BPP Legions of Fire #2: Armies of Light and Dark

The Babylon Project Podcast

We rolled right into the second book of the Legions of Fire trilogy: Armies of Light and Dark, and we weren’t disappointed! This book flows seamlessly from the first, with the story shifting from focusing on Londo to putting Vir center stage.

Armies of Light and Dark was written by Peter David and based on a script written by JMS. The story opens in 2267 and carries us into 2277. These dates come directly from references early, and also late in the book.

Vir, the Centauri Ambassador to Babylon 5, takes center stage as we see his life balancing between being marginalized on the Station by everyone else there (due to the Centauri Republic’s failed moral standing and subsequent war with the Alliance); and a status back on Centauri Prime that almost feels like he’s been deemed Persona Non Grata by his own people. When home, he goes almost unnoticed. When he’s noticed by most in power (except for Londo) the attitude toward him seems to be annoyance. Consistent with what we already know about the Drakh control of the Republic, we clearly see Vir’s been cast aside to serve on Babylon 5 to keep him out of the way, while the truly powerful (under Drakh control) rebuild the Republic’s cities openly, and the military (secretly), to wage war once again.

We watch Vir grow up…maturing personally and professionally. He’s changing from the naive aide to the previous ambassador, into a mature and very politically savvy politician and strategist. This matters because of what he learns, and as a result, the action he takes to save his own people and home world—all facilitated by his perceived insignificance in the eyes of everyone else. It becomes obvious to Vir that while Londo is the Emperor, Minister Durla is exercising a signifiant and growing amount of power as the defacto ruler of the emerging police state. Before the book concludes, Durla maneuvers himself into the position of Prime Minister (facilitated by the Drakh), and is publicly the second most powerful member of the government, with only to Emperor Mollari to answer to. With Londo under direct Drakh control, Durla is effectively running the government, building a powerful military in secret, and using some forces openly to invade and take control of smaller words who are outside of the Centauri’s real vital interests. This is all done under the guise of putting down threats to the Republic, and on a more peaceful (sounding) note, to create jobs and gain the resources required to help rebuild what the Interstellar Alliance destroyed in the war. While these actions are offensive and almost imperial in nature, because of the relative insignificance of the worlds falling to the diminished Centauri Republic, the IA looks the other way. In reality, these are intended as bases from which to draw resources in order to establish the military the Republic needs to confront the IA.

Vir quietly and expertly establishes credible intelligence networks among the Centauri people, specifically those who have grown aware something sinister is going on. He also continues to work with the Technomages, granting him information and some capabilities that only they can bring. While things play out with Londo and Durla, Vir has become the primary influencer, if not the leader, of an increasingly powerful resistance movement on Centauri Prime. Allied with the Technomages, Vir is putting the pieces in place for this maturing resistance movement to eventually take back the Republic from the Drakh. With the help of the Technomages, he also finds the secret Planet Killer facility. Time is running out for Vir, the Technomages, and the resistance on Centauri Prime to set the necessary conditions to take action and end the war that’s about to be unleashed by the Drakh against Earth and the IA.

An incredible book, full of action, and driving us toward what can only be an incredible ending. We were all eager to jump right into the next book. Our ratings were a 5, 5 and 5 (out of 5), giving us an overall Boom Scale rating of 5!

Next time we’ll discuss the third and final book in the series, optimistically called Out of the Darkness. As always, we hope you can read along with us, and join in on the conversation.

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Just remember… If there’s no boom today, there’s boom tomorrow. There’s always boom tomorrow!