Series: The Passing of the Techno-Mages #3)
Published by Ballantine Books
Pages: 357
Genre: Sci-Fi
Rating: Good
Add on Goodreads
In this desperate, apocalyptic battle, there's no telling who will be the victor: Or if there will be any survivors at all... (from back cover)
It cannot be an easy task writing a media tie-in novel to a series like B5. This third and final installment in the Techo Mage series takes place roughly during the last half of season three of the TV show. Though I don't know when, exactly, it starts, mentions of certain battles and Anna and Z'ha'dum make that much of the timeline clear. While that in and of itself is fine, considering that most of this book has the Shadows as the main antagonist(s), you don't get a full ending - because these are battles that had to be fought on the show.
Also, this series is something of a prequel to the B5 spin-off series Crusade - as the main character is Galen, one of the main characters from Crusade. Now, Galen was my favorite character from Crusade, but I've never had the best luck with character deconstructions. Really for a prequel to work, the character has to be the same as they were in the media that you originally saw them in, but they also have to be different so you can have the chance to see how they grew into the character you know. Honestly, I never got the feeling that this was Galen. The character is very little (if at all) like he was in Crusade. At least until the last thirty or so pages when I was finally able to see the character from Crusade in his actions.. And, really, the ending just opened up even more questions for me as to what happened/happens to the Techno-Mages. Now, did I enjoy this book? Of course, it was Babylon 5. Do I think this actually added anything to the universe? Not really, no.
Read as part of the following challenges: Goodreads challenge & Book Bingo & Key Word Challenge & Series Challenge
