Technomage Novels

[Wizz]

<font face="georgia">Well, I must respecfully disagree. If you got the first two books, definately get this one. I believe it fills in a lot of gaps in the storyline as well as satisfying Galen's character development. There may have been a bit too much with Anna, or it emphasized just how much she was affected by her refusal to freely join the side of chaos.
The only nit I think I see was the Eye. After the nukes, Ivanova, Delen and Lyta went to Z'ha'dum to "look" for Sheridan, and they became entranced by some entity around that planet. Now, I don't recall that entity being called the "Eye", but it seems very similar. Ok...any more and I'll need spoiler headings.<font face="wingdings">

[This message has been edited by Wizz (edited December 02, 2001).]

[ProfCrash]

It took a third reading, but I finally figured out what happened to Razelle and Elizar. Rah The third reading was due to to fact that I was a wee bit tipsy the first time I read it. I felt I had missed something.

I still found the ending convuluted and Galen's final transformation to be bogus. But I did figure out what happened to Elizar and Razelle. I am trying to figure out how an arm and a leg could attack Galen and failing miserably. (shrugs)

The Kosh and Morden stuff was excellent.



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[Wizz]

<font face="georgia">The interfacing with the shadow ship generally required the mind to be altered so the interface would be sucessful. Personality gone. With Galen's case, though, the transformation allowed both the tech and the person to merge, rather than one dominating the other. Galen sucessfully merged with Bunny's ship, no problem. The issue through the ages was getting the tech and the person to merge peacefully with some success rate that would make the mages useful. As it was, the mages were a difficult lot to deal with, leading the Liberators (I'm assuming they're the ones calling the shots) to rethink things and modify the thought processes of the "cpu's" they captured so the merging was at a higher sucess rate. Who needs personality with a weapon?
As for Razeel, I think you missed something. When I read it (and checked again), Razeel was missing those body parts due to the number of hits she took chasing Galen from the Chrysalis construction chamber. She just refused to succumb to the missing limbs, because...well, she was Razeel. I don't think her elevator ever went to the top floors in any of the books. The only failure in Galen's mission was Morden.
I'll have to say too that I understand why Galen (in Crusade) never really gave 2? what the Circle wanted or said. Talk about a bunch of rookies getting sanctimonious(sp?) over what he did or didn't do. Like destroying the tech on Z'ha'dum. Was there a choice? Oh, the Circle reserves the right to decide if there perhaps a safer, non-threatening method? Yeah...like they could come up with a better method that the Shadows. They weren't there, didn't see that the spell of destruction wasn't all-powerful. Meanwhile, Galen shows up on time at the meeting place with a shadow ship under control. Pretty sure when all is said and done, the Circle is more afraid of Galen now than upset with him.
I liked this book also for the details that weren't available (that I could see). Details about Kosh, the Shadows having a name (Liberators), Vorlon personal transports, etc. I was disappointed with the Justin/Sheridan/Morden/Anna dialogs. I also think the timing was off quite a bit. But it was weak in the season three, too. Weak excuse just to get Sheridan to Z'ha'dum and meet Lorien.
But hey! Who woulda thought of Morden being restored the way he did? Just so Vir could wave at him on the pike later on...

Laundry to do. Should have done it yesterday, but was too busy reading a book I didn't put down 'til it was finished.

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Do not tempt the patience of Wizzards, for they are subtle, and quick to anger.

[sindatur]

I love watching you 2 debate, there's always both sides discussed, and you both always have such great points.

PC, you read entirely too fast, if I was to say I was too tipsy when I read this book, that would mean I hadn't come down for weeks, LOL.

Anyway, I finally got it, as I said it will probably take me weeks to finish it, I generally get only about a half hour a day to read, if that.

I have finished the first two chapters and am loving it, can't wait to get to the parts you guys are debating. I greatly appreciated the Kosh stuff in chapter 1, although we knew the basic part of it, it's great to see it fleshed out through Kosh's perspective that way, rather than just through Sheridan's perspective and as an outside observer watching it.

Read a little of Chapter 3. I always had a problem understanding where the MAges went to (call me stupid for not figuring out the explanation) and it was nice to be told they were on an asteroid that was hidden from the rest of the universe and locked up so no one could leave. I always had this vision of them going beyond the rim or something and couldn't deal with that explanation.

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Sindatur - The Grey owl Wizzard

[This message has been edited by sindatur (edited December 03, 2001).]

[Wizz]

Debate? Nah...besides, I know better. More like a difference in observations.



I do agree that there are some areas in the last third of the book that were kind of rough to follow. Re-reading at times to get it clear. I have to wonder if Jeanne had some deadlines that snuck up on her, or her committe of reviewers (a large list of names) kind of confuzzled things. Maybe time will tell.


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Do not tempt the patience of Wizzards, for they are subtle, and quick to anger.

[Nommy]

OK...OK...Now I GOTTA get the third book. Sorry, had to finish Harry potter Book 1 again.

PC, Tipsy? Hmmm...wish I was there for that.

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Nommy

[Nommy]

OK...OK...Now I GOTTA get the third book. Sorry, had to finish Harry potter Book 1 again.

PC, Tipsy? Hmmm...wish I was there for that.

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Nommy

[Wizz]

Debate? Nah...besides, I know better. More like a difference in observations.



I do agree that there are some areas in the last third of the book that were kind of rough to follow. Re-reading at times to get it clear. I have to wonder if Jeanne had some deadlines that snuck up on her, or her committe of reviewers (a large list of names) kind of confuzzled things. Maybe time will tell.


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Do not tempt the patience of Wizzards, for they are subtle, and quick to anger.

[ProfCrash]

We already had a good reason for Galen not caring what the Circle said. Galen felt the Circle had behaved in a cowardly fashion when ordering the Mages to hide and not fight the Shadows. Secondly, Galen lost all respect for the Circle when he found out that they knew that the tech came from the Shadows, meaning they knew the nature of the tech all along. Galen only went to the hiding place because he deemed himself too dangerous.

The way I read the book, all that was left of Razelle was an arm and a leg and she was still fighting. I'll have to go and check that.

I never got the impression that the Shadows wanted the Mages as CPU's for their ships. The Mages were meant to use their abilities to spread Chaos. Wiedren herself tells Galen that the Shadows were annoyed with the creation of the the Code that restricted what the Mages could do. If the Shadows felt that the Mages were an experiment gone wrong, why continue to create the tech?

The first part of the book was very good, I enjoyed it alot. The second part would have been decent if they had not drawn in Sheridan and his trip to Z'ha'dum. It was an unnecessarially convoluted plot twist that made things more confusing and added in characters who distracted from the main storyline. But that is me.

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[Wizz]

<font face="georgia">I'll agree that Galen didn't have much respect for the Circle (the one with the older mages running it) after the secret was revealed. However, he did have respect for the individuals, even Elric. Granted, he didn't want to associate with them. The new Circle, though, he was more open with his contempt, based on the bits and pieces in "Crusade". Honestly, I'm surprised he didn't just jump into his shadow ship and head on out. If nothing else, who was going to stop him? Guess he just did "the right thing".

Sheridan's trip and interaction with Justin wasn't that great, you're right. I think it was put there just to have something to jump to, like another plot device, to keep the reader in a bit of suspense from the main story. How many times did Justin have to say "...you will do what you're told!"? 'Course, writers get paid by either the word or the page, correct?</p>

BTW, Ulkesh really was a first-class jerk. Other adjectives come to mind, but this isn't an unmoderated newsgroup. :c)

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Do not tempt the patience of Wizzards, for they are subtle, and quick to anger.