Doctor Who: The Adventuress of Henrietta Street

Eighth Doctor Adventures #51

by Lawrence Miles

Time, according to the more arcane elements of quantum theory, is dependent on a consciousness, an observer, for its existence. At the outer reaches of the universe, where human consciousness cannot reach, time goes 'soft', and it is here that mankind meets its own animal and subconscious limitations, in the form of the brutal, carnivorous baboon-like beast.

Genres: Doctor Who, Science Fiction, Fiction, Novels, Fantasy, British Literature, Historical Fiction

288 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published November 5, 2001

Reviews

[Jordan West · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now, I'm pretty far from being a Dr. Who-vian; in fact, the only time I've ever watched the show was during my childhood when reruns from the '70's ran on PBS (although I've never forgotten the episode when the doctor's friend sacrificed himself to save earth from those cybermen). However, Quentin S. Crisp has a post up on the Ligotti forum describing Miles as the likes of a Pynchon whose oeuvre consisted only of Dr. Who fiction, and elsewhere he is compared to Alan Moore and Grant Morrison; given that, who am I to resist a Who novel featuring the doctor as the owner of a brothel in an 18th century France occupied by libertines and occultists?

[Mel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an eigth doctor novel, I'd heard it was very good and unlike other Doctor Who novels. It really is. It's barely a Doctor Who novel at all. It has a character called the Doctor, but he's kinda a mysterious minor character no one understands.The book starts in 1782 with a covent garden prostitute having tantric sex, controlling time, going back and forth in her mind, and accidently summoning a demon. Not at all like the first chapter of any Doctor Who book I've read before! The book then proceeds to be about the Hellfire clubs, Occult societies, and has the Doctor living with a bunch of prostitutes forming an occult society. There were creatures invading from another dimension, a dimension you could accidently find yourself in that was all gray and crumbling. It's all quite Alan Moore, there are ideas about magic and imagination and after the first chapter is written as if it were a popular history book, rather than a novel. I have to say I was quite impressed with the ammount of historical detail, normally I hate modern books with historical settings but I thought this one worked well and picked up on lots of little things.

The book started very well and had an amazing premise. Unfortuantely it seemed to loose direction about half way through. There was a very interesting young polynesian assasin who attacked the Doctor early in the book. But then she was killed quite unexpectadly without really explaining anything. After awhile the historical narrative style got a bit repetative, because it removed you so far from the events it made them less emotional. I think it would have been better to have changed much more between the fiction and the fact sections, particularly as this book was so long! It was only about 300 pages but the font was about 8! It actually took me days to read instead of hours!

While parts were a bit disappointing, overall I really enjoyed it. Particularly the first half. I think I will definitely try more eigth doctor books by this author.

[James Barnard · Rating 3 out of 5]

There’s a hell of a lot to admire – if not to like – about this one. Presented as a dispassionate account by a historian of some world-shaping events, this is a densely-packed, thought-provoking read that stands head and shoulders of the more enjoyable but undeniably more lightweight stories that surrounded it. The telling suits the story – how else would Lawrence Miles have been able to depict the events of a tale which sees the Doctor marry a prostitute, have his heart cut out and, apparently, make a deal with the devil himself, without his readership being up in arms about it?

Mind you, Miles doesn’t really care what people think, and he’s certainly no stranger to controversy. Most Doctor Who novels should – and do – work as stories in their own right. Here, though, I do think a bit of context is needed to explain my review. This was, after all, the man’s first novel after ‘Interference’ back in 1999. No other Doctor Who story, in any medium, has polarised opinion quite so comprehensively – it saw the Third Doctor’s timeline being drastically altered so that he regenerated a story too early, thus severely b*ll*cks!ng up the Doctor’s own life, allowing a profoundly irritating race of temporal cultists to become the dominant force in the range, and sending said range firmly up its own backside.

As far as BBC Books were concerned, the only way to reverse the damage ‘Interference’ did was to start from scratch, creating a situation where the Doctor destroyed said cultists at the cost of his entire race, and his memory, with no indication of when either would be recovered for nearly five years. This was a drastic step but a necessary one, which enabled BBC Books to finally put their own stamp on the ongoing saga. It’s just a shame that by this point, few people were looking.

