addt'l B5 story lines need to be explained

[JoeD80]

I have always believed that there was an additional "David Sheridan" story in JMS's quiver. The existing storyline never explained why David was notorious in "The Deconstruction of Falling Stars."

There was another David plot that jms had planned for season 5 that was later dropped along with some other threads where David comes back from the future to stop Delenn & Sheridan from their Empire Building plans.

[Karen]

Posted today by Peter David on his blog:

THE THIRD BOOK IN THE CENTAURI PRIME TRILOGY
Over the last year or two I've received quite a few inquiries from fans asking why they can't find "Out of the Darkness," the third book in the Centauri Prime trilogy "Legions of Fire." Okay, you CAN find it, but it will run you $35 all the way up to $70.

Welcome to what Max Allan Collins refers to in publishing as the net sales death spiral. It goes as follows:

Let's say the guys who order the books for Borders and B&N order--just tossing out a number--50,000 copies of the first book in a series. Average sell-through on a book is 50-60%. Let's be generous and say that book then actually sells 30,000 copies. The next book in the series comes out, they order 30,000 copies. Which means that the book will sell maybe 20,000 copies. So the next book, they'll order 20,000 copies.

In the case of the three B5 books I wrote, the bookbuyers ordered X for the first one, X-50% for the second, and X-50% of that for the third. Meantime the series only became more popular, not less. In the long term, this isn't necessarily a problem because the publisher can go back to press as the demand continues to increase. But the licensing agreement ran out, so they were unable to go back to press on the third because they no longer have the rights to the property.

Which is why you can't find the third book.

PAD

Me again:
So... now we know.

[glindros]

ILUV that trilogy typically goes for between 35 to 50 on ebay

[grumbler]

I have always believed that there was an additional "David Sheridan" story in JMS's quiver. The existing storyline never explained why David was notorious in "The Deconstruction of Falling Stars."

[Jan]

ILUV, if you can get hold of all three books of the Centauri Prime trilogy, what happens to David and the reason Sheridan and Delenn were on Centauri Prime in the future flash (from War Without End) the is covered in detail there.

JMS had said that we'd get a look at David in future Lost Tales but unfortunately that's not to be.

Jan

[JoeD80]

I was wondering if the eluded story line of Delenn and John's son David, being taken over by Drak on his 16th Birthday will ever be elaborated on. I always wondered how JMS invisioned what he would look like being Minbari and Human. I think that would make a great movie.

That was in the novels -- Peter David's "Out of the Darkness" from the Legions of Fire trilogy, based on jms' outline. Unfortunately that book is out of print

[ILUVJOHNSHERIDAN]

I was wondering if the eluded story line of Delenn and John's son David, being taken over by Drak on his 16th Birthday will ever be elaborated on. I always wondered how JMS invisioned what he would look like being Minbari and Human. I think that would make a great movie.