Falls The Shadow

• written by Daniel O'Mahony
• Review: When I first picked up Falls The Shadow, I thought "Gosh! What a thick book." And I expected a huge list of forgetful characters, and sprawling cityscapes full of detailed architecture. I couln't have been more wrong. Not including our three time travellers, or talking stone heads, the list of caracters adds up to nine. And 90% of the story takes place in a house called Shadowfell, where, of course, Mysterious Forces abound.

  These forces cause the TARDIS to be redirected to the cellar of this old house, and relieve the machine of its power. So, our three heroes are forced to explore their surroundings, using that old fashioned plot expander: to seperate the three characters to allow more hjinks to prevail!

  Bernece is the first person to run into someone - a deranged lunatic locked in a basement room. He proceeds to give her quite a scare, as well as confusing her thoroughly. The Doctor and Ace, realising that Bernice is missing, decide to search for her by going upstairs, thus increasing the running-into-weirdoes factor to 10. The Doctor runs into a dottery old gardener, who has a green thumb for meat-eating orchids. And Ace of course runs headlong into trouble, fists a-swinging, meeting up with a man wearing a strange wooden mask. (Now if that isn't creepy...)

  A few plot twists later, everyone is brought to see the wheelchair-bound owner of this house, a Professer Winterdawn. This odd person has opened up a gateway to other dimensions - with the help of a glowing pyramid found, no less, in the darkest reaches of the Amazon. (Hmmm...Amazon? Man-eating orchids?) And so, the opening of this dimensional gateway has not only driven one person totally mad, it has attracted the attention of some ethereal creatures. Two of them are slowly forming themselves into beautiful fraternal twins (no, not the The Twin Dilemma kind of twins; a boy and a girl), and the other does not appear to be ethereal at all - he is a strange man dressed all in grey. These three "creatures" are all interested in the house, the pyramid, and the goings-on concerning both of these. Some typical plot twisting goes on throughout the middle portion of the book. You know: trap the Doctor in another dimension...kill off a companion...prevent anyone from leaving the house by moving it to another dimension. Also, the introduction of another location, the city of the Grey Man, allow for variations from the claustrophobic confines of the house.

  And so, just when you think all has gone awry, the author twists and turns you through the ever-changing rooms of the house, tormenting residents and readers alike. Also, the continued use of a dead companion in the furthering of the story is both unusual, and well done...Bernice is quite good in this role. Death becomes her! (Oh, how I wish it was Ace that died...)

  I will not give away how this book ends, but events culminate in a battle of wits, pitting the twins against the grey man, the Doctor against the twins, dead Bernice against the twins, the twins against The Doctor, Ace, Bernice, and Professor Winterdawn...whew!

  This is not your typical Doctor Who book. The Doctor being terrified at events, brooding, and even crying, do not really wash with me. What ever happened to the lapel-grabbing, defiant Doctor of old? Hidden secrets never revealed...Always one step ahead...anyway, you can't have everything. And when you think, that this book is actually, in some warped way, a sequel to Black Orchid, you realize that perhaps expanding certain elements of that story were quite well done. Still, do not be put off by the sheer girth of this book! It moves well, and it produces curiosity about who the main antagonists really are. (I'm always hoping it's the Valeyard! Will we ever see him again?) Still, Falls The Shadow gets 7 out of 10 on my sliding review scale, whatever that is supposed to mean to anyone...

• reviewed by Jeremy Benner

Parasite

• written by Jim Mortimore
• Review: Here is a book using an age-old science fiction formula: the inside-out planet. Now, nobody I know has ever been to a planet where the inner surface is the livable environment, but so many writers attempt to relate this bizarre, hard-to-imagine scenario to us, the readers. To make it even more difficult to picture, there is no gravity, so everyone seems to just float around. So this inside out planet, which is also shaped like a snail shell, is known as "the Artifact." It is of great interest to many people, and there are always groups coming and going, studying, and otherwise theorizing on its origins. But, you see, all is not as it may seem inside this "Artifact," as usual.

  One expedition living inside this planet has been killed, and another, arriving by spaceship, is sabotaged by - you guessed it - Unknown Forces! (There seem to be quite a few unknown forces in the Universe; please e-mail me if you come across any.) And so, just when all the weirdness begins, along comes the Doctor and company. Before any of them can tell what is going on, the TARDIS disappears (again!). Now we all know what is going to happen next: the separation. Yes, the Doctor goes off on his own to find the TARDIS, then gets this overwhelming feeling that he is being hunted. Bernice, who floats off by herself, befriends a once-human blob called Midnight that is confused about where he came from. And Ace...well, she seems to act more like the Doctor in this story. She uses reasoning instead of guns! Of course, this is rather confusing to me - luckily, I don't have much longer to wait before she leaves forever! (However, she forces her way back into things in those 7th Doctor BBC Missing Adventures...The pain never ends!) So, the aforementioned Dorothy McShane finds a disabled shuttlecraft and its slowly dying, frightened occupants, so she sticks her oar in and tries to help them.

  Bernice, who is still hanging around with the blob, ends up in a floating city full of seven-armed flying monkeys! (Now this I can picture...) Anyway, these monkeys, against their will, are all gradually committing suicide, and would like Bernice to help them find out why they are doing so. So she and the blob, with the help of the Doctor, who has floated back into the story (and has also been infected by some kind of alien spores), attempts to solve the suicidal monkey mystery. Meanwhile, Dorothy is busy playing Superhero, riding around in a spaceship, still using her newfound reasoning ability to discover the secret of the Artifact. (It must be the Mysterious Forces that have augmented her ability to think with her brain instead of her fists.)

  Sadly, the true secret of this inside out planet is rather trite. I was hoping it wouldn't turn out to be what I thought it would be, but I won't say more to prevent me from getting egg all over my face...ahem. I suppose if you like long-winded descriptions of fantastical environments, and overused formulaic SF concepts, you'll love Parasite. If you like Doctor Who, you'll read this book anyway just to preserve continuity, and get you to the next book. Only a 5/10 by my scale, but don't just listen to me - read it for yourself.

• reviewed by Jeremy Benner

Warlock

• written by Andrew Cartmel
• Review: Warlock, to put it plainly, is a book about drugs, and the people who use them in the search for some form of enlightenment. The main drug used in theis novel is aptly named, "Warlock." Its properties are quite complex, it enhances and intensifies the mindset of the user. It can take you within yourself, feeding your present emotional state. If you are filled with self-doubt, you become a snivelling groveller. If you are confident, it gives you a sense of power over it, and others. Now, as with most narcotics, the trouble comes when too much is used, causing your mind to wander, literally. As in, leave your body and move about.
  

  The Doctor, who has been resting up on Earth for about a year, ever since that last weak adventure in the inside-out planet (see Parasite), has taken interest in the strange aspects of this new drug. He plays a very minor role here, acting as the chess player again - Moving his pieces around the board of human experience.

  Bernice is sent to infiltrate the workings of the "International Drug Enforcement Agency" (I.D.E.A), who are also showing an unusual amount of interest in this drug.

  And Ace...this time she is not acting like an annoying jumped-up murderer. She is much more subdued by the lengthy stay on Earth, just thinking of kicking people in the windpipe, instead of actually doing it to anyone. She gets captured by a group of scientists running a drug experimentation lab, where they test drugs on animals for the pharmaceutical companies. These so-called "scientists" feed her a dose of Warlock 100 times greater than any street-level user could find or afford. This, of course, causes her mind to go walkabout, ending up in the body of a cat. A very unusual effect of a very unusual drug indeed.

  Now let me say this - there are quite a few disturbing parts to this book. The detailed and clinical descriptions of animal experimentation for one. Don't get me wrong, I am no prude, but this was pretty graphic. As a cat lover, it ain't that great to read about cats being tortured just because somebody is in a bad mood. And then the sex - well, not really sex, but various sexually themed accounts. You know, a breast here, a nipple there, some heavy breathing, and a painful abortion thrown in for good effect. It's all go in Warlock.

  This is supposed to be a sequel to Cat's Cradle: Warhead, but I read that book when it came out in 1992, and I didn't read this one until 2001. So the connections were, if not hazy, not-existent at best. However, this book stood the test of time, and can be enjoyed on its own merits.

  I will not give any more details about the plot, or characters. I do too much of that as it is. The situations are quite complex, and the motives are very complicated to get into. As far as Doctor Who books are concerned, this one steps outside the realm we find comfortable about it, and goes into a world the Doctor rarely visits - reality. The sci-fi is still there, but it is the peoples' motivations that ring true. I won't give a normal out-of-ten number rating as I usually do, just suffice it to say that I enjoyed it thoroughly. Even the Ace bits were good, and that's saying a lot!

• reviewed by Jeremy Benner

Set Piece

• written by Kate Orman
• Review: Somebody has been punching holes in the time-space vortex, and it is through these holes that aliens are abducting humans. But for what reason?

  The Doctor hears tales of these kidnappings, and brings Ace along to find out:

  
  1. Why it is happening,
  2. Where they are being taken, and
  3. Who is responsible for doing it.

  The Doctor leaves Bernice behind to rescue them, in case something goes wrong, but what could possibly go wrong? Well, Ace and the Doctor go on a trip in a hyperspace liner, and sure enough, mid-trip, the bad guys show up and board the vessel. We see the crew and passengers, including our two intrepid heroes, captured by man-sized metal ants, and taken to some sort of processing plant. There they are put into cryogenic freeze, where they await some sinister form of knowledge-sucking, intelligence-draining, experimentations! The Doctor is repeatedly made the subject of these tests, yet he regularly escapes and confounds his captors, causing much bother in the meantime.

  Bernice shows up to rescue them in the TARDIS, but just as she gets her hands on them both, one of these vortex-holes opens up and scatters all three of them, including the TARDIS, through the entire history of the Earth. Ace ends up in ancient Egypt, where she is befriended by some kind Egyptians. She keeps on expecting the Doctor to show up and rescue her, but as months go by, with no rescue in sight, she realises that perhaps her luck has run out. She decides to make the best of it, so she becomes a soldier (go figure!) and goes native, eventually becoming resigned to her fate...and stuck in the past forever.

  Bernice gets stranded in Napoleonic France, bumming around with a budding Archeologist who is in the employ of Bonaparte. She tries to work out where the Doctor and Ace have got to by studying up on ancient texts, hoping to find a clue. She hears of some strange carvings on a statue in Egypt, so she makes her way there to check it out. The Doctor is also in France, and he has happened across an old friend - a character from that stupid New Adventure Transit, Kadiatu Lethbridge-Stewart. Apparently she is mixed up in the whole affair by having something to do with these vortex-holes.

  So, these three storylines run separately for most of the book, and I was quite pleased with how it turned out. And I'm not saying this just because it is Ace's swansong - she was one of the good parts! Her character ran its course quite suitably, and she leaves with no hard feelings for the Doctor, or her experiences. I do realise that is is not actually Ace I dislike, it is just the way she has been portrayed. I mean, Sophie Aldred was a pretty bad actress (don't argue, just get your tapes out and review them, you'll see...), so trying to make something on paper, out of what can only be described as crappy performances, is quite a feat. I won't miss her at all, as I find Bernice to be a much more realistic person. (Who in the world goes around calling themselves "Ace"? It is quite sad, really...)

  Anyway, I did enjoy this book, and after the dark Warlock, it was a fun romp through very Who-like situations. Another 8/10 rating for this one! Maybe I should actually describe what this scale represents? Well, I'll work on that later. I have books to read!

• reviewed by Jeremy Benner

Infinite Requiem

• written by Daniel Blythe
• Review: There is a war raging over the planet Gadrell Major between Humans and the Phracton Swarm. But there is another enemy on this world which is more dangerous than both sides put together...

  There is a pregnant woman on Earth in the year 1997. But the child she carries is not quite human. It is a creature who has the power to destroy the entire world...

  Pridka Dream Centre, a space station in the distant future built to treat and hone all manner of Psychic dysfunction. Unannounced, they have just received a visitor with a particular disorder untreatable at this facility...

  What is the common thread that weaves these three, seemingly seperate storylines into one? Well, the first is the Doctor and Bernice, and the second is the fact that these three seemingly seperate aliens are in fact the same alien, fragmented into three seperate entities! (I see shades of Scaroth here...)

  So, let me start by saying that this is not a great book. I kind of had to force my way through it. The story begins on the war raged planet where these Phracton blokes are hell-bent on aquiring the rights to this world at any cost. The Humans who didn't get away on the escape ships have ended up being frightened scavengers. One of these sad foragers has found a woman buried under a pile of rubble. But, this is no ordinary woman. This is a powerful Sensopath! A creature of incredible mental ability, able to channel the mental powers of herself and others to be used for Evil! We shall call her Shanstra. What could be the motives behind her hidden rage? Well, I had to wait until the last few chapters to get this explained to me.

  The Doctor and Bernice arrive on earth in 1997. He has been broody ever since Ace left. (I, on the other hand, am ecstatic.) The two of them go out for a jaunt around the neighborhood, but of course, the forces of mystery cause them to get caught up in the life of a pregnant woman, who just happens to be carrying fragment #2 of this Sensopath gestalt in the form of her unborn child. In the esuing plot twists, the mother ends up dead, and the Sensopath, who we will call Kelzen, ends up in the Zero Room of the TARDIS and headed towards Gadrell Major, for more fun.

  The third fragment of this trinity of Evil, arrives at the aformentioned Psychic Space Station which is run by the Pridka. From what I understand, they are a race of mentally powerful Reptile Fish Men. The third fragment, who will be known as Jirenal, decides to use all the minds of the creatures on board, and the minds of the creatures yet to arrive, to boost his power to aid him in, ahem, Universal Domination!

  So, the Doctor arranges a few things out of our earshot with Kelzen, and on Gadrell Major has a run-in with Shanstra, who begins to attempt conjunction with Jirenal. The Doctor and company then head to the Pridka Space Station to thwart this contrived plan of reunification.

  What a load of old cobblers. We all know how it is going to end up, but they drag us along on this ride through three boring scenarios, hoping it will keep our interest. Well, it didn't. The Sensopaths are cut-rate megalomaniacs. The Space-Fleet guys are all wooden. The scavengers are all punks. And the apparent threat to the "entire universe" is underplayed. There are three droll in-jokes that got a smile out of me. But the biggest smile came when I was finished reading it, and was able to finally move on to the next one. I can honestly say that the best part of this novel was the inside of the back cover, because it meant I was done! I certainly hope that they improve, at least a bit, for the next few I read.

  Anyway, I only give this one a 5/10. The cover is pretty, but don't judge this book by it...

• reviewed by Jeremy Benner

Sanctuary

• written by David A. McIntee
• Review: In the vast, inky blackness of space, a gigantic ship made its way towards the ancestral home of the Daleks...

  This, however, has nothing to do with what takes place in Sanctuary, a semi-historical novel set on Earth. The Doctor and Bernice are forced to abandon the TARDIS, which is caught in some form of temporal rift, and take refuge in the Jade Pagoda (the "lifeboat" of the TARDIS, as it were. What I don't understand is why this pagoda thingie mimics the Police Box shape the TARDIS is stuck in?! As if the Time Lords designed it to look like a Buddhist temple with a green flashing light on top! Somebody explain it to me!). This lifeboat takes them to the closest habitable M-Class planet, which just by chance, is Earth. Not only that, but to add to the fun, it dumps them in 11th century Europe! I doesn't take long after their arrival for the gimmick to be engaged - The Doctor and Bernice become seperated.

  The Doctor, who impersonates a high-ranking royal observer, becomes embroiled in court intrigue while in the company of the bad guys of the story, while Bernice ends up in the fortress of the good guys, one of whom is actually named Guy. They call this hilltop fortress (or Sanctuary, as it were) "The Roc." With the Templars and the Inquisition roaming the countryside, all trying to "convert" heritics to the side of the true God by killing them, these non-believers need a place to hide out. So here they find shelter, food, and no diety-discrimination at this Sanctuary. At The Roc, they know their role, and are kept safe from the bad guys, no questions asked.

  Well, these bad guys want to lay the smackdown on The Roc, so they can get their hands on some odd religious artifact. This will guarantee that head-bad guy can rise to the office of Pope! Does it get any better than that?! The first 1/4 of this book is slow, and I began to wonder if anything was going to happen. But once the Doctor & co. arrive, business picks up considerably. It was kind of odd reading a Doctor Who story with no aliens or sci-fi aspects, but I really got into it. At some points I could actually smell what The Roc was cookin'!

  You pretty well know how the story is going to end up, and there aren't that many surprises, although I didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition...and the cameo appearance by the Skull of Jesus was quite unexpected.

  All in all, a good read by my extreme standards. My only beefs are that Bernice kept on making Star Trek references. Romulan Ale this, and Federation that. And the other is that both the Doctor and Bernice kept asking themselves what Ace would do in certain situations! Who cares what ace would do! Why not ask what K-9 would do?!

  So, I give this one a 7.5 out of 10. I feel that this story would have translated to TV quite well. That is, if those bastards at the BBC had had the balls to keep making Doctor Who, and not pander to those who would rather watch crap like CHiPs...anyway, that's my rant for now. Back to more reading!

• reviewed by Jeremy Benner

Human Nature

• written by Paul Cornell
• Review: Probably the best original novel ever to hit the shelves with the Doctor Who logo on its cover, this extremely atypical book is either loved or hated, depending on which segment of fandom you ask.

  The Doctor makes a mysterious decision to obtain a telepathic pod from an omnivorous, occasionally cannibalistic, shapeshifting race of aliens known as the Aubertides. He stores his own knowledge and personality in the pod - as well as detailed genetic information - and turns himself, both physically and psychologically, into John Smith, history teacher, a perfectly ordinary human (with odd gaps in his memory) teaching at a boys' school in 1914. Bernice is left to fend for herself as the Doctor pursues whatever mystery has compelled him to undergo such a drastic change. In the process of discovering what it means to be human, the former Time Lord falls in love with a local woman who is attracted to his simplicity and gentle nature - but when the Aubertides storm the countryside, discovering that they have done business with a Time Lord and trying to track down his regenerative DNA to save their dying race, "Doctor John Smith" must risk everything and everyone to protect his fellow humans.

  Human Nature achieves an emotional complexity not often reached by most Doctor Who novels, and this is Paul Cornell's strong suit. Cornell also wrote the outstanding Love And War earlier in the New Adventures series, which introduced the character of Bernice. The Doctor's love story with Joan rings absolutely true emotionally, rather than seeming tacked-on, and furthermore, it's easy to imagine Sylvester McCoy playing the role of the Doctor's human alter-ego. Cornell perfectly captures the nuances of a McCoy performance in print, making it all the more plausible. And the book's final scene, its final words, are almost guaranteed to leave the reader choked up, with its hint that the Doctor - after reverting to his Time Lord state - does indeed remember and understand what love means on a "mere" human scale.

• reviewed by Earl Green