Customer Reviews

The Babylon File: The Unofficial Guide to J. Michael Straczynski's Bablyon 5, Vol. 2

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

 

 

It's okay for anyone not to like something and say so. What's NOT okay is to skew the facts in order to represent your opinion as fact. The book is full of misrepresentations and situations where unrelated events are put together to make them look as if they have something to do with each other. He goes over the so-called he said/she said thing about why Claudia left the show totally ignoring that Claudia came out and SAID IN PRINT THAT SHE QUIT FOR MONEY long before this book was finished. But that's inconvenient for his thesis so he ignores it. Because the fifth season didn't go the way he wanted it to, the way he thought it SHOULD have gone, he turns into a bitter fanboy and spews a tantrum in print, which is a loathsome and despicable thing for any so-called journalist to do. A reviewer should review the show that IS, not the show that HE would have made. As such, this book is entirely worthless and offensive, full of bad information, misinformation, skewed reporting, false premises and bile. An utter waste of time.

I loved The Babylon file, but the second volume was a dissapointment. It's cynical, it gives me the impression that the author hates Babylon 5, it seems to say "This is what I think, and I don't care what you think, because I'm right", and parts are just proven wrong by the episodes. This is not the same quality of writing from the first book.

This book was a great disappointment. Babylon File 1 was a great book, full of insight and intelligent observations concerning everything from actors to dialog. Babylon File 2 is an episode guide from an author who hated the episodes. So Lane didn't like season 5. Oh well. So he delivered a horribly biased and grumpy review of the final two seasons. Granted, it is still a decent summary of seasons 4 and 5, but . . . Let's just hope by the time the omnibus edition of the two books comes out, Lane will have come to his senses and sucked some of the steam this book blows off back in.

This book is OK for a Babylon 5 viewer with some experience, but could discourage newcomers. Once again, Andy Lane makes mistakes throughout the book, makes unfair criticism against J Michael Straczynski, and only compliments the authors that he personally knows. If you tone- down the jealousy- driven criticism against the all- round well- written series, it is a marginally good book.

The synopses of the episodes were about all that were good about this book. A few reviews were ok, but most were horribly unfair to B5. Ok, so season 5 wasn't the best and was a little slow in the beginning, but it kept getting better. ANd now that I watch them again, they are even better. This is a serious disservice to B5 and I reccomend wholeheartedly against buying it.

The author's episode by episode analysis is excellent. But the rest of the book is irrational. The author obviously was very disappointed in the last two seasons of Babylon 5, but his ravings outside the synopses make no sense, and clearly conflict with what he wrote in the synopses. When the author of a book can't agree with himself, there's a problem. It's unfortunate that there will never be a true sequel to the author's first volume of The Babylon File, which was excellent.

A splendid attempt to give information about the information not covered by the first volume. However i found that book was very lacking in background information. I don't know if this was done to keep the book size/cost down or he lacked the nessary information to fill the pages. Many points were missed and details that first Volume had which made it great, were not in the second one. The essays and insight by actual actress of the show were great! Window to why things were happening the way they did. I give the book 3 stars out of 5. There was considerably less book for the dollar than previous vol had. Mr.Lane should have reviewed the series more closely if he didn't delibrately leave inforation out.

I was a very big fan of Mr. Lane's first guide. I thought it was a wonderful collection of observations, quotations, and conclusions that really brought a new perspective and enjoyment to watching the series. However, I found this latest volume to be uninspiring and in fact unhelpful. Mr. Lane notes that he is upset about many facets as to how the series ended, and as a result, his enthuasism for the show has dwindled considerably. This results in a book heavily laced in bias and the personal angst of the author. Rather than highlight and add new information and perspectives to the remaining episodes, I felt he simply summarized the episode and added only those observations which allowed him to express his personal disatisfaction. The first volume of this series should be best remembered for its non-biased analysis of both the good and bad aspects of the show. This latest volume focused on the contraversies and weakpoints of the series and offers little new information about the episodes. While it still remains a helpful summary of the 4th and 5th seasons, I'm afraid the author's personal feelings and bias have ruined the potential for another successful book.

I have been a loyal fan of Babylon5 since the first episode. This guide makes my time of watching each episode even more enjoyable, I always took a glance of the guide between commercials and, boys, the feeling is wonderful. (Too bad the first edition of this book only includes the first 3&1/2 seasons). Definitely, the author knew something we didn't, even though we have been watching the same episode several times. Whenever I use it, It's like open a secret chapter of the show.

PS: To all fans of STAR TREK, it's time to try something deep.

I just bought this book yesterday and rushed home to read it. I have the first volume and have been waiting for some time for the second volume. I was a bit dismayed by the price of the book, more for what is nearly half the size of the original book (140,000 words in Vol 1 compared to 80,000 words in Vol 2). The first thing that became evident is that the author clearly has lost a lot of his enthusiasm for B5, a fact that he admits in the early part of the book. This is mainly due the fact that the author feels let down by JMS by the quality of season 5 and an ending to the series that did not do what JMS had promised. The way season five turned out was clearly due to the uncertainty that there would ever be a season 5 and thus a lot of the arc being tied up in season 4. One of the most disappointing parts of the book is that I felt there were no final words from the author about what the thought overall of B5. In fact, the final words are left to Pat (Lyta) Talman. However, with all these faults this book is a must for any B5 fan. It is the only episode guide that does more than just re-tell each episode, but offers insight and constructive criticism. I also liked the section that corrects all the errors from Vol 1, clearly an author that cares about his work. Because it is still the best episode guide to B5 but falls a little bit short of what I had hoped for and the dubious pricing I give it a 4 star rating.