[B5JMS] Bought Casting Shadows Today...

[b5jms-admin at cs.columbia.edu]

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From: "Mark Alexander Bertenshaw" <mark.bertenshaw at virgin.net>
Date: 25 Feb 2001 11:31:44 -0700
Lines: 72

Tammy -

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 have been asking myself what exactly it is that separates
a tie-in from a straight novel.  I think I now understand what it is:
originality.  Up to now, all the B5 books have simply been blatantly lifting
stuff from the series without adding anything mythic or conceptual.  And the
characterisation is good, particularly on Elric.

I don't know who came up with the idea for the Technomage magic, JMS or Ms.
Cavelos, but this is the idea which I loved - it _felt_ completely right.
Each mage having his own personal system was also a great idea that tied
together all the seemingly contradictory things we have learnt about the
magic.

And best of all, Galen was an interesting character - even though at the
start, he comes across as a bit of a nerd, really.  It was a change to have
a character whose outlook was essentially methodical, unlike the imaginative
and intuitive characters that writers tend to populate science fiction
(because most sf writers see themselves in their characters).  It will be
interesting to see how he will develop that weird sense of humour we see in
Crusade.

Mark Bertenshaw
Kingston upon Thames
UK

P.S.  I don't know how far you are through the book, so I'll add obligatory
spacing:






















<SPOILER>
Only nitpick so far: Don't you think that having your skin burnt off is
really <that> necessary to have weird bio-tech stuck in your body?  I mean,
when we do keyhole surgery now (and that is what was essentially happening),
we don't usually go <quite> that far.

"Tammy Smith" <gkarfan at webtv.net> wrote in message
news:14222-3A972B59-42 at storefull-138.iap.bryant.webtv.net...
> ..and I found out that my local Waldenbooks has *25* copies of the book
> in stock!  This should interest you, Mac, since you think the bookstores
> don't stock enough B5 books.  At least Waldenbooks in El Cajon, Ca.
> seems to have enough B5!  They even made sure the new book was stocked
> prominently.
>
> Tammy
>
>



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From: jmsatb5 at aol.com (Jms at B5)
Date: 25 Feb 2001 16:05:40 -0700
Lines: 17

>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

(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)




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