Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #302187 in Books
• Published on: 1999-04-09
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 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
The second novel in a trilogy that began with "Dark Genesis: The Birth of the Psi Corps", based on the science-fiction television series, "Babylon 5". In 2195 the underground is shattered and its leaders, the Dexters, are killed. Their only son is claimed by the Psi Corps and given a new name.

Customer Reviews

More a biography than a novel
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.

'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!)