Customer Reviews

Deadly Relations: Bester Ascendant (Babylon 5)

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

J. Gregory Keyes's second installment of the Psi Corp trilogy `Deadly Relation -Bester Ascendant' is a wonderful addition the Babylon 5 tapestry. The first book of the trilogy, `Dark Genesis -The Birth of the Psi Corps', explores the Psi Corps itself, its conception, birth and the struggles faced during its adolescence. The second installment focuses on a single character, the celebrated antihero Al Bester. We learn of Bester's childhood, education, adolescence and development into the Psi Cop Babylon 5 fans love to hate. Keyes's excellent writing provides the loyal Babylon 5 fan with a superbly convincing treatment of Al Bester offering character development and dimensions unattainable in the television show. Considering what Walter Koenig's acting and Straczynski's writing have brought to this character, this is saying a lot.

The non-Babylon 5 fan should enjoy this installment of the trilogy as much as the first. Fitting the ideal of a Babylon 5 story, the novel is thoroughly enjoyable in its own yet brilliantly connected to the larger Babylon 5 universe. The only aspect that might appear strained to the non-B5 fan is an out-of-the-blue reference to the Earth-Minbari war. For the non-fan, this war is the subject of the film and novel `In The Beginning' and an essential part of the series Babylon 5.

The true Babylon 5 fan will appreciate the story even more. Series creator J. M. Straczynski provided the outline for the story and reviewed the final product; series editor Fiona Avery provided some assistance and control as well. Besides the mentioned reference to `In The Beginning' there are tie-ins to the television series spanning from the first to the fifth year, a nice connection to the 7th novel `The Shadow Within', and a nod to DC comic #11 `The Psi Corps and You' that is a real grabber. We also see the events of comic series #5 to 8 from Bester's point-of-view. The connections are not forced, strained or redundant making the story wonderfully satisfying in its own right.

Finally, some additional credit should go to Keyes's care as a writer and the assistance he received from members of Nasa's Jet Propulsion Lab. The Martian climate and geology are accurate (compared to one of the early B5 novels) and he does a convincing job describing Lunar and Martian colonization. The combination of science fiction, mystery and politics together with outstanding character development makes this novel a worthy addition to the Babylon 5 universe.

Spin-offs from television series usually leave a lot to be desired. But Babylon 5 was no ordinary series. And while the five year series was complete unto itself, questions were left unanswered and fascinating side trips were unexplored. This isn't a complaint, it's part of what made the series so unique and special.

The Psi Corp trilogy (made up of: 1) Dark Genesis: The Birth of the Psi Corp; 2) Deadly Relations: Bester Ascendant; and 3) Final Reckoning: The Fate of Bester) provides critical background B5 fans will relish and entertaining insight into what made Al Bester one of Babylon 5's most fascinating characters. The fact that they're based on an outline by J. Michael Straczynski makes all three books "authorized" B5 history.

The first book, Dark Genesis, is the weakest of the three. While the topic will be of interest to Babylon 5 fans (and of little interest to anyone else), it can't help but come off as anything more than a travelogue populated by cardboard characters. Too much needs to be explained to allow much focus on plot or character development. Instead, the book often comes off less like a novel and more like a "script bible" for the television series, painting the back story for episodes featuring the Psi Corp.

In the final two books of the trilogy, however, Keyes does a fine job of capturing Bester, one of the series most intriguing characters. He not only relates his life, but he even makes him likeable - at times. Deadly Relations takes place before most of the events covered by the television series; while the majority of Final Reckoning occurs subsequent to the series' timeline. And, as is a prerequisite in books of this genre, he weaves in events and characters from the series. But Keyes does it very well without the cameos seeming out of place at all.

I'm purposefully not addressing the story line. If you're a B5 fan reading all three books is almost mandatory. It adds greatly to the saga. If you're not a fan of Babylon 5, you can definitely skip Dark Genesis. However, you may find Deadly Relations and Final Reckoning worthwhile. This isn't Nebula material, but it's fun.

