jms- Final Reckoning (Spoilers for this and Hannibal)

[B5JMS Poster]

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From: "Leo W." <leoaw at worldnet.att.net>
Date: 3 Oct 1999 01:38:51 -0600
Lines: 79

I'll leave some room for spoiler space.

Some
People
Haven't
Read
Final
Reckoning
Yet
Or
Hannibal
By
Thomas
Howell.

So
I'm
Leaving
Them
Room
To
Turn
Back
Now.

OK.  That should be enough.

Joe,
I just finished Final Reckoning, the third in the Psi Corps trilogy by J.
Gregory Keyes.  It is certainly the fastest I've ever read a novel.  (A
combination of six months of anticipation and a gripping story.)  An
interesting parallel to this story is another one I just read, Hannibal by
Thomas Howell.  In both stories, a dangerous, mass murderer moves to Europe
and maintains a life of respectability and a love for the finer things in
life.  Aside from systematic murders and a superhuman skill for committing
those murders, the two characters lives go in different directions.  Another
similarity is a European police officer who chases each protagonist and who
is currently going through some personal issues.  It's amazing how two
different writers manage to produce stories with such similarities.  I mark
it down as another of those B5 coincidences.  (I also liked the ending of
this one much more than I did for Hannibal.  Caper berries-Yuck!)

Overall, I liked the story.  Though of the three books, this one will
probably end up being my least favorite.  Bester was pulling too much mental
voodoo out of his head.  I can understand that over 80 years, he has
sharpened his skills to a certain level.  The thing I have a hard time
grasping is how easily he "surgically" rearranged so many people's minds and
memories.  Particularly other telepaths.  The other telepaths in the story
did not treat this as unusual or unheard of.  Yet when Garabaldi's head was
worked over in the TV series, two or three telepaths were shown to be
involved with that.  Still, what bothered me most was how often it was done.
It became too convenient a way for Bester to get out of situations.

Something else I would have liked to have seen in the series was more of the
Telepath War.  What does happen to Lyta?  I was under the impression that
this series would show that.  Guess not, at least it didn't directly tell us
what happened.  (Come on, knock me over the head with the specifics.)

The story did raise some interesting points about war crimes and how the
victors get to re-write history.  It also makes a person wonder how things
would have gone if Hitler had managed to live long enough for trial.  The
trilogy gave a sympathetic side to Psi Corps.  I almost felt sorry for the
guys.

The story issues aside, I am also curious how much of an outline do you
write for the trilogies.  Is it a couple of paragraphs or many pages?  Are
there any plans in the works that the fans would be able to view the
outlines?

Leo

--


The poster formerly known as "MacboyLeo at aol.com"
                 This post may be reposted




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From: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)
Date: 3 Oct 1999 17:39:12 -0600
Lines: 16

>The story issues aside, I am also curious how much of an outline do you
>write for the trilogies.  Is it a couple of paragraphs or many pages?  Are
>there any plans in the works that the fans would be able to view the
>outlines?
>

It varies, but on average each outline is about 25-35 pages.
 jms

(jmsatb5 at aol.com)
B5 Official Fan Club at:
http://www.thestation.com




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