[Mithfânion]

That's basically what I'm looking for. I'm currently watching all the Babylon 5 seasons for the first time and enjoying the story for the most part. I'm mostly interested in the overarching conflict between the Allied worlds ( plus Vorlons ) vs the ancient threat of the Shadows. Very cool. I also like the overall feel of the series. I've got the new Battlestar Galactica series and Farscape lined up after B5 is finished and hope they're equally good.

I'm looking for something similar. It would probably be good if I indicated what it is I like aboyt B5.

1) Interesting alien species
2) A great war; the build-up to it and it's outcome.
3) Interesting futuretech. I'm thinking of nanotech, A.I. or Organic technology
4) Good characterization.


What am I not interested in:

1) Really hard SF. Books that go into real depth whereas the technology is concerned. If it is described that is enough for me, I'll take it for what it is on a superficial "that's cool" level. I need no in-depth tech descriptions and essays.
2) Military SF. I am generally not very interested in large space battles unless exceedingly well done and even then...

Maybe I should just read the Babylon 5 novels? :)

[Hobbit]

Dan Simmons' Hyperion is the most obvious to me.

Of the more recent stuff, See also:

Iain M Banks - Consider Phlebas
Alastair Reynolds - try Revelation Space, or Pushing Ice
Peter Hamilton - try his latest series, Pandora's Box/Judas Unchained
Neal Asher - Gridlinked or possibly Cowl for starters.


but a lot of the space battle stuff 'a la Babylon5' is in books from authors like David Drake, David Weber etc etc. I like Walter Hunt's Dark Wing series most recently.

Nice to see you dabbling in SF, Mith!

Hobbit

[s271]

That's basically what I'm looking for. I'm currently watching all the Babylon 5 seasons for the first time and enjoying the story for the most part.

Have you seen starwreck ? Babilon 5 vs Starfleet !
http://www.starwreck.com/

[nealasher]

Glad to see my name on that list, Hobbit. B5 is very much a favourite with me. Superb story arc - something that is missing from a lot of TV SF nowadays as those producing it continually try to extend the franchise and turn it into merely soap opera.

[aspic]

Maybe I should just read the Babylon 5 novels? :)

I wouldn't bother. The ones I have read aren't very good - and I am a big fan of the series.

[Gkarlives]

Actually, To Dream in the City of Sorrows was not a bad B5 book and the Legions of Fire trilogy was ok. As for other SF, try Larry Niven's Known Space short stories (Nuetron Star, Tales of Known Space, etc.) or his story The Integral Trees (amazing world building). Finally, try C.J. Cherryh's Chanur Series, which has lots of aliens, intrigue, and story arc.

[Spacejock]

I've been meaning to look up the B5 series (Dvds, not books) There's a hole in my TV watching life from 1988 (finished uni) to now ('working' from home.) and I barely caught anything much in that time.

So, thanks for the reminder.

As to books, Pohl's Heechee (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heechee) saga was pretty alien but from memory they were long gone and never appeared. You could also seek out Larry Niven's books with the puppeteers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierson%27s_Puppeteer) in.

And I think I just gave away my vintage ;-)

[KatG]

I'd suggest David Brin's award-winning Uplift series, and Julie Czernada also has an interesting series -- Web Shifters -- with lots of aliens that is a little Babylon 5 like.

[aspic]

Actually, To Dream in the City of Sorrows was not a bad B5 book and the Legions of Fire trilogy was ok.

There is something about writing TV / Movie adaptations that robs even the best writers of whatever talent they had. Robert Sheckley who is/was a great writer adapted A Call to Arms, a Bab 5 TVM, and it is unreadable Or at least I find it so. I never got past page 4 when Sheridan has woken up from a dream:

He had even studied the subject in what he laughing called his spare time, looking up the subject in the big on-line library maintained on the Babylon 5 space station, where he had begun his presidency, only five years earlier.

Even allowing for the clumsy info-dumping of that paragraph (Babylon 5 is a space station, Sheridan is President - of something and has been for five years) there then follows an unforgivable page of cut and past on the history of dream theory.

Lionel Fanthorpe could not have been more blatent in letting his research shine through.

Re Brin: Don't start with Sundiver too long and never seems to end. Uplift War was Ok, if you suspend your disbelief and allow characters to crash on huge planets within walking distance of each other, don't remember much about the others

[Spacejock]

Every time someone generalises, an exception pops up (is that recursive or what?)

Douglas Adams wrote a number of good Dr Who stories, and Stephen King's X-files episode was damned creepy, even for that series.