Notes
Babylon 5 Light Reading List
22nd February, 1997
This page contains comments from asb5 participants
on various authors and works in the Light Reading List. The text, edited slightly for context,
is quoted from posts to asb5 and from email to me. While hardly comprehensive,
these notes may help you decide whether or not a particular author or work
is worth spending your cash on.
If you'd like to add your thoughts
about authors or works in the B5LRL, please email me.
B5LRL Section Headings
Aaron Titman on
Piers Anthony, Bio of a Space Tyrant series
IMHO, the only decent book in this series is Mercenary. Refugee takes
too long to build any interest, and the others are (to my mind) a little
too Harry Harrison. Still a good read if you can find them in the library.
Kathryn Andersen on
Alfred Bester, The Demolished Man
I've just read The Demolished Man (a must-read for any Babylon 5 fan)
and have been struck by the contrasts and similarities with Babylon 5 -
particularly with the death of personality - there called Demolition.
In The Demolished Man, the death of personality is not so much a death,
as a rebirth. A renewal. A redemtion. A second chance. Murderers are *valued*
for their *audacity*. Something which is a step beyond mere forgiveness.
[Kathryn then contrasted with treatment in B5 - Phil]
Slev on
David Brin, Earth
[It] is one of the most detailed insightful pictures of what may happen
to our society, and all this information is conveyed incidentally.. the
story line is origional, great SF, covered from a multitude of angles and
characters, and complex enough to satisfy even B5 fans :) and thats not
all that common..
needless to say its one of my all time favourites, and everyone i goaded
into reading it after i finished it, also loved it :)
Alys on
David Brin, Uplift trilogy
Sundiver wasn't especially good, but the others in the series are brilliant!
It's been a while since I read them, but from memory: Brin created many
races, several of them in quite some depth, with *fascinating* biologies
and cultures. A lot of them are nastier than humans so his books at times
make you feel proud to be human, which is not that common in my experience
of science fiction. The major characters have depth to them, and the plots
are great. I couldn't put them down once I started reading them
Knightod on
Orson Scott Card, Ender's Game sequence
They are individual stories revolving around the same character. They
should be read in order due to the character development side if things.
Ratings : Ender's Game 6.5/10, Speaker 7/10, Xenocide 6/10.
Jason Mulligan on
David Gemmell
I really enjoy his novels, his characters are the most impressive that
I have ever read about. HOWEVER, almost all his stories have the same vague
plot. That being a group of heroes, some wanting to be there others not,
all truly living figures, have to save,find,kill, someone something or
someone and at some stage there will be a battle that they will be outnumbered
in, and which will be very grim, they may win or they may lose, either
way they inflict heavy casualties, and always someone special dies....
Simple plots, but they work, and I enjoy them immensly....
Aaron Titman on
W A Harbinson, Projekt Saucer series
[It] is OK, if you can bear the fact that the first 3 novels are all
very similair in structure. He's not the best writer in the world either,
but the ideas are interesting.
Phil on
Frank Herbert, Dune series
The classic example [of a series being less impressive than one of its
members] is the Dune series; I would recommend Dune to anyone, but not
the other five. They are interesting, but simply don't compete with Dune.
In fact, I read the sixth book before the fifth (one was Chapter House
Dune, can't remember the other), that's how exciting the last few were.
Knightod on
Julian May, Pliocene saga
OK - the Pliocene saga is 4 books which make up one story. It's a case
of read one, read them all. Start at book 1 - if you don't like it don't
continue. The standard remains the same for the books. Rating 7/10.
Prabha Pillay on
Vernor Vinge, A Fire Upon the Deep
In the distant future, _all_ the galaxy's civilisations are on the Internet,
enthusiastically flaming each other between newsgroups and inflicting their
fantasies on everyone (hmm). An Ultimate Evil, wakened from a sleep of
a billion years by an unknowing band of human explorers, begins to swallow
worlds ("server down... permanently"). A couple of humans and
some wonderfully realised aliens have to save the universe. Climaxes in
the space battle to end all space battles.
Prabha Pillay on
James White, Sector General series
The space station that functions as a multi-species hospital. Great
realisation of aliens with a huge variety of biological needs. Dedicated
humans simmering with repressed sexual tensions are of course the central
characters, but their sidekicks in the ER include a hippopotamus-sized
surgeon with multiple personalities, and an empathic dragonfly. The Alien
Sector of B5 is a piddly effort compared with this place. The stories describing
the station getting caught in the middle of a shooting war, and experiencing
a deadly plague that jumps species, should ring bells.
Knightod on
Roger Zelazny, The Amber Chronicles I, II
There are 2 Amber series, each containing 5 books. They make up one
story each, and the 2 stories should be read in order. I borrowed Nine
Princes in Amber from a library, and really loved it. I didn't have money
then and the library didn't have any more of the series. Seven years later
I could still remember the book (but not the Author). I saw one of the
later books in a bookshop (they had just been reprinted) and recognised
it as part of the same series. That's the impact it had. Series Rating
9/10.
The second series is an excellent sequel. Series rating 8.5/10.
B5LRL Section Headings