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At the center of disruption in the universe, three adventurers are trapped on a parallel Earth. If their friend cannot reach them in time, they will be obliterated. At the center of disruption in the universe, three adventurers are trapped on a parallel Earth. If their friend cannot reach them in time, they will be obliterated.
Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1998
About the author
Dave Stone
82 books16 followersStone has written many spin off novels based on the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who and Judge Dredd.
Stone also contributed a number of comic series to 2000AD and the Judge Dredd Megazine, focusing on the Dreddverse (Judge Dredd universe). In collaboration with David Bishop and artist Shaky Kane he produced the much disliked Soul Sisters, which he has described as "a joke-trip, which through various degrees of miscommunication ended up as a joke-strip without any jokes." Working independently, he created the better received Armitage, a Dreddworld take on Inspector Morse set in a future London, and also contributed to the ongoing Judge Hershey series.
Stone’s most lasting contribution to the world of Judge Dredd might well have been his vision of Brit-Cit, which until Stone’s various novels had been a remarkably underexplored area.
Stone also contributed a number of comic series to 2000AD and the Judge Dredd Megazine, focusing on the Dreddverse (Judge Dredd universe). In collaboration with David Bishop and artist Shaky Kane he produced the much disliked Soul Sisters, which he has described as "a joke-trip, which through various degrees of miscommunication ended up as a joke-strip without any jokes." Working independently, he created the better received Armitage, a Dreddworld take on Inspector Morse set in a future London, and also contributed to the ongoing Judge Hershey series.
Stone’s most lasting contribution to the world of Judge Dredd might well have been his vision of Brit-Cit, which until Stone’s various novels had been a remarkably underexplored area.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
November 5, 2024
Okay, it probably wasn't all that great. But I just liked having Sgloomi Po back - big fan, if that's conceivable - and especially Roz back, for one last hurrah. Loved seeing Roz on the cover, though she's a bit blurrier than usual, depending on who is on Cover Image detail (I suppose).
Wait, of course I love Sgloomi Po...I love Blorgulax from Futurama, and either of them could be both of them!
Wait, of course I love Sgloomi Po...I love Blorgulax from Futurama, and either of them could be both of them!
August 12, 2023
The New Adventures tackle the multiverse (more or less) as people suddenly find themselves living different lives, and only Benny and co can see reality. This is more interesting as an idea than it is in execution, with too much focus on characters we don’t know very well (and so can’t very well deconstruct by throwing them into different contexts) and not a very solid reason for bringing back Roz Forrester, however briefly. It’s as wordy and funny as ever from Dave Stone, but the pace and urgency aren’t there for this particular universe-bothering crisis.
2.5
2.5
November 27, 2024
He no longer had a name. He inhabited a world without sequence or names; the meat machine like a philosopher's axe; replace the head and change the pole...
This is a somewhat odd book. If you think that this is solely a Bernice Summerfield adventure, you are solely mistaken. This is a book about the somewhat vast cast of characters that Dave Stone has had some influence on over the years (such as his creations Jason Kane and the crew of the Schirron Dream along with Chris Cwej and Roz Forrester). While I was reading it, I was a bit frustrated by the shorter chapters (not because I thought they were poorly written but because I wanted more dephth from the fictional worlds shown in this novel) but I think the story congealed together by the end quite nicely. There's also quite a bit of very experimental/poetic Jim Mortimore-esque prose which I quite liked. The short story in the appendix is very weird and I'm not sure if it clicked with me or not.
This is a somewhat odd book. If you think that this is solely a Bernice Summerfield adventure, you are solely mistaken. This is a book about the somewhat vast cast of characters that Dave Stone has had some influence on over the years (such as his creations Jason Kane and the crew of the Schirron Dream along with Chris Cwej and Roz Forrester). While I was reading it, I was a bit frustrated by the shorter chapters (not because I thought they were poorly written but because I wanted more dephth from the fictional worlds shown in this novel) but I think the story congealed together by the end quite nicely. There's also quite a bit of very experimental/poetic Jim Mortimore-esque prose which I quite liked. The short story in the appendix is very weird and I'm not sure if it clicked with me or not.
November 29, 2015
http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2560481.html
A Bernice Summerfield novel, reuniting her with her ex-husband Jason and her New Adventures friends Chris and (from a younger part of her timeline) Roz, and the rather excellent shapeshifter Sgloomi Po. Apart from this last, however, not much of interest is done with this promising cast and the potentially interesting scenario of reality splintering into many possible futures. Appropriately enough, given the title, I find it quite difficult to remember anything that happened.
A Bernice Summerfield novel, reuniting her with her ex-husband Jason and her New Adventures friends Chris and (from a younger part of her timeline) Roz, and the rather excellent shapeshifter Sgloomi Po. Apart from this last, however, not much of interest is done with this promising cast and the potentially interesting scenario of reality splintering into many possible futures. Appropriately enough, given the title, I find it quite difficult to remember anything that happened.
April 26, 2022
When Dave Stone wrote Sky Pirates! and Death and Diplomacy he began a trilogy that the majority of Doctor Who fans would actually not find themselves finishing said trilogy. While Stone clearly had plans for a third Doctor Who New Adventure to finish the trilogy dealing with Benny, Chris, Roz, and Jason Kane. And then the New Adventures had the Doctor Who license revoked and I genuinely thought that Dave Stone wouldn’t complete the trilogy, but apparently I was wrong. Oblivion is the eleventh New Adventures novel with Bernice Summerfield as protagonist, the second of four to be written by Dave Stone, and the one in which the trilogy is completed and the story is moved forward. Now this plot, being a Dave Stone plot, is perhaps best described as madcap and insane, bringing back the characters from Sky Pirates! including those on the Schirron Dream which is essentially the main setting of this novel. The plot involves the universe cracking and several alternate timelines coming into being which with Stone’s brand of humor means that the book is intentionally convoluted and difficult to follow in places but is punctuated with some brilliant pieces of character work. The oblivion of the title is the destruction of reality itself with Sgloomi Po the Sloathe returning and being integral to a lot of the novel. Sgloomi’s brand of humor due to the fish out of water nature of the character is something that keeps Oblivion moving through what is a really slow first third or so. The first third doesn’t actually feel like setup outside of the two prologues, until Jason actually shows up soon after Chris enters the plot. It almost feels as if Benny’s beginning is what had the most rewriting done to accommodate the absence of the Doctor and honestly it feels quite a bit like this would be a Doctor-lite story anyway so this is the only place it becomes noticeable.
Benny, Chris, and Jason are the only characters who remain sane throughout Oblivion until the very end when the timelines actually splinter and there is a lengthy sequence which serves as the conclusion. This sequence is a brilliant look into each of the characters’ minds to see just where they’ve grown since this new era of New Adventures has begun. Chris especially is still not entirely recovering from the death of Roz Forrester: he is stable yes, but as soon as Roz is dragged into the plot at a point ten years before the events of Original Sin, Chris simply cannot cope. This is one of the things that the villains of the book use to break the timelines meaning that Roz becomes an alternate version of herself which has to be restored at the end of the book. The hardened alternate version of Roz is such a fascinating look at essentially what she could have become if she was corrupted by her situation in Original Sin, there already isn’t a relationship with Chris due to them not having met at this point in her timeline, and the idea is kind of that the betrayal in her debut never actually happened in one of these alternate timelines. Chris also just has this sorrow having to look at the woman he loves knowing everything that is going to happen in her life to the moment of her death and Stone’s prose whenever the reader is in Chris’s perspective is beautiful. It’s paralleled with the love between Jason and Benny, who are antagonistic throughout the novel, but this isn’t a problem as it’s clear that much of it is an act. While Stone may not have had access to Walking to Babylon as it was the book immediately previous to Oblivion, he clearly knew what the characters feelings are at this point. Partially due to being Jason’s creator, Stone is also the best at characterizing Jason who easily in the hands of a lesser writer, be incredibly obnoxious.
Overall, Oblivion is a novel that is a lot. The plot is all over the place like most of Stone’s novel plots, but it makes it work really well in the final third where everything is pulled together. There is also a genuine issue with the non-returning characters not really having a presence, especially the villain who you really don’t get enough of. It is still a great read almost because of how the obtuse plot is used to explore characters that readers genuinely love and that character work is what shines through making Oblivion worth it. 8/10.
Benny, Chris, and Jason are the only characters who remain sane throughout Oblivion until the very end when the timelines actually splinter and there is a lengthy sequence which serves as the conclusion. This sequence is a brilliant look into each of the characters’ minds to see just where they’ve grown since this new era of New Adventures has begun. Chris especially is still not entirely recovering from the death of Roz Forrester: he is stable yes, but as soon as Roz is dragged into the plot at a point ten years before the events of Original Sin, Chris simply cannot cope. This is one of the things that the villains of the book use to break the timelines meaning that Roz becomes an alternate version of herself which has to be restored at the end of the book. The hardened alternate version of Roz is such a fascinating look at essentially what she could have become if she was corrupted by her situation in Original Sin, there already isn’t a relationship with Chris due to them not having met at this point in her timeline, and the idea is kind of that the betrayal in her debut never actually happened in one of these alternate timelines. Chris also just has this sorrow having to look at the woman he loves knowing everything that is going to happen in her life to the moment of her death and Stone’s prose whenever the reader is in Chris’s perspective is beautiful. It’s paralleled with the love between Jason and Benny, who are antagonistic throughout the novel, but this isn’t a problem as it’s clear that much of it is an act. While Stone may not have had access to Walking to Babylon as it was the book immediately previous to Oblivion, he clearly knew what the characters feelings are at this point. Partially due to being Jason’s creator, Stone is also the best at characterizing Jason who easily in the hands of a lesser writer, be incredibly obnoxious.
Overall, Oblivion is a novel that is a lot. The plot is all over the place like most of Stone’s novel plots, but it makes it work really well in the final third where everything is pulled together. There is also a genuine issue with the non-returning characters not really having a presence, especially the villain who you really don’t get enough of. It is still a great read almost because of how the obtuse plot is used to explore characters that readers genuinely love and that character work is what shines through making Oblivion worth it. 8/10.
April 6, 2025
DNF at page 200. I couldn't read any more of this nonsense, lol.
I never cared towards Dave Stone's writing, and I think that's why I practically struggle reading through any of his work. I DNF'd Sky Pirates and I did not feel inclined to reread it or Death & Diplomacy for the sake of a few characters I do not care about who appear in this novel.
Dave Stone sense of humour does not work for me. He tries too hard to be like Pratchett or Douglas Adams and the humour he writes about does not sit write with me. I mainly only put up with this novel for the Benny and the 'Roz' chapters and more or less skimmed through the rest.
Jason and Benny bicker a lot through this book due to old resentment and left over things to talk about from their divorce. As Benny says, it was a spiteful game they played and Benny and Jason are very much toxic to each other and leaning into it.
It doesn't help that I was also never a fan of Jason and no amount of his backstory makes me care about him. There was a paragraph that made me think Dave Stone was trying to write him as a male version of Ace. But that might be me.
I never cared towards Dave Stone's writing, and I think that's why I practically struggle reading through any of his work. I DNF'd Sky Pirates and I did not feel inclined to reread it or Death & Diplomacy for the sake of a few characters I do not care about who appear in this novel.
Dave Stone sense of humour does not work for me. He tries too hard to be like Pratchett or Douglas Adams and the humour he writes about does not sit write with me. I mainly only put up with this novel for the Benny and the 'Roz' chapters and more or less skimmed through the rest.
Jason and Benny bicker a lot through this book due to old resentment and left over things to talk about from their divorce. As Benny says, it was a spiteful game they played and Benny and Jason are very much toxic to each other and leaning into it.
It doesn't help that I was also never a fan of Jason and no amount of his backstory makes me care about him. There was a paragraph that made me think Dave Stone was trying to write him as a male version of Ace. But that might be me.
November 23, 2017
Interesting enough but nothing really happens. The main characters hear the universe is ending, head off to stop it, go through a bunch of amusing alternate realities and then all of a sudden at the end, stop it somehow. Really kind of pointless but decently written.
July 18, 2025
A chaotic mish-mash that captures the madness of a universe spasming in flux. Benny and Jason are well realized. Sgloomi Po is a pure joy. It worked for me, but not for everyone.
July 28, 2025
Three stars because I enjoyed most of it? One star because, like the other Dave Stone books, HUH?
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews