[B5JMS] Bought Casting Shadows Today...

[b5jms-admin at cs.columbia.edu]

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
From: "Mark Alexander Bertenshaw" <mark.bertenshaw at virgin.net>
Date: 26 Feb 2001 14:31:15 -0700
Lines: 51

"Jms at B5" <jmsatb5 at aol.com> wrote in message
news:20010225180448.02878.00001454 at ng-bh1.aol.com...
me:
> >I'm over half-way through this book, and I am totally shocked by it. It's
> >very good!  This is the first B5 tie-in which hasn't pissed me off in
some
> >way (so far  <g>).  In fact it could even be read as a straight science
> >fiction novel.
>
> I tend to agree that this is probably the best of the trilogies done to
date.
>
>  jms
And the trilogies have been consistently better than the original Dell book
series.

All in all, this seems to me like a positive trend.  Hopefully, the fans
will take this to heart, and actually buy this series (I am assuming that no
one other than B5 fans would bother, of course).  If Del Rey see the books
selling, it would be an incentive for further books.  This would be one more
reason to keep the torch of B5 alive, in the way that Doctor Who is still
alive in print and on audio, nearly 12 years after it got cancelled (I'm not
counting the Fox debacle).  The BBC still think that Doctor Who can be
revived as a TV program or film, and that must have <something> to do with
the hunger for new Doctor Who stories .  Maybe, just maybe, we might get
another bite at the cherry.

I finished Casting Shadows last night, and I am still convinced this is the
best so far.  I am actually motivated to find out what happens to Galen and
the other Techno-Mages, and I will be buying books 2 and 3 purely on the
strengths of its writing, and not because I am a raving completist nutter
(which I am, anyway - and don't I hate myself for it ...).  I even went and
emailed Ms. Cavelos as soon as I finished, to congratulate her.  To
summarise some of my comments:

* The book was longer, and so it seems that there was more space for us to
get to know the characters.  The problem with previous books was that there
always seemed to be a constant race to get to the next episode.
* There didn't seem to be any obvious padding.
* Elric and Galen's relationship was portrayed believably, and with real
feeling.
* The continuity with her previous book was smart, and not blatant.
* We finally had it confirmed that the Techno-Mages weren't just a race
looking like humans - there are all kinds of aliens here!


Mark Alexander Bertenshaw
Kingston upon Thames
UK



=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
From: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)
Date: 26 Feb 2001 19:31:52 -0700
Lines: 36

>I finished Casting Shadows last night, and I am still convinced this is the
>best so far. 

Yeah, me too.

>* The book was longer, and so it seems that there was more space for us to
>get to know the characters.  The problem with previous books was that there
>always seemed to be a constant race to get to the next episode.

That's something I was very pleased with when I saw the length of the book. 
You really need to spend time with the story and the characters for the
incidents provided in the outlines to make any kind of dramatic sense or
impact.

>* There didn't seem to be any obvious padding.

None that I could see.  And that's one of the things I hate most, which was one
of the reasons the River of Souls book didn't get through, as much as there
were other things to commend it.

>* We finally had it confirmed that the Techno-Mages weren't just a race
>looking like humans - there are all kinds of aliens here!
>

You may sit down now.

 jms

(jmsatb5 at aol.com)
(all message content (c) 2001 by synthetic worlds, ltd., 
permission to reprint specifically denied to SFX Magazine 
and don't send me story ideas)




-***
-*** B5JMS SUBSCRIBERS: Replies to messages go to the list maintainer,
-*** <b5jms-owner at cs.columbia.edu>.  If you want to reply elsewhere, adjust
-*** the "To" field.  See http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~ezk/b5jms/ for all
-*** other information about this list.