New Babylon 5 novels ???

[cordas]

Anyone have any clue as too what has happened to the new Babylon 5 novels that Mongoose mentioned months ago?

They still have the same advert thats been up since they 1st mentioned them saying they would start releasing them in Q4 last year...

 

[lastbesthope]

Last I heard the first novel was going to be launched on March 25th at the B5 RPG 2E day. Don't know if that is still the case.

LBH

 

[MongooseMatt]

You heard wrong

The first four are slated for a July/August release.

 

[Tanit Ironwolf]

Matt not sure if I read it on here or on tmp webpage. But is the first novel going to be about Ivonava in command of her ship during season 5 of the tv series??? Thanks for any hints you can give.

 

[lastbesthope]

Matt not sure if I read it on here or on tmp webpage. But is the first novel going to be about Ivonava in command of her ship during season 5 of the tv series??? Thanks for any hints you can give.

Yup, see here:

http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=136665&highlight=novel#136665

Or for the hard of clicking :lol:

Not sure what your plans are but, if it's an Ivanova novel, I'd dearly like to know what she was up to during the 5th season. Even better for Crusade, of course, but since JMS hasn't fleshed that period out the possible later canon contradictions are just frightening. . .

Matt

That is exactly what it is going to be about - what Ivanova was up to during 2262.

As for the canon implications, we'll be making an announcement about that very soon. . .

LBH

 

[Kizarvexis]

Will Ivanova's adventures of 2262 in the new novel include events from the short story "Hidden Agendas" by jms?

Kizarvexis

 

[lastbesthope]

And, will we be getting any plot hints in the CC RPG session on March 25th?

LBH

 

[redlaco]

For my part, I'm rather disapointed that JMS won't be involved in those novels, making them non-canonical. Hear this excerpt from jmsnews.com :

...
I have, subsequently, washed my hands of the Mongoose books. I haven't
seen anything, don't know what they're doing, so sure as hell it ain't
canonical.

As for the cause, you just have to follow the link above...

 

[Greg Smith]

Here we go again. That is old news from October last year.

Matt Sprange (Mongoose's Head Honcho) replied:

The reply I have just posted on Usenet;


Hi guys,

Okay, I have a slightly different recollection of events. There was no silence at first - we had quite a rapid exchange of emails. I never expected anyone to work on this project for free but I believe I was very honest when I said I had no idea what your time was _worth_. No idea. None. Never worked with anyone in your position before. Furthermore, that offer was not the final one - we offered 10% of the revenue, the same portion that Warner Brothers gets for the novels.

That is when the silence kicked in - you did not get back to us, did not discuss it. We could have tried to work something out.

The important thing to remember here is that Mongoose is not Warner Brothers. We are a small company employing 20 or so people. We cannot throw money around with abandon on any project, especially as we are limited to the UK market only (I believe it is Del Ray who have the US licence). There is no guarantee that a new range of Babylon 5 novels will prove successful in the UK and, at the end of the day, we have a business to run.

To put things into perspective, if we were to print and sell an entire print run of, say, 10,000 novels, the profit is only a few thousand pounds after printing and distribution costs. That is if we sell all 10,000. Sell half that and we are at a loss. This is before Warner Brothers comes along and takes their bite, plus any percentage we offered to Mr Straczynski. I must point out, it is not the profit I have my eyes on with these figures but whether the project would end up costing more than it would bring in - which is obviously a huge problem with a business.

I can say that everyone at Mongoose is greatly dedicated to Babylon 5 and, in our own way, we have been carrying the B5 banner for the past three years with our games and a range of over 20 sourcebooks. I believe (I may be wrong) that we have printed more Babylon 5 material than any other publisher. We take this universe seriously.

I would like to extend an offer to Mr Straczynski to re-open negotiations and, if there is a way we can find to work together, we would like to move forwards. We have a lot of very exciting ideas for Babylon 5, across a variety of media, that we would like to discuss. We very much want to carry the banner further and I believe we have a lot to offer fans of the series.

You have my email. Please give me a shout.

Remember the truth is a three-edged sword. Be careful you don't cut yourself on it.

 

[Eryx]

Has there been any word since then?

 

[MongooseMatt]

Nothing from Mr Straczynski. However, Warner Brothers have reaffirmed that everything we produce is to be considered canon . . .

