Deadly relations: Bester Ascendant - Part 1: Thesis

[ruuger]

Sorry, there is apparently something going on with the scheduled posts not working and I completely missed that this one hadn't posted.

This is the discussion post for the first part Gregory J. Keys' Deadly Relations: Bester Ascendant. Spoilers for the whole of the series, including the spin-offs and tie-ins, are allowed here so newbies beware.

Comments

[selenak.livejournal.com]

This was and still is probably my favourite single book of the B5 tie-in novels. It's also a good illustration why I think Keyes handles his job better than Peter David does in the Centauri trilogy. David never bothers to explore or invent Centauri culture beyond what he was given to work with from the tv show, and falls behind even that, for example, letting Londo and Vir make Earth pop culture references and comparisons the entire time when the tv show gave them scenes like the one where they sing a duet from a Centauri opera together and discuss the composers. Meanwhile, Keyes really delves into the telepaths and comes up with new background and daily live details that work with what the show tells us but goes far beyond it. The first part of the book being a case in point. The Cadre Prime concept, tying the Psi Corps "the community is everything, the individual alone nothing" doctrine to African myths (in the performance given for the children), even the John Tracker, Psi Cop tv show Al likes to watch (complete with details, like John Tracker's partner Hung and the episode where the partner gets drugged an evil rogue) - are all Keyes' addendums, and excellent world building.

Also, I like that the descriptions of telepathy go beyond simply letting them talk the same way the spoken word works - the glyphs are a great idea, as is the way shielding, controlling the imago etc. works (though we see a bit of this in the s5 episode The Corps is Mother, The Corps is Father). And one of the most effective things is that on the one hand, the book makes it clear that what happens to the children here is utter and complete indoctrination, but on the other, it doesn't do so from an outside pov, but from an inside one, and the teachers aren't presented as cynical propagandists but believers themselves who really think they're doing the best they can.

Lastly: portrait of the Psi Cop as a small boy. As opposed to Dark Genesis, which had multiple povs, here we remain in Al Bester's pov throughout, and it starts with him as a child going through what a great many of us went through - feeling like isolated outsiders among their peers, wanting to belong and yet resentful of the other children at the same time. I like that Keyes never lays it on thickly; the other children aren't high school stereo type meanies. The one time one gets into taunting Al in a bullying fashion, he gets stopped by another boy, Brett. And yet you can also see where the feeling of isolation comes from, and why it's not imagined.

[4thofeleven.livejournal.com]

Agreed on the background details - one of the things I really appreciate about the Psi-Corps trilogy as a whole is that it's not just about Bester or the Psi-Corps, it gives us a bit of insight into the Earth Alliance as well, something that the show itself never really did. It's nice to see little bits of Earth and its culture throughout the trilogy.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

I especially like - though it's something that happens in the next part - that Keyes used the fact the show somewhere mentions Geneva as the Psi Corps HQ, and adds some local colour, really using the Swiss setting. People live in places other than the US in the future - le gasp.:)

[kathrid.livejournal.com]

Before I continue commenting on these books, I ought to mention I am going on recollection of reading them when I borrowed them from a friend. Nevertheless, I recall them quite well, largely due to the quality of the story and the details of the universe. I can only add my voice to the earlier comments that these books are full of extra information on the telepathic universe of B5 that goes well beyond that presented in the show and (as far as I recall) doesn't at all conflict with the original.

Here we see the second book start as strongly as the first, with the story of a school boy, much of which we recognise from our own past. He likes vids, plays cops and robbers and hide and seek. His interaction with the other kids is just the same as we can all remember, as there's always some one who doesn't quite fit in with the rest. We've all seen these scenes from one POV or another.

And interweaved with them are these surreal, and sometimes nightmarish scenes of the classes, the teachers and the twisted treatment the corps deals out to even the youngest. Cadre Prime is the truest expression of the corps, because the corps has shaped them completely, right from the start. It is all too easy to understand Alfred Bester's attitude and beliefs, watching them be formed day by day before he can even start to wonder why.