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Bernice Summerfield: Virgin New Adventures #7
Ghost Devices
Bernice travels to the primitive and religious world of Canopus IV, where the locals worship the Spire, a kilometer-high tower that bends time, and talks of gods who can see through time. Someone must solve the mystery of the Canopusi's ancient gods, and Benny is just the archaeologist for the job.
249 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1997
67 people want to read
About the author
Simon Bucher-Jones
62 books23 followersSimon Bucher-Jones is a British author, poet, artist, and amateur actor, best known for his Doctor Who novels for Virgin and the BBC and as a contributor to the Faction Paradox spin-off series.
He is known for a hard SF approach. He has also written Cthulhu Mythos short stories. He also reviewed books for the Fortean Times, and for small press papers. He maintains a blog at http://www.simonbjones.blogspot.com where he is, among other projects, gradually turning all the Star Wars films into Shakespearean plays. He also markets a range of Cthulhu Mythos artwork t-shirts and mugs. He is also a major contributor of 'hidden cities' to the 'blind atlas' meme. His poetry has appeared in the Journal of the British Fantasy Society.
He is known for a hard SF approach. He has also written Cthulhu Mythos short stories. He also reviewed books for the Fortean Times, and for small press papers. He maintains a blog at http://www.simonbjones.blogspot.com where he is, among other projects, gradually turning all the Star Wars films into Shakespearean plays. He also markets a range of Cthulhu Mythos artwork t-shirts and mugs. He is also a major contributor of 'hidden cities' to the 'blind atlas' meme. His poetry has appeared in the Journal of the British Fantasy Society.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
June 25, 2023
Simon Bucher-Jones returns with a colourful, funny and interesting story for Bernice Summerfield involving neurotic machinery, irritated warmongers, visions from the future and time paradoxes.
It’s a good showcase for Bernice (although once again she shares the limelight) where she is her usual witty self, but also has to grapple with a few crises in a way that highlights the kind of protagonist she is compared to, say, the Doctor. There is some nudge-wink commentary on the tropes of the series so far which are very entertaining, but may seem a little poor taste if future books don’t move beyond them.
The author has a habit of breaking scenes into pieces which made it a more drawn-out read than it needed to be (my attention span needs a good long run at a scene), but otherwise this is a strong entry in the series and a big improvement over his last New Adventure, The Death Of Art.
3.5
It’s a good showcase for Bernice (although once again she shares the limelight) where she is her usual witty self, but also has to grapple with a few crises in a way that highlights the kind of protagonist she is compared to, say, the Doctor. There is some nudge-wink commentary on the tropes of the series so far which are very entertaining, but may seem a little poor taste if future books don’t move beyond them.
The author has a habit of breaking scenes into pieces which made it a more drawn-out read than it needed to be (my attention span needs a good long run at a scene), but otherwise this is a strong entry in the series and a big improvement over his last New Adventure, The Death Of Art.
3.5
January 5, 2025
Re-Read 05/01/25
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He wondered if there were a billion, a billion billion universes in which he had opened the door and found Bernice Dead. He decided it did not matter. This Bernice was alive.
The future was alive.
-Clarence
-
This book took me a while to go through because I had a few things going on in my life, and every time I tried to sit down to read it I was either too tired or something just kept interrupting me. But, I am glad I stuck with it because last time I picked up this book, I DNFed it.
It's definitely a slower pace novel and there is a lot of technobabble to it to get your head wrapped around. I think my favourite moments were the introduction of Clarence, and the chapters with Benny and the Air Vent. The Air Vent was a highlight and hilarious character who likes the same classic holomovies Benny does.
I also love how we get to see how manipulative God is here and how much of a role he is being set up and the arc of the People and the religious war. He is not as innocent as he appears to be, and is certainly manipulating Benny or using her as a scapegoat and she knows it.
Those last few chapters where Benny was really depressed was oof <3
Benny needs a hug.
-
He wondered if there were a billion, a billion billion universes in which he had opened the door and found Bernice Dead. He decided it did not matter. This Bernice was alive.
The future was alive.
-Clarence
-
This book took me a while to go through because I had a few things going on in my life, and every time I tried to sit down to read it I was either too tired or something just kept interrupting me. But, I am glad I stuck with it because last time I picked up this book, I DNFed it.
It's definitely a slower pace novel and there is a lot of technobabble to it to get your head wrapped around. I think my favourite moments were the introduction of Clarence, and the chapters with Benny and the Air Vent. The Air Vent was a highlight and hilarious character who likes the same classic holomovies Benny does.
I also love how we get to see how manipulative God is here and how much of a role he is being set up and the arc of the People and the religious war. He is not as innocent as he appears to be, and is certainly manipulating Benny or using her as a scapegoat and she knows it.
Those last few chapters where Benny was really depressed was oof <3
Benny needs a hug.
February 24, 2022
Ghost Devices is a weird book. The second from author Simon Bucher-Jones and the first of the New Adventures to feature Bernice Summerfield that really feels like it was meant to be a Doctor Who story but the Doctor has been removed. Not even the previous book, Deadfall, which was an adaptation of a fan Doctor Who audio story, felt like it was meant to be a Doctor Who story. Ghost Devices is different, it’s a story that feels divided into several 50 page chunks which almost changes like it’s meant to be a classic Doctor Who serial. Importantly, there is a cameo from the Seventh Doctor with the serial numbers filed off implying that this is all one of his plans a la Birthright, but because the Doctor can’t be used his influence throughout isn’t integrated which was what made Birthright work. The final 50 pages are actually the most interesting going into several possible timelines which is as densely written as Simon Bucher-Jones is known to be, but the story is also all about a mysterious artefact and an amnesiac of the People. There are reptilian races and imperialism and honestly a lot going on for a 250 page book, especially when the plot likes to go off in different directions every 50 pages. Bucher-Jones’ prose is quite difficult to follow in places, especially as it feels like the first 50 pages especially could be cut and the plot would remain largely unchanged. The final 50 pages which go into an almost dreamscape/alternate universe sequence which is what Bucher-Jones excels at, especially when there’s an imperialist soldier version of Benny who honestly deserves a novel on her own, who grew up with her father present as he didn’t run away in this timeline.
The Spire itself, the alien artefact on the planet, has this weird presence in Ghost Devices, in a way that it’s mentioned on the back cover as this important thing, but when you’re reading there really isn’t importance put on it until what feels like quite late in the novel. The same can be said with the People: Clarence is a character who appears here in a stereotypical angelic form, is an amnesiac People, and is set up as a major player, but then he really isn’t. Like he appears throughout, but he feels more supportive than being a main character in the novel. Clarence is a given name from Benny, with Bucher-Jones not really doing a lot to explore the people, at least not like Ben Aaronovitch or Lawrence Miles would. He gives his People character a normal name, a reference to It’s a Wonderful Life, not following the naming conventions Aaronovitch laid out in The Also People. Clarence being essentially a reference to It’s a Wonderful Life, and to a lesser extent The Bishop’s Wife, is perhaps an encapsulation of the issues with Bucher-Jones’ style and Ghost Devices. It’s a book that is full of references to things inside of Doctor Who and pop culture and film at large. There’s also a tendency to switch perspective to in universe books and other perspectives, marked initially in bold in between paragraphs, but then after the first 50 pages stops happening unless it’s an extract from Benny’s in universe diary which makes the transitions from scene to scene more difficult then they had to be. That isn’t to say there aren’t things to like, Clarence is fun and the last 50 pages could easily be their own story on their own, Benny’s characterization is fun and it’s clear Bucher-Jones preferred her to Chris and Roz, plus a few other characters who appear here and there.
Overall, Ghost Devices is a short book that feels quite long, almost too long. It’s a book which doesn’t know exactly what it wants to be about, wanting to play in a box of the Doctor Who universe but doesn’t know how to do that without the Doctor there, going so far as to putting him there in a way that wasn’t just tangential to the plot like some of the other cameos. It’s a story whose title including ghosts feels like this book is almost a ghostly imprint of something that could have been great, but doesn’t quite have bones to pull it together. 3/10.
The Spire itself, the alien artefact on the planet, has this weird presence in Ghost Devices, in a way that it’s mentioned on the back cover as this important thing, but when you’re reading there really isn’t importance put on it until what feels like quite late in the novel. The same can be said with the People: Clarence is a character who appears here in a stereotypical angelic form, is an amnesiac People, and is set up as a major player, but then he really isn’t. Like he appears throughout, but he feels more supportive than being a main character in the novel. Clarence is a given name from Benny, with Bucher-Jones not really doing a lot to explore the people, at least not like Ben Aaronovitch or Lawrence Miles would. He gives his People character a normal name, a reference to It’s a Wonderful Life, not following the naming conventions Aaronovitch laid out in The Also People. Clarence being essentially a reference to It’s a Wonderful Life, and to a lesser extent The Bishop’s Wife, is perhaps an encapsulation of the issues with Bucher-Jones’ style and Ghost Devices. It’s a book that is full of references to things inside of Doctor Who and pop culture and film at large. There’s also a tendency to switch perspective to in universe books and other perspectives, marked initially in bold in between paragraphs, but then after the first 50 pages stops happening unless it’s an extract from Benny’s in universe diary which makes the transitions from scene to scene more difficult then they had to be. That isn’t to say there aren’t things to like, Clarence is fun and the last 50 pages could easily be their own story on their own, Benny’s characterization is fun and it’s clear Bucher-Jones preferred her to Chris and Roz, plus a few other characters who appear here and there.
Overall, Ghost Devices is a short book that feels quite long, almost too long. It’s a book which doesn’t know exactly what it wants to be about, wanting to play in a box of the Doctor Who universe but doesn’t know how to do that without the Doctor there, going so far as to putting him there in a way that wasn’t just tangential to the plot like some of the other cameos. It’s a story whose title including ghosts feels like this book is almost a ghostly imprint of something that could have been great, but doesn’t quite have bones to pull it together. 3/10.
November 10, 2023
I had so much fun with this one! It's so delightfully metaphysical! This was written by one of the co-authors of The Taking of Planet 5, so of course it's good! Some of the prose reminded me vaguely of Alastair Reynolds' work, though the science is probably less accurate in this book. This is the kind of thing I really wish I could write.
June 30, 2024
I appreciate what Bucher-Jones is tries to achieve. There's a lot going on here, it's all very wibbly wobbly, timey whimy, and written in a style that almost brings to mind Terry Pratchett or, dare I say Douglas Adams. In the process, B-J is often too clever by half, the first 50 pages or so are a bit of a mess if we're honest. That said, once the tale catches its rhythm, it flows well.
July 25, 2025
This is one of the worst books I've ever read. The jumping back and forth between journals, dreams, and various scenes and tenses made it so hard to keep track of. The plot was pointless and filled with lots of fluff that should have meant something, but didn't.
I almost didn't finish this, but I'm no quitter.
I almost didn't finish this, but I'm no quitter.
May 6, 2019
Apparently the editorial directive to the authors of this series was "We know you're not Douglas Adams, but please pretend to be as hard as you can so that the desperation shines through more clearly with each subsequent sentence."
November 23, 2009
I thought this was a blast. Throw together a gigantic alien artifact that gives people visions of the future, some alien reptiles with a strange religion built around this artifact, a couple of different kinds of shapeshifting alien killing machines, a large dollop of time paradox and just a hint of alien intervention, and you've got Ghost Devices. Bucher-Jones does a particularly good job of misdirection, making you think you know what's going on, and then making you realize that you had it wrong, but not in a way that makes you feel like the author cheated.
The book does occasionally get a bit silly and a bit metatextual. Though silly and metatextual seem to be standard parts of the New Adventures by now.
The book does occasionally get a bit silly and a bit metatextual. Though silly and metatextual seem to be standard parts of the New Adventures by now.
September 3, 2013
To me, this book is less than the sum of its parts. There were some interesting, imaginative, and at times, very funny, characters (the sub's Air Vent, for example), storylines, and concepts. However, the plot was both convoluted and simplistic. At several points it seemed like there were pages missing as the plot jumped ahead without explaining what the heck just happened. The writing style made the book seem more complicated than it really was. I love Bernice--she's a great character--but I think that the audio plays she appears in are much better than these New Adventures novels.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews