Contents: Back Cover - Synopsis - Questions - Analysis - Notes - Author

Written by J. Gregory Keyes
Release date: September 4, 1998
ISBN: 0345427157

Book 1 of the Psi Corps trilogy, detailing how the Corps started.

Reader reviews, and online ordering, can be found at Amazon.com.

Back Cover

Long before the Babylon 5 space station brought Humans face-to-face with alien races, they discovered an extraordinary breed among their very own...

The year is 2115. Shock waves follow in the wake of astonishing news: science has proven the existence of telepaths. Amid media frenzy, panic, and bloodshed, Earth's government steps in to restore order -- and establish tight control over the newfound special population...by any means necessary.

Ambitious senator Lee Crawford spearheads the effort, overseeing the creation of the Psi Corps -- an elite unit charged with tagging and monitoring all telepaths "for their own protection." But the real agenda behind the crackdown is one of government control. Many question the telepaths' origins, while others view them as a coveted weapon. As the Corps tightens its iron grip, the stage is set for a cataclysmic confrontation -- one in which the future of Earth will be decided.

Synopsis

Unanswered Questions

Analysis

Notes

• Bester was born in early 2189 or late 2188, which would make him about 70 years old during the TV series. By today's standards he looks younger than that, but the average human lifespan in the B5 era is almost 100 years ("Soul Hunter") as opposed to 70-80 today, so his appearance is probably normal for a man of 70 in 2260.

JMS Speaks

• Just for those who haven't heard yet, the newest B5 novel -- first in a trilogy of books about the origins of the Psi Corps through and beyond the events of the fifth season -- is out. "Dark Genesis," by J. Gregory Keyes, from a jms outline. For my money, this is probably one of the best B5 novels ever done, and it takes quite a risk, because even though you see ancestors of some of our characters (the books cover about 80 years), there are none of the regulars in it. It's our first attempt to really flesh out the B5 universe and future history.

  Anyway, it's a hell of a read, and I commend it to you without reservation.

• I think my outlines for each of the Psi Corps novels was about ten pages each. It spelled out the broad strokes of what happened in each one of them, and left Gregory to fill in the gaps and work out the details in conjunction with myself and our reference editor, so that all the timelines jived and everything made canonical sense.

Last update: June 10, 2018