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Doctor Who: Virgin New Adventures #13
Doctor Who: Deceit
'Take Arcadia apart if you have to.'
The middle of the twenty-fifth century. The Dalek war is drawing to an untidy close. Earth’s Office of External Operation is trying to extend its influence over the corporations that have controlled human-occupied space since man first ventured to the stars.
Agent Isabelle Defries is leading one expedition. Among her barely-controllable squad is an explosives expert who calls herself Ace. Their destination: Arcadia.
A non-technological paradise? A living laboratory for a centuries-long experiment? Fuel for a super-being? Even when Ace and Benny discover the truth, the Doctor refuses to listen to them.
Nothing is what it seems to be.
The middle of the twenty-fifth century. The Dalek war is drawing to an untidy close. Earth’s Office of External Operation is trying to extend its influence over the corporations that have controlled human-occupied space since man first ventured to the stars.
Agent Isabelle Defries is leading one expedition. Among her barely-controllable squad is an explosives expert who calls herself Ace. Their destination: Arcadia.
A non-technological paradise? A living laboratory for a centuries-long experiment? Fuel for a super-being? Even when Ace and Benny discover the truth, the Doctor refuses to listen to them.
Nothing is what it seems to be.
325 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published April 15, 1993
2 people are currently reading
240 people want to read
About the author
Peter Darvill-Evans
14 books6 followersPeter Darvill-Evans is an English writer and editor.
He was born and lived in Buckinghamshire until he went to university, graduating in 1975 from University College, London with a degree in History.
In 1976 Darvill-Evans joined the staff of Games Centre, a specialist games shop in London. He became the manager of a branch of the shop, then manager of wholesale sales, selling board games and eventually role-playing games.
In 1979 he became employed by Games Workshop, becoming first its Trade Sales Manager, then General Manager, responsible for purchases, sales, distribution and magazine publishing. When Games Workshop relocated to Nottingham, Darvill-Evans left the company, preferring to stay in London. He then wrote his first of three Fighting Fantasy gamebooks for Puffin Books.
In 1989, he became the a junior editor at W. H. Allen Ltd, initially overseeing the Target Books imprint. He also oversaw the Nexus imprint of erotic fiction for men, redesigning its logo and cover style as well as changing its editorial direction.
Target's main output was novelisations of the popular science-fiction television series Doctor Who, and when Darvill-Evans arrived he immediately realised that there were very few Doctor Who stories left to novelise. This problem was exacerbated by the cancellation of the television series at the end of 1989. When WH Allen sold the Nexus and Doctor Who lines to Virgin Publishing, Darvill-Evans went with them. Deciding to go freelance, he was made redundant at his own request, and entered negotiations with the BBC to licence Virgin to produce full-length, original novels carrying on the story of the series from the point where the television programme had left off.
Launched in 1991, this hugely successful line of novels were known as the New Adventures. Darvill-Evans set down guidelines for the writers, and even wrote one novel himself, Deceit. Other output from the Virgin fiction department during his time there included another series of Doctor Who novels (the Missing Adventures, featuring previous Doctors and companions); a series of novels following the character of Bernice Summerfield; the Virgin Worlds imprint of new mainstream science-fiction and fantasy novels. Non-science fiction lines included Black Lace, the first mainstream erotic fiction imprint targeted at women; the Crime and Passion imprint; Idol, a homoerotic fiction imprint for men; and Sapphire, a lesbian erotica line.
Other successes included media-tie in books such as the Red Dwarf Programme Guide, which served as the template for guides about other cult television series, and a series of novelisations based on the Jimmy McGovern-scripted series Cracker starring Robbie Coltrane.
By 1997, however, Virgin Publishing decided to emphasise more non-fiction books by and about celebrities. Their license renewal negotiations fell in 1996, a year in which the BBC was seeking to bring all the Doctor Who licenses back in house. Consequently Virgin's Doctor Who license was not renewed and instead the BBC opted to launch their own series of Doctor Who novels. In 1998, Darvill-Evans managed the editing and production of Virgin’s Guide to British Universities, and personally supervised the copy-editing and proofreading of Richard Branson's autobiography Losing My Virginity.
Virgin closed its fiction department in 1999, with Darvill-Evans departing the company and moving to Southampton. He continued to freelance, writing several Doctor Who novels for BBC Books, amongst various other editing and writing work.
In 2001 he began working for the Inland Revenue, and is currently an Inspector of Taxe
He was born and lived in Buckinghamshire until he went to university, graduating in 1975 from University College, London with a degree in History.
In 1976 Darvill-Evans joined the staff of Games Centre, a specialist games shop in London. He became the manager of a branch of the shop, then manager of wholesale sales, selling board games and eventually role-playing games.
In 1979 he became employed by Games Workshop, becoming first its Trade Sales Manager, then General Manager, responsible for purchases, sales, distribution and magazine publishing. When Games Workshop relocated to Nottingham, Darvill-Evans left the company, preferring to stay in London. He then wrote his first of three Fighting Fantasy gamebooks for Puffin Books.
In 1989, he became the a junior editor at W. H. Allen Ltd, initially overseeing the Target Books imprint. He also oversaw the Nexus imprint of erotic fiction for men, redesigning its logo and cover style as well as changing its editorial direction.
Target's main output was novelisations of the popular science-fiction television series Doctor Who, and when Darvill-Evans arrived he immediately realised that there were very few Doctor Who stories left to novelise. This problem was exacerbated by the cancellation of the television series at the end of 1989. When WH Allen sold the Nexus and Doctor Who lines to Virgin Publishing, Darvill-Evans went with them. Deciding to go freelance, he was made redundant at his own request, and entered negotiations with the BBC to licence Virgin to produce full-length, original novels carrying on the story of the series from the point where the television programme had left off.
