Oscar Wilde once said memoirs were written for two reasons – self justification and revenge. He might have added therapy while he was at it, had he been living in a post Freudian age. Regardless on whether the people in question are interesting in themselves, there are not that many compelling autobiographies (telling your own life is messy in a way fiction isn’t; not coincidentally, Dickens only wrote fragments of straightforward autobiography, didn’t finish them and wrote David Copperfield instead), and/or if the it’s one of your average celebrity memoir written and standardized by a ghost writer.

When last year I heard that JMS would be publishing his autobiography, I was interested because Babylon 5 remains one of the most important and beloved things in my life of imagination and fannishness, and I liked and/or admired in varying degrees many other of his works – a lot of his Spider-Man run, the ill-fated Crusade, Changeling I thought was impressive, Supreme Powers for the first three volumes fascinating, and Sense8, of which he’s one of the three „parents“ (along with the Wachowskis) was something I got really fond of. Also he’s a writer with strong opinions, so no danger of standardized ghost written blandness. About his personal life, I didn’t know anything, so I had no expectations in terms of what kind of story he’d tell. In the lead up to the publication, which happened yesterday/today (depending on your time zone), I gathered he’d had what is euphemistically known as a „tough childhood“, and being a B5 fan, I knew about the various production travails (Did Paramount pinch the concept for DS9? Controversy, Michael O’Hare’s departure and the reasons, last minute grant of a fifth season and so forth). But that was about it.

( Spoilers suspect JMS of being a Stephen King character )

In conclusion: dark story compellingly told. Not just for fans. But definitely not if you’re easily triggered. (Honestly, how that man ever made it out of childhood coherent, I don’t know.)