Doctor Who: Beltempest

Eighth Doctor Adventures #17

by Jim Mortimore

When the people of Bellania II witness a triple eclipse of their sun, Bel -- an impossibility, as they only have one moon -- it is the beginning of the end for an entire solar system. Their sun is shrouded in night for a month -- then returns to them a younger, brighter, hotter star. But how?100,000 years later, the Doctor and Sam arrive on Belannia IV, where 20,000 people are under threat as a catastrophe threatens -- immense gravitational and dimensional disturbances are rioting through their sector of space. Sam is swept away by desperate crowds trying to get off their world, and becomes involved in daring rescue attempts. The Doctor tries to stabilize the local gravity fields and help halt the devastation, but the TARDIS is lost to him.

Meanwhile, a religious suicide-cult leader attempts to destroy himself on the deadly heated surface of Belannia II, but he does not die. He returns stronger, and with a new religion he is determined to spread through Bel's system. His word may prove more dangerous even then the terrible forces brought into being from Bel's sun. Just what has happened to the star Bel -- and will the Doctor hive time to do anything about it?

Genres: Doctor Who, Science Fiction, Fiction, Ebooks, Fantasy

249 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published November 1, 1998

About the author

Jim Mortimore is a British science fiction writer, who has written several spin-off novels for popular television series, principally Doctor Who, but also Farscape and Babylon 5.

When BBC Books cancelled his Doctor Who novel Campaign, he had it published independently and gave the proceeds to a charity – the Bristol Area Down Syndrome Association. He is also the writer of the Big Finish Doctor Who audio play The Natural History of Fear and their Tomorrow People audio play Plague of Dreams. He has also done music for other Big Finish productions.

He released his first original novel in 2011, Skaldenland.

Reviews

[Ken · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m pretty sure that I’d read this EDA before, the cover seemed really familiar - but I couldn’t recall the plot.
Turns out it’s a pretty bad one in the series, that would explain why I couldn’t recall it!

The Doctor and Sam get separated after arriving on Bellania VI, with gravitational and dimensional disturbances in the Bel region. They must try and get the local inhabitants to work together to save their lives.

The book does boost some good sci-fi ideas, it’s just a shame that it doesn’t really feel like Doctor Who.
The main problem is that The Doctor doesn’t feel like the McGann incarnation, I couldn’t visualise him acting in the way he is portrayed here.

The relationship between him and Sam had really improved over the last couple of books, but it felt like Sam was back to her annoying teenager self from the earlier books.

I’m glad that I’ve read this again though, the main reason being so that I can review them all individually.
I’m pretty sure that I’ve not read the next nine titles in the series, but I’m excited about something that I’m aware of coming up soon...

[Numa Parrott · Rating 1 out of 5]

I couldn't even force myself to read it.
WORST portrayal of the Doctor I have ever read, and a fairly poor one of Sam too.
I read the first few chapters and, sickened by a Doctor who was revoltingly obnoxious, decided to skim through to the last chapter.

All you need to know: Sam feels rejected by the Doctor and joins a creepy religious cult which makes her immortal by feeding her regenerative microbiotic thingies. The Doctor sort of saves her, but she is the only one who can be sure the microbiotic thingies are gone.
Other than that, the Doctor just does obnoxious things and millions of people die.

If you love the Doctor and value your sanity, DO NOT READ.

[Travis · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dreary, dark and an ending that leaves you scratching your head while wondering if the outcome would have been any different if the Doctor had done nothing.

[Natalie · Rating 1 out of 5]

WHAT. WAS.THAT. Seriously, I have never read a more complicated-for-no-reason, out of character, ego-stroking science fiction book before, ever. I have read and watched a lot of fantasy, sci-fi, and Doctor Who in my day and you occasionally come across something that is so bloated, where clearly the author is attempting to break out and showcase his "talent", well beyond the breadth and scope of what the book is actually supposed to be. Beltempest is trying so desperately to be something that it isn't. Jim, this is Doctor Who. It's not a philosophical book about birth and death and what the universe means. We expect a little waxing rhapsodic with certain Doctors, but this is over the top and unnecessary.
Not only is the writing over the top and complicated for no reason, the plot makes very little sense. We're meant to believe an ancient race came to the dying Bel galaxy, put its fetus in the sun (thereby giving it millions of more years of life) and nano-bots evolved on one of the planets, looking to use humans as vehicles to take over the universe? There's also the usual influx of side-characters who aren't that important in the scheme of things, and are going to die anyway. Sam has regressed yet again, and Jim has the Doctor acting like a confused child, who whips out random items and then gets upset when he can't decide what to do. In the end, he doesn't really do anything, and his being there doesn't make a whit of difference.
This is also the highest body count of any Who book yet, with deaths in the billions.
The core idea is ok, I suppose, and given to another capable author, could have been told better and reworked to a halfway decent story. As it stands, it really deserves a 1.5. And as I can't do half stars, I'm rounding down this time, because I can't get back the time I wasted reading this.

[Macey · Rating 3 out of 5]

okay so i was literally warned how bad this book was like. six books in advance so my expectations were low to say the least BUT. in my honest opinion. it was kinda cool & i enjoyed it. its just the like first fifth of the book is annoyingly out of character & confusing & to be honest i couldnt tell you how this all got resolved so quickly. like i dont know. BUT i do love cosmic scale of things & mortals ascending to godhood because they thought they knew what the right choice was to make. sam jones they could never make me hate you i hope you had fun in your religious rapture.

like idk the vibes were cool but i couldnt reallyyyyy tell you Why any of that stuff was happening

[Gareth · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is yet another epic space wibble from the EDAs, but Jim Mortimore convincingly outpaces the others for sheer scale (and death toll). It’s mind boggling stuff, but it often seems a bit summarised across its brisk page count, and feels rather impersonal. To quote one character, it’s an understatement of epic proportions.

2.5

[Nicholas Whyte · Rating 1 out of 5]

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1690475...

An Eighth Doctor Adventure that didn't really grab me - the plot, involving an artificial cosmic doom threatening an entire solar system, very similar to the last book I read in this series, and Mortimore's writing rather undisciplined - I normally like his books and scripts more than I did this one. Poor Sam gets messed around with in mind and body.

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading any Doctor Who novel by Jim Mortimore usually amounts to taking part in a car crash...and YOU are the one flying through the windshield. The landing won't be pleasant, but the experience at the time is an adrenaline-charged rush of epic (and occasionally disturbing) proportions. This explanation suits "Beltempest" to a tee!

[James Taylor · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm reading my way through the EDA's and this has been the most difficult so far. There is nothing wrong with the story as such but the fact that the Doctor has no impact on the story what so ever and that Sam is forced to change emotionally in ways that could never be sustained over a series of books by different authors just grate a little.

[Michael · Rating 1 out of 5]

The thing about getting these books from the library now is that when you come across a real stinker it's much easier to decide to give it up without completing it. I gave this one up about half way through.

[Adam Highway · Rating 1 out of 5]

Truly awful. I only finished for the sake of completeness. Blargh!

[Hidekisohma · Rating 2 out of 5]

So when i was going through the doctor who EDA's, i saw that this was the lowest rated out of all of them. Of course it wasn't really a choice to skip this one as i was already 16 books deep into this series and need to read all of them.
Needless to say, seeing all the negative press this one received i was a little nervous going in. Is it really as bad as everyone says? I mean.... yeah it's pretty bad. Not the WORST. but...yeah pretty bad.

Sam and the doc are separated most of the time because the doctor is trying to save everyone and sam is doing the same thing but in a weird culty setting.

The biggest problem i had with this book is that it's OBVIOUS the author wasn't trying to write a fun story. that's this book's biggest downfall. Usually, even in a bad doctor who book you can look at it and go "well, at least the author was TRYING to write a fun story, it just went to hell." this one. no. This book from the getgo is OBVIOUSLY Jim just stroking his ego going "ooohhh look how cerebral and smart i am!"

The plot will just stop for pages at a time while he starts saying stuff like "the universe is an endless void of stars continually exploding and being reborn in a vast--" zzzzzzzsnore. He'll do this and wax rhapsodic for no reason. The story in itself is not a fun who adventure, it's Jim writing a love letter to his brain that he thinks is so big.

As for the story itself, it's pretty convoluted and nonsensical. a star is dying and being reborn and the planets are getting messed up because of it so the doc has to try to save the day. Granted, i just simplified it a metric butt ton, but that's the general idea.