Launched in 1991, this hugely successful line of novels were known as the New Adventures. Darvill-Evans set down guidelines for the writers, and even wrote one novel himself, Deceit. Other output from the Virgin fiction department during his time there included another series of Doctor Who novels (the Missing Adventures, featuring previous Doctors and companions); a series of novels following the character of Bernice Summerfield; the Virgin Worlds imprint of new mainstream science-fiction and fantasy novels. Non-science fiction lines included Black Lace, the first mainstream erotic fiction imprint targeted at women; the Crime and Passion imprint; Idol, a homoerotic fiction imprint for men; and Sapphire, a lesbian erotica line.
Other successes included media-tie in books such as the Red Dwarf Programme Guide, which served as the template for guides about other cult television series, and a series of novelisations based on the Jimmy McGovern-scripted series Cracker starring Robbie Coltrane.
By 1997, however, Virgin Publishing decided to emphasise more non-fiction books by and about celebrities. Their license renewal negotiations fell in 1996, a year in which the BBC was seeking to bring all the Doctor Who licenses back in house. Consequently Virgin's Doctor Who license was not renewed and instead the BBC opted to launch their own series of Doctor Who novels. In 1998, Darvill-Evans managed the editing and production of Virgin’s Guide to British Universities, and personally supervised the copy-editing and proofreading of Richard Branson's autobiography Losing My Virginity.
Virgin closed its fiction department in 1999, with Darvill-Evans departing the company and moving to Southampton. He continued to freelance, writing several Doctor Who novels for BBC Books, amongst various other editing and writing work.
In 2001 he began working for the Inland Revenue, and is currently an Inspector of Taxe
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 48 reviews
February 28, 2016
Catching up on 20-year-old Doctor Who stories is a goose chase.
That being said, randomly discovering the one story of 61 New Adventures that contains Virgin's Doctor Who's editor's Afterword is pretty amazing. Reading Darvill-Evans's Afterword is amazing too.
Actually - his afterword might be more worthwhile than his actual novel.
The Afterword is a curious look at the hiatus of the show and the New Adventures's responsibility to continue to carry the torch. Darvill-Evans, as the series' editor, offers explanations for the series' literary decisions and offers interesting feedback to fans' concerns about the franchise. This is especially interesting to read in the context of the current Doctor Who zeitgeist of 2013/2014.
The novel itself isn't as interesting. Well...it begins interestingly enough. Darvill-Evans dedicates a lot of the first half of Deceit for back-stories and character development only to commence with a standard Doctor Who climax. If you really think about it...while Isabelle Defries and Abslom Daak are incredibly interesting characters, does Darvill-Evans need them to conclude the narrative?
No.
I kept reading and waiting for Defries to betray everyone...or Daak's involvement to include some kind of (meaningful) twist...but...nope...
SPOILER
Daak's head is shot off and Defries is eventually returned home safely.
So, basically, The Doctor, Francis and Lacuna wait around watching monitors of Daak, Ace, Benny, and Defries adventuring around when their arrival is completely useless to the eventual denouement. The Doctor knows more than anyone and tricks Lacuna. Good thing I learned so much about Auxies and Dalek Killers and interstellar politics before the Doctor casually wins again.
Am I over-analyzing a crappy sci-fi paperback series from the 90's? Yup. Do I keep asking myself questions? Absolutely. Will anyone ever read this? Nope. Well...yeah, nope.
That being said, randomly discovering the one story of 61 New Adventures that contains Virgin's Doctor Who's editor's Afterword is pretty amazing. Reading Darvill-Evans's Afterword is amazing too.
Actually - his afterword might be more worthwhile than his actual novel.
The Afterword is a curious look at the hiatus of the show and the New Adventures's responsibility to continue to carry the torch. Darvill-Evans, as the series' editor, offers explanations for the series' literary decisions and offers interesting feedback to fans' concerns about the franchise. This is especially interesting to read in the context of the current Doctor Who zeitgeist of 2013/2014.
The novel itself isn't as interesting. Well...it begins interestingly enough. Darvill-Evans dedicates a lot of the first half of Deceit for back-stories and character development only to commence with a standard Doctor Who climax. If you really think about it...while Isabelle Defries and Abslom Daak are incredibly interesting characters, does Darvill-Evans need them to conclude the narrative?
No.
I kept reading and waiting for Defries to betray everyone...or Daak's involvement to include some kind of (meaningful) twist...but...nope...
SPOILER
Daak's head is shot off and Defries is eventually returned home safely.
So, basically, The Doctor, Francis and Lacuna wait around watching monitors of Daak, Ace, Benny, and Defries adventuring around when their arrival is completely useless to the eventual denouement. The Doctor knows more than anyone and tricks Lacuna. Good thing I learned so much about Auxies and Dalek Killers and interstellar politics before the Doctor casually wins again.
Am I over-analyzing a crappy sci-fi paperback series from the 90's? Yup. Do I keep asking myself questions? Absolutely. Will anyone ever read this? Nope. Well...yeah, nope.
March 5, 2014
I enjoyed this one I'm not sure why it's been getting bad reviews. It was kinda cyberpunk/far future scifi. One of the things that was really great about it was that there were a LOT of women characters, not just Ace and Benny but women soldiers, women in charge of spaceships, women in control of AIs as well as noble women. It is so rare in this genre, and in Doctor Who, to have such a strong female supporting cast. Not to mention there was also (rather subtly) a BDSM lesbian relationship.
Plot wise there was enough mystery to keep this interesting. It was great to see all the different characters coming together. I really enjoyed seeing Ace on her own. Competent and rather deadly. She did come across as a grown up version of the companion from the TV series. Likewise this was the first book I've actually read with Benny in (Despite having heard nearly all her audios). She came across as much younger, despite being a professor. But I felt the author really played to the different strengths of the two characters.
The doctor was much more the Darker Sylvester Doctor which I really liked. He was obviously not human. I also liked how much faith he had in his companions and wasn't worried that he'd have to rescue them as he thought they'd be able to take care of themselves.
I didn't think this novel was trying too hard to be "adult" there was no overt sex or swearing. It felt just like a good solid science fiction story. I'm looking forward to reading more books in this series now.
Plot wise there was enough mystery to keep this interesting. It was great to see all the different characters coming together. I really enjoyed seeing Ace on her own. Competent and rather deadly. She did come across as a grown up version of the companion from the TV series. Likewise this was the first book I've actually read with Benny in (Despite having heard nearly all her audios). She came across as much younger, despite being a professor. But I felt the author really played to the different strengths of the two characters.
The doctor was much more the Darker Sylvester Doctor which I really liked. He was obviously not human. I also liked how much faith he had in his companions and wasn't worried that he'd have to rescue them as he thought they'd be able to take care of themselves.
I didn't think this novel was trying too hard to be "adult" there was no overt sex or swearing. It felt just like a good solid science fiction story. I'm looking forward to reading more books in this series now.
August 11, 2017
Don't understand its bad reputation in Doctor Who circles, i really enjoyed this one, its an original novel and it had me riveted all the way through. I liked the settings where the novel takes us into, a realistic vision of the future is clearly presented here. I particularly enjoyed the reintroduced Ace and how her character had evolved, all in all a book i would highly recommend.
March 24, 2025
Despite its weirdly poor reputation among many readers, Deceit comes off as one of the better entries in the Virgin New Adventures range. Competent space opera with some strong imagery.
August 20, 2011
The action sequences were a bit on the long side, but overall well written, and the re-introduction of Ace was handled in an interesting fashion. Her character has definitely done some growing while she was away from the Doctor.
Overall I think what made the book a little more satisfying than some New Adventures novels is the fact that while there were a few mysteries to be uncovered toward the end, for once the author lets you in on some of the key details along the way so that you don't just feel like you're watching events unfold. You're actually gaining an understanding of them as you read.
It wasn't until I got to the afterward that I realized Darvill-Evans was editor for the series, which goes a long way toward explaining why this book also did a better job than most of tying into events in past novels.
The further I get into the New Adventures series, the more I'm enjoying it. I had decided to take a break from watching the TV show to read through the books, and at this rate it might be a few years before I watch my first 11th doctor adventure, but if the rest of the books are this engaging, that might be OK.
Overall I think what made the book a little more satisfying than some New Adventures novels is the fact that while there were a few mysteries to be uncovered toward the end, for once the author lets you in on some of the key details along the way so that you don't just feel like you're watching events unfold. You're actually gaining an understanding of them as you read.
It wasn't until I got to the afterward that I realized Darvill-Evans was editor for the series, which goes a long way toward explaining why this book also did a better job than most of tying into events in past novels.
The further I get into the New Adventures series, the more I'm enjoying it. I had decided to take a break from watching the TV show to read through the books, and at this rate it might be a few years before I watch my first 11th doctor adventure, but if the rest of the books are this engaging, that might be OK.
January 24, 2013
Had read all the terrible, terrible reviews for this book, but decided to read it anyway due to it featuring the return of Ace.
My impression? It's not nearly as bad as I'd been led to believe. It's a dull slog, yes, but not moreso than Time's Crucible or others.
Still, it's not exactly what one would call a good or exciting novel, either. And it's certainly not worth the time invested in reading. Hopefully I've now learned my lesson, and this is the last time I'll try reading a Who novel just because I'm interested in seeing some development, despite massive indications of it being little more than a time suck (which also sucks).
My impression? It's not nearly as bad as I'd been led to believe. It's a dull slog, yes, but not moreso than Time's Crucible or others.
Still, it's not exactly what one would call a good or exciting novel, either. And it's certainly not worth the time invested in reading. Hopefully I've now learned my lesson, and this is the last time I'll try reading a Who novel just because I'm interested in seeing some development, despite massive indications of it being little more than a time suck (which also sucks).
May 2, 2023
This novel by The New Doctor Who Main Adventures editor has plenty of action, but I am unsure of what it is all for. It does, then, give a bit of insight into where the New Adventures are heading and some of the problems with that direction. The main points are these. Ace is back. It has been three years for her, but only a few months for The Doctor and Benny. In those three years, Ace has joined the forces and become a fighter in the Second Dalek War. She is now a rough and ready, tooled up, explosives expert itching for a fight. Darvill-Evans has fixed the running plot through the New Adventures novels up to this point of the TARDIS being contaminated and The Doctor being confused and distracted. So, about 1/3 into this book, this whole thing gets fixed, a welcome relief as distracted Doctor was getting annoying. The focus of the main plot is the planet Arcadia. The planet is an outpost, supposedly, run by the Spinward Corporation, a shady organization pulling government strings. A space force, with Ace among them, is going to Arcadia so that a government agent can get some dirt on Spinward. The Doctor agrees to meet Ace there, but Benny doesn't know about it. Arcadia, it turns out, is actually an experiment run by the brains behind Spinward Corporation. It is a world kept in an artificial medieval culture, the people used essentially so that the corporation can harvest brains. The corporation itself is controlled from a space station orbiting Arcadia. The station houses the gestalt of minds that runs Spinward (though exactly how is never clear, as it seems pretty remote from the main galactic action), called Pool. This gestalt has gone insane, and is now letting Arcadia run down, essentially shutting down the experiment. Thus, there are two lines of actors moving toward a confrontation with Pool - an assault force with Ace, plus The Doctor and Benny.
The problems I detect in this novel mostly involve the main conception and the character of Ace. The main conception could work, perhaps, if more attention were paid to the background. Darvill-Evans has some nifty ideas, such as tortured faces floating in space, a giant space station with twisted and useless appendages, brain harvesting, and so on. He seems determined to shove every nifty idea into the novel and not concern himself too much about answering why the thing is in there. Plus, he pulls the old "It's The Doctor's fault" routine, which is even by 1993 too tiresome to bear. Ace's character is more problematic. Like many of the novelists for Doctor Who, he seems to have latched onto just the idea that she likes explosions. Other aspects of Ace's character are touched on, but not really developed. So now, she is an explosives expert in the army. She is now constantly looking for a fight, uses sex as a deception to get what she wants, talks "tough" all of the time, and generally acts like someone's idea of a "soldier." I have been around enough military and ex-military personnel to know that they really do not act that way. So, rather than making Ace's character more interesting and deep, Darvill-Evans has made the character more caricatured and shallow.
