Out of the Darkness (Babylon 5: Legions of Fire, Book 3) (Mass Market Paperback)

This is the book that Babylon 5 fans have been waiting for. It finally fills in the gaps left between season 5 and "War Without End" from the third season. As with the series itself, even though we know the final outcome, getting there is half the journey. The pace never lags, and there are several surprises along the way. Once again, Mr. David has captured the characters and series perfectly. The scenes between Londo and G'Kar are some of the best anywhere, and Londo's struggle to redeem himself has never been more touching.

This book is an absolute must for Babylon 5 fans. You will love every minute of the story and leave satisfied. Non-fans will also enjoy the story and characters, but won't have the same connection. Either way, this is a wonderful book to end a highly recommended trilogy.

The problem with the previous two entries in this trilogy is that when you came to the end of the book there was no real sense of resolution. But with this being the final installment there is no such problem here. In fact instead of writing a trilogy perhaps Peter David should have written one giant novel instead.

The quality of the writing is good, and allows the story to flow and continue at pace. The characters for the most part are absolutely spot on. Londo Mollari must be about the greatest and most interesting character ever. Both on television and in these books. His route from the drunken fool of the early days of Babylon 5 to the tragic figure he becomes here is very poignant. Sheridan, Delenn, Vir, Garibaldi, Dr. Franklin all appear. As does the superb G'Kar, although unfortunately his appearance is not as big as it should be. The only real disappointment is that Sheridan and Delenn's son David comes across as poorly characterised although there is not really any attempt to develop his character in any meaningful way.

When Babylon 5 finished on television there was a lot of loose ends. This will settle some of them, when read with the other books in the trilogy. If you've seen the episodes War Without End, and certain others, then you know how some of this book will end, but Peter David suprises with how some of the other characters fates resolve themselves.

I did get a strange feeling of deja vu during some of this novel though, which is not surprising really when Peter David takes some chunks out of his novelisation of "In the beginning" and reproduces them here. In what was one of the best parts of the novel to me, the opening narrative of the pilot episode is explained.

On it's own it is a good book, but to those who've seen the television series and read the others in the Legions Of Fire trilogy, it marks possibly the end of Babylon 5 as it resolves most of the main characters stories. But it does fail to resolve many questions. What happened to Lyta, Lochley, Lennier, Ivanova? Not forgetting the crew of the Excalibur in "Crusade."

Ultimately Out of The Darkness is a fantastic book. It has restored my interest in Babylon 5 and finally encouraged me to dig out those old television episodes that have been gathering dust on the video shelf. I can't wait for the next trilogy "The Passing Of The Technomages" to begin with Jeanne Cavelos' "Casting Shadows"