Dark Genesis: The Birth of the Psi Corps (Babylon 5)
The fabric of B5 is astonishingly literary in scope and style, and it posed a major challenge.  Even though we knew the viewers were intelligent--prime readers--we had to convince them the books we would produce were necessary to the telling of the saga.The answer:  we hired series creator J. Michael Straczynski to outline the stories.  If the fans perceive our books as canon--part of the story they can't get anywhere else--that'd hook 'em.  But it had to be the truth.  We can't just make up something cute, then claim it's real.  It has to be real.  Straczynski made it so.  What remained was the task of finding the actual novel writer.I'd met J. Gregory Keyes at conventions, and he'd revealed to me that he didn't get Babylon 5 where he lived.  The solution:  he had friends who taped hours and hours of the show, then they would all spend weekends together in B5 video-fests (which usually involved a great deal of beer, as well).  B5, he confided, was the only media SF he followed religiously.  So when I asked Greg if he'd like to write our first B5 novel trilogy, featuring Psi Corps, he jumped at the chance.  The result has been the best Babylon 5 fiction ever written--just ask Mr. Straczynski himself.--Steve Saffel, Senior Editor