There’s something quite poetic in the fact that it’s Lawrence Miles who picks up the baton at this stage. ‘The Adventuress of Henrietta Street’ marks a turning point, as we start to understand where the bumbling travails of an amnesiac Doctor and his companions are actually leading. Not that his companions play much of a part in this one – I suspect Miles would have preferred to excise them completely, since the lead characters are the denizens of the brothel where most of the action is set. By a quirk of timing, the novel was published not long after ‘Moulin Rouge’ made its way to cinemas in the UK, so the setting is a lot easier to imagine (and, oddly, justify) than might otherwise be the case.

My one complaint relates not to the book itself, but rather the format. I don’t know who it was that dictated that all the BBC Books range had to come in at 280 pages, but here it’s a major drawback. Far, far too much is crammed into the binding – the text is too small and the pages too densely packed for it to flow as well as it should. Why couldn’t the page count have been increased? This was an important novel in the range – quite apart from the fact that it marked the 50th Eighth Doctor Adventure – yet someone allowed it to pack far less punch than it deserves.

Crucial for the life changes it inflicts on its titular characters (the Doctor and the eponymous Adventuress) this is a hugely significant part of the range, in which some readers were finally able to forgive Miles for inflicting ‘Interference’ on the world. Well, at least until we started hearing his views on the post-2005 version of the TV series…

If you can overcome the major drawbacks of the formatting, this is worth a read.

[Sean Homrig · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lawrence Miles, I love you. You had the ambition and talent to tell a story in an objective third-person narrative collected from stories told by characters in the novel. This was good. About halfway through, however, you lost me. I'll just name a few things: A man named Sabbath who is obviously human, but craves the power to travel through time and space like a Time Lord, and can perform heart transplants with ease. The Doctor uses a makeshift glass sonic screwdriver to behead the King of the Apes (yes, that happens in this). There's a place that exists and is seeping through into our reality via savage apes which worship a black sun, but no explanation is given. There's a troupe of prostitutes headed by the titular character, all of which are interchangeable and lack dimensions, although some of them hold power that is never explained. So sorry, Lawrence Miles, you lost me somewhere in this mess of a story, but ironically it was written beautifully. I would advise fans of the series to put this one down about half way through and walk away before they get horribly drunk on what is otherwise a wonderful vintage. For hardcore veterans of the series only, and I'm told there's more like this on the way....

[Trin · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a load of wank, for relatively little reward. I'm super bummed, because despite certain...wanky tendencies, I've very much enjoyed Miles' other Eighth Doctor books. But he's so far up his own ass here that no one can fucking see.

The device of the narrative being a history book is fun at first, but loses charm as the plot drags itself along, going nowhere and giving us nothing of its characters, including many story-specific OCs, mostly 18th century sex workers/sorceresses who should be cool, but who Miles forgets to give personalities, and so aren't. Fitz and Anji are sidelined, and even the Doctor is not vibrantly on the page for more than a couple moments.

This book also introduces a major new character, who I know a lot of fans enjoy...but he comes across as nothing here other than a sub-par Kingpin. His crazy move at the end of the book should be cool, but seeing as it's not backed up by the rest of the narrative at all, it falls flat. The only scene I really liked was the brief conversation between the Doctor and the Master.

Should, should, should. Sadly, Miles didn't.

[Numa Parrott · Rating 1 out of 5]

That was undoubtedly one of the worst ones so far.

The whole thing is like a never-ending wikipedia article (except I've read better wiki articles). Oh, and the subject matter was horribly unwholesome to the point where I'd give this book an 'R' rating if it was a movie. There was an attempt at plot that never really amounted to much. I think

**Spoilers that you should read to save yourself the agony of reading this book*************

that the Doctor's left heart got ripped out for some reason (there was vague explanation about how it was poisoning him because Gallifrey got destroyed). Yeah it didn't make much sense.
Also there was a guy who might have been the Valyard, but who knows.

Reading this book was like drinking sour milk from a carton. Don't do it.

[Evie · Rating 3 out of 5]

pros:

great premise - a doctor who book written entirely as a historical record, is so ambitious and such a great idea, and something which only could be done in book form.

there are some great set pieces and moments in this one - particularly with the intriguing character of sabbath, and the showdowns with the doctor at the end.

there are also a lot of really great ideas, concepts, lines scattered throughout. I think miles really did put a lot of thought into this.


cons:

the text itself is quite well written, but for obvious reasons, very dense. unfortunately the amount of information (which really is a huge amount) it contains is not always interesting, or well structured - there was a lot I was bored by. sometimes it really is just too much.

the characterisation of basically everyone, including the regulars, is thin, but particularly in regards to the women of the titular henrietta street - which is a real shame, because the *idea* of all of them, is very cool and intriguing. for all his extensive and searing critique of other doctor who authors’ approaches to writing women, I’m personally not convinced he’s that much better.

the doctor is written slightly better, although still not exactly *well*, but anji and fitz may as well not be there. again, a real shame.

my main issue though is like with all of miles’ entries to the series - there’s always an underlying sense of his own feelings of smugness and superiority throughout it all to me - you get the impression that he always knows, and thinks about the fact that he is being terribly clever.
but I think this book, whilst impressively complex, he still thinks is cleverer than it actually is. for the most part, it just feels like a doctor who book *trying* to be a historical book, rather than actually truly succeeding in being one. it’s all still quite amateur in parts, despite the ambition, research and miles’ obvious talent and skill as a writer.

[Jacob Licklider · Rating 5 out of 5]

There was a temptation in writing this review to make an attempt in emulating Lawrence Miles’ style of writing The Adventuress of Henrietta Street. Instead of a typical prose fiction narrative, this novel is presented as a non-fiction work as an attempt to chronicle mysterious, esoteric, and the often occult goings on in the year leading up to the marriage of the titular adventuress, Scarlette from recollection, public record, and speculation on the part of the author between 1782 and 1783. As is typical with Lawrence Miles’ work, this novel is often obfuscating its normal plot in layers upon layers of commentary and intrigue and while it is perhaps the most difficult book by Miles to read, it has perhaps the deepest reflections on Doctor Who and essentially is one last goodbye, despite Miles saying he would never write for the universe again after Interference (apparently he needed the money for LEGO sets). The difficulty in reading The Adventuress of Henrietta Street, at least in a physical copy, is not due to Miles, however, but BBC Books and their 288 page count restriction for their published books. This means that the font size of the novel is incredibly small, which had made it physically difficult for my eye to follow the actual words on the page, especially when the format switched to reprinting interviews from the characters and other quotations further indenting the formatting. Again, this is not due to Miles, yes he did have a book that was split into two for Interference, however, that simply wouldn’t have worked here as it would have split up a story that is meant to be experienced as one piece that is brought together. It’s also something where the format means that not everything is answered and the unreliable nature of the narrator, not named but presumably an academic from Earth, adds conjecture and speculation to events.

The Adventuress of Henrietta Street described in one word is visceral, Miles’ prose brings the London setting to life with this sense of mystery and danger as the wedding of Scarlette and the setting of the house are mired with explorations of society and especially of the lives of the sex workers living in the house. Some have said this is not so much a Doctor Who book, but a book with the Doctor in it and that is something I have to disagree with emphatically. Miles is drawing on the absence of typical Doctor Who trappings and Doctor light stories that the New Adventures would do to explore what his view of the Doctor is in the novels post The Ancestor Cell. The threat largely mounting is one of an Old One breaking through the threads of Time itself, unlocking the floods of creatures being held back by an authority that is now missing from the universe. This leakage into the universe is also reflected in the occult and magical themes that The City of the Dead began which The Adventuress of Henrietta Street continues to explore with wonder. The wedding itself is ceremony, there are thirteen parties invited, twelve accept, and the reception makes use of a thirteen-sided table. The bride is a human, the groom is not, and in addition to the wedding it feels like a coronation, binding the groom to humanity as its lord and protector. If you haven’t already guessed at this point, the groom is the Doctor and there is something utterly beautiful and fascinating about what his place in the universe is now that everything has changed. Miles puts him in this unfamiliar territory and under responsibility. For the first time, Miles’ anger at the revived series feels justified actually reading the book that is essentially a precursor to the emotional core of Series 1.

