Who would have thought that Al Bester, cold-blooded telepath and Babylon 5 arch-villain, would settle down and start reviewing books?
It's a bizarre image, one that makes reviewing Final Reckoning rather difficult. Frankly, based on the snippets of Bester's writing we read, he's a better reviewer than I am. His reviews are also cold, vicious, and savagely funny, revealing at least as much about Al Bester as they do about the books he's writing about.
That's a fact reviewers don't like to think about. Of course, we pretend to objectivity, but what you're actually getting is our prejudices and gut feelings under a veneer of sweet reason.
In the spirit of full disclosure, then, here's my prejudice: I think media tie-in books are almost always garbage.
I do, however, like Babylon 5, and I've found J. Gregory Keyes to be a smashing good fantasy writer. As such, I was hoping for the best when I sat down to "The Psi Corps Trilogy", and I wasn't disappointed. Keyes' writing is sharp, fully aware of SF tradition, and true to the spirit of Babylon 5, while managing to tell a story that would never have worked on television.
Final Reckoning is the third of Keyes' Bester books, and it picks up the tale in a place that's sure to have some fans of the series gnashing their teeth.
It's 2271, and Bester has been a war criminal and a fugitive for about six years. Since the previous book ended in 2258, just before Bester first visited Babylon 5, this means Keyes has skipped the civil war among the telepaths that many fans hoped to see chronicled in this series. We get hints, but no flashbacks or definitive answers.
Skipping the war makes sense, though, as the trilogy compresses time and events to paint an increasingly detailed portrait of Bester. The first book, Dark Genesis, was an episodic history of Psi Corps that skipped through 75 years and many viewpoints. Bester Ascendant turned the spotlight on Bester, showing the major events that shaped his life and character.
Ignoring a brief epilogue, Final Reckoning takes place over a few months and now, as the story winds to a climax and everything shifts into tight focus, all the reader needs to know about the telepath war is that it happened and that Bester was on the losing side.
He's been on the run ever since, hiding on the frontier, and as Final Reckoning begins he's decided to try a new strategy -- return to Earth and disappear among its ten billion people. Once back on Earth, he finds himself drawn to Paris, one of his favorite cities, and there he settles in a rundown hotel and takes up the above-mentioned book reviewing.
To his surprise, he finds himself changing. He's mellowing, relaxing, even falling in love.
The changes Keyes portrays are subtle, many building on the events in Bester Ascendant. I was impressed, not least because I've seen my father make a similar transition in real life. Admittedly, my father wasn't a sociopathic Psi Cop, but he was a very driven man, dedicated to his work. When he retired a few years ago, it was as if several atmospheres of pressure had suddenly dissipated from around him and he could enjoy life. He's much happier today, and so Bester's change of character rings true with me.
Unfortunately, a happy Bester is still Bester, which means he's willing to kill everyone who threatens that happiness. When the killing inevitably starts, it puts old enemy Michael Garibaldi on the trail and, just as importantly, starts Bester back on the road to committing more atrocities, ones that, with his new perspective, even he finds damnable.
At the end, Final Reckoning reveals itself to be a tragedy in the classical mode, with Bester's psychological flaws overwhelming his hopes for a new beginning. It makes for a satisfying story, but I can't help feeling sad. As played by Walter Koenig, Bester was always a monster, but in Keyes' hands he turned out to be a surprisingly likable one.
Could that be the best thing you can say about any fiction critic?
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