Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #397071 in Books
• Published on: 1999-07-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 272 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Babylon 5 is a rarity among SF TV series in having a thoroughly worked-out future history, even if parts of that history are only hinted at on TV. Which is where this novel comes in. Based on an original outline by series creator J. Michael Straczynski and following Dark Genesis: The Birth of the Psi Corps, it is the second novel of a trilogy detailing the history of the Psi Corps. Yet it is sufficiently self-contained to be accessible to readers unfamiliar with B5.

The book chronicles the life of the Psi Corp Alfred Bester from boyhood to the dramatic events which will first take him to the eponymous space station. As befits the show, Deadly Relations is complex and well characterised, aware of SF history and filled with fascinating background detail. J. Gregory Keyes portrays Bester's paradoxical nature: a man haunted and lonely, able to read the thoughts of others and capable of betraying those closest to him out of a sense of duty to the greater good. A sinister, ruthless figure becomes a sympathetic, almost tragic anti-hero as the book ranges from Earth to the Beta Colony and Mars.

The fictional Alfred Bester had a real life namesake, the author of several major SF novels. These include the still extraordinary 1953 thriller of murder and psychic detection to which Deadly Relations pays due homage. If you enjoy B5 try The Demolished Man by the original Alfred Bester. It's a genuine SF classic. --Gary S. Dalkin

Synopsis
Alfred Bester, the child of rebel telepaths annihilated by the Psi Corps, rises to become its most powerful officer, and in his latest mission, threatens the survival of Babylon 5.

Customer Reviews

'The story of Bester'. What more could a B5 fan ask for!
He's one of the most sinister, liked and hated men in the B5 series but we don't know much about him (except for the one feature episode). This book tells the story of most of his life, starting from his school years in the Corp. (Which once again, like the first book in the trilogy, shows how the Corp operates, with some nice surprises). The story continues through most of Bester's life, including tie-ins with the series' episodes. It gives a good insight into just what telepaths can do, especially to mundanes. If you've read the first one, don't stop now it just keeps getting better. Once again brilliant!

Meet Alfred Bester for the first time
Something about Bester is fascinating. In the series we actually found out very little about him and despite the fact that you know how this story will end, (it takes you up to Bester's first appearance in the TV series) it makes compulsive reading. It's great to have the character fleshed out so he isn't just a pariah but a man with passions and flaws. The ancestors of the TV series characters are easier to spot in this one and the familiarity of the Babylon 5 universe makes up for the fact that the book has essentially a single plot told from a single point of view. WARNING: You will want to buy the last book in the trilogy (you've got to - it's got Garibaldi on the front!)

A must for all Babylon 5 fans
This book gives a full & detailed background history to one or the shows best loved? carecters It shows Bester growing from boy to man over aprox 30 years, it gives fuller details of incidents hinted at in the T V show and readers can finally see what made him the man he is today, you sometimes can't help feeling sorry for him even though he is a nasty piece of worki.