Deadly Relations opens as Bester is 6 years old, growing up in the Psi Corps center in Switzerland. The book follows his life as he struggles with his ambition and his desire to be loved. Interestingly for fans of the Babylon 5 TV show, Lyta and Byron have cameos and this book ends with Bester about to leave for his first trip to the station.

Fans of the series will enjoy this book. J. Gregory Keyes has done a good job of capturing Bester and making him sympathetic. Bester truly becomes a well-rounded character whose motives we can understand, even if we don't agree with them. This is something I enjoyed about the show itself, and I'm glad to see it continued here.

However, this book suffers from the same problem as the first in the trilogy - no real plot. It follows Bester for 68 years, and as such reads more like a biography. There is no real climax; it just ends. The other characters just serve the purpose of helping us understand Bester and are not super interesting on their own.

Any fan of Babylon 5 will enjoy this novel because of the information on Bester. New comers to the series will be more interested once they've viewed the show.

As Alfred Bester once said, "not everything is about Babylon 5". Deadly Relations tracks the life of Bester from the time he is a young child who was raised from infancy by Psi Corps, to just before Mind War, and Psi Corps is not necessarily depicted as I expected it would be. Babylon 5 first told it's viewers that Bester was the "bad" guy, because he opposed Sinclair, then they told us that he was a "multidimetional bad guy", because there is a point to what he was doing. Deadly Relations shows us that Bester is a man who does what he feels is necessary and makes HARD choices for the good of his "family", the Corps. I really enjoyed this trilogy and hope for more Psi Corps related book.

Read this, you might change your mind. As others have noted, Bester is a complicated man, and that is the best part of this trilogy. I found that I grew increasingly sympathetic of Mr. Bester as time went on. Though I may be committing the B5 equilivent of blasphemy, I do not hesitate to say that Bester is alot like Sheridan. Both men believe in something strongly, and both are willing to bend or break certain rules to help that belief along. I definitely reccomend this trilogy!

I thought it was a great book on how bester grew up and why he is the way he is. It also shows what the pci core did to mundane. ALso it had a little Lyta Alexander.Bester was also part of the shadow ship found on mars. well if u want a good book this is it

Bester is one of the reasons I got involved in the B5 story during its second season. Assigning that name to a telepath told me that the writer knew and respected classic science fiction. In this book we finally get to see what makes the guy tick. Like most B5 villains, the character is too complicated to write off his evil as simply necessary to the plot. The book explains why we knew this person as Bester rather than as Stephen Dexter, and it does it in such a way to build understanding without expecting sympathy. I am very much looking forward to the final contribution to this trilogy, FINAL RECKONING, which would seem to be poised to tell the story of the Telepath War.

DEADLY RELATIONS, BESTER ASCENDANT is the second book in what we might call the "Psi Corps Trilogy," the first being DARK GENESIS, THE BIRTH OF THE PSI CORPS and the third being FINAL RECKONING, THE FATE OF BESTER. None of the books stands well by itself, and I'd just as soon all three had been published together as a single volume. If any reader is tempted to purchase one of these books, then he really should purchase all three and read them in the intended sequence. Also, buying all three at the same time is a good idea since each of the three can be read in just two or three sittings, and waiting for the next to arrive will be annoying.

But wait, why should anyone buy these in the first place? Are they worth the purchase price and, more, the time to read them? They do not fare well as independent science fiction books, for a knowledge of the characters in the Babylon 5 television series is more or less necessary for the reader to recognize the ancestors of the series' characters and, in the second and third books, to recognize the characters themselves. To derive the most pleasure and satisfaction from these books, one must either have a clear recollection of the televised series that aired from 1994 through 1998 or else have recently watched the recorded episodes again. One might say that watching the series is a prerequisite for fully understanding these books.

The first book, DARK GENESIS, gives us a historical perspective on the emergence of human telepaths and the creation of the Psi Corps. The history that we learn from this first book sets the stage for a tremendous irony in the life of Psi Cop Al Bester, as well as giving us a glimpse into the lives of Lyta Alexander's and Talia Winters' ancestors. In it, we also see the frightened and hostile reaction of "mundanes," the non-telepathic population, to the telepaths among them. We meet the director of the newly born Psi Corps, Kevin Vacit, a man with a secret that he must hide from the Corps itself and a man with a particular interest in the young Al Bester. To my mind, this is the strongest and most fascinating of the three books in this trilogy in that it explains a great deal of how and why the organizations that we meet "fully grown" in the television series came into existence.

