Tempest

Bernice Summerfield: Virgin New Adventures #9

by Christopher Bulis, Peter Elson (Illustrator)

Smith consulted his watch very deliberately. "You have one hour to find the Imnulate and hand it over to me. If you do not, I will tear this train and its passengers apart piece by piece!"

Tempest: a wild and untamed world perpetually wreathed in cloud and storms. The only means of long-distance travel across its surface are the great transcontinental monorails that traverse its lonely and dangerous wastelands. Returning home from a lucrative lecture, Professor Bernice Summerfield finds herself on the most celebrated of these mighty trains.

The Drell Imnulate: a fabulous and unique religious idol. Precious enough to kill for. So important to those rival factions who follow the way of its maker that they will dare anything to ensure its return.

Isolated in the wilderness and far from civilisation, death strikes the luxurious Polar Express, and a routine journey turns into a nightmare. But can Bernice save a train on the brink of disaster?

Genres: Doctor Who, Science Fiction

265 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Christopher Bulis is a writer best known for his work on various Doctor Who spin-offs. He is one of the most prolific authors to write for the various ranges of spin-offs from the BBC Television series Doctor Who, with twelve novels to his name, and between 1993 and 2000 he had at least one Doctor Who novel published every year.

Bulis' first published work was the New Adventure Shadowmind, published in 1993 by Virgin Publishing. This was the only novel Bulis wrote featuring the Seventh Doctor, and his next five books were all published under Virgin's Missing Adventures range: State of Change (1994), The Sorcerer's Apprentice (1995), The Eye of the Giant (1996), Twilight of the Gods (1996), and A Device of Death (1997).

When Virgin lost their licence to publish novels based on Doctor Who, Bulis repeated this pattern writing novels for the BBC - with one novel written for the current incumbent Doctor as part of BBC Books' Eighth Doctor Adventures range, and then all of his other novels published as part of the Past Doctor Adventures range. Bulis' novels for the BBC were The Ultimate Treasure (1997), Vanderdeken's Children (1998), City at World's End (1999), Imperial Moon (2000) and Palace of the Red Sun (2002).

Bulis also wrote the novel Tempest as part of Virgin's Bernice Summerfield range of novels, and also a short story for Big Finish Productions' Short Trips series.

Reviews

[Gareth · Rating 3 out of 5]

A murder mystery train isn’t exactly new ground, even for this range of books (which did an Agatha Christie pastiche on a spaceship a few books earlier), but Tempest has a firm handle on the structure and has fun playing with red herrings. The action is mostly confined to a high speed train on an inhospitable planet, but it keeps a good balance of its investigation plot and the weird world outside. Best of all is Bernice Summerfield who, despite a notable absence of spark at times, takes to the role of have-a-go investigator as well as any passing Time Lord. And she manages some of it drunk.

3.5

[Jacob Licklider · Rating 4 out of 5]

It seems like whenever I look at something by Christopher Bulis there is a tendency to open discussing how hit or miss he is as a writer. When it comes to Doctor Who books, it is telling that when writing he would often contribute more often to the range that celebrates previous Doctors instead of contributing to the ongoing story post-Survival. He contributed Shadowmind to the Virgin New Adventures and Vanderdeken’s Children to the Eighth Doctor Adventures, but outside of those two, his Doctor Who work is all pre-Seventh Doctor. The surprise came with Tempest, the tenth novel in the Bernice Summerfield era of the New Adventures, was from Bulis which represents an interesting opportunity. This is an opportunity to write something that really isn’t a Doctor Who story. The Benny books by this point have made themselves clearly distinct from Doctor Who despite recurring elements, Benny is her own character with her own motivations and sense of morality. Bulis takes this in an interesting direction, using it to tell essentially a standalone science fiction story, not contributing to a lot of the story arc elements that have been brewing in the Benny books up to this point, which isn’t a bad thing. Not every book needs to be a big story arc player and this particular novel is one that definitely is helped by not doing that.

Tempest is primarily a pastiche of Agatha Christie novels, specifically Murder on the Orient Express, but done with Benny’s particular brand of humor which is a wonderful twist for much of the novel. It’s a book where you kind of already know what you are going to get if you have read any of Christie’s work. Now, Bulis does include what feels like a lengthy prologue encompassing much of the first third or so of the novel and instead of an outright murder based on revenge like Murder on the Orient Express, Tempest focuses on a robbery where things eventually turn to murder. Bulis is also aware of the ending of Murder on the Orient Express and is clear that that is not going to be at all what the book is going to be giving you. This is a mystery which has some decent red herrings and a twist that does manage to subvert expectations when it is eventually revealed who is responsible for the murder and the theft. The item of the robbery is something that all the characters have this tendency to discuss, but reading there isn’t really a good explanation of what it is and why people want it. There’s a lot more about the planet Tempest, which like the name implies is one ravaged by storms, squalls, and hail. The train setting is fun and it gives Benny a group of characters to play detective with, however, those characters aren’t actually all that interesting. Bulis makes them all one note portrayals to serve the mystery and pastiches of some of Agatha Christie’s well known characters or the public perception of Agatha Christie characters.

Overall, Tempest is actually a lot of fun to read, but is a story that doesn’t go to many depths. It’s very much a popcorn style novel with a nice little murder mystery at its heart with some robbery elements to make it a little more distinct from a regular murder mystery, and Benny at the center of everything is such a very nice thing. This is just a book from a writer who does something fun and solid but not amazing. 7/10.

[April Mccaffrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Have you ever thought of calling in a public relations consultant?"
"I am not a man to be insulted lightly, Professor-"
"Then I'll insult you heavily! Don't be a bloody self-delusional fool."

-

I loved this book so much! Everything about this book captured the essence of Bernice Summerfield. I loved reading it and taking my time with this book, getting to know the characters and the setting. I think this is one of the better Benny / DW EU books Chris Bulis has written.

I loved how real the characters felt and how he understood Benny and her cynicism. But she's also smart and clever, and she's totally out of her element here playing detective but she cares about people and the need to uncover the truth.

I also love the description of Wilver. He kind of reminded me the 7th Doctor with the hat and umbrella at first. Before his true nature was revealed.

I also really enjoyed Bassit and Farlene characters. My friend is a train manager and I think he can approve of Bassit's character.

If you love trains and you love Benny, and love a good who's done it trope, then you'll love this book.

[Richard Harrison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun Agatha Christie-esque murder on a train story. It ranks toward the bottom of the New Adventures novels due to the general high quality of them.

[Christy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I actually enjoyed this one! It was a solid mystery-on-a-train and Benny wasn't nearly as insufferable as she usually is. Fun read!

[Nicholas Whyte · Rating 3 out of 5]

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2527080.html

A Bernice Summerfield novel in which she is dragged into investigating a crime committed on a train circling a storm-tossed planet. Not brilliant - some rather sexist elements in the subplots, and I feel the formula of Bernice Summerfield Ace Detective has been done better elsewhere.