I just finished reading the trilogy of books by Jeanne Cavelos based on the Babylon 5 concept of the techno-mages. The trilogy, called "The Passing of the Techno-Mages", deals with the group that was briefly introduced in season two of B5, and focuses on the character of Galen who was introduced in the brief "Crusade" series. In the books, Galen is a new initiate into the order, and it deals with how the mages view the coming Shadow War, and their decision to not take any part in it. As far as fiction goes, the books are pretty decent. The pacing is good, and the plot is very compelling. The way the writer fills in the background and mythos of the techno-mages is very fascinating, and it serves to show just how under-utilized the Galen character was in "Crusade".

It also got me to thinking about the whole genre-fiction thing. I read a lot of it, it happens. I've read a lot of novels written for the White Wolf "World of Darkness" universe, specifically their Vampire: the Masquerade mythos. The techno-mage trilogy marks the second set of three I've read for the B5 universe– I read the trilogy by Gregory Keyes on the genesis, workings and eventually outcome of the Psi-Corps earlier this year. I've read some 16+ vampire books. I've also, in the past, read a select few Star Trek books and other similar stuff. Besides these, there's hundreds of book based on Star Wars, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, even things like Battletech and D&D. I haven't read any of those (not even the Buffy stuff, though I'm a big fan). But if the audience weren't there, there wouldn't be so many of them.

Not all of the books I've read have been that great, and some outright stank. But I'm really drawn to them because of my interest in the source material. I'm a big fan of B5, and since learning the card game based on V:tM, I've been interested in most things related to it (without actually getting drawn in to the role-playing game itself). But it's no doubt a limited appeal, a limited audience for the books. And it makes me wonder what extra challenges the writers have to deal with, staying within the confines of the universe they're writing for.