Novel Reviews

Requiem For Boone by Debra Doyle & James D. MacDonald  
Plot: The story of William Boone's experiences in the S-I War and his first encounter with Augur.

Nothing spectacularly epic or anything, but good.  The first third of the book, detailing Boone's encounter with Dog Company in the S-I War, was a great wartime story with lots of combat, plus it showed a Taelon presence in the S-I War before their announced presence (as shown in "Scorched Earth").  Boone shifting to the police work is interesting if a little everyday, as is most of the stuff with Kate Boone.  Having Kate's e-mails appear at the end of every chapter was a nice format.  It's a shame we didn't actually see the first days of first contact yet again.  Boone's detective work is only slightly entertaining, though Morovsky was a good light character.  The most interesting part of the novel is the civilian-military anti-Taelon conspiracy (which I presume isn't the Resistance, is it the gang from "Trapped By Time"?).  Boone meeting Augur was pretty interesting too, but there weren't any big revelations or action sequences or anything.  The ending in particular wasn't very spectacular.

First Protector by James White 
Plot: In the 4th Century AD, Ma'el acquires two companions, Sinead the healer and Declan the warrior, in his world-wide travels in exploration of humanity, but their continuing bond affects the purpose of Ma'el's mission.

This was a truly great novel in many respects.  The character development and interaction between Declan, Sinead, and Ma'el is stellar.  I particularly love the journals of Ma'el and his slow bonding with his two companions, to the point where he realizes that the Taelons will abuse humanity, while they must be left alone because they demonstrate a higher ability that could be the means to defeat the Jarridians.  Great touching stuff.  Even the romance between Declan and Sinead is handled excellently.  And by no means is this novel slow-paced; it is full of impressive action sequences when various raiders attack their parties.  I particularly loved the sea battle fought in pitch blackness off the shores of Spain.  In this same vein, the novel gives a very impressive view of the ancient world, as we travel from Ireland to Rome to Egypt to China to the Americas, and beyond.  It's all extremely interesting and detailed in scope.  Towards the end of the novel, the action slows down but the novel becomes even more interesting when Ma'el reveals all to his companions.  The awe of the companions as they travel to the Moon is expressed beautifully, as well as their loving trust in Ma'el even when he reveals his Bliss mishap that caused the deaths of hundreds (great continuity nods all around, here to Season Two's "Bliss".  In fact every Ma'el related episode gets explained beautifully).  It's also interesting to see Ma'el create psychic ability in humanity (the constant use of Taelon "time sight" was interesting but very strange since we never really see this in the show).  Still, the end does get a bit slow with Sinead pregnant and Declan fighting to regain his heritage; as it turns out, the battle along the camel routes of Egypt, just over halfway through the novel, is the last major action sequence.  Despite a few failings in the latter parts, the novel ends beautifully with the aging and death of the three characters.  It's very sad and touching stuff, these characters truly came alive.  Ma'el's final resolve to resist his people's future actions based on their smug superiority is particularly great; as Doors said in "Once Future World", Ma'el was the one good Taelon to ever come to Earth.   And this novel showcases all this beautifully.

The Arrival by Fred Saberhagen 
Plot:  Jonathan Doors greets the Taelons when they arrive at Earth, until his father tells him of a story how he in the 1930s encountered a Taelon and one of their alien foes, the Urod.

A very unusual novel but very interesting.  It seems that like Babylon 5, EFC's novels will be by famous sci-fi writers and involve periphery characters before/after the actual series.  This novel essentially has two halves; the present plot and the 150 page flashback to Jubal Doors.  When first reading it this 1/2 novel length flashback really threw me for a loop, but it was a very good story.  The Jubal story managed to be very gothic and terrifying (like the Hellboy comic book) and the historical context (1930s) was interesting if different.  The Urod was a truely alien and terrifying creation; first the concept of a living statue was scary enough, but a creature that has no language/words which can alter reality?  Wow!  Some people think that the Urod are the major third race for the series, the 'sleeper' mentioned in some episodes.  However I doubt that this story is considered 'canon'; in this Doors knew nothing about the Taelons when they showed up; in the series Doors had Ma'el's ship for a year before they arrived.  Too bad!  Turning to the present plot, it was very interesting to see Doors meet his first Taelon, but the ending was a bit lackluster.  This militia attack on the estate just really came out of nowhere and screamed plot device, though it did give a nice action ending.  Furthermore, the Taelon assault on the Urod was surprizingly uninteresting.  As for other neat tidbits of info, we finally get confirmation that there was a nuclear war in the Middle East (the '01 War?  the S-I War?), we see the first CVI, and the Taelon station which Jubal visits was destroyed by the Jaridians.  The death of Amanda was a tad tacky but I did like the death of Jubal.  The great thing about this novel is how the Taelons are shown to be polite and emotionless yet at the same time capable of betrayal and murder to further their own ends.  I had forgotten how cool that was, mainly because of the very emotional Zo'or.  It's a shame.  This novel seemed to be of the quality of Season One, though it was a shame that we only saw Doors and then Da'an briefly, even though Lili shares the cover with Doors.  Here's hoping we get to see the Urod again in the series, maybe as an ultimate foe that unites the Taelons, Jaridians, and Humans together to fight them...