Voices (Babylon 5, Book 1) (Mass Market Paperback)

by John Vornholt (Author), J. Michael Straczynski (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Surrounded by telepaths during a Psi Corps Convention, Lt. Commander Susan Ivanova and Security Chief Michael Garibaldi are unable to help resident telepath Talia Winters when she is accused of setting off a bomb on Babylon 5.

From the Back Cover
Mind games of the deadly kind: Telepaths to the left of them, telepaths to the right of them. And danger is all around Commander Susan Ivanova and Security Chief Michael Garibaldi when a Psi Corps Convention is held on Babylon 5. Someone will turn this meeting of mind readers into a real blast... as a bomb makes Babylon 5 a death trap.

Voices: the prime suspect is resident telepath Talia Winters. With Talia's old foes, thought-cops Bester and Gray, calling for her head, Ivanova and Garibaldi can't openly help her. Now she's running for her life through a perilous universe, and her psychic talent is her only weapon when her path is blocked by staggering intergalactic horrors: psi-cops closing in... and a killer waiting.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 246 pages
• Publisher: Dell (February 10, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0440220572
• ISBN-13: 978-0440220572
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #234,464 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The first Babylon 5 novel, June 11, 2000

By	Nancy A. Fox (West Covina, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Voices is the 1st novel based upon the Babylon 5 series. It is a good novel, but fans of the television series may find it uncharacteristic or possibly a bit annoying. I tried to remind myself that it was written early in the series and that many of the plot and character developments that I was aware of had not yet been explored when this book was written.

The plot concerns the Psi Corp convention being held on Babylon 5 after their original location on Mars is blown up. During the convention another bombing takes place and Talia Winters (Babylon 5's resident commercial telepath) becomes the prime suspect. Talia manages to escape from Babylon 5 as she attempts to clear her name. Talia is a fugitive being chased by Psi Corp, the military, the police and Michael Garibaldi (Security Chief on Babylon 5). Garibaldi is desperate to find her before any of the other entities, especially Psi Corp, find her.

I found the scenes on Babylon 5 at the start of the novel very good. There was a lot of humor, the interaction between Captain Sheridan, Commander Ivanova and Garibaldi were terrific. There were also some very humorous parts as Garibaldi plots to keep the telepaths from Psi Corp visiting Down Below.

However, when the book left the station it got much less interesting. The scenes on Earth while important to the plot, were not very interesting. Talia's encounter with a tribe of anglos living as Native Americans in the Native American southwest was sort of interesting, but not much was done with it.

All in all this is a good book, but not a great one. If you've never seen the television series Babylon 5, you may find it interesting. If you've seen a few episodes, you'd probably enjoy the book. If you are a die-hard fan of the series, you may like it, but try to remember that it was written early in the series run and don't expect fully fleshed out characters and situations.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Could have been a much better novel, instead it's passable, October 23, 1999

By	Sean Roberts (St.James. Trinidad & Tobago, West Indies) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The book is very good, if you don't expect everything to be exactly like the television series.

The main idea and plot is very good and had a lot of potential that was wasted. However the major weaknesses was the chracterisations of the main 'cast' Mr. Garibaldi, Talia & Bester. The second problem was to me the wrap up being done too sudden and quickly. It was as though the writer was given a fixed number of pages and about 90% through realised he did not have many pages left and decided to squeeze everything in instead of rewriting for better pacing. I think the resolution should have been spread across at least another 20 pages or some editing of some of the earlier chapters of some unneccessary writing.

All in all worth a read but not a keeper, maybe a rewrite was in order and this book could have been a 5 star rating instead of 3-3 1/2 that I think it is now.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Interesting ideas, wrong audience, October 9, 1998

By A Customer

Apparently, the author had to write this novel in a month, and boy, does it show. The plot is ehhhh and the characterization is off. Bester's particularly painful to read -- between the author only having one show to go on ("Mind War") and the general tone of the novel, his characterization is really problematic.

The juvenile style of writing, and the way it tries to appeal to juvenile sensibilities, is the real problem with this novel, though. Characters speak in exclamation points; heck, there are exclamation points scattered all over the place. Some things come across as purely puerile. Garibaldi recognizes Talia by spotting her rear end in the crowd. A bomb mangles Bester's butt. Is there a fixation here, or what?

The sad thing is that there are some decent concepts here, but the execution is just terrible. I think the author misjudged his audience; the problems are far too severe to be just the result of over-hasty writing. The lack of subtlety in the writing -- again an artifact of a misjudged audience, I think -- also reduces some of the interesting implications of the whole "telepath problem".

This book's only worth it if you're a hard-core fan.