you already know. And it will do it quickly without reason. For example, it took only two chapters in the book for the key players to know how telepaths were created. In the series, it took four years for everyone to figure this out. The other problem with the book is that it jumps around A LOT. It starts off with a character then jumps in time to another. While this is a good writing technique you never really find out too much about the characters and never really understand them. Maybe that is why the author just comes out and tells you about them because there never really is enough time to develop the characters. The real disappoint is that the author never explains a lot in the book. For example, initially the Psi Corps is called the "Kith." Then one chapter later the author is using the new name of Psi Corps. No explanation of why the change. Another example of not explaining anything is in the first chapters the author describes a telepath tugging on his black gloves. No explanation of why he is wearing gloves or any other mention of it. It just happens. The biggest flaw I see is that the book seems a little out of time sequence. It puts Bester's age in the series as if Bester was in his early 70's. While the series did mention that humans can live to 100's it seems out of sync to make Bester a 70 year old man. If you like B5 you might like the book if you have no expectations. If you have never seen B5 I don't think you will like the book.
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