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Doctor Who: Virgin New Adventures #9
Doctor Who: Love and War
On a planet called Heaven, all hell is breaking loose.
Heaven is a paradise for both humans and Draconians - a place of rest in more ways than one. The Doctor comes here on a trivial mission - to find a book, or so he says - and Ace, wandering alone in the city, becomes involved with a charismatic Traveller called Jan.
But the Doctor is strenuously opposed to the romance. What is he trying to prevent? Is he planning some more deadly game connected with the mysterious objects causing the military forces of Heaven such concern?
Archaeologist Bernice Summerfield thinks so. Her destiny is inextricably linked with that of the Doctor, but even she may not be able to save Ace from the Time Lord's plans.
This time, has the Doctor gone too far?
Heaven is a paradise for both humans and Draconians - a place of rest in more ways than one. The Doctor comes here on a trivial mission - to find a book, or so he says - and Ace, wandering alone in the city, becomes involved with a charismatic Traveller called Jan.
But the Doctor is strenuously opposed to the romance. What is he trying to prevent? Is he planning some more deadly game connected with the mysterious objects causing the military forces of Heaven such concern?
Archaeologist Bernice Summerfield thinks so. Her destiny is inextricably linked with that of the Doctor, but even she may not be able to save Ace from the Time Lord's plans.
This time, has the Doctor gone too far?
235 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published October 15, 1992
6 people are currently reading
435 people want to read
About the author
Paul Cornell
616 books1,501 followersPaul Cornell is a British writer of science fiction and fantasy prose, comics and television. He's been Hugo Award-nominated for all three media, and has won the BSFA Award for his short fiction, and the Eagle Award for his comics. He's the writer of Saucer Country for Vertigo, Demon Knights for DC, and has written for the Doctor Who TV series. His new urban fantasy novel is London Falling, out from Tor on December 6th.
via Wikipedia @ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Cor...
via Wikipedia @ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Cor...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 66 reviews
October 2, 2021
Despite being the ninth novel to claim on its back cover to be "too broad and deep for the small screen" Love and War is truly the first novel in this range to achieve what it aims to be; something quintessentially Doctor Who, but could not be conveyed on a television or the movie screen. Sure there have been a couple of great Who novels in the range so far, and a couple that have really pushed the format in a good way, but Love and War is heads and shoulders above any previous Who novel.
I guess I see Love and War as a statement of recognition of the past and a look into the future. There are a great many references to past Who, so many to make a big fan smile. And it is a culmination of the Ace/Doctor story line that started onscreen so well and carried into the novels quite well too. But it was a difficult relationship. It was more mentor/student than anything despite their friendship, and that the Seventh Doctor is still alien and has differing values. Ace was always getting hurt in the Doctors crossfire. It's just this time she got hurt real bad. And the Doctor knows this, but he still plays the game through to the end to save the universe. So we learn a great deal about who the Seventh Doctor is and also who he cannot be.
And all this while finding new legs in a new medium. There are plenty of visuals and events in here that would never have been achieved by Doctor Who back in 1989 and may be large budget and extravagant in 2014 Who. But it never comes across as 'look at me! I have no budget!'. The characters are more rounded, the motivations of all parties are clearly set and the plot is to die for. It seems that Doctor Who has finally found its voice in print at this point.
Oh and we also get to meet the wonderful, funny and beautiful Bernice Summerfield; archaeologist, vagabond and trickster who many claim is the prototype of River Song, but I don't see it. Sure they are both archaeologists from the future, but I'm sure the Doctor has met quite a few in his time. Where River Song is flirty beyond all reason and larger than life, Bernice is humble, self-deprecating and intelligent.
Love and War offers a very tight plot, with great characterisation and great visuals. The stakes are high, but not melodramatic Doctor Who high. The enemies, the Hoothi, are genuinely frightening and something new in Who that had never been done before. And the story has stood the test of time, it doesn't seem dated and encapsulates all that is was great with Doctor Who at the time and I'd even say it encapsulates what great Who is in general.
The story is so popular that it has even been adapted for audio in the Big Finish series (which was a great listen too).
So to summarise, Doctor Who novel at its best, and probably the first great Who novel. Definitely one to recommend to fans who have not read much Doctor Who in print. And much better quality than the stuff that is printed in the new series range now.
A treasure of a book.
I guess I see Love and War as a statement of recognition of the past and a look into the future. There are a great many references to past Who, so many to make a big fan smile. And it is a culmination of the Ace/Doctor story line that started onscreen so well and carried into the novels quite well too. But it was a difficult relationship. It was more mentor/student than anything despite their friendship, and that the Seventh Doctor is still alien and has differing values. Ace was always getting hurt in the Doctors crossfire. It's just this time she got hurt real bad. And the Doctor knows this, but he still plays the game through to the end to save the universe. So we learn a great deal about who the Seventh Doctor is and also who he cannot be.
And all this while finding new legs in a new medium. There are plenty of visuals and events in here that would never have been achieved by Doctor Who back in 1989 and may be large budget and extravagant in 2014 Who. But it never comes across as 'look at me! I have no budget!'. The characters are more rounded, the motivations of all parties are clearly set and the plot is to die for. It seems that Doctor Who has finally found its voice in print at this point.
Oh and we also get to meet the wonderful, funny and beautiful Bernice Summerfield; archaeologist, vagabond and trickster who many claim is the prototype of River Song, but I don't see it. Sure they are both archaeologists from the future, but I'm sure the Doctor has met quite a few in his time. Where River Song is flirty beyond all reason and larger than life, Bernice is humble, self-deprecating and intelligent.
Love and War offers a very tight plot, with great characterisation and great visuals. The stakes are high, but not melodramatic Doctor Who high. The enemies, the Hoothi, are genuinely frightening and something new in Who that had never been done before. And the story has stood the test of time, it doesn't seem dated and encapsulates all that is was great with Doctor Who at the time and I'd even say it encapsulates what great Who is in general.
The story is so popular that it has even been adapted for audio in the Big Finish series (which was a great listen too).
So to summarise, Doctor Who novel at its best, and probably the first great Who novel. Definitely one to recommend to fans who have not read much Doctor Who in print. And much better quality than the stuff that is printed in the new series range now.
A treasure of a book.
July 8, 2014
Reading books that come from the wilderness years of Doctor Who (basically 1989 to 2005, with a strange interlude in 1996), one comes across books which are ancillary fiction to a TV series, but still so incredibly important. The fact that they’re spin-offs of a TV show means most will dismiss them as inconsequential, but actually in the progression of what we know as ‘Doctor Who’ they are so ridiculously, absolutely important.
‘Love and War’ is such an example.
For instance here we have the description of The Doctor as ‘what monsters have dreams about’, as well as him being called ‘the oncoming storm’ – both of which later appear in the TV series. (Admittedly, I’ve not read much of the Virgin line of books, so both may appear elsewhere before ‘Love and War’, but my general point about the books remains). But more than that it’s taking a children’s TV character and blowing it up to a broader and more adult canvass and doing it in such a way that really works. In many ways this book is more important to the TV show than some of the TV show itself. It’s certainly more important that ‘The TV Movie’, which set up numerous paths never taken or indeed mentioned again. So if we want to see the roots of the 2005 show, this is a much better place to look than Paul McGann and justice giving daleks.
And so, it’s an interesting question, can the ancillary fiction of a TV show become more important than the TV show itself? A TV show will find itself beamed into millions of homes, so it obviously has a much wider reach, but could a book end up more important than that which spawned it?
I don’t see why not.
‘Robin Hood’ is a prime example of a series of texts which have long transcended whatever roots it had. (It’s a fascinating fact that we don’t really know what the first Robin Hood text is). But closer to home we have ‘The Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy’. Now I would say that the radio version is the best version of Arthur Dent’s adventures, but obviously the book is the best known, the best-selling and most important version of the story. For most people the radio series doesn’t exist, there is only the book and its sequels.
Now part of the reason I’m arguing ‘Love & War’ is so important is in relation to how the TV series of ‘Doctor Who’ had evolved when it returned in 2005, so obviously I’m not arguing that this is more important than the TV show. Indeed the fact that Doctor Who is still running on TV is going to make it hard for any spin-off book to become more important than the TV show. But there’s nothing stopping it happening for another TV show.
Who knows? In a hundred years’ time we may talking about the adventures of John Steed and Emma Peel as a series of brilliantly written, sexually tense, fantastic novels of 60s cyber-punk that have gripped millions of readers. And only the most smug know-it-all would stand up and say “Do you know that used to be what they called in the old days, a television programme?”
So after that build-up, how good a novel is ‘Love and Death’?
Well, the answer is pretty damn good. This is a dramatic, thrilling, excellent science fiction tale of young romance. A story of heartbreak in both friendship and love. It's a book which manages to stay true to the characters as last seen on TV, but to add depths that the TV programme never even attempted to manage. The Doctor’s Seventh Incarnation is manipulative in the extreme and pushed to his very limits; while in many ways Ace remains a BBC TV idea of what rebellious young people were like in the 80s, but is also clearly growing as a character, becoming much more real and vulnerable. In addition we have the introduction of Benny Summerfield, who is such a vibrant and alive character it's easy to see why books and audio plays are still written about her as a companion even though she never once appeared on screen.
The plot?
On a planet called Heaven an alien race has been playing a game for a long time. They plan dozens of moves in advance, and always have a contingency. Unfortunately, in The Doctor they may have found a chess master and manipulator who exceeds even their talents, but the stakes of this game may be too high for Ace,
'Love & War' is a funny and tragic book which still feels so important to and part of ‘Doctor Who’. The TV show of course came back, but if it hadn't and Doctor Who now only existed in books, comic strips and audio plays, this would be universally regarded as one of the touchstone texts.
‘Love and War’ is such an example.
For instance here we have the description of The Doctor as ‘what monsters have dreams about’, as well as him being called ‘the oncoming storm’ – both of which later appear in the TV series. (Admittedly, I’ve not read much of the Virgin line of books, so both may appear elsewhere before ‘Love and War’, but my general point about the books remains). But more than that it’s taking a children’s TV character and blowing it up to a broader and more adult canvass and doing it in such a way that really works. In many ways this book is more important to the TV show than some of the TV show itself. It’s certainly more important that ‘The TV Movie’, which set up numerous paths never taken or indeed mentioned again. So if we want to see the roots of the 2005 show, this is a much better place to look than Paul McGann and justice giving daleks.
And so, it’s an interesting question, can the ancillary fiction of a TV show become more important than the TV show itself? A TV show will find itself beamed into millions of homes, so it obviously has a much wider reach, but could a book end up more important than that which spawned it?
I don’t see why not.
‘Robin Hood’ is a prime example of a series of texts which have long transcended whatever roots it had. (It’s a fascinating fact that we don’t really know what the first Robin Hood text is). But closer to home we have ‘The Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy’. Now I would say that the radio version is the best version of Arthur Dent’s adventures, but obviously the book is the best known, the best-selling and most important version of the story. For most people the radio series doesn’t exist, there is only the book and its sequels.
Now part of the reason I’m arguing ‘Love & War’ is so important is in relation to how the TV series of ‘Doctor Who’ had evolved when it returned in 2005, so obviously I’m not arguing that this is more important than the TV show. Indeed the fact that Doctor Who is still running on TV is going to make it hard for any spin-off book to become more important than the TV show. But there’s nothing stopping it happening for another TV show.
Who knows? In a hundred years’ time we may talking about the adventures of John Steed and Emma Peel as a series of brilliantly written, sexually tense, fantastic novels of 60s cyber-punk that have gripped millions of readers. And only the most smug know-it-all would stand up and say “Do you know that used to be what they called in the old days, a television programme?”
So after that build-up, how good a novel is ‘Love and Death’?
Well, the answer is pretty damn good. This is a dramatic, thrilling, excellent science fiction tale of young romance. A story of heartbreak in both friendship and love. It's a book which manages to stay true to the characters as last seen on TV, but to add depths that the TV programme never even attempted to manage. The Doctor’s Seventh Incarnation is manipulative in the extreme and pushed to his very limits; while in many ways Ace remains a BBC TV idea of what rebellious young people were like in the 80s, but is also clearly growing as a character, becoming much more real and vulnerable. In addition we have the introduction of Benny Summerfield, who is such a vibrant and alive character it's easy to see why books and audio plays are still written about her as a companion even though she never once appeared on screen.
The plot?
On a planet called Heaven an alien race has been playing a game for a long time. They plan dozens of moves in advance, and always have a contingency. Unfortunately, in The Doctor they may have found a chess master and manipulator who exceeds even their talents, but the stakes of this game may be too high for Ace,
'Love & War' is a funny and tragic book which still feels so important to and part of ‘Doctor Who’. The TV show of course came back, but if it hadn't and Doctor Who now only existed in books, comic strips and audio plays, this would be universally regarded as one of the touchstone texts.
June 18, 2023
Even with quite a stellar if heartbreaking conclusion this just didn't wow me the way I had hoped. Ace felt off ? For most of the book that is, and I had to double back and read her wiki to put together why she's back with the Doctor and Bernice in later novels in the series (it adds up now knowing more of her story), not to mention it does frustrate me when characters fall in love within days of meeting someone, and the relationship with Jan just didn't seem to fit with the image I have of ace, but again some of the Ace content I've read comes after this so that may have soured my expectations.
The Doctor also was much darker than usual even for 7 and I appreciate the darker tones of the New Doctor Who adventures generally but this just wasn't the winner for me.
Still, I am looking forward to Transit after this and more New Doctor Who Adventures books in the future.
The Doctor also was much darker than usual even for 7 and I appreciate the darker tones of the New Doctor Who adventures generally but this just wasn't the winner for me.
Still, I am looking forward to Transit after this and more New Doctor Who Adventures books in the future.
May 13, 2022
Well, shit, that was pretty good. And pretty sad.
February 9, 2012
It's not hard to see why this is as praised as it is by fans of the Doctor Who novel line. Written by Paul Cornell, who had already penned the impressive
Timewyrm: Revelation
(the only worthwhile entry in the Timewyrm series, and the first book of the line really reading), this not only introduces the long-lasting character of Bernice Summerfield, but also sees the departure of long-standing companion Ace. The painful events which lead to this are both tragic and entirely in-character for the Seventh Doctor; there's no sense here of a clumsily-done breakup to satisfy editorial mandate. The plot, alien world, and futuristic setting are all done well enough that I enjoyed them, even given my usual distaste for the standard interpretation of Who as science fiction and space opera. And Bernice is a gem; something of a precursor to River Song, she's an archeologist who goes boldly, kicks ass, stands up to the Doctor and has real depth. I can understand how she very easily became a fan favorite, and went on to support a completely separate line of novels and audio adventures!
All in all, another triumph from Paul Cornell.
All in all, another triumph from Paul Cornell.
May 14, 2017
This one has a reputation. The Doctor, pitting his wits against the Hoothi ends up betraying those closest to him in a bid to save an entire world(maybe even worlds(plural)). Does one man, even such a man as the Doctor have the right to trade one single life for countless? He certainly seems to think so.
If you only read one Doctor Who novel in your entire life, make it this one.
If you only read one Doctor Who novel in your entire life, make it this one.
November 13, 2019
An epic introduction to the wonderful Bernice Summerfield. You have plenty of LGBT+ characters in this book which is great and an epic skeleton battle. Didn’t really care for Jan or Ace’s romance but the beginning the Ace/Doctor/Benny arcs.
April 27, 2008
Paul Cornell elects to study carefully who the Doctor is by establishing, very clearly, with a big black marker, who he isn't.
Love and War is not a typical Doctor Who story. Sure it features an alien invasion, the Doctor leading his companion in to stop them in the nick of time, and an interesting cast of people to be killed off one by one. But it’s not the aliens who make this story different, as well realised as they are, it’s the Doctor.
Right from the word go the Doctor is aware that tragedy is coming to Heaven, and he warns Ace not to become too attached to any of its inhabitants. He tried to tell her in the best way, without actually telling her, but he didn’t do enough.
So instead the Doctor becomes a very strange, sulky character watching from the sidelines for the majority of the novel. As a way of exploring his character it shifts all its attention neatly onto Ace, who goes ahead and does exactly what he asked her not to. And I really want to say that the romance is badly handled, except, somehow, Paul Cornell gets away with it.
Right from the word go Ace knows that she’s damaged psychologically, that she’s just passing through on her way elsewhere and looking for a break, a diversion from real life. At first Jan looks perfect, as he is already in a stable open-relationship and they quickly catch each other’s eye.
But somewhere along the way, probably when Roisa mysteriously dumps Jan because she knows what’s coming, this becomes a long term relationship. It’s obvious from the outset that the Doctor won’t have Jan on the Tardis, so Ace is going to have to make a choice. And though it’s trite and obvious Paul Cornell’s writing just about gets away with it. His characters are deep and emotional and real, and despite a heavy stream of the show’s history Heaven quickly becomes a simple, easy to grasp concept of an alien society.
The story’s other small turning point, albeit in the background for much of the novel until the end, is the presence of Professor Bernice Surprise Summerfield. Despite being the ‘leader’ of an archaeological expedition out in the middle of nowhere she seems remarkably tapped into the zeitgeist, and everyone in the book has something to say about her. When she is in the book she turns up at all the right moments, makes all the best comments and notices things that are important to the reader. She’s definitely companion material.
It’s a shame then that Doctor doesn’t meet her earlier on, she doesn’t actually step into the Tardis until the actual invasion towards the end of the novel. By then though the story is almost over, because this isn’t a story about the aliens, it’s a story about the victims leading up to them.
Love and War is a fantastic novel, a gripping read and a step in the right direction for the New Adventures. Paul Cornell weaves a believable culture populated with characteristically deep individuals who all have their part to play. The plot twists are heavy and all have a deep emotional impact. Best of all the ending is both shocking and entirely believable.
I would mention how fantastically realised the Hoothi are, and how well planned out and real the threatening they feel, but that would be a waste of time. This story is about the victims not the oppressors, and rightly so. The important thing is that they are every bit as threatening as the story demands, which is a damn good thing because otherwise the Doctor's actions would be inexcusable.
Love and War is not a typical Doctor Who story. Sure it features an alien invasion, the Doctor leading his companion in to stop them in the nick of time, and an interesting cast of people to be killed off one by one. But it’s not the aliens who make this story different, as well realised as they are, it’s the Doctor.
Right from the word go the Doctor is aware that tragedy is coming to Heaven, and he warns Ace not to become too attached to any of its inhabitants. He tried to tell her in the best way, without actually telling her, but he didn’t do enough.
So instead the Doctor becomes a very strange, sulky character watching from the sidelines for the majority of the novel. As a way of exploring his character it shifts all its attention neatly onto Ace, who goes ahead and does exactly what he asked her not to. And I really want to say that the romance is badly handled, except, somehow, Paul Cornell gets away with it.
Right from the word go Ace knows that she’s damaged psychologically, that she’s just passing through on her way elsewhere and looking for a break, a diversion from real life. At first Jan looks perfect, as he is already in a stable open-relationship and they quickly catch each other’s eye.
But somewhere along the way, probably when Roisa mysteriously dumps Jan because she knows what’s coming, this becomes a long term relationship. It’s obvious from the outset that the Doctor won’t have Jan on the Tardis, so Ace is going to have to make a choice. And though it’s trite and obvious Paul Cornell’s writing just about gets away with it. His characters are deep and emotional and real, and despite a heavy stream of the show’s history Heaven quickly becomes a simple, easy to grasp concept of an alien society.
The story’s other small turning point, albeit in the background for much of the novel until the end, is the presence of Professor Bernice Surprise Summerfield. Despite being the ‘leader’ of an archaeological expedition out in the middle of nowhere she seems remarkably tapped into the zeitgeist, and everyone in the book has something to say about her. When she is in the book she turns up at all the right moments, makes all the best comments and notices things that are important to the reader. She’s definitely companion material.
It’s a shame then that Doctor doesn’t meet her earlier on, she doesn’t actually step into the Tardis until the actual invasion towards the end of the novel. By then though the story is almost over, because this isn’t a story about the aliens, it’s a story about the victims leading up to them.
Love and War is a fantastic novel, a gripping read and a step in the right direction for the New Adventures. Paul Cornell weaves a believable culture populated with characteristically deep individuals who all have their part to play. The plot twists are heavy and all have a deep emotional impact. Best of all the ending is both shocking and entirely believable.
I would mention how fantastically realised the Hoothi are, and how well planned out and real the threatening they feel, but that would be a waste of time. This story is about the victims not the oppressors, and rightly so. The important thing is that they are every bit as threatening as the story demands, which is a damn good thing because otherwise the Doctor's actions would be inexcusable.
September 28, 2008
After the mind-boggler that was Timewyrm: Revelation, Paul Cornell writes something more straight-forward. Although that doesn't make it simple, by any means.
It's an excellent microcosm of the 7th Doctor NA series, in that you as the reader are being manipulated sufficiently carefully that when you discover what the author has done to you, you are still willing to forgive him - even though the outcome is painful. Which is how this Doctor operates; there are always plans within plans to disentangle before the dénouement arrives; the fun is in seeing how it all works out.
This is the last of the NAs for a little while to feature Ace, so it makes sense that she carries most of the load of the story. And she feels like a coherent evolution of the character that has grown through this first block of NAs, from the teenager of Dragonfire to the woman of Nightshade. And you know that tragedy is looming almost from the beginning; although the peculiar ending of Nightshade isn't referred to, it is clear that the Doctor knows that his companion is ready to make her own mark on the universe (an aspect of the show that the new series has taken as its touchstone - the show isn't about "the Doctor", it's about the effect he has on those he comes into contact with.)
So what Cornell has to do here is to write out one long-standing companion, that we know very well indeed, and replace her with another, who we naturally do not, without making it blindingly obvious that this is what is going to happen. And he's such a good writer that he manages this trick so unobtrusively, Sure, it's clear that Bernice Summerfield is more than just a typical supporting character (there are too many little details like the diary stuff that signal that), but not what she will become.
And he wraps this story inside one that turns out to be of seriously epic proportions, creating an adversary that is genuinely threatening on a galaxy-wide scale, and yet containing it in a story confined to a very small time and place. (In passing, I will note the similarities with Alastair Reynold's Revelation Space series, although that doesn't have a Doctor to fix things!)
Next up, another writer from the last series of original tv Who contributes a story. Next: Transit (The New Doctor Who Adventures)
It's an excellent microcosm of the 7th Doctor NA series, in that you as the reader are being manipulated sufficiently carefully that when you discover what the author has done to you, you are still willing to forgive him - even though the outcome is painful. Which is how this Doctor operates; there are always plans within plans to disentangle before the dénouement arrives; the fun is in seeing how it all works out.
This is the last of the NAs for a little while to feature Ace, so it makes sense that she carries most of the load of the story. And she feels like a coherent evolution of the character that has grown through this first block of NAs, from the teenager of Dragonfire to the woman of Nightshade. And you know that tragedy is looming almost from the beginning; although the peculiar ending of Nightshade isn't referred to, it is clear that the Doctor knows that his companion is ready to make her own mark on the universe (an aspect of the show that the new series has taken as its touchstone - the show isn't about "the Doctor", it's about the effect he has on those he comes into contact with.)
So what Cornell has to do here is to write out one long-standing companion, that we know very well indeed, and replace her with another, who we naturally do not, without making it blindingly obvious that this is what is going to happen. And he's such a good writer that he manages this trick so unobtrusively, Sure, it's clear that Bernice Summerfield is more than just a typical supporting character (there are too many little details like the diary stuff that signal that), but not what she will become.
And he wraps this story inside one that turns out to be of seriously epic proportions, creating an adversary that is genuinely threatening on a galaxy-wide scale, and yet containing it in a story confined to a very small time and place. (In passing, I will note the similarities with Alastair Reynold's Revelation Space series, although that doesn't have a Doctor to fix things!)
Next up, another writer from the last series of original tv Who contributes a story. Next: Transit (The New Doctor Who Adventures)
June 1, 2023
The perfect antidote to the preceeding (and VERY disappointing) Cat's Cradle trilogy. The introduction of Benny Summerfield is a watershed in Doctor Who fiction, and the climax of the story is heartbreaking AND breathtaking. This is Paul Cornell sharpening his emotional, soul-killing ginsu-writing...before inflicting 2005's glorious "Father's Day" on an unsuspecting population.
I've actually revised my rating to 5 stars in the interim. The epic bleakness of how this novel pushes the Doctor and Ace's relationship becomes more powerful for me the older I get...and the loss is deeply felt. Again, Paul Cornell instinctively knows where to plunge the knife and turn it just-so in your soul.
I've actually revised my rating to 5 stars in the interim. The epic bleakness of how this novel pushes the Doctor and Ace's relationship becomes more powerful for me the older I get...and the loss is deeply felt. Again, Paul Cornell instinctively knows where to plunge the knife and turn it just-so in your soul.
April 21, 2011
Cornell has a wonderful knack of making a TV-tie-in novel into a warm, rich, compelling book. The farewell to Ace (the Doctor's last televised companion before the original show was canceled) is poignant; Cornell's new companion, Benny Summerfield, is suitably impressive (and, despite her appearance in Martha's place in the novel version of "Human Nature," a good deal more comparable to Donna in her relationship with the Doctor). Doctor Seven is at his Machiavellian best here. Well done.
June 21, 2024
I'm too tired to write more reviews today but I concur with the Dr.Who fan community in saying that this is amongst the best - it's certainly the snazziest, sharpest and thought provoking of VNAs I've read thus far, not that the competition was all that strong. Doctor and Ace part company in the most intriguing of ways - again I felt that a bit more attention could have been paid to communicating rather than pontificating, as pretty prose doesn't always work in every situation (ask Dickens, he knew how to blend the two) when you have information to convey, but Cornell is a lot better this time around and admittedly it's hard to attend to such things on a noisy train with screaming children.
January 21, 2025
Seminal, even if Ace and Jan's whirlwind romance isn't all that convincing.
February 1, 2021
Eleven years ago, when I started to really dive into all of Doctor Who, soon after made the decision to watch all of the Classic era, to fill that Who knowledge, I had a choice. I knew that after the show's cancellation there were two paths. One was reading and HAH I was in college who had time to read all of those books that were only really about the 7th Doctor and then the books that were about the 8th Doctor and also there were a lot of them and also it was reading. The other was to listen to the audio dramas produced by Big Finish and my god those audios had the STUFF they had the ACTORS and they had the CLOUT and they had actual Doctors, Doctors I loved performing in stuff that might have been better than the stuff they'd gotten on TV! And I could listen while I was doing my mindless college job! Clearly this easy answer was the right one.
I was so, so wrong.
I don't know the last time a book left me so utterly flabbergasted, speechless, and awestruck. Certainly I knew I would eventually have to read this book, and that was especially obvious given that within the last twelve months I realized that Doctor Who is "my realm" and I wanted to finally dive into the Wilderness Era novels, the one great stretch of Doctor Who I've not yet touched.
(Okay fine I also haven't read the comics, but give me a list of like the 25 best Doctor Who comics and I'll read those too I guess...)
To further explain why me writing this review this way defies expectations is because I've actually "experienced" this story before, once, when Big Finish did its big 20th Anniversary audio adaptation to finally commit what is one of the seminal works of Doctor Who to a medium where the iconic actors upon whom this story was based got to partake in the big emotional slugfest this story turned out to be. It's also impossible to know anything about this book and not know what the top-line climax is, what The Doctor ends up doing, and why that completely shatters his relationship with Ace. For it to be so good that it shatters one of the maybe three best Doctor/companion relationships in the history of the institution of Doctor Who, and for that to feel justified? It's gotta be something.
But as with all things, it's one thing to hear about how a thing is, to imagine what it could be, and then for the reality of the thing to come in and utterly blow the doors of what you thought was even possible. Even knowing the ending (and as I've described this book to people I've talked about the ending because 1) they're not going to read it and b) how could I not?) doesn't prepare for the gentle strings of seduction as the story begins slowly and tranquily on a planet called Heaven, the timpani rumblings of what's under the surface and ready to break out, the breathtaking beauty of the climax, all horns and brass, and the quiet ending of an orchestra playing woodwinds crying out in agony, ache, and pain.
I knew it was coming. Halfway through I remembered *exactly* how The Doctor saves the day, the way he makes it happen. I knew it was coming. I knew. And yet when it happened I cried, so overcome with emotion as something so triumphant and beautiful and horrifying and cataclysmic brought one of the strongest relationships in Doctor Who down, entirely justified in what The Doctor accomplishes, utterly unforgivable in the callousness by which he does it. And then I didn't stop crying until that final image WHICH I ALSO FIGURED OUT WAS COMING LIKE HALFWAY THROUGH AND THAT DIDN'T MATTER I STILL FOUND MYSELF UTTERLY OVERCOME WITH EMOTION ANYWAY.
This was incredible. This was.... This was so good. This was good in the ways that when Doctor Who is good there's basically nothing in culture that is better. Like how the best stories and episodes defy description, pure alchemy, a mix of poetry and lyricalness and staggering badassery. And that's this book being incredible on the merits, without the fact that it tears about The Doctor's relationship with Ace OR that it introduces The 7th Doctor's new companion Bernice Summerfield (arguably the most important/iconic non-TV companion of all time).
In all of this, in just his first two novels Paul Cornell gets put on the dais of maybe five other people in terms of shaping what Doctor Who is and what it possibly ever could be. The fact that he does that through Doctor Who's not-native medium speaks all the more to the sheer power of what he has done here, and truly it's almost certainly down to Paul Cornell that when the show came back over twelve years after the publishing of this novel that the show exploded with the heights of what it could be.
Because Paul Cornell showed what the institution of Doctor Who could be.
And while I just wrote a tone of words for this review, it really does exceed anything I could possibly write about it. It must be experienced to be believed.
Doctor Who Book Ranking
1) Love and War
2) Timewyrm: Revelation
3) Timewyrm: Exodus
4) Cat's Cradle: Warhead
5) Timewyrm: Apocalypse
6) Timewyrm: Genesys
I was so, so wrong.
I don't know the last time a book left me so utterly flabbergasted, speechless, and awestruck. Certainly I knew I would eventually have to read this book, and that was especially obvious given that within the last twelve months I realized that Doctor Who is "my realm" and I wanted to finally dive into the Wilderness Era novels, the one great stretch of Doctor Who I've not yet touched.
(Okay fine I also haven't read the comics, but give me a list of like the 25 best Doctor Who comics and I'll read those too I guess...)
To further explain why me writing this review this way defies expectations is because I've actually "experienced" this story before, once, when Big Finish did its big 20th Anniversary audio adaptation to finally commit what is one of the seminal works of Doctor Who to a medium where the iconic actors upon whom this story was based got to partake in the big emotional slugfest this story turned out to be. It's also impossible to know anything about this book and not know what the top-line climax is, what The Doctor ends up doing, and why that completely shatters his relationship with Ace. For it to be so good that it shatters one of the maybe three best Doctor/companion relationships in the history of the institution of Doctor Who, and for that to feel justified? It's gotta be something.
But as with all things, it's one thing to hear about how a thing is, to imagine what it could be, and then for the reality of the thing to come in and utterly blow the doors of what you thought was even possible. Even knowing the ending (and as I've described this book to people I've talked about the ending because 1) they're not going to read it and b) how could I not?) doesn't prepare for the gentle strings of seduction as the story begins slowly and tranquily on a planet called Heaven, the timpani rumblings of what's under the surface and ready to break out, the breathtaking beauty of the climax, all horns and brass, and the quiet ending of an orchestra playing woodwinds crying out in agony, ache, and pain.
I knew it was coming. Halfway through I remembered *exactly* how The Doctor saves the day, the way he makes it happen. I knew it was coming. I knew. And yet when it happened I cried, so overcome with emotion as something so triumphant and beautiful and horrifying and cataclysmic brought one of the strongest relationships in Doctor Who down, entirely justified in what The Doctor accomplishes, utterly unforgivable in the callousness by which he does it. And then I didn't stop crying until that final image WHICH I ALSO FIGURED OUT WAS COMING LIKE HALFWAY THROUGH AND THAT DIDN'T MATTER I STILL FOUND MYSELF UTTERLY OVERCOME WITH EMOTION ANYWAY.
This was incredible. This was.... This was so good. This was good in the ways that when Doctor Who is good there's basically nothing in culture that is better. Like how the best stories and episodes defy description, pure alchemy, a mix of poetry and lyricalness and staggering badassery. And that's this book being incredible on the merits, without the fact that it tears about The Doctor's relationship with Ace OR that it introduces The 7th Doctor's new companion Bernice Summerfield (arguably the most important/iconic non-TV companion of all time).
In all of this, in just his first two novels Paul Cornell gets put on the dais of maybe five other people in terms of shaping what Doctor Who is and what it possibly ever could be. The fact that he does that through Doctor Who's not-native medium speaks all the more to the sheer power of what he has done here, and truly it's almost certainly down to Paul Cornell that when the show came back over twelve years after the publishing of this novel that the show exploded with the heights of what it could be.
Because Paul Cornell showed what the institution of Doctor Who could be.
And while I just wrote a tone of words for this review, it really does exceed anything I could possibly write about it. It must be experienced to be believed.
Doctor Who Book Ranking
1) Love and War
2) Timewyrm: Revelation
3) Timewyrm: Exodus
4) Cat's Cradle: Warhead
5) Timewyrm: Apocalypse
6) Timewyrm: Genesys
February 1, 2023
Paul Cornell's novel "Love and War" introduces the character of Bernice Summerfield. The story is written in a way that would make it fit with Doctor Who 1989. The story itself is fairly typical Paul Cornell, involving an ancient evil that can easily control people's minds and that spends aeons collecting corpses so that it can raise an army of the undead and take over the universe. The center of the story is Ace. That is both good and problematic. In classic Who, the companions rarely got the time and development that they needed. Cornell here makes the central conflict Ace's conflict. The alien menace is really the occasion that tests Ace's battle with herself. That battle basically comes down to this: Ace is growing up, physically, and the biological imperative to mate, ...er emotional imperative to fall in love, has been driving her to hook up with the nearest pretty boy in wherever she and The Doctor land (see the previous New Adventures novels for further details). She also runs through her mind that The Doctor needs her more than she needs him, and that while she feels obliged to help him wherever she can to her fullest extent, she is starting to resent his role as surrogate parent. She's grown up, dammit, and ought to be striking out on her own. The latest pretty boy to cross her path is Jan, a member of The Travellers, essentially hippie space gypsies. She falls instantly and totally in love with Jan, a dangerous young man who reminds her just a bit of another dangerous young man, the gay Julian, whom she had known in her time before The Doctor, and who died in a reckless accident. She repeatedly confronts her memories, her relationship with Julian, her relationship with her mom, and all the resentments she has built up about her past and about her current relationship with The Doctor. Things come to a head with her because she builds up this fantasy that she and Jan can just have happy times together with The Doctor in the TARDIS. However, The Doctor knows what Ace is going through, knows that probably it will mean that she will leave him, knows that Jan will break her heart (but not, to begin with, the way that this will happen), and knows that he cannot tell her all this because she will not listen to the truth and because as a grown-up she has to discover the truth herself. The relationship between The Doctor and Ace is getting a little more prickly as The Doctor becomes more manipulative in his methods of outsmarting opponents. All his attempts to keep Ace out of it backfire and eventually lead to a confrontation in which Ace goes ballistic after she realizes that The Doctor knew for a long time that Jan was doomed, did not tell Ace, and used the doomed Jan as the key to his plan for defeating the evil Hoothie (perhaps the least fear-inspiring name for an ancient evil one could devise).
The novel also introduces the reader to the next companion - "Professor" Bernice Summerfield. She is an orphan of the Dalek wars now turned archaeologist with a fake degree and a rather casual attitude about everything she does. The Doctor gradually slots her into the space that Ace is leaving. Clearly, her relationship with The Doctor will be different from Ace's. First, she is older, thirty rather than twenty, and so not prone to viewing The Doctor as a parental figure to rebel against. Second, she is more intellectual than Ace, more self-aware and emotionally mature. She puts The Doctor clearly on notice: no manipulation.
What is good about the novel is that Cornell writes the internal struggles that characters have rather well. The motivations and conflicts are clear. He has a good ear for realistic dialogue, with each character having a distinct manner of speaking. He sets up the main problem of the planet Heaven well.
For me, part of the problem in reading this novel is that Cornell ratchets up Ace's emotionality to 11. Thus, her final confrontation with The Doctor, when she is ready to kill him, just goes far too over the top. I keep wanting Ace to stop and think for a couple of minutes, rather than constantly being victim of her hormones. Parts of the story don't quite hang together, mostly those involving the virtual-reality setup called Puterspace in this story. The virtual reality is too real to be virtual. Cornell's big ending is a big mess and very typical of his later work: a community under siege by the animated corpses of their loved ones (read, for instance, Goth Opera and Human Nature). The last 50 pages or so mostly contain long, detailed descriptions of helpless people getting blown to smithereens. Plus, we get the obligatory "you think the villain is dead, but there is just one more attack you weren't expecting" moment.
The verdict from me is that Love and War has a pretty good first half and a rather uncontrolled second half.
The novel also introduces the reader to the next companion - "Professor" Bernice Summerfield. She is an orphan of the Dalek wars now turned archaeologist with a fake degree and a rather casual attitude about everything she does. The Doctor gradually slots her into the space that Ace is leaving. Clearly, her relationship with The Doctor will be different from Ace's. First, she is older, thirty rather than twenty, and so not prone to viewing The Doctor as a parental figure to rebel against. Second, she is more intellectual than Ace, more self-aware and emotionally mature. She puts The Doctor clearly on notice: no manipulation.
What is good about the novel is that Cornell writes the internal struggles that characters have rather well. The motivations and conflicts are clear. He has a good ear for realistic dialogue, with each character having a distinct manner of speaking. He sets up the main problem of the planet Heaven well.
For me, part of the problem in reading this novel is that Cornell ratchets up Ace's emotionality to 11. Thus, her final confrontation with The Doctor, when she is ready to kill him, just goes far too over the top. I keep wanting Ace to stop and think for a couple of minutes, rather than constantly being victim of her hormones. Parts of the story don't quite hang together, mostly those involving the virtual-reality setup called Puterspace in this story. The virtual reality is too real to be virtual. Cornell's big ending is a big mess and very typical of his later work: a community under siege by the animated corpses of their loved ones (read, for instance, Goth Opera and Human Nature). The last 50 pages or so mostly contain long, detailed descriptions of helpless people getting blown to smithereens. Plus, we get the obligatory "you think the villain is dead, but there is just one more attack you weren't expecting" moment.
The verdict from me is that Love and War has a pretty good first half and a rather uncontrolled second half.
November 29, 2023
If there's one thing i can say about these new adventures is that for some reason, normally they're quite complicated and i can't exactly figure out why. Interestingly enough though, this is one of the few out of the first nine that aren't THAT complicated. Yeah there's some weird shenanigans going on, but it's nowhere near "Time Crucible" which was just completely incomprehensible. No, the issue i had with this book was that i just didn't CARE for the majority of it.
On paper it sounds fine. It's the book where the doc picks up a new companion in Bernice, and Ace peaces out for a while. That sounds interesting, and to be perfectly fair, the last 30 pages ARE but the rest of it is a SCHLOG.
Essentially doc ends on this planet called Heaven. It's a very nice planet where people like to live but also pay to have their dead friends and relatives shipped as it's a nice place to be buried. However when they get there, Ace falls in love with random guy mcgee named Jan. she also does a lot of backstory thinking about her past including some guy she visits a funeral for named Julian before she arrives in Heaven.
Jan is part of this group that's kind of like...Matrix hippies? i guess is the best way to put it. they jack into this computer space using holes in their necks and have fun and chill out there. However, in the real world, there's also fungus monsters that bring back dead people as fungus zombies.
This SOUNDS kind of interesting, but the issue is, it's not. The story itself is disjointed and an INORDINATE amount of time is spent on the aforementioned Ace/Jan relationship. and i don't know about you, but i'm not into doctor who to read about random romances that you know aren't going to end well. I mean, if you haven't read this book have you ever heard of the character JAN in doctor who? yeah. didn't think so.
I've read a book of two with Bernice in it (specifically Big Bang Generation with the 12th doctor) and honestly, i'm not the biggest fan of her. She's very muted, but not in a compassion (8th comp) way, more of like a "oh. you have a time machine? cool. sounds good." like, no reaction kinda dull. like, she read ahead in the script and knew what to expect.
She might be tolerable as a comp since she's not the main character, and i know in like 3 books Ace comes back so she'll have to share the spotlight, so i'm okay with that. But MAN, i saw that she apparently has her OWN book series and i'm sitting there like "The hell is reading BERNICE SUMMERFIELD THE SERIES?" and after checking goodreads and seeing that most of her books have sub 100 ratings, my answer is, nobody is.
She's no Compassion or Fitz, that's for sure. She's, in a word, fine.
The doc kinds of acts weird in this one, continually referring to Ace as Dodo by mistake and making depressing statements like "ah we lost" or "there's nothing we can do" and i know it's part of a plan, but it gets disheartening after a while.
There's a lot of side characters in the matrix hippie group, several of which also want in Jan's pants, and they're all so forgettable that i can't even remember their names.
I think the only saving grace of this book was that the ending was kind of neat and it was really short. like ~230 pages short. if this was ~300 it would be intolerable. But it was JUST short enough to keep me focused and wrap it up in a few days.
Overall, this book falls straight into 2.5 territory. it's the epitome of a 2.5/5. problem is, i can't rate it that which is very annoying.
so is it worth a 2 or a 3? i was hemming and hawing over this.... but....i think i'll give it a 3. It was boring at times, but i didn't outwardly HATE anything about it. losing and getting a companion was interesting in a shakeup kinda way, it was short, and it wasn't INCREDIBLY confusing. also the ending was pretty good. So, yeah.
2.5 out of 5 rounded up to a 3.
On paper it sounds fine. It's the book where the doc picks up a new companion in Bernice, and Ace peaces out for a while. That sounds interesting, and to be perfectly fair, the last 30 pages ARE but the rest of it is a SCHLOG.
Essentially doc ends on this planet called Heaven. It's a very nice planet where people like to live but also pay to have their dead friends and relatives shipped as it's a nice place to be buried. However when they get there, Ace falls in love with random guy mcgee named Jan. she also does a lot of backstory thinking about her past including some guy she visits a funeral for named Julian before she arrives in Heaven.
Jan is part of this group that's kind of like...Matrix hippies? i guess is the best way to put it. they jack into this computer space using holes in their necks and have fun and chill out there. However, in the real world, there's also fungus monsters that bring back dead people as fungus zombies.
This SOUNDS kind of interesting, but the issue is, it's not. The story itself is disjointed and an INORDINATE amount of time is spent on the aforementioned Ace/Jan relationship. and i don't know about you, but i'm not into doctor who to read about random romances that you know aren't going to end well. I mean, if you haven't read this book have you ever heard of the character JAN in doctor who? yeah. didn't think so.
I've read a book of two with Bernice in it (specifically Big Bang Generation with the 12th doctor) and honestly, i'm not the biggest fan of her. She's very muted, but not in a compassion (8th comp) way, more of like a "oh. you have a time machine? cool. sounds good." like, no reaction kinda dull. like, she read ahead in the script and knew what to expect.
She might be tolerable as a comp since she's not the main character, and i know in like 3 books Ace comes back so she'll have to share the spotlight, so i'm okay with that. But MAN, i saw that she apparently has her OWN book series and i'm sitting there like "The hell is reading BERNICE SUMMERFIELD THE SERIES?" and after checking goodreads and seeing that most of her books have sub 100 ratings, my answer is, nobody is.
She's no Compassion or Fitz, that's for sure. She's, in a word, fine.
The doc kinds of acts weird in this one, continually referring to Ace as Dodo by mistake and making depressing statements like "ah we lost" or "there's nothing we can do" and i know it's part of a plan, but it gets disheartening after a while.
There's a lot of side characters in the matrix hippie group, several of which also want in Jan's pants, and they're all so forgettable that i can't even remember their names.
I think the only saving grace of this book was that the ending was kind of neat and it was really short. like ~230 pages short. if this was ~300 it would be intolerable. But it was JUST short enough to keep me focused and wrap it up in a few days.
Overall, this book falls straight into 2.5 territory. it's the epitome of a 2.5/5. problem is, i can't rate it that which is very annoying.
so is it worth a 2 or a 3? i was hemming and hawing over this.... but....i think i'll give it a 3. It was boring at times, but i didn't outwardly HATE anything about it. losing and getting a companion was interesting in a shakeup kinda way, it was short, and it wasn't INCREDIBLY confusing. also the ending was pretty good. So, yeah.
2.5 out of 5 rounded up to a 3.
June 15, 2011
This book holds a pretty important place in the "canon" of the New Adventures series of Doctor Who novels. It firmly establishes the Seventh Doctor as more than a cosmic chessmaster, but a real manipulator, willing to do whatever is needed to preserve the "good" no matter the cost. It breaks the bond between the Seventh Doctor and Ace, but good. And it introduces Berniece "Benny" Summerfield, a character who rivals many "official" companions in popularity, and indeed proved appealing enough to get her own spin-off series once Virgin Publishing lost the rights to put out books featuring the Doctor himself. And yet, most of what we get here is fungus, moping, and Ace thoroughly rutting a space hippie.
And it's disappointing, because I generally enjoy Paul Cornell's writing, as well as the few other TNAs I've read (as big of a Who fan as I am, I never got into these at the time), but this all seems so very... average. Particularly Benny. I know she becomes a great character, but besides a few moments of personality, she's mostly just there. She doesn't seem "special" enough to come on as the new companion, she just happens to be standing around when the job opens up. Also, I'm confused as to why the Doctor seems kind of Alzheimersy... he seems to keep thinking he's back in his original incarnation, confusing Ace with Susan and Dodo. But, again, I haven't read a lot of these, maybe that's explained elsewhere.
So, yeah, perfectly adequate Doctor Who and all, but not really worthy of the reputation it has achieved/
And it's disappointing, because I generally enjoy Paul Cornell's writing, as well as the few other TNAs I've read (as big of a Who fan as I am, I never got into these at the time), but this all seems so very... average. Particularly Benny. I know she becomes a great character, but besides a few moments of personality, she's mostly just there. She doesn't seem "special" enough to come on as the new companion, she just happens to be standing around when the job opens up. Also, I'm confused as to why the Doctor seems kind of Alzheimersy... he seems to keep thinking he's back in his original incarnation, confusing Ace with Susan and Dodo. But, again, I haven't read a lot of these, maybe that's explained elsewhere.
So, yeah, perfectly adequate Doctor Who and all, but not really worthy of the reputation it has achieved/
May 12, 2018
This is one I have read many times, in fact was one of my first Doctor Who novels I seem to recall. Reading this in order for the first time is a different but equally interesting experience.
It is actually taking a lot of elements from previous books. This may seem curious given it is only #9 in the range but I like to think of it as acting like a Season finale for phase 1 of the adventures.
Also the more I think about this, the more I realise this is not the no-win scenario The Doctor thinks it is. It is his actions that cause it. If other Doctors had landed here it would not have gone this way because they would have not tried to plan (as we see in the chess match between Doctor and Benny) and they would have trusted their companions enough that they would have worked out a solution together. 1, Ian, Barbara and Vicki would have stopped the Hoothi in half the time and been able to arrange a campfire party with the travellers and Benny to boot. But that is the fatal flaw of the 7th Doctor he cannot stop trying to cheat these high stakes games.
The actual story is beautiful, poetic, tragic and really horrifying. A zombie novel mixed with cyberpunk, kitchen sink drama and poetic symbolism. If you want one book to understand what the VNAs were all about this is probably the one to go for.
It is actually taking a lot of elements from previous books. This may seem curious given it is only #9 in the range but I like to think of it as acting like a Season finale for phase 1 of the adventures.
Also the more I think about this, the more I realise this is not the no-win scenario The Doctor thinks it is. It is his actions that cause it. If other Doctors had landed here it would not have gone this way because they would have not tried to plan (as we see in the chess match between Doctor and Benny) and they would have trusted their companions enough that they would have worked out a solution together. 1, Ian, Barbara and Vicki would have stopped the Hoothi in half the time and been able to arrange a campfire party with the travellers and Benny to boot. But that is the fatal flaw of the 7th Doctor he cannot stop trying to cheat these high stakes games.
The actual story is beautiful, poetic, tragic and really horrifying. A zombie novel mixed with cyberpunk, kitchen sink drama and poetic symbolism. If you want one book to understand what the VNAs were all about this is probably the one to go for.
September 8, 2014
Paul Cornell really "gets" Doctor Who so it's always a pleasure to read his novels; and "Love and War" certainly doesn't disappoint.
This is a story that manages to both be hard-and-fast Who but which pushes the genre well beyond its 1980s boundaries. The villain is horrific - Cornell excels at creating truly nasty villains - and the interplay between the Doctor and Ace is excellent. I was actually quite hurt on more than one occasion as I watched their relationship degenerate on the page, and Cornell manages to give Ace a send-off that is both truly original and heartbreaking.
This story also sees the introduction of Bernice Summerfield, a companion who shows much promise (although my loyalty will always be with Ace).
The notion of the Doctor as Time's Champion starts to unfold here, and he is at his most manipulative, even feigning defeat in order to bring about an ultimate victory - though one which carries a deeply personal loss for him.
Once again, Paul Cornell demonstrates why he is the very best of Doctor Who writers.
This is a story that manages to both be hard-and-fast Who but which pushes the genre well beyond its 1980s boundaries. The villain is horrific - Cornell excels at creating truly nasty villains - and the interplay between the Doctor and Ace is excellent. I was actually quite hurt on more than one occasion as I watched their relationship degenerate on the page, and Cornell manages to give Ace a send-off that is both truly original and heartbreaking.
This story also sees the introduction of Bernice Summerfield, a companion who shows much promise (although my loyalty will always be with Ace).
The notion of the Doctor as Time's Champion starts to unfold here, and he is at his most manipulative, even feigning defeat in order to bring about an ultimate victory - though one which carries a deeply personal loss for him.
Once again, Paul Cornell demonstrates why he is the very best of Doctor Who writers.
June 17, 2015
Sometimes dreamlike, sometimes like a Greek tragedy. Useful and thoughtful; trying hard to push forward the boundaries of identity, even if it sometimes tumbles into very '90s-y pitfalls. Recommended if you like Doctor Who, if you love Doctor Who, if you enjoy young-adult science fiction adventure in general, if foolish love and being true to the self versus fungal zombie apocalypse is your thing.
(The recent Big Finish audio-drama adaptation is also very good; I prefer the book just a bit more, because it absolutely nails the atmosphere, but the audio manages to hop over some of the book's pitfalls.)
(The recent Big Finish audio-drama adaptation is also very good; I prefer the book just a bit more, because it absolutely nails the atmosphere, but the audio manages to hop over some of the book's pitfalls.)
August 20, 2020
This was alright. The bit at the end where the Doctor's talking about his mental state didn't quite make 100% sense to me, but the worldbuilding and writing and story were generally pretty solid. The entire concept of the big baddie was fascinating. Also Benny was great, and I had a fairly easy time imagining her lines being said with Lisa Bowerman's voice which was cool. The Doctor and Ace too, mostly, although idk I didn't really dig the whole Ace/Jan relationship so that made it a bit harder to do with her.
February 5, 2015
Classic Who does New Who. This is a classically paced story with roughly four episodes laid out as such. The themes and vistas will resonate with modern fans too. Add to this the introduction of a classic companion (who now commands her own series on audio) and you have a cracking Doctor Who novel. I'm now off to listen to the novel adaptation from Big Finish!
April 24, 2018
Heartbreaking, poetic, and respectfully subtle, this meditation on lost love is perhaps the eminent jewel in the Doctor Who crown.
June 8, 2021
A Who novel that isn't very like Who but in a good way with a horrifying alien and a great new companion.
August 28, 2021
The first ten-out-of-ten New Adventure. Cornell takes all the poetry and beauty of Revelation and wraps it around a story that is as riveting at it is heartbreaking.
January 9, 2022
Love and War was a book that really grew on me as it went on and was one that I had to reflect on before giving it a rating. On one hand it was broad and deep, and full of brilliant characters, and on the other it was just a bit repetitive and slow. I can safely say Paul Cornell at this point was by far the best writer for the VNAs, and he managed to cram emotion and sci-fi madness into a book so effectively. I struggle to imagine many writers being as good as him in the books coming up. A really cool premise ‘the planet heaven where earth and draconia bury their dead’ that did take a while to get going, but once it had I really enjoyed it.
The book did two things, far better than Ace’s (almost) goodbye story, Nightshade, in that it presented us with a love interest and romance for her that really had depth and you felt invested in. The other was portraying the Doctor, corrupted by the protoplasm from ‘Witch Mark’ so much better than in Nightshade. He isn’t just sociopathic and empty in this story, he’s still the kind and loving seventh doctor, it’s just the confusion in his mind leads him to make horrible decisions and hurt those around him. It’s almost like the Doctor being the needy game-player that he was in season 26, except with very intense consequences and emotional ramifications for him and all those around him.
The Hooshi were a cool villain and interesting concept, although I think it’s overexposure to the whole ‘sentient spore with hive mind’ concept in popular media that it just loses it’s merit to me. They were a good threat and the pitched battle when they attack has some great imagery, but they don’t actually do anything else-wise apart from kill some random people and brag about how great they are. The one thing they did absolutely achieve was making themselves seem like a complete invulnerable threat with no way to overcome them... shame. The way they were defeated did pale quite a lot given it was the absolute cliché they succumbed to and honestly it didn’t even make sense really. Still it was a nice farewell for some central characters so I can’t be too negative.
Ace is portrayed in this almost as the perfect representation of her having completed the maturity arc that started in season 25, and her amazing romance with the traveller Jan was something that granted a lot of value to her involvement and inevitable (no, it’s not a spoiler) goodbye. Her and the Doctor have developed so much 9 books into this series that it’s completely justified when she walks away as it brings her character and arc to a perfect close... for now. The travellers were a nice addition to the plot and did set up so many major parts of the narrative which is great honestly as so often do side characters drag a story down and make so much of it feel as if it’s going on forever. Christopher was an excellent example of this with his ghostly and omniscient presence creating some great moments and conversations throughout.
Now I’ve mentioned Ace, I’ve got to mention the 7th Doctor’s new companion and the very famous whoniverse character, Bernice Summerfield. Honestly when we first meet her, I was just sort of pleased by the novelty of reading the first appearance of one of Dr Who’s most famous characters, but didn’t actually really find myself invested in, or that interested in her as a character. As we went along however, I absolutely adored her. If it hadn’t been ingrained in my memory that this is the story where she joins the Doctor, I would’ve absolutely spent the majority of the book hoping he takes her with him and thankfully a new face in the Tardis is a good one. I absolutely cannot wait for her adventures and to see what her in the Tardis will be like.
Overall, a mixed book that I did enjoy even with it’s weaker points, and definitely crucial one to the expanded media continuity of Doctor Who. I can’t see myself going back and reading it anytime soon, but it’s definitely in the top five VNAs I’ve read so far.
The book did two things, far better than Ace’s (almost) goodbye story, Nightshade, in that it presented us with a love interest and romance for her that really had depth and you felt invested in. The other was portraying the Doctor, corrupted by the protoplasm from ‘Witch Mark’ so much better than in Nightshade. He isn’t just sociopathic and empty in this story, he’s still the kind and loving seventh doctor, it’s just the confusion in his mind leads him to make horrible decisions and hurt those around him. It’s almost like the Doctor being the needy game-player that he was in season 26, except with very intense consequences and emotional ramifications for him and all those around him.
The Hooshi were a cool villain and interesting concept, although I think it’s overexposure to the whole ‘sentient spore with hive mind’ concept in popular media that it just loses it’s merit to me. They were a good threat and the pitched battle when they attack has some great imagery, but they don’t actually do anything else-wise apart from kill some random people and brag about how great they are. The one thing they did absolutely achieve was making themselves seem like a complete invulnerable threat with no way to overcome them... shame. The way they were defeated did pale quite a lot given it was the absolute cliché they succumbed to and honestly it didn’t even make sense really. Still it was a nice farewell for some central characters so I can’t be too negative.
Ace is portrayed in this almost as the perfect representation of her having completed the maturity arc that started in season 25, and her amazing romance with the traveller Jan was something that granted a lot of value to her involvement and inevitable (no, it’s not a spoiler) goodbye. Her and the Doctor have developed so much 9 books into this series that it’s completely justified when she walks away as it brings her character and arc to a perfect close... for now. The travellers were a nice addition to the plot and did set up so many major parts of the narrative which is great honestly as so often do side characters drag a story down and make so much of it feel as if it’s going on forever. Christopher was an excellent example of this with his ghostly and omniscient presence creating some great moments and conversations throughout.
Now I’ve mentioned Ace, I’ve got to mention the 7th Doctor’s new companion and the very famous whoniverse character, Bernice Summerfield. Honestly when we first meet her, I was just sort of pleased by the novelty of reading the first appearance of one of Dr Who’s most famous characters, but didn’t actually really find myself invested in, or that interested in her as a character. As we went along however, I absolutely adored her. If it hadn’t been ingrained in my memory that this is the story where she joins the Doctor, I would’ve absolutely spent the majority of the book hoping he takes her with him and thankfully a new face in the Tardis is a good one. I absolutely cannot wait for her adventures and to see what her in the Tardis will be like.
Overall, a mixed book that I did enjoy even with it’s weaker points, and definitely crucial one to the expanded media continuity of Doctor Who. I can’t see myself going back and reading it anytime soon, but it’s definitely in the top five VNAs I’ve read so far.
June 25, 2020
Love and War is a Doctor Who tie-in novel from Virgin Publishing Company's Doctor Who the New Adventures featuring the Seventh Doctor as played by Sylvester McCoy and his companion, Ace (Dorothy McShane). The first half of Love and War I really liked. In the far future, an empty planet is discovered that is so perfect it's named "Heaven". It becomes an intergalactic graveyard for both Humans and Draconians, who have finally brokered a peace. There are also, now that the war is over, small humans and Draconian settlements on Heaven. The Doctor and Ace arrive, though Ace is out of sorts because she's still dealing with the death of a friend. The Doctor is also acting, well, weird. On Heaven, Ace meets the Travellers, a group of people who travel from place to place, with no fixed abode and little past or future. They share leadership responsibilities and make all decisions together, through consensus in 'Puter-Space, a type of Virtual Reality. Ace is particularly taken with a male traveller named, "Jan". She thinks she's in love with him during much of the novel. And she loves him because he reminds her of the Doctor but he's human. She's also hurting from losing her mate.
The Doctor meets Dr. Bernice (Benny) Summerfield, an archaeologist who is investigating a huge arch, which is a ruin left by the extremely old and extremely dead former civilization on Heaven. The Doctor is also trying to find an obscure banned book, which frankly feels like a McGuffin at first, though it does fit into the plot.
All of this is fine, and honestly, an entire book of the Doctor and Ace on vacation on a paradise planet would have been fine, especially as the two really need time to catch their breath. Or even a fairly standard alien invasion would have been fine. But it turns out that Heaven is a farm world for the Hoothi, an alien species that farms entire worlds for "meat" which they then form into slaves, spaceships, etc. The Hoothi are a fungoid species and anything or anyone infected by their spores becomes one with the Hoothi and they can be controlled by these very weird aliens. The Hoothi can also raise the dead, use them as soldiers, slaves, workers, etc.
Essentially, about halfway through the book, it turns into "The Doctor vs. Zombies", which has the problem of "how do you kill something that's already dead"? To make matters worse, no one is reliable because anyone can be or could have been infected with spores at any time and become an agent of the Hoothi. The Doctor warns Ace about getting involved with Jan, but, unfortunately, she interprets this as jealousy.
Needless to say, the Doctor, through some colossal manipulation manages to outwit the Hoothi and defeat them, saving Heaven in the process, for the most part. But the victory comes at a high and personal cost for Ace. The book ends with her not even willing to go into the TARDIS, and running off with Bernice instead.
I liked the beginning of this book - but the fungus-creatures and zombies were too much for me. I'm not a fan of horror really and this book got a little too gross. Still, even though I can only give it a 3 out of 5 rating, I recommend it, at least for completeness sake, since Doctor Who the New Adventures is a long-running and interconnected series.
The Doctor meets Dr. Bernice (Benny) Summerfield, an archaeologist who is investigating a huge arch, which is a ruin left by the extremely old and extremely dead former civilization on Heaven. The Doctor is also trying to find an obscure banned book, which frankly feels like a McGuffin at first, though it does fit into the plot.
All of this is fine, and honestly, an entire book of the Doctor and Ace on vacation on a paradise planet would have been fine, especially as the two really need time to catch their breath. Or even a fairly standard alien invasion would have been fine. But it turns out that Heaven is a farm world for the Hoothi, an alien species that farms entire worlds for "meat" which they then form into slaves, spaceships, etc. The Hoothi are a fungoid species and anything or anyone infected by their spores becomes one with the Hoothi and they can be controlled by these very weird aliens. The Hoothi can also raise the dead, use them as soldiers, slaves, workers, etc.
Essentially, about halfway through the book, it turns into "The Doctor vs. Zombies", which has the problem of "how do you kill something that's already dead"? To make matters worse, no one is reliable because anyone can be or could have been infected with spores at any time and become an agent of the Hoothi. The Doctor warns Ace about getting involved with Jan, but, unfortunately, she interprets this as jealousy.
Needless to say, the Doctor, through some colossal manipulation manages to outwit the Hoothi and defeat them, saving Heaven in the process, for the most part. But the victory comes at a high and personal cost for Ace. The book ends with her not even willing to go into the TARDIS, and running off with Bernice instead.
I liked the beginning of this book - but the fungus-creatures and zombies were too much for me. I'm not a fan of horror really and this book got a little too gross. Still, even though I can only give it a 3 out of 5 rating, I recommend it, at least for completeness sake, since Doctor Who the New Adventures is a long-running and interconnected series.
November 10, 2025
The New Adventures series of Doctor Who novels, put out by Virgin Publishing after the TV show went off the air in 1989, has until now played somewhat safe with its core premise. The Seventh Doctor and Ace were the last televised team of that Classic era, and so they've remained the protagonists of these early offscreen stories. Although we've gotten some minor plot serialization and varying degrees of character growth, for the most part the books have retained the old status quo from the television days. But that all changes here, with the young woman breaking from the Time Lord in disgust at his ongoing manipulations and an older, more jaded traveler stepping up to take her place.
Meet Bernice Summerfield, the debut companion of the so-called Wilderness Years! Her name looms large in the subsequent canon of audio and prose, and even if you haven't heard of her, you probably know her fellow archaeology professor River Song, who in many ways seems like a loose adaptation for the modern program. Benny is already a delight, and I'm looking forward to seeing the different energy she brings to the TARDIS (while admittedly missing the outgoing Ace, though I realize she'll return eventually).
The storyline of this installment is exciting too, even beyond the heroine swap. We're on the planet Heaven, a neutral site at the boundary of human and Draconian space, where an ancient evil fungus species is both infecting the living and reanimating the corpses that various peoples have laid to rest across the world. It's a quintessential Seven gambit, wherein the trickster hero is strategizing chess moves and countermoves well in advance of their deployment and baiting the enemy into refusing his offer of mercy only to then ruthlessly crush them, despite the cost paid by his frail mortal allies in the process. He's first dubbed Time's Champion in this adventure, as well as the Oncoming Storm, and Ace's heartbreak over the stark morality those roles require of him feels pretty earned. She's had one-off love interests in the past, of course, but this one registers as a more serious entanglement before she loses him to the Doctor's machinations.
The intersection of thrilling and momentous represents the sweet spot for me in this franchise, and it's hard to argue that this title wouldn't apply. It's the most obviously important volume of its sequence yet, as well as a blast to read on its own merits.
[Content warning for body horror, gun violence, suicide, and gore.]
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Meet Bernice Summerfield, the debut companion of the so-called Wilderness Years! Her name looms large in the subsequent canon of audio and prose, and even if you haven't heard of her, you probably know her fellow archaeology professor River Song, who in many ways seems like a loose adaptation for the modern program. Benny is already a delight, and I'm looking forward to seeing the different energy she brings to the TARDIS (while admittedly missing the outgoing Ace, though I realize she'll return eventually).
The storyline of this installment is exciting too, even beyond the heroine swap. We're on the planet Heaven, a neutral site at the boundary of human and Draconian space, where an ancient evil fungus species is both infecting the living and reanimating the corpses that various peoples have laid to rest across the world. It's a quintessential Seven gambit, wherein the trickster hero is strategizing chess moves and countermoves well in advance of their deployment and baiting the enemy into refusing his offer of mercy only to then ruthlessly crush them, despite the cost paid by his frail mortal allies in the process. He's first dubbed Time's Champion in this adventure, as well as the Oncoming Storm, and Ace's heartbreak over the stark morality those roles require of him feels pretty earned. She's had one-off love interests in the past, of course, but this one registers as a more serious entanglement before she loses him to the Doctor's machinations.
The intersection of thrilling and momentous represents the sweet spot for me in this franchise, and it's hard to argue that this title wouldn't apply. It's the most obviously important volume of its sequence yet, as well as a blast to read on its own merits.
[Content warning for body horror, gun violence, suicide, and gore.]
Like this review?
--Throw me a quick one-time donation here!
https://ko-fi.com/lesserjoke
--Subscribe here to support my writing and weigh in on what I read next!
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--Follow along on Goodreads here!
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--Or click here to browse through all my reviews!
https://lesserjoke.home.blog
September 22, 2018
Hm... wie soll man es sagen? Das war für mich leider eine leichte Enttäuschung. Dabei bin ich schon mit ziemlich gemischten Erwartungen an das Buch herangegangen. Auf der einen Seite freute ich mich sehr, endlich auf Benny zu treffen, auf der anderen Seite hat Paul Cornell auch das für mich bisher mit Abstand schlechteste Doctor Who Buch überhaupt geschrieben (Timewyrm: Revelation). Ganz so schlimm wie Revelation ist Love and War dann aber auch nicht. Zwar gerät Cornell das ein oder andere Mal wieder ins Schwafeln, fängt sich dann aber meist nach ein paar Absätzen wieder um in einem angenehmeren Stil weiter zu schreiben. Das Buch hat so einige wirkliche Stärken, wie zum Beispiel die wirklich einfallsreichen Gegner, die Hoothi, und natürlich auch Benny und Ace' tragische und glaubwürdige Liebesgeschichte, kann mit diesen aber die große Schwächen leider nicht verbergen. Die Story ist zum Beispiel leider mehr als dünn. Hinter der Fassade aus den Hoothi und der Vacuum Church verbirgt sich am Ende leider doch nur eine Standard-Invasions-Geschichte und auch der Plan des Doctors, so heftig auch seine Auswirkung ist, wirkt einfach nur generisch und konstruiert. Auch die meisten Charaktere waren ziemlich blass. Vor allem wenn man Nightshade vorher gelesen hat, ist das schon alleine eine ziemliche Enttäuschung. Nightshade hatte jeden noch so kleinen Nebencharakter sorgfältig charakterisiert. Bei Love and War sind teilweise sogar wichtige Nebenfiguren absolut Charakterlos und egal. Auch das man das Ende von Nightshade, zu Gunsten der neuen Liebesgeschichte mit Jan, so ziemlich außer Acht lässt ist enttäuschend. Wie Ace Robin von einem Buch zum anderen so einfach vergessen konnte ist mir ein Rätsel. Ein weiteres Rätsel bleibt, warum nicht ein einziger Draconian im Buch vorkommt, obwohl diese theoretisch die halbe Bevölkerung von Heaven ausmachen sollten. Zum Schluss baut Cornell auch noch eine von Klischees strotzende After-Finale-Szene ein, was mich auch ziemlich geärgert hat. Etwas tröstend war dann, dass der Abschied von Ace und das Willkommen von Benny im TARDIS Team dann wieder sehr schön und glaubhaft geschrieben war. Leider hilft auch das nicht, das Buch mit mehr als einem "Mittelmäßig" zu bewerten. Von Timewyrm: Revelation aus gesehen ist das aber schon mal ein riesiger Schritt nach vorne. ;)
June 27, 2022
Paul Cornell delivers a season finale for the first run of the Virgin New Adventures, and it is here that the departure from the show is pretty much confirmed. I struggle to see how this could have been done on a BBC budget! This stakes a claim to be a continuation of Doctor Who with its own ethos, and delves into territory the TV series hinted at but in only a few episodes. With Ace's departure, a new course is set and the New Adventures will go down a new path far apart from the TV series (in theory). Reading as someone who was first familiar with NuWho colours my interpretation, especially as much of what Cornell writes for the Doctor here would become well-established in the modern iteration of the show. Constructing the Doctor as someone “what monsters have dreams about” is a stepping stone on the way to the mythology we’d see in Cornell’s own adaptation of Father’s Day, and seeing Ace deal with grief, love, and loss is something we'd expect from rich and rounded characters, but it must have been quite a journey for fans at the time. This novel is an important foundation stone for what an emotionally mature Doctor Who could be. Not that Doctor Who needs to 'grow up', but if it did then this is one of the better ways to handle it.
Cornell also writes wonderfully for Ace and the Doctor, and can develop a world with a stroke of a pen. It’s difficult to picture anyone else be Benny than Lisa, so I read it with her voice in mind, but the prose speaks for itself. There’s a refreshing and at the time novel (for the franchise) approach to relationships and to yet another example of Who running with a Matrix-style environment before The Matrix actually existed! Add in some interesting minor characters and a healthy length and we get a fab read. It also has a great cover, so there’s that.
Cornell also writes wonderfully for Ace and the Doctor, and can develop a world with a stroke of a pen. It’s difficult to picture anyone else be Benny than Lisa, so I read it with her voice in mind, but the prose speaks for itself. There’s a refreshing and at the time novel (for the franchise) approach to relationships and to yet another example of Who running with a Matrix-style environment before The Matrix actually existed! Add in some interesting minor characters and a healthy length and we get a fab read. It also has a great cover, so there’s that.
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