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Babylon 5: The Passing of the Techno-Mages #3
Invoking Darkness
The electrifying space epic reaches an explosive climax
when one techno-mage battles the ultimate evil
As billions die and the flames of destruction rage unchecked, the Shadows seem poised for absolute victory. Soon the entire galaxy will fall to their evil. But the war isn't over . . . not yet. At long last, in a forgotten corner of the universe, Galen has finally won the Circle's permission to leave the techno-mage hiding place. He is the only mage who has faced the Shadows and lived, the only one who possesses the unstoppable Spell of Destruction.
Galen's orders are clear. Though the galaxy is being torn apart by bloody conflict - in which his powers might tip the balance - he is to locate only three key enemies and kill them. But Galen has unearthed the Shadows' darkest secret and discovered a monstrous truth about himself.
In this desperate, apocalyptic battle, there's no telling who will be the victor. Or if there will be any survivors at all . . .
Babylon 5 created by J. Michael Straczynski
when one techno-mage battles the ultimate evil
As billions die and the flames of destruction rage unchecked, the Shadows seem poised for absolute victory. Soon the entire galaxy will fall to their evil. But the war isn't over . . . not yet. At long last, in a forgotten corner of the universe, Galen has finally won the Circle's permission to leave the techno-mage hiding place. He is the only mage who has faced the Shadows and lived, the only one who possesses the unstoppable Spell of Destruction.
Galen's orders are clear. Though the galaxy is being torn apart by bloody conflict - in which his powers might tip the balance - he is to locate only three key enemies and kill them. But Galen has unearthed the Shadows' darkest secret and discovered a monstrous truth about himself.
In this desperate, apocalyptic battle, there's no telling who will be the victor. Or if there will be any survivors at all . . .
Babylon 5 created by J. Michael Straczynski
368 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published November 27, 2001
3 people are currently reading
304 people want to read
About the author
Jeanne Cavelos
17 books72 followersJeanne Cavelos is a writer, editor, scientist, and teacher. She began her professional life as an astrophysicist and mathematician, working in the Astronaut Training Division at NASA's Johnson Space Center.
Her love of science fiction led her to earn her MFA in creative writing. She moved into a career in publishing, becoming a senior editor at Bantam Doubleday Dell, where she created and launched the Abyss imprint of psychological horror, for which she won the World Fantasy Award, and the Cutting Edge imprint of literary fiction. She also ran the science fiction/fantasy publishing program. In addition, she edited a wide range of fiction and nonfiction.
In 1994, she left New York to pursue her own writing career. She is currently writing a near-future science thriller about genetic manipulation, titled Fatal Spiral. Her last novel to hit the stores was Invoking Darkness , the third volume in the best-selling trilogy The Passing of the Techno-Mages , set in the Babylon 5 universe (Del Rey). The Sci-Fi Channel called the trilogy "A revelation for Babylon 5 fans. . . . Not 'television episodic' in look and feel. They are truly novels in their own right." Her nonfiction book The Science of Star Wars (St. Martin's) was chosen by the New York Public Library for its recommended reading list, and CNN said, "Cavelos manages to make some of the most mind-boggling notions of contemporary science understandable, interesting and even entertaining." The highly praised The Science of The X-Files , (Berkley) was nominated for the Bram Stoker Award. Publishers Weekly called it "Crisp, conversational, and intelligent."
Her first published book, the Babylon 5 novel The Shadow Within (Dell), went out of print a few years ago and was reissued by Del Rey due to popular demand. Dreamwatch magazine called it "one of the best TV tie-in novels ever written."
Recent works include the novella "Negative Space" (which was given honorable mention in The Year's Best Science Fiction), in the anthology Decalog 5: Wonders (Virgin Publishing), and several essays: "Living with Terror: Jack Bauer as a Coping Mechanism in Post-Traumatic-Stress-Disordered America" in Jack Bauer for President , "Stop Her, She's Got a Gun!" in Star Wars on Trial , "Down the Wormhole: Cognitive Dislocation, Escalation, Pyrrhic Victory and Farscape" in Farscape Forever , and "Innovation in Horror," which appears in both On Writing Horror: A Handbook by the Horror Writers Association and The Complete Handbook of Novel Writing (Writer's Digest Books). She has published short fiction, essays, and reviews in many magazines.
The Many Faces of Van Helsing , an anthology she edited, was published by Berkley in 2004 and was nominated for the Bram Stoker Award. The editors at Barnes and Noble called it "brilliant. . . . Arguably the strongest collection of supernatural stories to be released in years." Berkley is releasing a mass market paperback edition in October 2008.
Jeanne also runs Jeanne Cavelos Editorial Services, a full-service freelance company that provides editing, ghostwriting, consulting, and critiquing services to publishers, book packagers, agents, and authors. Among its clients are major publishers and best-selling and award-winning writers.
