B5 Short Stories

[Kaa]

I have been looking for the magazines in which the six Babylon 5 short stories appeared. I have five of them. The only one I'm missing is one of the B5 Magazine issues.

Problem is, no one seems to have them. Does anyone have suggestions as to who might have back/old issues for sale?

[Joseph DeMartino]

SF/Comic book conventions, used book stores (both b&m and on-line), comic book and SF collectibles shops and eBay are probably your best bets. I don't know anyone who has the magazines who is looking to get rid of them, but they do turn up from time to time in all the places listed above.

There is also the possibility that TMoS and other possible B5-universe projects, including the new novels, will revive the moribund short fiction anthology project. The existing stories don't add up to enough material to fill a commercially viable book, and no one has wanted to commission new stories to fill out the volume. But the new interest in the franchise may change the financial calculations and lead to not only the earlier stories but some new material finding its way to us.

Regards,

Joe

[bakana]

One of the things JMS said a long time back was that he wanted to invite some of the Best (Hugo & Nebula award winning) SF writers to "Play" in the B-5 universe.

[Capt.Montoya]

That would be a great way to launch a collection with the original magazine stories and new ones...
I usually don't like the "X writing in Y's universe" approach to SF stories, since the results tend to be unequal, but I'll take the plunge if it happens for B5.
And if JMS hasn't taken the editor role before it would be natural that he added that to his resume with such a book...

[Joseph DeMartino]

If I recall a number of writers (including Neil Gaiman and some of the usual suspects like J. Gregory Keyes and JMS himself) were approached and expressed an interest in contributing stories, but, again, somebody has to agree to pay and sign the contracts before anybody's gonna start writing. That's where the project was hung last I heard anything. Maybe the new publisher (since Del Rey will not be releasing the upcoming series of novels) will be interested in pursuing the anthology. JMS may not formally edit the tome, but chances are he'll "assign" the topics, or at least approve them, and look over the manuscripts, as he did with the Del Rey trilogies.

Regards,

Joe

[Dr Maturin]

Well, I wouldn't base the author selections soley from awards. Barbara Hambly has won Nebulas and someone like her is the LAST person you want writing B5.

[Joseph DeMartino]

Well, I wouldn't base the author selections soley from awards.

Did someone suggest this?

Regards,

Joe

[Leto II]

Joe, quick-ish question: can you fill us in on which publisher's gonna be handling the next batch o' books? (They didn't jibe with Steve Saffel's vibe, eh?)

[Joseph DeMartino]

... can you fill us in on which publisher's gonna be handling the next batch o' books?

Sorry, no. JMS just mentioned in passing that the next set of novels were not being published by Del Rey. This may be no reflection on Steve or anybody else over there, or even Del Rey as an imprint. The trilogies were conceived and outlined when Crusade was going into production, the Columbia House VHS tapes were selling out and WB was about to release their own tapes to retail outlets, a feature film was in the talking stage and everybody was thinking "franchise". By the time the last of the contracted novels was released and the first reprints of the Dell books started, the show was off the air and book sales were slowing. The short fiction anthology was stalled. The DVDs were going well, but that doesn't seem to have done much for the books because most new fans didn't know about them, and they weren't very visible in bookstores to be discovered to generate "impulse sales" So they may just have let their license lapse. Or they may have thought "once burned, twice shy" when WB - with visions of TMoS dancing in its collective head - asked for more favorable terms for the next set of books and the continuation of the existing line. Either way, the deal went somewhere else, and I don't know where. (One possibility is that WB didn't renew the contract so as to give it to one of Time-Warner's publishing arms.)

I hope whoever gets the new books also gets the current trilogies and earlier novels (at least To Dream and Shadow) and that they and Warner Home Video do a better job of cross-promoting the books and the DVDs. I can't believe the DVDs boxes don't have inserts about the books, with discount coupons for instance, and that the books don't contain ads for the series DVDs.

Regards,

Joe

[DougO]

Re: B5 Short Stories

Originally posted by Kaa
I have been looking for the magazines in which the six Babylon 5 short stories appeared.

Are you talking about the official B5 magazine? Do you know which issue you are missing?

-DougO

[KoshN]

Originally posted by Leto II
Joe, quick-ish question: can you fill us in on which publisher's gonna be handling the next batch o' books? (They didn't jibe with Steve Saffel's vibe, eh?)

Originally posted by Joseph DeMartino
Sorry, no. JMS just mentioned in passing that the next set of novels were not being published by Del Rey. This may be no reflection on Steve or anybody else over there, or even Del Rey as an imprint.

He did? I thought I broke that news directly from Steve on June 25th in rastb5m.

[bakana]

One thing to note about the few B5 books that ARE out there.

They are still on the shelves in both Barnes & IgNoble and Walden.
Both of these companies have policies that a book must sell a certain number of copies each Month or be pulled from their shelves.
So, if these books are still there, they must be selling at least a few copies on a pretty consistent basis.

[Satai Delenn]

Keep looking on ebay is all I can tell you I have two of them so keep looking for the one you are missing.

[Ben-Thayer Dunnthaedt]

I think my shorts are too tight..........excuse me now whilst I go watch my stories I'm such a smartass

Seems as if I was too much a smartass for my own good, the red formatting of the words "short stories" only shows if you follow the link to the thread. Yep, that's what I get. Blawst!

[NotKosh]

Both Shadow Withing and To Dream... are on the shelves. I purchased both in the last month.