BPP The Passing of the Techno-mages #1: Casting Shadows

The Babylon Project Podcast

With Casting Shadows, we see a solid start to the third and final trilogy of books written in the Babylon 5 universe. As with the other trilogies, this set of books is considered canon and was based on an outline provided by JMS. As you’ll recall, the Psi Corps trilogy was really Bester’s story; the Technomage Trilogy is Galen’s. Those familiar with the B5 universe will remember Galen as a quirky Technomage that always seemed to appear when he wasn’t necessarily wanted, and never seemed to show up when people felt he was needed. Now we learn Galen’s story.

In Casting Shadows, we meet a very young Galen on planet Soom, young, idealistic and immature, and a Technomage in training. We learn of the disciplined life of those selected to train and become Technomages, the significant duration of that training, and a little bit about how their powers work. Clearly tied to some amazing technology (of mysterious origin), the young apprentices learn to use the tech through a surrogate of the real thing, and “cast spells”. The spells they invoke are actually only spells in appearance. In reality, they use the technology they’re tied to, to manipulate what’s around them— and so the “mage” part of the order’s name.

Galen graduates and becomes a full Technomage, but not without issues. He demonstrates abilities that cause some concern among the members of The Circle—the governing body of the order. Throughout Galen’s training, and especially during his testing, he demonstrates a level of power beyond what is normal for those of the order, significant enough that many are concerned Galen can’t control the power he’s able to generate.

Galen also has a young love, Isabelle. She’s a bit more level-headed than he is, powerful on par with Galen, and an ideal complement to him. Galen loses her when she loses her life, she charges him with a perspective on life that isn’t natural to him, and this perspective sticks with him forever. This also appears in the TV series Crusade as he wrestles with his lost love. His emotions, his moodiness, his idealism, tied to what could be an uncontrollable power mentioned above result in the Circle keeping Galen on a tight leash.

Running alongside all this, the Shadows are preparing for war, specifically to gain control of the younger races. The Vorlons are watching as well, and it’s not clear what their intentions are regarding helping to prevent the Shadows from dominating the known universe. Will they take a direct role, or not? It appears not, causing concern among the Technomages, who are working through their own limitations and issues as potentially the only force that can stand between the Shadows and life as we know it.

Casting Shadows was written by Jeanne Cavelos. The story takes place in the year 2258 and apparently into January of 2259, where the second book will pick up. It covers a year or less of time. As with the other trilogies: this book set the stage well, for what’s to follow.

Our ratings were a 4, 4.5 and 4 (out of 5), giving us an overall Boom Scale rating of 4.16!

Join us next time for the second book in the trilogy: Summoning Light. As always, we hope you can read along with us, and join in on the conversation!

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