Just War

• written by Lance Parkin
• Review: One of the many reasons the Time Lords have a strict non-intervention policy is that by interacting with primitive cultures, you run the risk of messing with their natural evolution. Now, when the Doctor interferes, we usually don't see the effects of his visits after the 4 or 6 episodes, and for the most part, he does enough good that we figure everything is going to be okay. But what if an innocent slip of the tongue could affect the outcome of World War II? This is very much the problem in Just War. An exciting adventure full of stiff-upper-lip Brits and evil Nazis.

  The Germans have a secret weapon. A weapon so cunning that not only could you brush your teeth with it, but it could single handedly win the war for their side. But what is it? The Doctor has dispatched his crack time travel team to investigate! Roz has no idea what this weapon is. Bernice isn't really sure why she was sent where she was sent, or, for that matter, what to be looking for. Chris thinks the secret weapon is a flying saucer. And the Doctor? He, for once, has no idea what is happening. The only clues they have are, a scientist named Emil Hartung has designed some type of super weapon that will allow the Germans to win WWII.

  The whole way through this book you are anticipating aliens, or spaceships, or that Hartung is the Master. But instead you get air raids, secret bases, and SS officers. It is a refreshing change from the norm, and Lance Parkin has expertly blended the TARDIS crew into an historic setting. After the abysmal Downtime, it was so satisfying to read a good Who book again.

  Now don't get me wrong! I'm not saying that there are no aliens (there aren't), or spaceships (not a one), or that Hartung isn't the Master (he isn't). I just don't want to spoil the surprise at the end (there isn't one). Anyway, this book deserves a 9, but I'm only giving it 8.5/10. I'm still hoping that there is room for improvement.

• reviewed by Jeremy Benner

Warchild

• written by Andrew Cartmel
• Review: This book is third in a trilogy of books about much the same characters. Cat's Cradle: Warhead, Warlock, and Warchild being the third. The first one I can't remember due to adolescence-induced short term memory loss. The second book was good (you can read my review here). And this final book was, for lack of a better word, good. I do have to say, it's not very Who-ish. The events in this story could happen just as well without the Doctor & company, but the added bonus of their presence is much appreciated.

  The story kind of continues along from Warlock (and maybe Warhead, if I could remember) taking place some 15 years later. All around the world, there are seemingly telekenetic/telepathic children being spied on by some mysterious Agency who are out to use these kids for, of course, evil and nefarious schemes of World conquest / domination / power / destruction / control, etc. The Doctor, being the sly chess player that he is, has figured everything out ahead of time, and has placed his operatives in key positions to allow events to come to a well-orchestrated conclusion.

  I know most of my reviews about the New Adventures have strikingly similar content, but this isn't down to me, it's the fault of the authors. The character of the Seventh Doctor has, I fear, run its course. How long can we deal with a guilt-ridden, future manipulating, chess playing, spoon playing, know-it-all?! There are few books that take him and use him to his fullest extent. I thought the character of the Doctor was supposed to dominate? Instead, he sinks into spells of silent depression, or silent contemplation, or vanishes from the pages completely! So, with only thirteen New Adventures left, I can see the end approaching. And with 140 books left for me to read (and hopefully, review) I know it's the end, but the moment has been prepared for.

  Anyway...there are quite a few semi-suggestive scenes in this book, though of late I'm not at all surprised by anything I read in a Doctor Who book. Once you can get your head round the idea of sex, swearing, and drugs on one page, and the Doctor on the very same page, then you're halfway there. So, despite my rambling rant, and seemingly endless criticism, I did like this book quite a bit. I give it an 8 out of 10. I was going to give it more, but in re-reading my review as I typed it out, I managed to sway my vote. Oh well, at least all the ****ing swearing in these NA's hasn't permiated my ****ing reviews. Not ****ing yet anyway.

• reviewed by Jeremy Benner

Sleepy

• written by Kate Orman
• Warning: the contents of this book DO NOT cause drowsiness.
• Review: So, this time, our time traveling gang of sleuths in their mystery machine land on a frontier world in the far future. The settlers have contracted a virus which gives them all manner of psychic powers. You know...telekenesis, pyro-kinesis, telepathy, and I believe one of them can predict fashion trends a decade in advance. And so, the Doctor manages to catch this "disease," but after some work, he is cured. The rest of the population, however, is not so lucky. Not only do they aquire these "powers" (I wish I had the power of mind-over-sci-fi-clichè) but they also have a compelling drive to run into the forest. They have this voice in their heads telling them to do... nobody's sure what, exactly.

