Customer Reviews

Babylon 5: Casting Shadows: The Passing of the Techno-mages: Book I

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

The technomages trilogy by Jeanne Cavelos is an absolute MUST for any B5 fan. The plot and storytelling is superb, and it really fills in the holes that the series leave in some points. Just remember to start reading when you'll have some time off, because once you start you won't be able to put the book down. Specially the last book of the trilogy is mindblowing. I sincerely hope Jeanne C will in the future write more books for B5 fans, we would truly appreciate it!!

Any fan of Babylon 5 MUST read this series. It ties up all (ok, most) loose-ends and mystery surrounding the Technomages. And anyone new to the series (poor deprived souls! Get caught up!) will love it too. HIGHLY addictive, engaging story lines that bring the characters flying off the page. Emotion is high, feelings are real and intense.
And Galen!... well, this is Galen at his most frustrating, endearing and far too fallible and human. The relationship between Galen and his mentor Elric is touching yet frustrating because of its restraint. And another example of masterful writing.
Read carefully, for Jeanne likes to foreshadow and hint at things to come with details.
Not merely episode tie-ins, this series incorporates scenes from episodes smoothly (Book 2, with "the Geometry of Shadows") while creating depth of character and personality for all characters the author creates with the stroke of her pen.
Highly recommended.

I loved B5/Crusade when it was on, and taped every show. I didn't much care for the knockoff books, though, and so stopped after reading two.

Then I ran across this book, and this series, and realized what I had missed. Unlike the first efforts, this one has some input from JMS and not only follows, but expands the canon.

The technomages were deliberately kept indistinct in the two series. What were they? Where did they come from? Why did they exist? What happened to them? These were questions hinted at but never resolved on TV.

Then came these books. Much like the appendices on TLOTR, they reveal a great deal of information just hinted at before (like the answers to all the above questions). Unlike the appendices in TLOTR, they are fully-fleshed-out novels, though, with three dimensional charactors.

No one who liked the B5 series can rob themselves of the pleasure of seeing this story unfold in all its fascinating detail. Though the story starts slowly, building up the mystery as Galen slowly explores what the Technomage "Council" is hiding, the denouement is worth the wait. I was literally blown away by the implications it presented.

Best of all, the series is so well-written that even a non-B5 fan can get into it. Though it assumes a certain knowledge of the B5 universe (like the nature of the Shadows), all the links to the B5 story are explained well enough that as a stand alone series, it still works. If you have friends that still love trek and won't watch B5, then get them to read the books as an example of how deeply fascinating and conflicted this fictional universe can be.

Five thumbs up!

Usually when I read television based books they come off as poorly characterized fanfiction but the opposite is true of this book. Galen's character was so on that I felt as if I was watching an episode of Crusade. Galen isn't the only character you'll find from the Babylon 5/Crusade universe; Morden, Kosh, Anna Sheridan, Isabelle, Elric, and Alwyn also appear. You don't have to be familiar with the B5/Crusade universe to enjoy this book though. This is one of the best science-fiction pieces I've ever read. It was especially interesting to learn about the order of the techno-mages and to see the start of the Shadow war from their perspective. The best part of this book though was Galen........ok I'm awfully biased because he was my favorite Crusade character but I don't care.

If it was possible to give 0 stars to a book, then thats what i would have given to this book
As a Babylon 5 fan, I've bought all of the Babylon 5 books i could get to complete the holes that left in my minds after the show was over.
I got this book for the same reason.
Boy was I wrong...
did the author of this book got paid by the amount of pages she wrote? well it sure looked like it.
it seems like the first half of the book describe about 5 minutes and in the worst possible way!!
I don't think that there's enough coffee in the world to wake me up from the coma this book got me into....
I just hope that in future books, they'll use better authors that focus on the story, and not on their ability to describe a second of emotion of way too many pages...
hopefully the next trilogy will be as good as the rest...
this one however is not.

I loved this book. I loved the whole lot. Beautiful prose and an incredible story in typical Straczynski style. Never letting you know who not to trust and what exactly is going on and what are the motives behind all the lies. Everything gets sorted out beautifully by the end of book three. If you are a Babylon 5 fan or not I recommend this book for all.

The Techno-Mages were always a corner of the Babylon 5 Universe I found quite interesting, but not one that I ever thought was explored to its fullest potential. Jeanne Cavelos's trilogy seems ready to fix that.

"Casting Shadows," the first of three books, is the story of the initiation of Galen, a young Techno-Mage, and of how the Mages react to the news of the return of the Shadows.

I enjoyed this book a lot, on two levels. First, it gave a wonderful insight into the workings of the Techno-Mages, how the sect evolved and how they viewed themselves. Second, it was a good character study of Galen, his teacher Elric and of other Mages. It is a tragic love story disguised as a political sci-fi thriller, and I am quite anxious to see how the rest of the trilogy plays out.

If you were intrigued by Galen in "Crusade" and would like to experience a whole new dimension to the Babylon 5 story by exploring the technomages then you will find this a thoroughly engaging read. It is carefully woven into the existing Babylon 5 story and delivers some heart-thumping surprises while evoking reflections upon the nature of human beings, the purpose of the universe, suffering, good and evil, and God. This would make an incredible mini-series.

Wow. This book series is one of the best series I've ever read. It's the best Babylon 5 book series, for sure. You could even read this book if you've never even heard of Babylon 5 before. this book is very good, and is hard to put down. Jeanne Cavelos is a superb writer. But one warning for anyone about to start the series: Don't get too attatched to the secondary charachters!

Jeanne Cavelos' Casting Shadows is one of those rare science fiction pieces that goes hand in hand with the Babylon 5 TV series. Her depiction of a young Galen who is in the process of becoming a techno-mage is poignant. And we see a great deal of his relationship with his teacher, Elric---a member of "The Circle"---the ruling body of the Techno-mages. The novel chronicles the awkward shifts in their relationship. For young Galen must face who he is, what he wants, and where he is going.