Final Reckoning: The Fate of Bester - Prologue and Part 1, Homecoming

[ruuger]

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

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[selenak.livejournal.com]

Before I get to the content, let me make a general observation: back in the day when the book was published, I was disappointed to realise that a) it was set after the Telepath War, and b) not only was Carolyn Sanderson revealed to have died but there were no flashbacks or anything of the sort to flesh out the story behind Ship of Tears. The former irritated me because after all the build up we got through the show about the Telepath War, I thought it would be covered in the books at least since it didn't happen on screen. Presumably at that stage JMS still hoped to make a tv film dealing with the subject. Or Crusade hadn't been cancelled yet and he wanted to deal with it via more flashbacks for Matheson. Either way, Keyes seems to have been instructed to skip the Telepath War altogether, and yours truly upon realising this sat up and growled: "This is cheating!" re: Carolyn, that was a more personal irritation because I had wanted to know more and again, I'd have thought the novels were a good way to tell us more, plus I had felt immensely sorry for her and had hoped she and whoever else of the other teepsicles was still alive could be helped back into a de-programmed life again. 'Twas not to be.

This time around, of course I know what's to come, and can start the book irritation free. We're back to multiple povs, though not as many as there were in Dark Genesis, including Garibaldi, and may I say Keyes writes my favourite Garibaldi of the tie-ins? (Garibaldi is practically a caricature in the third volume of David's Centauri Trilogy, spouting one liners like "What's up, Drakh?" and displaying no emotional depth whatsoever.) The essentials about what happened in the meantime without spoiling the Crusade storyline beyond "The Drakh Plague will be defeated" (duh) are quickly revealed (Telepath War over, Bester on the run as a war criminal), and Keyes makes Paris his main location, which was a pleasant surprise for me the first time around (see also comment in Bester Ascendant about the use of Geneva and Switzerland). Post-War Bester, still convinced to be in the right but his self-justifications running increasingly thin even in his own mind - and btw, I like that Keyes leaves it ambiguous whether Bester really has a bit of Byron in his mind from trying to stop him from killing himself or whether his subconscious is simply using Byron to voice the truths Bester can't/doesn't want to face - but with his intelligence and wit as keen as ever ends up with the final irony in his emotional life. I remarked before on the fact that Bester is drawn to the people who are ideologically exactly what he's against in increasing amount - going from his mentor who doubts the Corps to Elizabeth Montaya who wants to leave it to Caroyn who his a rogue telepath, so Bester ending up falling in love with a "mundane", non-telepath, exactly the person he has dismissed all his life, is the logical conclusion to this tendency.

What makes this storyline work, however, is that it doesn't come with a sudden insight/redemption, i.e. Bester starting to develop feelings for Louise doesn't mean Bester suddenly concludes he's been wrong about the whole superior species idea all his life, nor does he want to atone. So there is no "saved by the love of a good woman" here; there can't be, because Bester is who he is. But there is a bit of breathing space, and a shot at another life. At the end of the first part, both Garibaldi and Bester make parallel choices - Garibaldi to not pursue a lead because he realizes his Bester obsession is starting to ruin his marriage and that Lise isn't wrong when she says hunting down Bester is his new alcohol, and Bester to stay in Paris instead of getting away, choosing a present relationship over his instinct to run. But he turns his back to the past and secures his new life in Paris via another murder, so you can almost hear the clock ticking and know both choices will bite them. In different ways.