  Deep in the jungle there are ancient ruins, so Bernice heads there (of course) and finds it unlikely that they hold the source, or are the cause, of the "call." But uh-oh! Along come some soldiers under the control of the sinister CORPORATION, wreaking yer average havoc upon the innocent pioneers. What are their orders, I wonder, hmmmm?!

  These soldiers are also psychic, and spend their time bullying civilians. All the while, the voice in the jungle keeps calling... Who is the voice? Who does the Doctor have a bet with, that he can help these people without any fatalities? And why does Chris Cwej think that the Mother Turtle loves him?

  Kate Orman has done well to write a very clean, un-complicated, story. Once again, I am pleased by the lack of sprawling city-scapes filled with countless intricate "characters." There is a time and place for both kinds of writing, but this is a simple tale, warranting simple prose. There are about two layers to this story, and both are quite easy to follow. Motives are not hidden. Secrets are not kept for very long. and everything gets sorted out in the end. No big revelation there, so I'm not really spoilng anything for you. 8 out of 10.

• reviewed by Jeremy Benner

Death and Diplomacy

• written by Dave Stone
• Review: The planet Moriel is of great tactical interest to three races: The Czahns, the Saloi, and the Dakharri. An impromptu summit of these three great empires has been called by the Hollow Gods in order to apparently settle the sabre rattling over this seemingly important planet. The Doctor has been designated as the mediator of this meeting and, even though he doesn't know how he got there, or the whereabouts of his companions, he seems in total control of the situation.

  Bernice, who has been snatched from the safety of the TARDIS, has ended up on some backwater gambling spaceport world, and inadvertantly gets mixed up with a displaced human named Jason Kane. All forms of hijinks and adventures befall these two, leading them right into the proverbial sack with each other. This leads to more hijinks, which I will spare all of you the pain of reading about.

  Roz and Chris, also seperated from the Doctor, have wound up on the military, slave-driven world of the Czahns. Being as clever as they are, they join up with the Soldier Caste (by beating two of them up and stealing their uniforms...) only to find themselves shipped out on the next troop transport on the way to invade the poor old world of Moriel.

  So, I know what you are asking. What do the desires of these Hollow Gods have to do with all this typical weirdness? And what stake does Jason Kane's "pet" have in the summit meeting on Moriel? Most of all, why is the Doctor wearing his old brown coat? I can tell you that 2 of these 3 questions are answered. Are the answers sufficiant? You be the judge.

  I was initially wary of sitting down with this book. Dave Stone's last book, Sky Pirates was, to pick an appropriate word...stupid. But, amazingly, he appears to have come away from his fixation with demented flying characters of many colours, with flying colours! There are still weirdos galore in the pages of this book, and his predilection in using run-on sentences is in full bloom, only done tastefully this time. I no longer fear the idea of a Dave Stone book, and am looking forward to his next attempt at quasi-normal writing. I certainly hope that whatever medication he is on continues to focus his talent away from the ridiculous, or else we could see a future book of his called Sky Pirates II: Return Of The Wanna-Be Douglas Adams. But modern medicine is a wonderful thing, as it earned this title an 8.5 out of 10.

• reviewed by Jeremy Benner

Happy Endings

• written by Paul Cornell
• Review: The Doctor is once again manipulating events, plotting and planning - but this time, he's planning Bernice Summerfield's wedding. Friends and acquaintances - ranging from Ace to Kadiatu to the Brigadier himself - are gathering in the quaint Earth village of Cheldon Bonniface. But other forces are at work here - evil, hatred, and perhaps just enough lust to derail Bernice's wedding before she's even had a chance to walk down the aisle. Can singing Silurians salvage the situation? Can Jason keep it in his pants - at least until after his wedding? Will the Timewyrm unleash her mighty powers again...upon her new boyfriend, Chris Cwej? And will the Brigadier survive one final encounter with the Master?

  This pleasant little novel by Paul Cornell, surely the most gifted of the NA authors, breaks with the "seasons" theme utilized in his four previous books and plays Benny's wedding for the stand-alone event that it has to be. Even if you haven't read the previous book (and I haven't), Jason Kane comes across as an interesting and well-rounded character - and Cornell wisely makes use of the fact that Jason had only appeared in the previous novel to keep the reader guessing about whether or not Jason and Benny are headed for wedded bliss, or the usual mayhem that seems to consume the lives of everyone in the Doctor's immediate vicinity.

  The sheer number of guest "appearances" here - at least one character from each of the 49 New Adventures published before this one - has an almost fanboyish feel to it, but the absurdity doesn't really begin to pile on until the guests start to arrive in unlikely numbers and in unlikely company (I'm thinking here of the arrival of Captain Lisa Deranne - of Shakedown: Return Of The Sontarans fame - and Sgloomi Po, among other characters). The presence of familiar faces like the men of UNIT also helps to ground things a little.

  Cornell's trademark whimsical-but-dangerous feel for the Doctor is set aside here, and the whole book takes on an unusual tone for a Doctor Who novel - somewhat romantic in places. But even the campiest elements - singing Silurians, anyone? - don't make things too weird. Still, there are a number of fans who absolutely hated this one precisely because of those whimsical elements and the romantic tone, so I suppose I could be wrong.

  Possibly the worst misstep of Happy Endings is the wedding reception chapter which was gang-written by all of the previous New Adventures authors. It comes across as silly, inconsistent, and largely inconsequential - it doesn't hurt the book one bit if one chooses to skip over it.

  Happy Endings isn't as bad as many of the fan reviewers would have us believe. Sure, it strays from the formula New Adventures followed for much of their existence, but when so many Doctor Who novels hitting the shelves now seem to be carved out of much the same storytelling stuff, is this break with tradition unpardonable - or, perhaps, more interesting than the average book? Happy Endings was also the first NA to bear the new look which saw the range out (and I was never that much of a fan of the new cover design).

  It's no Human Nature or Love And War, but did it have to be?

• reviewed by Earl Green

Godengine

• written by Craig Hinton
• Review: 2157 AD, planet Earth. To a Doctor Who fan, this means only one thing...the Dalek Invasion of Earth. But thanks to Craig Hinton, there's now more.

  Due to a "sub-space infarction," which coincidentally occurs at the same time as a "vortex rupture" (this is all tecno-babble deluxe!), the TARDIS gets "destroyed." The Doctor, along with Roz and Chris, jump into the temporal life boats just in time to escape this cataclysm, only to be separated and spread across our Solar System. The Doctor and Roz end up on Mars, and they're not alone. A spaceship crashes near to where they arrive, and on board they find a group of random travellers all with seemingly seperate agendas. As night begins to fall, the Doctor and Roz, along with the survivors of the doomed ship, head towards an entrance to the extensive underground cave system built thousands of years ago by the indigenous Martians. Little do they know, they are being followed.

  Chris, seperated from his crewmates, arrives in a subterranean research facility 50 kilometers beneath the surface of Pluto's moon Charon. Out here in the farthest reaches of the Solar System are the sole surviving members of a doomed subspace tunnel research station. They are destined to be destroyed by the Daleks, or "invaders," as they are frequently called. The sad little group of survivors who are left are trying to create a "stunnel" that will carry them to safety, somewhere - anywhere else. But Chris knows his history, and these survivors are just as doomed as the surface workers who were melted away by Dalek ion cannons a few years before. You see, it's May 7th, the very day the invaders are due to return to Charon to mop up the humans who escaped the initial bombardment. There are only hours left, and Chris is well aware there were no survivors (my thesaurus doesn't give me any more good words to use in place of "doomed" or "survivor," sorry) of the Dalek attacks. Can he risk messing with the web of time? Or is he to be among the certain dead, fused within the crumbled base on Charon?

  Meanwhile, the Doctor and company have discovered a gigantic magnetic field forming at the northern pole of Mars. This is a fantastic anomaly of enormous preportions. Mars has no magnetic poles, and surely no humans could be creating it. It couldn't possibly be the work of the Ice Warriors, because everyone knows there are no more Martians left on Mars...

  At the pole sits the Godengine - ancient Osiran technology designed to destroy worlds. The creatures behind its construction are using it as a bargaining chip, but the new rulers of Earth don't value honour as much as Martians. The Daleks want the Godengine, and they'll do anything to get it. I enjoyed this book, but boy, is it ever chockablock with continuity! Daleks and Ice Warriors and Sutekh. Oh my! But it has been woven together quite well. I mean, we all know the TARDIS can't be destroyed. We know how the Dalek invasion turns out. So not much is at risk here. I'm all for old enemies returning, and I'm just beginning a run of books which are filled with old enemies. I just hope I don't get drowned in all the nostalgia. I give this one 8 out of 10.

• reviewed by Jeremy Benner

Christmas on a Rational Planet

• written by Lawrence Miles
• Review: