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Doctor Who: Virgin New Adventures #16
Doctor Who: Shadowmind
Arden. A planet of hills and streams and forests. Peaceful. Friendly.
'There is no indigenous intelligent life there.'
'What is there then?' the Doctor said.
'It’s a new colony world, Doctor. We started developing it three years ago.'
But there is something on Arden. Something that steals minds and memories. Something that is growing stronger. Something that can reach out to the regional stellar capital, Tairngaire -- where the newest exhibit in the sculpture park is a blue box surmounted by a flashing light.
'There is no indigenous intelligent life there.'
'What is there then?' the Doctor said.
'It’s a new colony world, Doctor. We started developing it three years ago.'
But there is something on Arden. Something that steals minds and memories. Something that is growing stronger. Something that can reach out to the regional stellar capital, Tairngaire -- where the newest exhibit in the sculpture park is a blue box surmounted by a flashing light.
256 pages, Paperback
First published July 15, 1993
2 people are currently reading
252 people want to read
About the author
Christopher Bulis
19 books21 followersChristopher 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews
March 20, 2020
Most Doctor Who fans find Christopher Bulis a marmite author, but he's certainly prolific, having written a dozen novels covering the first eight Doctors. I rather enjoy him, and I particularly like his DW novels "The Sorcerer's Apprentice", "State of Change" and "Imperial Moon". But "Shadowmind" was his first book, and I can't say I'm a fan. While the plot is fairly engaging, there are too many characters to keep track of...and I can't say I found most of them very interesting. Mr. Bulis also doesn't distinguish himself with the 7th Doctor, Ace & Benny; it's by far the weakest of his Doctor/companion characterizations, and pales next to his efforts with the 1st, 5th, 6th and 8th Doctors. As it stands, it's more a curiosity than anything these days, but I heartily recommend many of his later books...by all means look them up.
July 21, 2020
If someone decides to write a book about the Doctors' adventures with weirrrrrd alien beasties, at least include the Doctor in it a bit more.
Reasonable story but one star for lying about it being Doctor Who.
Reasonable story but one star for lying about it being Doctor Who.
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September 14, 2019This must be the closest Doctor Who has come to reading like The Famous Five. It is hard to think of a less likely ensemble for a cheerful, chummy slice of derring-do than the New Adventures' machiavellian seventh Doctor, gun-toting misfit Ace and sarcastic alcoholic Bernice, and yet Christopher Bulis has them going off on a birthday treat, grinning and exchanging jokes as if they're straight out of a Blyton novel. With prose and dialogue to match.
Ace grinned ironically. 'We do seem to find any trouble that's going spare, don't we? Or perhaps trouble finds us.'
'Like cosmic lightning rods,' Bernice suggested, then frowned. 'Have you ever wondered, Doctor, if it is just chance? I mean the number of these experiences you keep getting into...'
'Don't be coy, call them adventures,' Ace cut in.
'Anyone for more ginger beer?' offered the Doctor, beaming boyishly at them.
...okay, I made up the ginger beer part, but the rest is verbatim (including the boyish beaming). It's just a pity that K9 isn't in this yarn, because never has a Doctor Who story cried out more for an animal friend to complete the gang.
Style aside, the main problem with Shadowmind is that it barely has enough plot to sustain it. You have to get several chapters in before experiencing any kind of danger or mystery, Bulis' sense of pace and tension as awry as his stylistic choices. Take the first chapter: a surveyor on a newly discovered planet thinks over some expository background, but then - wait for it - his mind wanders (the excitement!), he falls asleep (the thrill!), he wakes up with a slight sense of worry (the horror!) and then - THEN - he puts it from his mind! CLIFFHANGER ENDING!
Chapter two treats us to a scene of Bernice Summerfield walking into the TARDIS console room, seeing the Doctor looking emotional, then walking out again, as if the author feels he can continue to build up tension by nothing at all happening (I quote: 'there seemed to be no danger, but...' - end of paragraph).
And on it plods, the next few chapters introducing us to a new set of characters so poorly drawn that the only thing distinguishing them is their names, which gets problematic later on when we're supposed to remember who they are. About halfway into the story the Famous Five trappings are dropped for something more Biggles-inspired, and then it's all air battles and land battles and death and destruction, all of which might mean more if we were remotely invested in any of the people involved. The Doctor is still there somewhere, but very much on the periphery - typically for this era of the New Adventures range, Ace gets far more to do than him, and Bernice is little more than a hanger-on.
It's all the more odd for coming in the middle of a series of novels bursting with far too many ideas, effortfully 'adult' and overwritten to the point of incoherence. This one feels particularly childish after the brilliant sophistication of White Darkness, and I'd happily trade the rare narrative clarity for a little more ambition. Most tellingly, it doesn't even feel like Doctor Who, tacitly admitting that this whole thing belongs to a different world when it gives us the jarring image of the seventh Doctor in combat gear.
Inevitably, it ends on a much sourer note than it begins, the giggling, joking trio of adventurers giving way to the continuing emotional turmoil of Ace, still the most emotionally fragile companion to travel with the Doctor even after two years fighting Daleks. The New Adventures range seems to have taken Season 26 as the blueprint for every Doctor Who story in that every climax should find Ace confronting the abyss and emerging older and wiser, which begs the question of just how she manages to regress so completely between each experience.
Or should I not be coy and call them adventures?
Ace grinned ironically. 'We do seem to find any trouble that's going spare, don't we? Or perhaps trouble finds us.'
'Like cosmic lightning rods,' Bernice suggested, then frowned. 'Have you ever wondered, Doctor, if it is just chance? I mean the number of these experiences you keep getting into...'
'Don't be coy, call them adventures,' Ace cut in.
'Anyone for more ginger beer?' offered the Doctor, beaming boyishly at them.
...okay, I made up the ginger beer part, but the rest is verbatim (including the boyish beaming). It's just a pity that K9 isn't in this yarn, because never has a Doctor Who story cried out more for an animal friend to complete the gang.
Style aside, the main problem with Shadowmind is that it barely has enough plot to sustain it. You have to get several chapters in before experiencing any kind of danger or mystery, Bulis' sense of pace and tension as awry as his stylistic choices. Take the first chapter: a surveyor on a newly discovered planet thinks over some expository background, but then - wait for it - his mind wanders (the excitement!), he falls asleep (the thrill!), he wakes up with a slight sense of worry (the horror!) and then - THEN - he puts it from his mind! CLIFFHANGER ENDING!
Chapter two treats us to a scene of Bernice Summerfield walking into the TARDIS console room, seeing the Doctor looking emotional, then walking out again, as if the author feels he can continue to build up tension by nothing at all happening (I quote: 'there seemed to be no danger, but...' - end of paragraph).
And on it plods, the next few chapters introducing us to a new set of characters so poorly drawn that the only thing distinguishing them is their names, which gets problematic later on when we're supposed to remember who they are. About halfway into the story the Famous Five trappings are dropped for something more Biggles-inspired, and then it's all air battles and land battles and death and destruction, all of which might mean more if we were remotely invested in any of the people involved. The Doctor is still there somewhere, but very much on the periphery - typically for this era of the New Adventures range, Ace gets far more to do than him, and Bernice is little more than a hanger-on.
It's all the more odd for coming in the middle of a series of novels bursting with far too many ideas, effortfully 'adult' and overwritten to the point of incoherence. This one feels particularly childish after the brilliant sophistication of White Darkness, and I'd happily trade the rare narrative clarity for a little more ambition. Most tellingly, it doesn't even feel like Doctor Who, tacitly admitting that this whole thing belongs to a different world when it gives us the jarring image of the seventh Doctor in combat gear.
Inevitably, it ends on a much sourer note than it begins, the giggling, joking trio of adventurers giving way to the continuing emotional turmoil of Ace, still the most emotionally fragile companion to travel with the Doctor even after two years fighting Daleks. The New Adventures range seems to have taken Season 26 as the blueprint for every Doctor Who story in that every climax should find Ace confronting the abyss and emerging older and wiser, which begs the question of just how she manages to regress so completely between each experience.
Or should I not be coy and call them adventures?
October 20, 2014
I was initially unsure whether I wanted to reread this one. I remember enjoying it, but, even though I first read it only six years ago, in 2008 (some 15 years after it was first published), I couldn’t recall very much about it. Was this because it’s actually a bit dull? Well, no, actually – there’s a very good science fiction tale being told here, with a genuinely alien race attempting to interact with the human race, and it’s an easy book to read.
The trouble is, it all feels a bit first-draft, and doesn’t quite hang together as well as it feels it should. A couple more redrafts would have ironed out the fact that both factions of humans seem interchangeable, and given them a bit more definable character traits. This would also have sorted out the surprisingly high number of typos I spotted – one or two are unavoidable, but in some parts there seemed to be a grammatical error on every page.
That said, in a story arc loosely defined as “future” history, this may well be the best example of what those books were supposed to depict. It details mankind’s space exploration, but gives some very interesting context to it, so it feels like this really does fit within a defined continuity.
From little acorns, mighty oaks grow. And from tiny seeds, fruit trees grow. Christopher Bulis would go on to write at least one book for each of the first eight Doctors, with – mostly – real success in recreating that era. This is a solid start and a book which, if you can overlook the unpolished feel to it, is a surprisingly good read.
The trouble is, it all feels a bit first-draft, and doesn’t quite hang together as well as it feels it should. A couple more redrafts would have ironed out the fact that both factions of humans seem interchangeable, and given them a bit more definable character traits. This would also have sorted out the surprisingly high number of typos I spotted – one or two are unavoidable, but in some parts there seemed to be a grammatical error on every page.
That said, in a story arc loosely defined as “future” history, this may well be the best example of what those books were supposed to depict. It details mankind’s space exploration, but gives some very interesting context to it, so it feels like this really does fit within a defined continuity.
From little acorns, mighty oaks grow. And from tiny seeds, fruit trees grow. Christopher Bulis would go on to write at least one book for each of the first eight Doctors, with – mostly – real success in recreating that era. This is a solid start and a book which, if you can overlook the unpolished feel to it, is a surprisingly good read.
September 4, 2014
FINALLY a really good Seventh Doctor novel. This one has cool aliens, great local characters, and even a pretty original plot. The whole story was fast-paced and imaginative. Granted, there was a lot of sitting around and discussing battle tactics, but the author handled it surprisingly well. Normally I hate reading about battles and military strategies. Did I mention the aliens were cool? They were amazing.
Ace and Bernice have some interesting stuff going on. Ace finds plenty of time to be a badass while still pausing to have some deeper moments. Bernice has all her usual snark.
The fact that the Doctor knew everything that was going on and was basically the sole engine of plot exposition could have gone terribly wrong, but somehow it seemed credible enough that he randomly knew everything. That's just Seven, I guess. He waltzes in and knows everything.
Ace and Bernice have some interesting stuff going on. Ace finds plenty of time to be a badass while still pausing to have some deeper moments. Bernice has all her usual snark.
The fact that the Doctor knew everything that was going on and was basically the sole engine of plot exposition could have gone terribly wrong, but somehow it seemed credible enough that he randomly knew everything. That's just Seven, I guess. He waltzes in and knows everything.
March 28, 2020
3/5 Stars.
Wow, this felt like an age to finish. Idk if it was because of everything going on in the world or not or just the writing itself but I've finished it finally.
Pros:
Christopher Bulis actually designed the cover of the book himself which I found pretty cool. Considering this was in the 1990's, it's not bad.
I loved that it showed more Benny and Ace moments in this and seeing how Benny really cares for Ace but Ace is pushing everyone away because she thinks she's tough and doesn't need anyone.
It's also interesting to see the Doctor being forced into a military uniform rather than his usual out tire and having to carry a weapon.
Interesting enemy and world concept of the duplicates.
It's already been hinted in White Darkness with Ace's path of killing people as Ace had to kill Richmann and learning how to cope with PTSD. Here in Shadowmind, Ace is forced to kill to protect and it's interesting to see the comparison.
Con:
This is Christopher's first book and sadly, I can tell as there is a lot of occurring grammar and spelling issues. The pace is a bit slow.
Wow, this felt like an age to finish. Idk if it was because of everything going on in the world or not or just the writing itself but I've finished it finally.
Pros:
Christopher Bulis actually designed the cover of the book himself which I found pretty cool. Considering this was in the 1990's, it's not bad.
I loved that it showed more Benny and Ace moments in this and seeing how Benny really cares for Ace but Ace is pushing everyone away because she thinks she's tough and doesn't need anyone.
It's also interesting to see the Doctor being forced into a military uniform rather than his usual out tire and having to carry a weapon.
Interesting enemy and world concept of the duplicates.
It's already been hinted in White Darkness with Ace's path of killing people as Ace had to kill Richmann and learning how to cope with PTSD. Here in Shadowmind, Ace is forced to kill to protect and it's interesting to see the comparison.
Con:
This is Christopher's first book and sadly, I can tell as there is a lot of occurring grammar and spelling issues. The pace is a bit slow.
February 11, 2026
I can sense Bulis’ passion and interest in what he’s writing… but it just didn’t grab me at all.
Nice moments for Ace and Benny, the Doctor was characterised reasonably well, but otherwise it just felt like overly explained sci-fi mush with too many characters and no real emotional investment.
It’s basically ‘Aliens’, but… well, dull.
Nice moments for Ace and Benny, the Doctor was characterised reasonably well, but otherwise it just felt like overly explained sci-fi mush with too many characters and no real emotional investment.
It’s basically ‘Aliens’, but… well, dull.
August 31, 2022
My favourite so far. A bit of police procedural, a bit of Star Trek, and a strangely prescient bit of Avatar in an original sci fi plot that holds together well. Too many characters, but you can't have everything!
August 11, 2025
Felt more like a Star Trek novel than a New Adventure, but good fun nonetheless. Hard to see why everyone is so down on this one.
January 23, 2009
OK, this one was weird, in that it's not actually a Doctor Who novel at all, but I can't work out what it is. And yet the story itself is fine, and the other characters are perfectly well-drawn - and, unusually, they take a full part in resolving the plot. This makes it hard to rate - if it hadn't been masquerading then it would probably get another star.
So, for instance, there is an incredible stupid section near the beginning in which Ace arbitrarily decides to start calling the Doctor "Doc". This appears to me to be a hasty editorial insertion (rather than going through the manuscript and fixing the "Doc" references which would have been much more complicated.)
The central conceit is rather good, with two nicely different alien species portrayed plausibly. Some of the set-pieces are very well done; there haven't been any space battles presented like this in Who novels up to this point, which makes them stand out. And the resolution of the plot is very clever, using the "gun hung over the fireplace" in a neat fashion (albeit a little unlikely that it would work instantly as it does here.)
Reading this back, I think I've worked out what's wrong. This might have been intended to be a Star Trek novel... Even the aliens both feel like Trek aliens rather than Who aliens now I think about it. Hmmmm.
So, for instance, there is an incredible stupid section near the beginning in which Ace arbitrarily decides to start calling the Doctor "Doc". This appears to me to be a hasty editorial insertion (rather than going through the manuscript and fixing the "Doc" references which would have been much more complicated.)
The central conceit is rather good, with two nicely different alien species portrayed plausibly. Some of the set-pieces are very well done; there haven't been any space battles presented like this in Who novels up to this point, which makes them stand out. And the resolution of the plot is very clever, using the "gun hung over the fireplace" in a neat fashion (albeit a little unlikely that it would work instantly as it does here.)
Reading this back, I think I've worked out what's wrong. This might have been intended to be a Star Trek novel... Even the aliens both feel like Trek aliens rather than Who aliens now I think about it. Hmmmm.
March 19, 2011
A decent enough Seventh Doctor, Ace and Benny story, with human colonists wandering into an existing struggle between two alien entities. I didn't think Bulis quite got Benny in this one but he has an excellent Ace and good Doctor. A really good ending which would have made great TV especially for New Who, as the Bad Alien Entity is put out of action by a bright idea of the Doctor's. Would be an OK book for Who fans who don't know the New Adventures, less useful for non-Who fans wanting to experiment.
January 11, 2021
Is chapter after chapter of briefing room, conference room and outdoor strategic planning meetings your thing? Then Shadowmind is the science fiction epic for you!
July 26, 2023
Christopher Bulis had been primarily an illustrator before he tried writing a novel. Shadowmind is his first novel, and it displays many novice novelist errors. Bulis would go on to write much better Doctor Who novels. His "thing" was to set Doctor Who into various science fiction sub-genres. For his first novel, the sub-genre was military science fiction of the David Drake, Jerry Pournelle, and Robert Heinlein variety. Therefore, this novel feels strangely out of place in the Doctor Who universe. It is as if Bulis desperately wanted to get the Doctor to wear military gear, and has contrived the whole novel to reach that end. The story is rather thin. Doctor 7, Benny, and Ace travel to planet Tairngire to give Ace a birthday gift. She has a good time for a day or so, then spots someone in need. This someone turns out to be a duplicate of an actual person, operated by a furry critter. Before they know it, our heroes are now the center of some kind of conspiracy of duplicates. The Doctor easily worms his way into the Tairngire government to help them battle the duplicates, or the critters that run the duplicates, and then we are off into space war. The duplicates steal the TARDIS, so that provides the motivation for our heroes to join the space war. Bulis makes many rookie errors. He introduces characters, gets the reader to like them, then once their function is over, kills them off in ways that do not really add to the story. He introduces too many characters early in the novel, doing things that identify their characteristics, but otherwise do not contribute to the plot. The motivations for getting The Doctor and crew involved are thin and selfish, which he tries to elide. The stakes of the plot just are not strong enough. Try as he might to stay within the bounds of physical laws, his space battles are still conceived more like air battles, based on "maneuverability." And there is too much "gosh, wow" over military hardware for my taste. One good aspect of this novel is that Bulis avoids cramming his novel with winks and nods to Doctor Who fans. There are very few references to other Doctor Who stories. Fans of military sf might like Shadowmind, but it really did not work for me.
March 21, 2019
Underrated. This one revolves around psychic spies and strange symbiotic aliens, and has some great ideas. The plot is very satisfying, upping the stakes irrevocably at one point; it’s great when a story has a serious “OH SNAP!” moment.
There’s some very enjoyable description of a world and its bizarre aliens, who may or may not be malevolent, and a fun opening where the Doctor and co. have a holiday.
It’s been criticised for the Doctor embracing a role in the military, but I don’t think it strays outside his character. The final villain is the most simplistic thing here, so the ending isn’t perfect.
Overall though it’s a swift, enjoyable read.
7/10
There’s some very enjoyable description of a world and its bizarre aliens, who may or may not be malevolent, and a fun opening where the Doctor and co. have a holiday.
It’s been criticised for the Doctor embracing a role in the military, but I don’t think it strays outside his character. The final villain is the most simplistic thing here, so the ending isn’t perfect.
Overall though it’s a swift, enjoyable read.
7/10
January 10, 2024
At first, this book seemed like the plot of one of the best TOS episodes, then quickly it revealed itself to actually be more like a certain dark TNG episode. There are some cool ideas and good characters introduced here, but sadly there are multiple chapter chunks where none of the characters really matter and nothing interesting happens. Not only that, but also the writer doesn't always seem to have a handle on the doctor and ace's "voices." But the good parts were good, and I'd be interested in reading another higher rated book by this writer.
December 5, 2017
Generally good but uneven Seventh Doctor novel. For much of the book there's a really interesting central mystery and very interesting aliens, with only the occasional foray into military SF proving a distraction. The big bad's arrival is anticlimactic after all that build-up, although things start to improve once we get a feel for its actual character. Then the finale is needlessly grim, even if the villain's defeat is elegant. (B)
July 27, 2018
The only thing I knew about this book was Robert Smith? saying it "may indeed be the worst book ever written in the entire history of literature". I am happy to report I do not think that is justified but, at the same time, there isn't much to particularly recommend this book. It is popcorn Doctor Who, fun setup, spaceships, alien bodysnatchers. It is fine in a very trad sense but not something anyone will remember.
January 1, 2026
There's nothing necessarily 'wrong' about Bulis's writing, but man. It really seems like he wants to be writing something that's down-and-gritty, hard-nosed hard sci-fi. It just doesn't feel very fun. The Doctor and Ace don't necessarily feel 'off' (Bernice is so new I can't even tell), but their interactions feel ... well, "scripted"? It doesn't seem natural, though they're both speaking in their own 'voice.' If that makes any sense.
Ah well.
Ah well.
April 21, 2025
I thought it was a pretty standard Doctor Who story. A little bit like "The Highest Science", I don't think it's up to the standard that the VNAs sold themselves on, but it's a decent read and it was the clearest showcase of the new Ace up until this point in the series after her return. It drags a lot in the third act, but it's an okay read overall.
April 30, 2021
This was an interesting read. It jumped around a bit and for all the leadup the ending was a bit quick. But I'm really here for Ace and Benny and they got a chance to shine in this novel. Ace gets a chance to be a kid for awhile and Benny is well Benny.
October 28, 2022
Not bad at all. One or two too many battle scenes for me, but they're written well. Suffers a little bit for literally having someone pull a big lever to the the story. A better first novel than most.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 16, 2024
A novel that insists upon its own apparent importance and excitement but is written in such a clunky, literal manner as to be a rather dull and uninvolving read. "Adult" Ace continues to cause tonal issues for the New Adventures.
November 25, 2025
You get 90% of the way through, and then rhe Doctor pulls an explanation out of his backside with no prior context, but Ace still has to shoot loads of innocent people. And then they literally just leave.
December 24, 2022
4.5 stars, I really liked this one, the threat is super interesting and the moral dilemmas near the end made me emotional
September 9, 2023
I feel like a story about Benny and the Doctor taking Ace out for her birthday should be really fabulous, but in this instance it was a real drag.
April 5, 2024
Meh. Full review: https://fakegeekboy.wordpress.com/202...
September 12, 2025
an ok scifi novel, not a great Doctor Who novel
October 21, 2025
good start but drags. takes ages for the plot to begin and when it does begin the plot isn't particularly interesting.
January 14, 2020
I have mixed feelings about this book. It is a fairly decent sci-fi adventure, but it doesn't feel especially at home in the Doctor Who universe largely because so much of it is action-based and consists of scene after scene of people firing blasters, piloting space ships and blowing things up. It's a bit like Doctor Who meets Star Trek Voyager, having about as much plot as a 45-minute TV episode stretched out to the length of a novel, populated by characters who fly in and out of the book with as much solidity as their TV counterparts.
It begins from the fairly tired premise of "let's go on holiday" before quickly spiralling into an invasion of the bodysnatchers style escapade. The Doctor is a fairly minor character all told, who spends most of the story sitting around contemplating and occasionally inventing Macguffin devices to solve various alien problems. The sequence focusing on the telepathic circuits at the start with the Doctor behaving like his former incarnations is possibly his most interesting scene, but it ultimately doesn't go anywhere and adds virtually nothing to the overall story.
Ace feels like the star of this novel and definitely has the bulk of the action, with Benny very much playing second fiddle. Remarkably she ends up naked not once but twice in the story at different times for different reasons, something which the NA writers seem to have felt compelled to do at any given opportunity. The final sequence that sees her having to kill innocent people to buy the Doctor time to save the day is definitely her strongest moment in the book.
The prose style, while far from the worst in the NA series, is not much to write home about. Bulis indulges in the habit of writing single line paragraphs before switching scenes and doing it again. This is a bit jarring and the constant scene change makes it hard to concentrate or get interested in any single plot thread. The characterisations of the supporting cast are fairly shallow and it is often difficult to feel especially bothered by the deaths of people who never really establish themselves properly. Bulis has a tendency to name people shortly before killing them off a few pages later. Even for those that don't get bumped off, it's often not worth the effort of remembering their names because they ultimately don't do an awful lot. The dialogue is a tad cheesy in places or else given over to slightly hammy space-jargon, but not so much as to be unreadable.
Overall, this is a fairly journeyman NA novel, it isn't bad but it's also not amazing either.
It begins from the fairly tired premise of "let's go on holiday" before quickly spiralling into an invasion of the bodysnatchers style escapade. The Doctor is a fairly minor character all told, who spends most of the story sitting around contemplating and occasionally inventing Macguffin devices to solve various alien problems. The sequence focusing on the telepathic circuits at the start with the Doctor behaving like his former incarnations is possibly his most interesting scene, but it ultimately doesn't go anywhere and adds virtually nothing to the overall story.
Ace feels like the star of this novel and definitely has the bulk of the action, with Benny very much playing second fiddle. Remarkably she ends up naked not once but twice in the story at different times for different reasons, something which the NA writers seem to have felt compelled to do at any given opportunity. The final sequence that sees her having to kill innocent people to buy the Doctor time to save the day is definitely her strongest moment in the book.
The prose style, while far from the worst in the NA series, is not much to write home about. Bulis indulges in the habit of writing single line paragraphs before switching scenes and doing it again. This is a bit jarring and the constant scene change makes it hard to concentrate or get interested in any single plot thread. The characterisations of the supporting cast are fairly shallow and it is often difficult to feel especially bothered by the deaths of people who never really establish themselves properly. Bulis has a tendency to name people shortly before killing them off a few pages later. Even for those that don't get bumped off, it's often not worth the effort of remembering their names because they ultimately don't do an awful lot. The dialogue is a tad cheesy in places or else given over to slightly hammy space-jargon, but not so much as to be unreadable.
Overall, this is a fairly journeyman NA novel, it isn't bad but it's also not amazing either.
January 17, 2026
April 2020
3.5/5
I'm surprised this has got such a low average rating on here. While I wasn't too blown away by it (it's not in the top tier for VNAs for me) I did enjoy it. There are a lot of action scenes in here and I'm personally neutral on the idea but maybe if you don't like them...
(Also I did actually enjoy team TARDIS holidaying at the beginning! These books can be a lot. Give them a day off sometimes!)
January 2026
2.5/5
Okay yeah, my enjoyment of it did fall off quite significantly on reread. It falls into a frequent problem in these novels of expecting us to care about the fate of characters that it doesn't do the work of developing. Conceptually its portrayal of brawling alien factions reminds me of a later Bulis novel, Twilight of the Gods, which I like more. Not a complete disaster, but I didn't feel particularly enthusiastic about it either.
3.5/5
I'm surprised this has got such a low average rating on here. While I wasn't too blown away by it (it's not in the top tier for VNAs for me) I did enjoy it. There are a lot of action scenes in here and I'm personally neutral on the idea but maybe if you don't like them...
(Also I did actually enjoy team TARDIS holidaying at the beginning! These books can be a lot. Give them a day off sometimes!)
January 2026
2.5/5
Okay yeah, my enjoyment of it did fall off quite significantly on reread. It falls into a frequent problem in these novels of expecting us to care about the fate of characters that it doesn't do the work of developing. Conceptually its portrayal of brawling alien factions reminds me of a later Bulis novel, Twilight of the Gods, which I like more. Not a complete disaster, but I didn't feel particularly enthusiastic about it either.
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