Personal Agendas

Babylon 5 #8

by Al Sarrantonio

Commander John Sheridan, Lt. Commander Susan Ivanova, Security Chief Michael Garibaldi, and the many aliens who make space station Babylon 5 their home embark on a new thrilling, action-packed journey through a mysterious and dangerous outer space adventure. Original.

Genres: Babylon 5, Science Fiction, Fiction, Tv, Science Fiction Fantasy, Novels

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Al Sarrantonio was an American horror and science fiction writer, editor and publisher who authored more than 50 books and 90 short stories. He also edited numerous anthologies.

Reviews

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked this book.... The storyline captured me right from the beginning and the sub plot about Sheridan and Delenn made me giggle and smile :-)

[Anne Hamilton · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's so obvious what's going to happen in the book that it's not really a spoiler to give away the plot line here. But I'll try to restrain myself.

G'Kar spends the entire book being tortured by the Centauri emperor. An elite group of Narns spend almost the entire book intent on freeing him from his imprisonment. Garibaldi, Ivanova and Franklin spend most of the book disguised as Centauri jewel traders. (What mistake did Franklin make in disguising Ivanova? If that was explained, I missed it.) Londo spends much of the book as a hostage failing to convince the Narns that G'Kar doesn't want to be rescued, that this is all part of a strategy to bring freedom to the Narn homeworld. Vir spends the majority of his book time in terror of his wife-to-be, Lyndisty, and her wealthy parents - every plan he devises (or falls in with at Londo's suggestion) to avoid the party where he'd sure he's about to be trapped by a wedding announcement falls apart.

Sheridan and Delenn in a "SMALL" sub-plot dress up in trench coats and dark glasses and play at being spies in the James Bond-mode. (SMALL is Sheridan's playful acronym for their alleged opponents, Secret Martian Allies.) Things go very wrong when they stumble across a genuine smuggling plot.

Vir is the only character here who didn't seem to me to be cartoonish throughout. (And he did for most of the time, anyway.) But once his terror transmutes itself into heroism, he's the best thing about the book.

[Frank Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one thin book! I had already felt like I was flying through the series and then this one took me pretty much exactly on 3 hours. Personal Agendas is the comedy caper episode, it's a bit of fun and not for one moment do you take any of the danger to be serious. This was so quick that there wasn't much time to give thought to any single interaction and as such the chracters were only minimally recognisable - by classic character cliches.

With similarities to ideas from another large SF franchise - this one has some of the B5 team playing Bond-styled spies and agents, it also has some of the team going in disguise as Centauri on a rescue mission, and its all because Londo and G'kar have worked together (you read that correctly, but do please take a moment to let the concept sink in).... they've conspired together on a ruse to force the Centauri to release G'kar's homeworld. - W.T.A.F. - firstly, the idea for how that will work is meritless and secondly, though we would all love to see it, this is one thing the pair will never work together on. In a way that's one of the BIG main points of the whole series.

So read this one like a very early throw away Star Trek story. They're fun and they're bite sized so they make a good snack - but there isn't much here that should get added to B5 lore.

[Alyce Caswell · Rating 1 out of 5]

Terrible book. At least it was on the shorter side. For some reason, the author decided to inflict on us an extended James Bond reference that became cringier by the chapter - and oh my, there were a LOT of chapters, which can work in some books but here it made the story feel far too choppy. Actually, the writing was pretty choppy itself and difficult to get through. And most of the characters were just... there. Didn't even sound like themselves. I could go on, but this book has already wasted enough of my time.

[Jennifer Baratta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Vir is a hero here and Deleen and Captain Sheridan have little vacation and G'Kar finds out how crazy Emperor Catigia really is and helps London deal with him. Provided he is not rescued by fellow Narns or Garabaldi Franklin and Ivanova.

[Ondrej Ko · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun, when you've seen the episode, but a little inconsistent in style

[Doug · Rating 5 out of 5]

For me, it was a fun, enjoy quick read.

[James Crawford · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book takes place at the time of the episode in which G'Kar was in a cell at the Imperial Palace, and he and Londo had devised an agreement where the freedom of the Narns was a definite probability.


The only thing is, G'Kar had to stay and be beaten without mercy by Cartagia and his guards.


In this novel, things are complicated tremendously by a group of five Narn who have come to Centauri Prime to free G'Kar, not knowing that doing so would destroy the Londo-G'Kar arrangement for Narn freedom. To complicate this further, Franklin, Ivanova and Garibaldi are going to Narn to try to free G'Kar themselves.


Humor is added in another theme, this one involving Vir and Lyndisty, the woman he's engaged to, even though she hates Narns.

Actually, there's even another theme involved, this one with Serididan and Delenn who end up in the middle of a weapons-smuggling gang. So, there's quite a bit of goings on in the story, and it's pretty well done. It's all stuff that could have happened within the canon of the series, but just never mentioned.

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 1 out of 5]

This could qualify as one of the worst genre-tie-in novels ever. There is wallpaper paste that is spicier and more character-laden than this...thing.