Novel: "To Dream in the City of Sorrows"

Contents: Back Cover - Synopsis - Questions - Analysis - Notes - Author

Written by Kathryn Drennan
Release date: June 1997
ISBN: 0-440-22354-7 (US)
ISBN: 0-7522-2354-2 (UK)

Sinclair travels to Minbar and takes command of the Rangers.

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Back Cover

They called them the first line of defense. They called them Rangers.

Ambassador to the alien world of Minbar, former Babylon 5 commander, Jeffrey Sinclair, is one of the first to learn the truth about the Shadows, the ancient race pursuing the destruction of the galaxy. Sinclair also discovers a startling secret: he is the linchpin in the legendary Minbari warrior group, the Rangers. But it may cost him his one chance to love... and his life.

To Dream in the City of Sorrows

Catherine Sakai, commercial pilot and planetary surveyor, has lost her heart to Jeffrey Sinclair. Not even an attack by the Shadows can stop her from getting to Minbar to join him... and the Rangers. As she trains with other pilots, including the mysterious Marcus Cole, the time is coming when their skills will be tested on their first mission. Led by Sinclair, they will venture into deepest space, into a battle of stealth and might, and toward a fate none but the bravest can face... and none but the luckiest will survive...

Synopsis

Plot Points

The Minbari and Centauri gained hyperspace travel when they discovered a network of functioning jump gates. The oldest gates are 7000 years old, and nobody knows anything about the race that built them, other than that they flourished for 3 to 4 millennia, then vanished, leaving only the gates behind.
Ranger Headquarters is in the city of Tuzanor, also known as the City of Sorrows after a battle before the days of Valen, in which a million Minbari died in a single day. The Minbari have a saying, "To dream in the City of Sorrows is to dream of a better future."
The Minbari were fighting the Shadows alone, and losing, until the Vorlons arrived with Babylon 4 and Valen.
Valen elevated the worker caste to equality with the other two castes and united the warrior clans.
Valen has no tomb and left no known remains.
Valen established the Rangers (Anla'Shok) and became the first Ranger One (Anla'Shok Na.) He was also given the title Entil'Zha, a word whose meaning has been lost but which may have been supplied by the Vorlons. After Valen, none of the Ranger heads assumed that title until Sinclair, and he only did so thanks to the dying wish of the Grey Council's leader Jenimer.
The Rangers were formerly made up of warrior caste members only, though Valen never specifically prohibited other castes. Sinclair actively opened their ranks to the other castes and to humanity.
Since Dukhat's death, the Grey Council has become used to operating without a leader. His replacement, Jenimer, was a figurehead.

Unanswered Questions

Did Catherine survive, and if so, where and when did she go?
What does it mean that Valen "traveled beyond?" The First Ones "passed beyond the veil" ("In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum.") Is there a connection?
Assuming Marcus' note was genuine, does Valen's "we" refer to he and Catherine? Why did he think he'd see Marcus again?
Was Ulkesh the Vorlon on Minbar in "War Without End, Part 1?"
Who built the original jumpgates?

Analysis

Notes

According to the Vorlons, the Shadows would never attack the Great Machine.
The Minbari superstition about not sleeping horizontally ("Messages from Earth") stemmed from a physiological problem that is no longer a significant danger.
All Minbari understand the languages of all three castes, but it is considered a social disgrace for a warrior or religious caste member to speak the worker caste language.
The novel says that Sinclair couldn't remember 48 hours at the Battle of the Line. But the show has stated his missing time as 24 hours ("The Gathering.")

JMS Speaks

While she has written prose for Twilight Zone magazine, and other national publications, and is a Clarion graduate, this will mark her first novel. It's quite good (having read most of it now), tracking Sinclair's journey from B5 to Minbar, taking up the role of Ambassador, then transitioning to head of the Rangers.
This book stands to be the first one (closely followed by Jeanne Cavelos' forthcoming B5 book) that's 100% canon...to be considered a true chapter in the B5 storyline.
What's fun about it is that it ties all the books and comics together with the show, and puts it all in chronological order, and weaves in and out of events in the second season. I think this is going to be a fan favorite. The Cavelos book follows Anna Sheridan as she comes to join the crew of the Icarus, and the details of their fate at Z'ha'dum.
In the past, we've taken pitches, but overall I've felt that the books strayed too far from canon by doing it that way; the latest batch were more directly influenced. One is taken right out of B5 canon, the Anna/Icarus story, and it's one of the best to date; the second one up is based on a premise I wrote up and was assigned to the writer (it's the weakest of the three, set on Centauri Prime while G'Kar was still held prisoner, but still okay); the third is also based on a premise, and follows Sinclair after leaving B5 to form the Rangers...I worked very closely with the writer here to ensure that virtually *every line* is canon. Frankly, if anyone asks from now on, "What happened to Sinclair after leaving B5?" I can point to this book and say, honestly, "It's all in there."
I think we'll continue to work this way more in future.
Dell only works with published authors with agents and credits.
"Is this book consistant with what happened to Sinclair in the first few issues of the DC comic? Or is the DC comic now non-canon?"
It's *absolutely* consistent with the comic, the events of which are mentioned at some length in the novel. I'm telling you...it ties in the comics, the first year, the following year, the development of the Rangers, what happened to Marcus and his brother, what happened to Catherine Sakai, we learn a lot more about Valen...it's going to be pretty cool.
Kathryn, for obvious reasons [she's married to JMS], is the only person on the planet whose knowledge of the B5 universe is second only to my own. Especially the backstory, the history of the characters and worlds, and so on. She's seen virtually every frame of film. So when I got the idea of having one of the books follow Sinclair's story after leaving B5, through a year of story time that weaves in and out of the books, the comic, and the show...she was the logical candidate. The only one that made sense. She was hesitant to do so at first, for various reasons, but she's always been very fond of the Sinclair storyline, and Michael O'Hare, and wanted to tell that story. So she agreed to write it.
And of all the novels, this one is 100% canon...it's also the most exhaustive attempt to tie in all the storylines done to date. Anybody wants to know what happened to Sinclair, it's in the book. That's a genuine chapter of the story arc.
The Drennan book, just hitting the stands now, is 100% canon; the Cavelos book, out for a bit now, is about 90% canon. (Those are books 7 and 9.)
Catherine Sakai is one of the major characters in the third of the current batch of new B5 novels.
Ulkesh was named Naranek, just like the original Kosh. Did Kosh2 have a distinct name that he was hiding from Sheridan ("Walkabout?")
Yes, he had another name or designation (Naranek is actually a title, not a name, hence why they both had it) and was primarily being a pain in the butt.
I gave Kathryn a bare-bones stucture on the Marcus thing -- the death of his brother, his trip first to B5 and then to Minbar -- but she took on the rest on her own. The process was pretty much as I describe it in the intro, asking what X meant, how A related to B, and then her pulling all the threads together in a story that filled in all the blanks. The credit is entirely hers on this. I consulted and read, but she did all the creative work on this.