Since she loves working with developing writers, she created and serves as director of Odyssey , a six-week summer workshop for writers of fantasy, science fiction, and horror held annually at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, NH. Odyssey allows developing writers to focus on their craft and receive detailed, in-depth feedback on their work. Guest lecturers include some of the top authors, editors, and agents in the field.
Her love of science fiction led her to earn her MFA in creative writing. She moved into a career in publishing, becoming a senior editor at Bantam Doubleday Dell, where she created and launched the Abyss imprint of psychological horror, for which she won the World Fantasy Award, and the Cutting Edge imprint of literary fiction. She also ran the science fiction/fantasy publishing program. In addition, she edited a wide range of fiction and nonfiction.
In 1994, she left New York to pursue her own writing career. She is currently writing a near-future science thriller about genetic manipulation, titled Fatal Spiral. Her last novel to hit the stores was Invoking Darkness , the third volume in the best-selling trilogy The Passing of the Techno-Mages , set in the Babylon 5 universe (Del Rey). The Sci-Fi Channel called the trilogy "A revelation for Babylon 5 fans. . . . Not 'television episodic' in look and feel. They are truly novels in their own right." Her nonfiction book The Science of Star Wars (St. Martin's) was chosen by the New York Public Library for its recommended reading list, and CNN said, "Cavelos manages to make some of the most mind-boggling notions of contemporary science understandable, interesting and even entertaining." The highly praised The Science of The X-Files , (Berkley) was nominated for the Bram Stoker Award. Publishers Weekly called it "Crisp, conversational, and intelligent."
Her first published book, the Babylon 5 novel The Shadow Within (Dell), went out of print a few years ago and was reissued by Del Rey due to popular demand. Dreamwatch magazine called it "one of the best TV tie-in novels ever written."
Recent works include the novella "Negative Space" (which was given honorable mention in The Year's Best Science Fiction), in the anthology Decalog 5: Wonders (Virgin Publishing), and several essays: "Living with Terror: Jack Bauer as a Coping Mechanism in Post-Traumatic-Stress-Disordered America" in Jack Bauer for President , "Stop Her, She's Got a Gun!" in Star Wars on Trial , "Down the Wormhole: Cognitive Dislocation, Escalation, Pyrrhic Victory and Farscape" in Farscape Forever , and "Innovation in Horror," which appears in both On Writing Horror: A Handbook by the Horror Writers Association and The Complete Handbook of Novel Writing (Writer's Digest Books). She has published short fiction, essays, and reviews in many magazines.
The Many Faces of Van Helsing , an anthology she edited, was published by Berkley in 2004 and was nominated for the Bram Stoker Award. The editors at Barnes and Noble called it "brilliant. . . . Arguably the strongest collection of supernatural stories to be released in years." Berkley is releasing a mass market paperback edition in October 2008.
Jeanne also runs Jeanne Cavelos Editorial Services, a full-service freelance company that provides editing, ghostwriting, consulting, and critiquing services to publishers, book packagers, agents, and authors. Among its clients are major publishers and best-selling and award-winning writers.
Since she loves working with developing writers, she created and serves as director of Odyssey , a six-week summer workshop for writers of fantasy, science fiction, and horror held annually at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, NH. Odyssey allows developing writers to focus on their craft and receive detailed, in-depth feedback on their work. Guest lecturers include some of the top authors, editors, and agents in the field.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
April 1, 2014
For the first third, this seems like it might be the strongest of the trilogy, but then it starts going downhill, descending into bad comic book special snowflake hell. It suffers from the same issue as the previous books; too much repetition in the internal monologues. Between that, the "Oh, look how special, unique, and powerful my chosen character is now!", and the devaluation of canonical events, this one rates as just "Ok". The last quarter of it reads more like mediocre fan fiction than anything else.
September 28, 2014
Last book in this great series, but definitely not least.
January 22, 2025
A good conclusion to the trilogy. But I do feel I have some reservations on the character development in this, most particularly with Galen, Blaylock and Alwyn. Events that transpire shapes the comportment of these characters in a very profound manner. However, these are in stark contrast with how they acted in the Crusade series, which broke some of the immersion for me.
September 9, 2008
I generally don't read books based on series, but I did enjoy the Bab-5 books that J. Michael Straczynski plotted, and this particular series was my favorite.
October 28, 2012
see review for book one -- I think the books are read best as an omnibus of one long book.
February 15, 2014
Excellent read.
October 7, 2017
great read
December 5, 2023
This was very disappointing. They've tried to retcon a technomage story into the finale of the Shadow War and it just dosen't fit because they weren't there.
The character of Galen is nothing like the Galen in Crusade, which is who it's supposed to be. They even have him rescuing Matthew Gideon to emphasize it's that Galen.
And even though the series is 'The Passing of the Techno-mages' they are only tangentailly relevent to all the events going on. They are simply watching it unfold as it did in the TV sries.
And talk about padded. On and on and on. Saying the same thing in slightly different ways. This trilogy could and should have been a single novel.
The only good thing about it is Anna Sheridan, continuing on from the standalone featuring Anna. It would have been better to call this trilogy the Resurrection of Anna Sheridan' and focussed more on her as a shadow ship, then being crammed back into her body. Her parts of the book were the only really good bits. I only continued to the end as I'd got as far as this book.
If you loved the Techno-mage episode of the TV series, I strongly recommend not reading these books. They are not good.
The character of Galen is nothing like the Galen in Crusade, which is who it's supposed to be. They even have him rescuing Matthew Gideon to emphasize it's that Galen.
And even though the series is 'The Passing of the Techno-mages' they are only tangentailly relevent to all the events going on. They are simply watching it unfold as it did in the TV sries.
And talk about padded. On and on and on. Saying the same thing in slightly different ways. This trilogy could and should have been a single novel.
The only good thing about it is Anna Sheridan, continuing on from the standalone featuring Anna. It would have been better to call this trilogy the Resurrection of Anna Sheridan' and focussed more on her as a shadow ship, then being crammed back into her body. Her parts of the book were the only really good bits. I only continued to the end as I'd got as far as this book.
If you loved the Techno-mage episode of the TV series, I strongly recommend not reading these books. They are not good.
February 27, 2022
Interesting and entertaining, with a good job done integrating many known points of existing Babylon 5 canon into the story. Wishing for further books to see what else happens to Galen before his involvement in the show Crusade
December 27, 2021
2.5 stars I found it very repetitive, should have condensed the trilogy into one book and cut out much of the internal dialogue.
April 5, 2025
This was a good conclusion, though I felt that there was a tad too much retconning going on. As usual, the prose was a bit of a slog. I would probably read this trilogy again... now knowing which parts to skip.
Content warning: self-harm, suicide ideation
Content warning: self-harm, suicide ideation
March 25, 2010
I thoroughly enjoyed this series.
By the end of the third book we know just about everything there is to know of the Technomages. Galen's story remains compelling to the very end. And revisiting the conflict between the Shadows and the Vorlons was a treat. I read this final book in just a few days; I couldn't wait to see how it ended.
In my previous reviews I remarked that I wasn't sure if someone unfamiliar with the series would enjoy the books as much as a Babylon 5 fan. The reason became clear to me while reading this final book, because much more time is spent with characters that were already well established in the Babylon 5 world. Although the characters are depicted true to the series, little time is spent developing their character in the novel; it is assumed that the readers are already familiar with their histories and motivations. Specifically, we spend several chapters with John Sheridan. But an unfamiliar reader would not gain any sense at all that this was the strong, dynamic leader of the alliance, save for being told so.
Speaking of fans, there is a parallel story that gives a behind the scenes look at major events from the television series. It rounds out several scenes that required a more than healthy dose of disbelief during the television series and make the book all the more interesting.
This is must-have trilogy for Babylon 5 fans and anyone who enjoyed Galen's character in Crusade.
By the end of the third book we know just about everything there is to know of the Technomages. Galen's story remains compelling to the very end. And revisiting the conflict between the Shadows and the Vorlons was a treat. I read this final book in just a few days; I couldn't wait to see how it ended.
In my previous reviews I remarked that I wasn't sure if someone unfamiliar with the series would enjoy the books as much as a Babylon 5 fan. The reason became clear to me while reading this final book, because much more time is spent with characters that were already well established in the Babylon 5 world. Although the characters are depicted true to the series, little time is spent developing their character in the novel; it is assumed that the readers are already familiar with their histories and motivations. Specifically, we spend several chapters with John Sheridan. But an unfamiliar reader would not gain any sense at all that this was the strong, dynamic leader of the alliance, save for being told so.
Speaking of fans, there is a parallel story that gives a behind the scenes look at major events from the television series. It rounds out several scenes that required a more than healthy dose of disbelief during the television series and make the book all the more interesting.
This is must-have trilogy for Babylon 5 fans and anyone who enjoyed Galen's character in Crusade.
August 8, 2011
Eh.....not a Great Trilogy but filled out some background in some spots.
December 3, 2014
Loved it.... Great way to end the Techno Mage series.....
August 6, 2016
Weeelll.... that was a bit over the top, wasn't it? Read more like a comic book (no, not one of the good ones) without the pictures. Kind of a shame, it started quite well in the first book.
January 24, 2008
A nice conclusion to the series, which fits neatly with canon.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews