Armies of Light and Dark is Book two of the Babylon 5 Centauri Trilogy (Legions of Fire). All three books of the Centauri trilogy were written by Peter David, and are based on outlines by J. Michael Straczynski, the creator of the Babylon 5 universe. Like all of the recent Babylon 5 books, The Legions of Fire Trilogy is well written, and this trilogy answers many of the questions about the turmoil engulfing the Centauri Empire during the fifth season of the Babylon 5 television series.

The TV series Babylon 5, was created by J. Michael Straczynski (JMS) and aired for 5 seasons, starting with a pilot movie in February, 1993, and ending with the final episode in November 1998. A 13 episode spinoff, Babylon 5:Crusade, aired in 1999. Most of the original series was based on the space station Babylon 5, home for a quarter million people of many different races, but mostly revolving around 5 races, Humans, Narns, Centauri, Minbari, and the Vorlons. These races formed an alliance to take on another powerful race, The Shadows, and by the end of season 4 had caused The Shadows to leave this part of the universe. However, The Shadows' allies, The Drakh, were left behind, wanting revenge. The mosting interesting story arc in Season 5 involved The Drakh's takeover of Centauri Prime. The Drakh, through the use of misdirection and subterfuge, tricked the Alliance into attacking Centauri Prime, leaving most of the planet in ruins and secretly under control of the Drakh. Unfortunately, at this point, the Babylon 5 television series ended, only hinting at what would eventually happen to Centauri Prime. The spinoff series Crusade started to tell how the alliance (and the technomage Galen) react to the efforts of the Drakh, but Crusade does not tell us much about Centauri Prime.

Many of the show's fans, like me, were hooked on the series and wanted to know the fate of Centauri Prime. To fill this need JMS provided outlines for a Centauri trilogy to be written by Peter David, called Legions of Fire. This trilogy has become part of the "canon" of the Babylon 5 universe. Peter David is well versed in the Babylon 5 universe, having written two of the Babylon 5 episodes ("Soul Mates" and "There All Honor Lies"), one of the episodes from the spin off series Babylon 5:Crusade, and novelizations for two of the Babylon 5 movies (Thirdspace and In the Beginnning). Peter David also has numerous Star Trek novels, the Nickelodeon series Space Cases, and many other works to his credit.

Episodes 14 through 18 of Season 5 of Babylon 5, describe most of the events up to and including the near destruction of Centauri Prime. By the end of the episode "The Fall of Centauri Prime" Centauri Prime is in ruins. Londo Mollari, the former Centauri ambassador to Babylon 5, is now emperor, and his attache, Vir Cotto, is the new ambassador to Babylon 5. The Drakh have planted a "keeper" on Londo, a alien life form which joins with its host, enabling the Drakh to secretly, completely control the host (Londo). The Drakh intend to use Centauri Prime to further their own goals. Only Vir Cotto, among the Centauri, is far enough away from the Drakh influence to make efforts to help the Centauri.

Plot Summary
Following is a brief plot summary of this book. There are some spoilers here, but I have left many of the details vague to not spoil the book for those wanting to read it.

Armies of Light and Dark describes the efforts of Vir Cotto to turn back the Drakh. The book opens late in the year 2267 with Vir Cotto and three apprentice technomages investigating a Centauri research excavation on a planet named only K0643. They suspect the Drakh are using the Centauri to search for lost Shadow technology. They eventually find a "gate" leading to a Drakh facility used to build "planet killers", like the one used to attack Earth in the Crusade movie pilot "A Call to Arms". With the help of another technomage, Galen, they eventually escape and Vir returns to Babylon 5.

On Babylon 5, again with some help from Galen, Vir is able to enlist the aid of one of Londo's former wive's, the beautiful, scheming Mariel, in his efforts. Mariel appeared in the episode "Soul Mates", where she tried to kill Londo Mollari. She was ultimately unsuccessful, and Londo was able to divorce her, after which she lost much of her influence on Centauri Prime. Vir "arranges" (this is an understatement, please read the book) for Mariel to regain some of her influence on Centauri Prime, and she eventually is able to provide assistance to Vir's efforts.

Vir and Mariel return to Centauri Prime, and through the use of the technology of the technomages, Vir learns how much the Drakh really control Centauri Prime. But, the alliance also is starting to notice the efforts of the Centauri to rebuild their war machine, although they are unaware the Drakh are involved. The alliance sends Michael Garibaldi, G'Kar, and one of Garibaldi's former employees to Centauri Prime to appeal to Londo and find out what is really going on. This visit goes poorly, to say the least, almost forcing Garibaldi to take action against the Centauri himself, but Vir steps in to stop Garibaldi, promising to take action himself. By the end of the book, Vir has put together an effective underground resistance to battle the Drakh influence, surprising the technomages, Garibaldi and even the head of the alliance, John Sheridan.

Throughout this trilogy Vir continues to change as he realizes he is the only one in position to save Centauri Prime, and starts to realize what the cost will be. Following his character development alone makes this book an interesting read. You can now see how Vir could eventually become Emperor of Centauri Prime. The book also gives fans a further look at G'Kar, Michael Garibaldi, John Sheridan, Londo Mollari, and the technomage Galen. In this book you start to see how powerful Galen really is, and how much he was involved with efforts to defeat the Drakh, and if nothing else, you find out why Galen was occasionally absent from the Excalibur's travels on Babylon 5:Crusade. The action, characters, and stories in this book are consistent with the style and content of the TV series, and the "Legions of Fire" trilogy picks up the story of Centauri Prime at the point the television series ended. By the end of book 3, almost all of the questions about what happens to Londo, Vir, Centauri Prime, and maybe even G'Kar are to be answered.






Babylon 5 Armies of Light and Dark: Legions of Fire Book 2
Written by Peter David, based on an outline by J.Michael Straczynski
Published by DelRey
256 Pages
List price $6.50
Released May 2, 2000

If you were interested in this book, please also read my review of the second book in the Babylon 5 Technomage trilogy, Summoning Light, by Jeanne Cavelos at this link: http://www.epinions.com/content_35356446340.

Recommended: Yes