DEADLY RELATIONS, the second book, is closer to the time period of the Babylon 5 television series. As its title implies, we see Bester advancing his career as he becomes more and more single minded in his devotion to what he believes the Psi Corps should be. As his perceptions and beliefs harden, so his regard for humanity diminishes. The reader also comes to understand something of the psychology behind Bester's development and often sympathizes with the lonely young man who never quite fits in with the Psi Corps cadet social scene, who can make no lasting friendships, and who feels betrayed by each of his female peers to whom he becomes attracted. From the Babylon 5 series, we know that Bester is a loner. DEADLY RELATIONS enables us to understand why he became such.

FINAL RECKONING is set in the years following the end of the Babylon 5 series. By now, much has changed on earth, and Psi Corps is not what it was. Tension between "mundane" and telepath has lessened, and Bester's acts in support of his version of Psi Corps have made him a war criminal in the eyes of the new government. His skills, however, have developed to such an extent that he is not an easy criminal to apprehend. The story of the pursuit and of the "final reckoning" is engrossing, but the book still fails to satisfy us fully. The Babylon 5 series ends with the enhanced telepath Lyta Alexander flying off with the Narn, G'Kar, to find new adventures in as-yet unexplored reaches of space. Before her departure, Lyta makes a deal with Garibaldi that, if he will garner the financial resources she needs to bring down the Psi Corps, when she returns she will remove the telepathic block that Bester placed in his mind to prevent him from ever taking well-deserved revenge upon the psi cop. Naturally, one expects that, in FINAL RECKONING, Lyta will return and the reader will be treated to a view of her own little war against Psi Corps. Frustratingly, the book virtually ignores this loose thread that was left unresolved when the televised series ended. We are told, in no more than two brief paragraphs, that Lyta had returned at some unspecified time, presumably fulfilled her promise to Garibaldi, and was then killed by Bester. Perhaps Psi Corps had already evolved into the kinder and gentler version that Bester abhors so that there was no longer any need for Lyta to attack it, but it still seems that the poor lady was summarily dismissed and all but forgotten in the writing of this book.

Little is to be achieved by reviewing these three books individually, for none can successfully stand alone. One should determine to read all three or none at all. While the first and third books are the most interesting and the second is the least, the "Amazon star" rating I've settled on is for the entire trilogy. Likewise, these books are not likely to be well received by sci-fi aficionados who have never had the opportunity to enjoy the Babylon 5 television series although, fortunately, that can be still be rectified by watching the recorded shows on DVD. Some shortcomings notwithstanding, I would not hesitate to recommend these three books to anyone who enjoyed and who remembers the Babylon 5 series and who would like to join that universe one more time to glimpse both its pre-history and post-history.

Alfred Bester reminds me so much of how G.Gordon Liddy wrote of himself in his formative years I almost have a real figure to ponder! All that aside (if you haven't read WILL by Mr. Liddy)this is a fascinating look into the rhyme and reason of Bester. He seems to be another over-achiving runt until a fateful trip with the Grins (great characters, by the way) to meet the Director.. an old shadowy shade of a man from the past, a man who knows Bester as Stephen Dexter, son of a teep renegade couple villified in PsiCorp history. Changes are coming to the Corps, and Bester had just as well have a target painted on his back if he cannot become the Super-Psi cop he strives to be. In typical fashion he manages to be alienated, humiliated and finally vindicated in the Corps. Remember, this is his life and ambition. His confrontation with his prime quarry and the ensuing dialoge near the end of this book is priceless. Don't miss it. Alfred Bester is too complicated to review in these few words. He is an experience more than a character. Our man we love to hate does not disappoint here.

Just finished this book over the weekend. Loved it!!! Gave a really inside look of how Al Bester was raised by the Psi Corps and how Psi Corps is as corrupt as anything else!