To summarize, this is a novel with many nifty ideas, but also with many defects and plot holes.
The problems I detect in this novel mostly involve the main conception and the character of Ace. The main conception could work, perhaps, if more attention were paid to the background. Darvill-Evans has some nifty ideas, such as tortured faces floating in space, a giant space station with twisted and useless appendages, brain harvesting, and so on. He seems determined to shove every nifty idea into the novel and not concern himself too much about answering why the thing is in there. Plus, he pulls the old "It's The Doctor's fault" routine, which is even by 1993 too tiresome to bear. Ace's character is more problematic. Like many of the novelists for Doctor Who, he seems to have latched onto just the idea that she likes explosions. Other aspects of Ace's character are touched on, but not really developed. So now, she is an explosives expert in the army. She is now constantly looking for a fight, uses sex as a deception to get what she wants, talks "tough" all of the time, and generally acts like someone's idea of a "soldier." I have been around enough military and ex-military personnel to know that they really do not act that way. So, rather than making Ace's character more interesting and deep, Darvill-Evans has made the character more caricatured and shallow.
To summarize, this is a novel with many nifty ideas, but also with many defects and plot holes.
August 13, 2025
WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR OTHER VNAS OTHER THAN DECEIT THIS REVIEW MAY SPOIL BOOKS FROM CATS CRADLE: TIMES CRUCIBLE TO THE PIT
amazing book throughout par a strange fight scene at the end of the fourth section. the very main plot is a slow burn with sparks of ideas littered throughout but what seems to be amazing filler ends up being masterfully tied in with the main plot in the closing section. i find it interesting to see how resourceful darvill-evans is with what he is given as the editor of the range (SPOILERS from this point) by intertwining it both with Love And War and Cats Cradle: Warhead which both connect interestingly with the plot of this book especially in the epilogue where the doctor has the chilling conclusion that maybe the timelords were right about not messing with history which is an intriguing indicator that shows how different the seventh doctor is to his previous incarnations.
i think the main villain, lacuna is on the weaker side of previous VNA villains ideas-wise though that is comparing it against the likes of the Hoothi (Love and war), the Sentience (nightshade) and the Chelonians (the highest science) though Pool the tool that lacuna uses is very interesting with the whole living space station idea which nowadays seems to be a somewhat possible future as we see advances with biotech slowly advancing in the present day.
I believe that Abslom Daak is a great twist character however i did accidently find out earlier from reading the legal page which contains the licensing to the character. Also he is one from the comics i had actually heard of before unlike in Cats Cradle; Warhead where it features Miss David who I'm still not sure who she exactly is (something to do with a non-copyright Leela) though i did pick up on the twist that he was not the original Daak as Defries implies heavily throughout the book that he is indeed a clone though never outright says it and i think that if i hadn't picked up on this it would be a total shock as it is used to show how the Doctor manipulates Ace yet again which is revealed in the epilogue.
I hear that at this point in the run the editing greatly improves as that was an issue through cats cradle where ace was portrayed differently from book to book where it feels like ace is 17 in Time's crucible 20 in Warhead and 15 in Witchmark which are supposed to be consecutive (and to have a good overarching plot) but fail to feel that way and the gap between Nightshade and Love And War in which the events of Nightshade are forgotten and Ace immediately is very friendly with the doctor after their friendship is severed by the behaviour of the Doctor where he literally abandons her on an alien planet which is immediately solved due to a time skip. so I hope the cliff-hanger about Ace's ulterior motives on renewing her spot on the TARDIS is continued upon in the next novel- Lucifer Rising.
When Ace re-joins the TARDIS team Peter Darvill-evans pulls an interesting line where Ace speaks of how messy her room has been left which i think shows how Ace has matured over the three year gap though I hope it doesn't become a repeated thing like how Bernice's missing father is mentioned in four consecutive books (Love And War-The Pit). i do enjoy that the epilogue is mostly told from Bernice's perspective as she knows as much as us about what is going on in both the Doctor's mind and Ace's and the shift of audience's viewpoint from Ace to Bernice in the run is very well done in love and war and then again in this book where it begins after a bunch of plot strands are placed on Ace's perspective and toggles between her and Bernice. Interestingly, once Ace and Bernice are both in the same room in the final section Bernice takes priority over the audience's eyes as Ace has moved further away from being a traditional companion than Bernice already is as she is 30 and a drinker but the shift of focus emphasises this change of old Ace to new Ace though i do hope the futuristic sunglasses that are just a line around the head are either dropped or switched to a nicer pair.
I feel that reading this for the first time in the 2020s adds greater impact to a discussion that the doctor and Bernice have about NP problems (I think that's what they are called) but essentially they are problems that a human can solve by brute force better than an AI solving the combinations into a fast route but this gives a slight bit of hope towards the future of human validity whether it is fictional to this book or not though in this book they refer to it as theoretical mathematics.
i would thoroughly recommend people read this book though i would advise a prior reading of Warhead and Love And War as this stems directly from both
amazing book throughout par a strange fight scene at the end of the fourth section. the very main plot is a slow burn with sparks of ideas littered throughout but what seems to be amazing filler ends up being masterfully tied in with the main plot in the closing section. i find it interesting to see how resourceful darvill-evans is with what he is given as the editor of the range (SPOILERS from this point) by intertwining it both with Love And War and Cats Cradle: Warhead which both connect interestingly with the plot of this book especially in the epilogue where the doctor has the chilling conclusion that maybe the timelords were right about not messing with history which is an intriguing indicator that shows how different the seventh doctor is to his previous incarnations.
i think the main villain, lacuna is on the weaker side of previous VNA villains ideas-wise though that is comparing it against the likes of the Hoothi (Love and war), the Sentience (nightshade) and the Chelonians (the highest science) though Pool the tool that lacuna uses is very interesting with the whole living space station idea which nowadays seems to be a somewhat possible future as we see advances with biotech slowly advancing in the present day.
I believe that Abslom Daak is a great twist character however i did accidently find out earlier from reading the legal page which contains the licensing to the character. Also he is one from the comics i had actually heard of before unlike in Cats Cradle; Warhead where it features Miss David who I'm still not sure who she exactly is (something to do with a non-copyright Leela) though i did pick up on the twist that he was not the original Daak as Defries implies heavily throughout the book that he is indeed a clone though never outright says it and i think that if i hadn't picked up on this it would be a total shock as it is used to show how the Doctor manipulates Ace yet again which is revealed in the epilogue.
I hear that at this point in the run the editing greatly improves as that was an issue through cats cradle where ace was portrayed differently from book to book where it feels like ace is 17 in Time's crucible 20 in Warhead and 15 in Witchmark which are supposed to be consecutive (and to have a good overarching plot) but fail to feel that way and the gap between Nightshade and Love And War in which the events of Nightshade are forgotten and Ace immediately is very friendly with the doctor after their friendship is severed by the behaviour of the Doctor where he literally abandons her on an alien planet which is immediately solved due to a time skip. so I hope the cliff-hanger about Ace's ulterior motives on renewing her spot on the TARDIS is continued upon in the next novel- Lucifer Rising.
When Ace re-joins the TARDIS team Peter Darvill-evans pulls an interesting line where Ace speaks of how messy her room has been left which i think shows how Ace has matured over the three year gap though I hope it doesn't become a repeated thing like how Bernice's missing father is mentioned in four consecutive books (Love And War-The Pit). i do enjoy that the epilogue is mostly told from Bernice's perspective as she knows as much as us about what is going on in both the Doctor's mind and Ace's and the shift of audience's viewpoint from Ace to Bernice in the run is very well done in love and war and then again in this book where it begins after a bunch of plot strands are placed on Ace's perspective and toggles between her and Bernice. Interestingly, once Ace and Bernice are both in the same room in the final section Bernice takes priority over the audience's eyes as Ace has moved further away from being a traditional companion than Bernice already is as she is 30 and a drinker but the shift of focus emphasises this change of old Ace to new Ace though i do hope the futuristic sunglasses that are just a line around the head are either dropped or switched to a nicer pair.
I feel that reading this for the first time in the 2020s adds greater impact to a discussion that the doctor and Bernice have about NP problems (I think that's what they are called) but essentially they are problems that a human can solve by brute force better than an AI solving the combinations into a fast route but this gives a slight bit of hope towards the future of human validity whether it is fictional to this book or not though in this book they refer to it as theoretical mathematics.
i would thoroughly recommend people read this book though i would advise a prior reading of Warhead and Love And War as this stems directly from both
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Read
July 27, 2017No question at all, I'd have hated this when it first came out: there is something depressing about this cyberpunky universe, its dysfunctional technology and cynical macho types, the gory and repetitive action sequences, the Doctor half absent from the story and when he does turn up completely bereft of warmth or empathy, along with sweary companions exuding a sexual confidence that nobody expects from a teatime family television programme. But then, this Doctor Who is already about as far from the teatime programme that spawned it as it is from the Doctor Who are kids are growing up with now.
And yet. The influence of The New Adventures on 21st century Doctor Who is on display everywhere here. Whilst I'm glad the new series has largely avoided the slightly humourless, taking-itself-too-seriously-because-it-was-a-grown-up-programme-all-along-no-really-it-totally-was tone of these novels (epitomised here by an appendix detailing the significance of corporations in the third millennium of earth history, every bit as dull as it sounds), take a moment to appreciate the bold mixture of hard sci-fi and fantasy, the genuine sense of long-term character development, the consistency of the universe and the epic sense of moving forward with the franchise. Easy now to overlook just how groundbreaking it was to give Ace three years to grow up in before bringing her back with - at least potentially - a complexity far beyond the already rather stretched troubled teenager concept. Benny conflicted emotions at her return are also strong, in a story that has given her plenty of space to develop herself.
The Doctor does less well than his companions; I just can't imagine the seventh Doctor uttering the phrase 'damn and blast' any more than I can get my head around the mixture of faux eccentricity and brooding mystery that is sadly consistent with half of the other New Adventures so far. But in other respects, especially after the absolute car crash that was The Pit, it is reassuring that the man in charge of the series was both a competent writer and able to structure a decent yarn (though he was clearly prone to the self-indulgent world-building that goes on for far longer than the reader would like).
In short, then, this is pretty representative of all that remains annoying about The New Adventures, as well as everything that made them aspirational for (slightly older) fans at the time and that continues to make them by far the sexiest series of Doctor Who ever produced in the written medium.
And yet. The influence of The New Adventures on 21st century Doctor Who is on display everywhere here. Whilst I'm glad the new series has largely avoided the slightly humourless, taking-itself-too-seriously-because-it-was-a-grown-up-programme-all-along-no-really-it-totally-was tone of these novels (epitomised here by an appendix detailing the significance of corporations in the third millennium of earth history, every bit as dull as it sounds), take a moment to appreciate the bold mixture of hard sci-fi and fantasy, the genuine sense of long-term character development, the consistency of the universe and the epic sense of moving forward with the franchise. Easy now to overlook just how groundbreaking it was to give Ace three years to grow up in before bringing her back with - at least potentially - a complexity far beyond the already rather stretched troubled teenager concept. Benny conflicted emotions at her return are also strong, in a story that has given her plenty of space to develop herself.
The Doctor does less well than his companions; I just can't imagine the seventh Doctor uttering the phrase 'damn and blast' any more than I can get my head around the mixture of faux eccentricity and brooding mystery that is sadly consistent with half of the other New Adventures so far. But in other respects, especially after the absolute car crash that was The Pit, it is reassuring that the man in charge of the series was both a competent writer and able to structure a decent yarn (though he was clearly prone to the self-indulgent world-building that goes on for far longer than the reader would like).
In short, then, this is pretty representative of all that remains annoying about The New Adventures, as well as everything that made them aspirational for (slightly older) fans at the time and that continues to make them by far the sexiest series of Doctor Who ever produced in the written medium.
March 21, 2019
Ace returns! There - you now know all the important information found in Deceit.
Action packed, in an odd way where the action shows up almost exactly once every 50 pages, Deceit revolves around a pastoral planet with a dark secret (is there any other kind?), a military expedition with Ace on it, and a malevolent computer in a Stockholm Syndrome relationship with an imprisoned woman. It’s weird, but also a friend of the trope. All the stuff on the pastoral planet feels like I’ve seen it before.
You’ll probably be coming here for Ace, who is different now - angrier and more militaristic. It’s not an approach you can do much with, which explains why New Ace was rather unpopular at the time. She mostly hangs around with Abslom Daak, a comic character who loves killing Daleks and has no other traits. If you don’t know who he is, you won’t care that he’s here. The Doctor and Bernice show up, neither has any story to write home about.
Deceit gets the basic mechanics of a story right, but there’s little imagination and the characters don’t really grow. It’s mostly just dull. For fans aiming to read everything, a quick skim of the synopsis would do just as well.
4/10
Action packed, in an odd way where the action shows up almost exactly once every 50 pages, Deceit revolves around a pastoral planet with a dark secret (is there any other kind?), a military expedition with Ace on it, and a malevolent computer in a Stockholm Syndrome relationship with an imprisoned woman. It’s weird, but also a friend of the trope. All the stuff on the pastoral planet feels like I’ve seen it before.
You’ll probably be coming here for Ace, who is different now - angrier and more militaristic. It’s not an approach you can do much with, which explains why New Ace was rather unpopular at the time. She mostly hangs around with Abslom Daak, a comic character who loves killing Daleks and has no other traits. If you don’t know who he is, you won’t care that he’s here. The Doctor and Bernice show up, neither has any story to write home about.
Deceit gets the basic mechanics of a story right, but there’s little imagination and the characters don’t really grow. It’s mostly just dull. For fans aiming to read everything, a quick skim of the synopsis would do just as well.
4/10
March 22, 2019
Like a lot of the early "New Adventures" lines, this seems like it was a theoretically interesting idea that just doesn't hold together. Oddly, it even tries to put a cap on a previously theoretically interesting idea that didn't hold together by explaining that the "Cat's Cradle" story hadn't actually been wrapped up some 4 books ago and was being wrapped up here as a sort of prologue to the actual novel.
It's odd, to say the least.
The tricky thing here is that this book is critically dense with continuity that will become useful as the series goes on. But it's a bit of a slog. You could probably trim 50 pages of aimless action sequences and 20 of the Doctor staring at monitors watching the action sequences, and you wouldn't miss a thing. But everything about the Doctor, Benny and Ace relationship is set-up right here and is useful if you're going to continue on with this series.
As mentioned by others, Darvill-Evans' essay about his New Adventures guidelines is pretty fascinating. The afterward about earth history post-Second Dalek War is less interesting, but worth a read because it infiltrates mainstream Who mythology across the media spectrum; tv to audio to novels.
It's odd, to say the least.
The tricky thing here is that this book is critically dense with continuity that will become useful as the series goes on. But it's a bit of a slog. You could probably trim 50 pages of aimless action sequences and 20 of the Doctor staring at monitors watching the action sequences, and you wouldn't miss a thing. But everything about the Doctor, Benny and Ace relationship is set-up right here and is useful if you're going to continue on with this series.
As mentioned by others, Darvill-Evans' essay about his New Adventures guidelines is pretty fascinating. The afterward about earth history post-Second Dalek War is less interesting, but worth a read because it infiltrates mainstream Who mythology across the media spectrum; tv to audio to novels.
August 16, 2022
Not a bad novel at all. Parts 1-3 were quite enjoyable. Parts 4 and 5 felt like a bit of a drag, but not bad - I could still read them fairly quickly. There was just too much happening, and a lot of action/violence which made the scenes blend together. To his credit, Darvill-Evans uses *the guest star* well, keeping them in character and utilised aptly for their scenes. I can't help but feel as if Ace doesn't get too much to do in a story arguably built around her return - the Afterword gives a nice insight to the VNA production though. A solid 6 or 7/10, depending on your mood. I wouldn't mind reading another novel by the same author. That said, the 'Future History Cycle' has dragged on - as a fan of the historical novels over the futuristic, the absence of stories not set in gritty military scenarios on alien worlds is noticeable! I won't hold that against this book however - and the likes of White Darkness and Birthright aren't far away now. Overall, a decent enough read. Would recommend, but don't expect anything deep or profound.
EDIT: And what a brilliant cover this has too!
EDIT: And what a brilliant cover this has too!
April 11, 2023
Considering this is meant to be Peter Darvill-Evans' beacon of light, which is meant to show the upcoming writers what he wants the Virgin New Adventures should be...he does a really bad job of it.
This book is laced with too many characters at the start, most of which are introduced blandly, so you can't get invested in them. Settings that you can't understand why they are meant to be important. The first half of this book is just set up and it's boring.
By the time the story properly kicks off, you really do not care one bit. It even surprised me how little some characters, who were previously introduced, had no bearing on the plot.
Plus some of the sexual bits are a bit creepy. It harkens back to the days of John Peel's Timewyrm: Genesis.
This book is laced with too many characters at the start, most of which are introduced blandly, so you can't get invested in them. Settings that you can't understand why they are meant to be important. The first half of this book is just set up and it's boring.
By the time the story properly kicks off, you really do not care one bit. It even surprised me how little some characters, who were previously introduced, had no bearing on the plot.
Plus some of the sexual bits are a bit creepy. It harkens back to the days of John Peel's Timewyrm: Genesis.
March 1, 2020
Would almost certainly have enjoyed this more if Abslom Daak wasn't in it. I've read a comic anthology that featured him before and he struck me as a pretty dull type of character but this made me outright hate him - I really do not want to have to read about some creep repeatedly sexually harassing Ace.
The plot itself had some interesting ideas, although I'm not sure that they always came together neatly or paid off as much as they could have done. It's definitely more competently written than The Pit, but I don't think that's hard. I really did mostly enjoy it, it's just that the one element I didn't like, I hated enough to bring my overall opinion of the book down.
The plot itself had some interesting ideas, although I'm not sure that they always came together neatly or paid off as much as they could have done. It's definitely more competently written than The Pit, but I don't think that's hard. I really did mostly enjoy it, it's just that the one element I didn't like, I hated enough to bring my overall opinion of the book down.
December 16, 2023
I fully agree with Adam James review when he says that the book starts out with a bunch of interesting characters who all have their own viewpoints all going towards the same destination, but once they're all there and the doctor becomes a driving force in the story, it kind of just becomes an average doctor vs some evil space lord story. And man, I guess I've been giving him the benefit of the doubt, but now I'm really starting to see why some people feel the way they do about the seventh doctor. Oh and I'm interested to see where the storyline of new Ace goes and I hope it actually is satisfying, rather than just a tease that leads to nowhere like some of other of these books have done.
April 20, 2025
Generally didn't like this much at all. There is not very much of a hook, and it's mostly just a bit boring. Things pick up a bit towards the end for a few pages but I don't know if that really justifies it. However the author includes an afterword saying if you didn't like it, they are sorry, and you know what? Sure. I accept. This book deserves one star (maybe 2 at a stretch?? Was it ok????) but I'll give three stars. One can onlty hope future authors will Darwinianly learn this trick and soon someday everyone will be doing it. I do also like the cover though
May 3, 2018
A relatively entertaining but overall poorly constructed action-movie sci-fi book featuring a 'matured' Ace returning to the Doctor and Benny after a period of hiatus, alongside pointless supporting characters and plot that moves at a snail's pace. Read in awe as the Doctor outsmarts a thing and does a thing and yeah! Woo!
Or not.
Or not.
September 1, 2022
This book actually made me angry. I have several issues with this book but a main one can be summed up with this: please, can the VNAs just treat female characters respectfully for once? it shouldn't be this difficult.
April 22, 2025
Overall, the writing is probably the best of the VNA up to this point, but damn, can we really not go one book without some 'breasted boobily' level writing of women? Also, be warned, Ace is very nearly raped in this book and it's literally played for comic effect.
July 31, 2025
Coming off the Pit, which really deserves its poor reputation, anything would be better! But Deceit is in itself a relatively solid story that's well told.
Will it stick in the mind and make you think? No, but it's a pleasant enough story to pass a few hours!
Will it stick in the mind and make you think? No, but it's a pleasant enough story to pass a few hours!
August 3, 2017
Fairly entertaining read. A bit long and convoluted, but towards the end it picks up.
March 7, 2018
Not terrible (and the writing is miles ahead of The Pit), but the second half of this book is very dull. Too many repetitive action sequences. I liked the epilogue, though.
July 25, 2021
What was going on in Arcadia turned out to be quite intriguing, but it took a very long time with some convoluted and ultimately pointless action sequences to get there. Nice cover though.
July 16, 2023
Better than average. I always like to see companions behaving more than two-dimensionally. Plus, the zany antics of Abslom Daak!
March 6, 2024
In which Darvill-Evans reveals himself to be a better editor than he is an author. Full review: https://fakegeekboy.wordpress.com/202...
December 1, 2024
A solid addition to the New Doctor Adventures, enjoyed this one greatly.
October 28, 2025
some good sci fi but some of it was shit
December 30, 2020
You ever get so angry and frustrated with a book that you find yourself mentally flipping it off while reading it, then actually physically flipping it off as you near the end? Just asking.
October 2, 2015
Some context: this is a New Adventure novel written by the then series editor. He wrote it in part to understand the process he was putting his own prospective novelists through, and to test out his own editorial guidelines. If you treat it in this way, it helps explain - to an extent - the nature of the story and why it is written in the way it is.
I say this because, at the start, I had a nasty feeling it was going to become another 'Transit' awfulness. For almost the entire first quarter of the novel, there is no mention of the Doctor at all. This trait, which is not uncommon in the NA series, is perhaps one of its worst. I get that the authors were trying to demonstrate 'depth' to their stories - and I have no problem with a few pages of non-Doctor action to set the scene - but to have to get through a good chunk of the book before even seeing the Doctor on the page is little short of disingenuous. Not only that, but Darvill-Evans delights in creating more and more story strands, jumping from one to the next on a whim, presumably in an attempt to make the book seem 'compex'. However, as with 'The Highest Science', just spinning up lots of threads does not make a book complex per se, it just makes it confusing. What is more, some of the threads don't go anywhere here - like the guy running the Spinward Space Station who is replaced by Lacuna, or the girl who gets naked on camera for her trooper boyfriend. They add nothing to the story. One could even argue that Abslom Daak doesn't *really* contribute a lot here, because his character turns out to be a clone that gets killed in an utterly anti-climactic way and who didn't even manage to 'save the day' beforehand.
Ace is brought back, which is a good thing, although as with other NA writers, Darvill-Evans chooses to make things between her and the Doctor unnecessarily tense at the end - again, for no clear reason. Just having your characters shout at each other doesn't, of itself, produce an interesting dynamic.
The story felt, at times, like its author couldn't make up his mind whether to make this a historic Who yarn or a futuristic one. He opts to fudge both together, creating a Renaissance-style colony set in Earth's future, run by a hive mind and administered by sinister androids. I nevertheless enjoyed the setup - besides a few irritating details (why, for example, is poor Elaine locked up in the attic with a bag over her head by her otherwise nice-seeming uncle? no explanation is given) and found the 'Humble Counsellors' to be quite an effective enemy. Benny has a good subplot of her own and the Doctor - once he finally has permission granted from Darvill-Evans to show up - is also well characterised. I always judge an NA well if I can hear Sylvester McCoy's voice speaking the dialogue in my head, and that was definitely the case here. I quite liked Darvill-Evans' conceit that the only way the Doctor could flush out a malign influence on his TARDIS was to make himself forget he was doing it.
The Lacuna/Britta plot was almost entirely irrelevant and, to be honest, a bit weird. What was all that stuff in the bath about? Why is Lacuna molesting the poor woman - and why does she choose to stay, at the end, to look after her tormentor? I personally felt the Britta character could have been removed all together and the story wouldn't have suffered as a consequence.
Darvill-Evans has a habit of creating some very interesting visuals but then not really developing them. The sinister asteroid faces (which adorn the front cover) were an excellent idea, but they never went anywhere. The holographic projections were similarly intriguing but failed to develop properly. There was also a huge chunk of exposition that he threw into an appendix at the end; I found that rather dishonest. I suspect he would never have allowed one of his own authors to do that, but felt he could do it because he was the editor. There were some nice details in there (the Butler Institute, for example) but exposition on that scale should really be woven into the plot or else junked.
Overall, the story is a sufficiently decent one to maintain interest, and it was not a struggle to finish. I would call this one of the better-than-average NAs: it falls short of the soaring heights of a Paul Cornell or a Marc Platt, but it is nevertheless much better than some others that went before it.
(An interesting side point: in the author's endnote, Darvill-Evans speaks about his personal opposition to the idea of creating a Missing Adventures series; the fact the series went ahead - and was very popular - makes his endnote an amusing historical detail to read in retrospect.)
I say this because, at the start, I had a nasty feeling it was going to become another 'Transit' awfulness. For almost the entire first quarter of the novel, there is no mention of the Doctor at all. This trait, which is not uncommon in the NA series, is perhaps one of its worst. I get that the authors were trying to demonstrate 'depth' to their stories - and I have no problem with a few pages of non-Doctor action to set the scene - but to have to get through a good chunk of the book before even seeing the Doctor on the page is little short of disingenuous. Not only that, but Darvill-Evans delights in creating more and more story strands, jumping from one to the next on a whim, presumably in an attempt to make the book seem 'compex'. However, as with 'The Highest Science', just spinning up lots of threads does not make a book complex per se, it just makes it confusing. What is more, some of the threads don't go anywhere here - like the guy running the Spinward Space Station who is replaced by Lacuna, or the girl who gets naked on camera for her trooper boyfriend. They add nothing to the story. One could even argue that Abslom Daak doesn't *really* contribute a lot here, because his character turns out to be a clone that gets killed in an utterly anti-climactic way and who didn't even manage to 'save the day' beforehand.
Ace is brought back, which is a good thing, although as with other NA writers, Darvill-Evans chooses to make things between her and the Doctor unnecessarily tense at the end - again, for no clear reason. Just having your characters shout at each other doesn't, of itself, produce an interesting dynamic.
The story felt, at times, like its author couldn't make up his mind whether to make this a historic Who yarn or a futuristic one. He opts to fudge both together, creating a Renaissance-style colony set in Earth's future, run by a hive mind and administered by sinister androids. I nevertheless enjoyed the setup - besides a few irritating details (why, for example, is poor Elaine locked up in the attic with a bag over her head by her otherwise nice-seeming uncle? no explanation is given) and found the 'Humble Counsellors' to be quite an effective enemy. Benny has a good subplot of her own and the Doctor - once he finally has permission granted from Darvill-Evans to show up - is also well characterised. I always judge an NA well if I can hear Sylvester McCoy's voice speaking the dialogue in my head, and that was definitely the case here. I quite liked Darvill-Evans' conceit that the only way the Doctor could flush out a malign influence on his TARDIS was to make himself forget he was doing it.
The Lacuna/Britta plot was almost entirely irrelevant and, to be honest, a bit weird. What was all that stuff in the bath about? Why is Lacuna molesting the poor woman - and why does she choose to stay, at the end, to look after her tormentor? I personally felt the Britta character could have been removed all together and the story wouldn't have suffered as a consequence.
Darvill-Evans has a habit of creating some very interesting visuals but then not really developing them. The sinister asteroid faces (which adorn the front cover) were an excellent idea, but they never went anywhere. The holographic projections were similarly intriguing but failed to develop properly. There was also a huge chunk of exposition that he threw into an appendix at the end; I found that rather dishonest. I suspect he would never have allowed one of his own authors to do that, but felt he could do it because he was the editor. There were some nice details in there (the Butler Institute, for example) but exposition on that scale should really be woven into the plot or else junked.
Overall, the story is a sufficiently decent one to maintain interest, and it was not a struggle to finish. I would call this one of the better-than-average NAs: it falls short of the soaring heights of a Paul Cornell or a Marc Platt, but it is nevertheless much better than some others that went before it.
(An interesting side point: in the author's endnote, Darvill-Evans speaks about his personal opposition to the idea of creating a Missing Adventures series; the fact the series went ahead - and was very popular - makes his endnote an amusing historical detail to read in retrospect.)
November 22, 2024
Peter Darvill-Evans takes confident control of the New Adventures' creative direction in this twisted, often haunting, slab of space fantasy, though the somewhat rushed and morally inconclusive ending fails to fully satisfy.
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