 

[Morden]

I prefer to think of this as a situation similar to Star Wars - everything is canon unless the creator contradicts it later on. Back in the '80s and the '90s West End Games built up a rich universe based on the Star Wars movies, which included new ships, new aliens, entire worlds and systems, assigning names and backgrounds what was only a guy in a costume that briefly appeared in one shot in one of the movies, and so on. Of course this later expanded into novels and comics, and Lucas for the most part, avoided invalidating much of this work with the prequel movies. In fact, he either outright used much of this material in the movies, or referenced it in some way.

Now let's face it, Babylon 5 isn't doing so well on film. Attempts to start up a sequel series have failed and there are currently no plans to put it back into production. I keep hoping they can get it together at some point, years from now, much like Star Trek did, but I have my doubts that this will come to pass. In a very real sense, the torch has been passed, and as fans, we're lucky that Mongoose are the ones who have inherited the franchise and are running with it.

Through the RPG, Mongoose has shown an appreciation, understanding, and reverence for the Babylon 5 universe. I'm sure it's difficult to take five years worth of TV and turn it into an internally consistent universe, but Mongoose has managed to do this well and with a minimum number of mistakes. I have high hopes for the novels. I plan to buy them, even if that means buying them off of Ebay since they won't be sold in the US. Hopefully JMS will take an interest in what Mongoose is doing and give it his official seal of approval, but if not, I can live with that because I know that Babylon 5 is currently in good hands.

 

[Flarn]

Well said Mr. Morden. What I'm wondering is how to get my grubby American paws on them when they do come out...

 

[Cut]

They will be probably available over the online shop here at Mongoose Publsihing or will be carried by some internet book store or your local games retailer...

 

[The Cheat]

Nothing from Mr Straczynski. However, Warner Brothers have reaffirmed that everything we produce is to be considered canon . . .

Well, Warner actually has no authority to declair anything canon. It's JMS's universe, after all.

However, we can probably get by as canon without second word from JMS.




And Morden: Lucas invalidated a hell of a lot of stuff from the Extended Universe, a lot of which was written better. Where were the Victorys, the Dreadnoughts, and the Sparati Cylinders?

 

[nitflegal]

I prefer to think of this as a situation similar to Star Wars - everything is canon unless the creator contradicts it later on.
(snip lots of well-reasoned comments)

I'd say with Babylon 5 it's been that way for some time. Even going back to the B5W days, once the shows were off the air and the PC game died a whimpering death, I don't recall a lot of push back from JMS. Part of that may well be that AoG and Mongoose have worked pretty hard to follow the existing canon and try and be true to what JMS established. However, I suspect that most of the fleshing out that is being done simply isn't of much concern to JMS. Take the recent EarthForce book; I doubt if there's much of anything in there that wasn't portrayed on the show that JMS cares one whit about. I certainly didn't see any pushback when I made up the background of the technomages for Bruce's book. Until a new official B5 project comes along I think it's pretty safe to say that Babylon 5 is in the hands of Mongoose far more than it is in the hands of JMS. The downside is that it's pretty clear that JMS will ignore anything that wasn't in the show or one of the "official" novels if a story of his is against it. So, if a project ever does get off the ground, the retconning may be substantial. As the possibilities of such a project continue to wane that may well be less and less of a concern.

Thus, for B5 at this time Mongoose is canon since they're the only ones active in B5. Thank God they seem to take the responsibility seriously.

Matt

 

[Morden]

And Morden: Where were the Victorys, the Dreadnoughts, and the Sparati Cylinders?

Off camera.

I might have to check my WEG material again, but I think there's still room for the Victory class star destroyers. Dreadnaughts were relatively minor. The only thing that makes them at all important was the sheer number of them. They were staffed by clones, so it is entirely possible for that to also be completely canon.

 

[Greg Smith]

Canon or not, I will read them.

 

[Tanit Ironwolf]

>we're lucky that Mongoose are the ones who have inherited the franchise and are running with it.

I'll chime in a "I agree" with the above post. Also to add something more. WB owns the rights to B5. Not JMS. So for me it does not make a difference if JMS puts his stamp on it or not. If its a good story and fits with in the B5 universe. Then I'll buy it.

 

[Pauly_D]

>we're lucky that Mongoose are the ones who have inherited the franchise and are running with it.

I'll chime in a "I agree" with the above post. Also to add something more. WB owns the rights to B5. Not JMS. So for me it does not make a difference if JMS puts his stamp on it or not. If its a good story and fits with in the B5 universe. Then I'll buy it.

i would be much happier if JMS did agree that it was canon, but if he doesnt then i would still read it