As this is a novel written in the style of non-fiction, and the Doctor, Fitz, and Anji are time travelers, we don’t get their direct perspective. Both companions fulfill more minor roles in the novel, Anji especially being sidelined the most as Miles clearly doesn’t like her character, but this really isn’t their story, it’s the story of the house and the universe. The many women of the house all live fascinating lives and have a role to play. Scarlette feels the perfect compliment to the Doctor, both filling and transcending the typical ‘companion’ role, forming this understanding of who the Doctor is and providing the avenue to confront the babewyns. Once again like The City of the Dead before it the emotions of the characters are highlighted through intimacy in a very tasteful way. The mysterious nature of the actual events and characters, especially at the wedding, are also integral to what The Adventuress of Henrietta Street is doing. This is the first time the character of Sabbath appears and is identified, being set up as the villain of the novel and he both is and isn’t. Hypnotic is perhaps the best way to describe the character as it’s one of the many unanswered questions as to what he is trying to accomplish but the goal itself is motivated clearly. The unanswered questions clearly have answers in Miles’ mind but they are intentionally left vague. There is a man with a rosette who is one of the four surviving elementals and whose identity is obvious. One guest never arrives or even responds to the invitations despite the other twelve arriving and its clear who this entity is. And the book ends with Sabbath performing a surgery.

The Adventuress of Henrietta Street is not a novel to be read lightly and perhaps to be fully appreciated may have to be read more than once, but it is a statement on Doctor Who and really what it means. It asks a lot of questions and the answers are there if you look very carefully. It manages to be both typical and completely atypical given its paradoxical nature and one of the transcendent pieces of Doctor Who media that honestly changed trajectory of the franchise and the eventual show’s return. 10/10.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's an intriguing idea, really, writing one of the swashbuckling Eighth Doctor's adventures as an historical account. Unfortunately, it reads like an historical account, and is overall pretty dry and only occasionally thrilling. Interesting on a few points, particularly the Doctor's almost-marriage (for bizarre reasons I'm still not clear on), the fact that he is viewed by mystics and such as an elemental (interesting bit that turns up in another book, City of the Dead), and that he can, apparently, grow a beard if he feels like it.

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Let's be clear...this isn't your father's run-of-the-mill "Doctor Who". This is an attempt to be provocative, brutal, sensual...and mash up alien shenanigans with history in a way that could turn Terrance Dicks' hair white. It's a dense, multi-textual work of great skill and beauty...and I appreciate it in many ways. I can't say that I'm head-over-heels in love this approach, but it's certainly one of the landmarks in "Doctor Who" fiction. An outrageous, hellish, extraordinary read.

[Stephen Wood · Rating 3 out of 5]

Five out of five for ambition, wit and finding a unique style that doesn't outstay its welcome. The story, characters and anything beyond the form, however, weigh it down — a grand experiment that neither failed nor succeeded.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Please note that this review is after reading about 40% of the book and, unfortunately, giving up at that point. Also note that with its amazingly small type to fit this very long novel into what I'm guessing was a limited number of printed pages available, this is probably as much reading as a standard Who novel. But this is no standard Who novel. As other reviews will say better than I can, it's unlike any other Who novel and is an intriguing concept of how to present the story. However, for me, the style and format took away from what seemed like a very interesting story buried in the plethora of scattered text. I made several attempts to get onto it, even restarting it once, but to no avail. I will say good luck to those who wish to attempt this book and hope you have more patience than I do. I give it three stars for what of the plot I could understand and the bold and different way of presenting this tale, but it may be too much concept and not enough spellbinding execution.

[James Lotshaw III · Rating 1 out of 5]

When on hears the title The Adventures of Henrietta Street, I imagined a Sherlock Holmes type of adventure, similar to the 11th Doctor adventure “The Snowmen”; however, what I read was the worst Doctor Who novel in a long while.

I don’t mind the more adult tone of either EDA’s or NA’s, but a book that incorporates prostitution, extreme violent death, and a narrative that comes off more like the 12th Doctor’s story “Sleep No More “gives this story a huge climb up in quality, that never seems to meet fruition.

Combined this with the main characters being vacant throughout the story, I’m glad this is the last Lawrence Miles novel, that I will ever punish myself.

[Richard Harrison · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was clever, intellectual and, especially in the latter half, quite gripping. It only lost points for being a bit remote as it’s (cleverly) put together as a historical document. The Doctor is a bit ineffectual in this one, not really accomplishing much of anything and I’m not sure about smug new character Sabbath who seems like an amoral, unlikeable version of the Doctor. I’m glad all Doctor Who isn’t like this but I definitely wish a lot more was.

[Noelle · Rating 1 out of 5]

To be fair since I gave it one star, I will explain. The experimental detached writing style made it impossible to care for the characters. Which might be a blessing because some of their actions were so beyond not ok I would never accept it as Canon. Both the plot and the setting were a very bad idea. Just know the Doctor loses a heart in this book, skip it, and go read the infinitely superior Camera Obscura to see him get it back

[Mole Mann · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most unique and certainly one of the best Doctor Who books of all time to finish off 2023. The non-fiction style of this book works really well and it has some of the most impressive additions to the Doctor Who canon (The babewyns are exceedingly brilliant villains - as much a psychological and political concept as a flesh-and-blood creature). For better or for worse, this changed the Eighth Doctor range and set a lot of things into motion that would last for several years.

[Andy Stehr · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book doesn't read like a Doctor Who book at all. That's both a good thing and sometimes a bad thing. Adventuress of Henrietta Street is like Doctor Who meets a book report of Pride and Prejudice written in 1845. I loved the style and I certainly thinks is more than worth the read. There are also important events within relating to the 8th Doctor’s ongoing series.

[Brian Flynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite Doctor Who original novel. A stunning book.

[John Wilson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can picture Lawrence Miles writing this and repeatedly muttering, “whenever Sabbath’s not in this chapter all the other characters should be asking ‘Where's Sabbath’?”

[Billy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really good Doctor Who novel. 'Adventuress' is an 8th Doctor story in which the Doctor and his companions, Fitz and Anji, spend about a year in 18th century London, with some travel to Paris and the Caribbean. The Doctor is preparing to get married, yet he suffers from a mysterious illness. They are based at a bordello run by Scarlette, the 'adventuress' of the title. The story is told in a very imaginative way- recounted from historical documents, as if it were a long history essay. The alien menace in this story is a reflection of humanity's ignorance, made corporeal- and summoned into our world by people engaging in various pursuits, including, most bizarrely for Doctor Who, tantric sex (at the beginning of the story). The nature of the narrative enables it to change fluidly from one set of action to another, as the narrator (historian?) peruses the meaning of the texts he/she is interpreting. A great character is introduced, Sabbath- whom I have discovered is a regular character throughout many of the remaining books in this series. I chose to read this novel because I was interested in reading something by Lawrence Miles, a popular author of this era and an internet critic of the current series. I also wanted to read a Doctor Who novel around the time of the 50th. Reading this for me coincided with the release of the Paul McGann mini-episode; I have now been officially converted (re-converted?) into an 8th Doctor fan, and am looking forward to reading other novels in this series. I've already ordered the one set in New Orleans and downloaded 'Gallifrey Chronicles' to my Kindle. This novel is a triumph of story-telling, by an author unafraid to push the genre in new directions. Superb.

[Gareth · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Doctor, Fitz and Anji are hiding out in a Georgain brothel run by a beautiful witch whilst the Doctor constructs an elaborate plan to save the Earth from a dark army of bestial ape creatures and also to save his own life, now that Gallifrey has been destroyed and his time lord nature is killing him.

Once I'd got to grips with Lawrence Miles' style of reportage, with the narrator constantly explaining, theorising and alluding as they told the story, I was very impressed with this EDA. It belongs to the secret history genre, describing a magical war which took place in 1782, involving American rebels, freemasons, covens, the British secret service and the Doctor. Miles is something of an expert on this period of history and I learnt alot. He enjoys weaving the fictional parts into the factual past very cleverly. Sabbath is an excellent new arch adversary for the Doctor and the book ends on a gripping ""what happens now"" cliffhanger.

[Nicholas Whyte · Rating 3 out of 5]

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2258327.html[return][return]A remarkable Eighth Doctor adventure, rather horrible and misjudged in some places, striking and memorable in others; set in 1783; the Doctor gets married to a Tantric courtesan, slightly foreshadowing River Song; there are dubious scenes with Caribbean zombies and other cult practices; the Master makes a cryptic appearance; the whole thing is told in the tone of an excited but somewhat baffled historical researcher; Phil Sandifer's parodic review is a better and quicker read.

[Simon Curtis · Rating 5 out of 5]

How to describe this book?! Compelling, gripping, and with the smallest font ever known to man - a 500 page novel crammed onto 320 pages! This is like no other Doctor Who novel: dark, mooody, angry, violent in places. It is, simply, sensational!

[Gale · Rating 5 out of 5]

My fav 8th Doctor novel to date.