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2099 #6
Firestorm
Tristan and Genia fight to stop Tristan's evil clone, Devon, from destroying Earth and the colonized moon, and try to thwart Quietus' takeover of Mars.
160 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 2000
63 people want to read
About the author
John Peel
421 books166 followersJohn Peel is the author of Doctor Who books and comic strips. Notably, he wrote the first original Doctor Who novel, Timewyrm: Genesys, to launch the Virgin New Adventures line. In the early 1990s he was commissioned by Target Books to write novelisations of several key Terry Nation Dalek stories of the 1960s after the rights were finally worked out. He later wrote several more original Daleks novels.
He has the distinction of being one of only three authors credited on a Target novelisation who had not either written a story for the TV series or been a part of the production team (the others were Nigel Robinson and Alison Bingeman).
Outside of Doctor Who, Peel has also written novels for the Star Trek franchise. Under the pseudonym "John Vincent", he wrote novelisations based upon episodes of the 1990s TV series James Bond Jr..
He has the distinction of being one of only three authors credited on a Target novelisation who had not either written a story for the TV series or been a part of the production team (the others were Nigel Robinson and Alison Bingeman).
Outside of Doctor Who, Peel has also written novels for the Star Trek franchise. Under the pseudonym "John Vincent", he wrote novelisations based upon episodes of the 1990s TV series James Bond Jr..
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
September 1, 2025
After a couple weaker entries that passed without much action, the final volume of this middle-grade sci-fi series thankfully delivers with a bang. Everyone is scrambling to defeat the villain Devon's terrorist threat to end all life on Earth (via a crashing ship full of radioactive material), his additional scheme to do the same to the moon (by blowing up the colony's power supply), his former bosses' attempt to evade capture by fleeing to Mars, and the fascist uprising that their other underling already has underway out there. Phew! With such a diffuse plot, the storyline is understandably a bit scattered, but it's all exciting enough to result in a propulsive page-turner nonetheless.
I do have a few minor quibbles. I don't love how the politician who keeps inappropriately asking out his subordinate gets rewarded by her now seeming to welcome his advances, and I miss the creative worldbuilding that fueled these novels early on. The setting of this last adventure feels like more of a generic future, which makes it harder to overlook the inherent silliness of the idea that the three teenage clones were specifically bred for their resulting skill at computer hacking alone. In addition, a certain character who hasn't really had anything meaningful to contribute for several books in a row is again largely left out, which raises the obvious question of why they're still around at this point.
But ultimately, this is good fun. The Tristan/Genia romance angle even pays off, and Jame's side of the story finally connects more fully with the others. I don't know that I'll ever feel the need to reread this sequence again, but I can see why it stuck in my head for twenty-five years, and this title marks a satisfying conclusion to the affair.
[Content warning for suicide, gun violence, and violence against children.]
This volume: ★★★★☆
Overall series: ★★★★☆
Volumes ranked: 2 > 1 > 3 > 6 > 4 > 5
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I do have a few minor quibbles. I don't love how the politician who keeps inappropriately asking out his subordinate gets rewarded by her now seeming to welcome his advances, and I miss the creative worldbuilding that fueled these novels early on. The setting of this last adventure feels like more of a generic future, which makes it harder to overlook the inherent silliness of the idea that the three teenage clones were specifically bred for their resulting skill at computer hacking alone. In addition, a certain character who hasn't really had anything meaningful to contribute for several books in a row is again largely left out, which raises the obvious question of why they're still around at this point.
But ultimately, this is good fun. The Tristan/Genia romance angle even pays off, and Jame's side of the story finally connects more fully with the others. I don't know that I'll ever feel the need to reread this sequence again, but I can see why it stuck in my head for twenty-five years, and this title marks a satisfying conclusion to the affair.
[Content warning for suicide, gun violence, and violence against children.]
This volume: ★★★★☆
Overall series: ★★★★☆
Volumes ranked: 2 > 1 > 3 > 6 > 4 > 5
Like this review?
--Throw me a quick one-time donation here!
https://ko-fi.com/lesserjoke
--Subscribe here to support my writing and weigh in on what I read next!
https://patreon.com/lesserjoke
--Follow along on Goodreads here!
https://www.goodreads.com/lesserjoke
--Or click here to browse through all my reviews!
https://lesserjoke.home.blog
Displaying 1 of 1 review