This is one of those "if the doctor didn't show up at all, nothing would have changed" stories too. so if you're expecting the ending to be the doctor being awesome, you're going to be sorely disappointed.

Sam is VERY annoying in this one as her "save everyone" mentality has been taken to a whole new level where she follows this cult guy around chatting about life, religion and saving people for over half the book.

Some reviews have stated how she's childish, and i agree. she's very much so in this book. There's a point early on when the doc says "hey, go off and do what you need to do" and he gives her a useful bag of stuff and after he leaves she goes "I DON'T NEED HIS HELP!" and throws the bag away...for...no reason really. and i'm sitting there like "but...why?" like she regresses in her characterization for no reason and yeah, i can see why people complain about sam in this one.

There's a lot of death in this one. like a LOT of death. i mean, i laugh about how Chris Bulis is the king of body count, but OH MY GOD this is like.... this makes Bulis look like Paul Magrs (yeah, you're a super nerd if you get that comparison) but yeah millions upon MILLIONS of people die in this one. so...yeah be ready for that.

The scene continuity was also very confusing in this one. one second they'll be on a ship then they're on a planet's surface. then they're in a refugee camp. It's all over the place. there's no rhyme or reason to the setting changes and it left me more than a little confused as it went on. The previous book, Janus didn't have this problem, and i pretty much knew when we moved locations all the time. This one was just all over the place.

The only thing i didn't dislike about this was the doctor had some funny banter with the random people in this one and it made it more bearable. The thing is, this book doesn't fill me with hate like Vanderdeken or Seeing I did. It just leaves me with an eyeroll as you see the book for what it is, Jim patting himself on the back for being able to cobble together a depressing book with metaphors about life and the universe.

Wow! thanks Jim, it's just what i wanted!

The average rating for this book at the time of this review is a 2.7 and.....yeah i definitely see that. Does it deserve to be the WORST book in the series? I mean, it's boring, annoying, and stupid, but for me, it's a solid 2/5. Not good, but mercifully short and i managed to power through it in 2 1/2 days. out of the 17 in the series so far, yeah, i'd say it's probably 3rd worst ahead of seeing I and vanderdeken. Definitely deserving of the rating, and definitely not a book i'll ever visit again.

2/5.

Oh and yes, there is indeed a scene with the doctor surfing on a tidal wave up to the president of the planet's window. that was probably the highlight of the book. which is very sad

[Danny Welch · Rating 1 out of 5]

I've taken a bit of a break from reading the VNA's to catch up with the EDA's instead. Especially since I don't have many more Big Finish audios to listen to with the 8th Doctor. Jim Mortimore is a Doctor Who writer whose work I have very mixed opinions on either his work is brutal and well-pieced together or brutal and a complete mess. I never know what to quite expect from him when picking up his books, it's either one or the other. I'm not a fan of the author himself, however, but I do appreciate some of his work.

The Doctor and Sam hoping for a peaceful break by the beach, are soon in the middle of a calamity that might very well result in the destruction of an entire solar system. The two are separated, The Doctor must figure out how to save as many lives across the system as possible, whilst Sam finds herself between the clash of two religious cults, one dictating itself to life, the other to death. But an ancient force is unleashing itself from the system's sun and nothing can stop it.

Beltempest is a novel with a decent idea or two, but it falls flat at every corner. It's a book that tries to be epic, bleak, and philosophical. With plenty of action and high stakes, however, the novel doesn't at any point give the reader a reason to care. Its supporting characters are one-dimensional and flat, The Doctor is obnoxious, and worst of all Sam's whole character arc and growth throughout the series is hideously undermined so she can make silly immature, and childish decisions leading up to her joining a cult.

It's a mess of a novel that I have no idea how it got published in its current state. The structure is incoherent. The action scenes are lifeless. The ideas are poorly executed. The story is rushed and the pacing is far too quick for a narrative on this scale. There's a lack of atmosphere and the philosophical segments come across as more of the author patting himself on the back, congratulating himself on how clever he is rather than anything substantial and meaningful.

It's a novel with a couple of good ideas and some trippy scenes that I actually kind of enjoyed. But everything else falls flat miserably.

Overall: I hate being negative about the stuff I read, but at the same time honesty is the best policy. This is a novel that might have worked out better as a very early, early EDA but as it stands it's a novel that either should have been re-written heavily from start to finish or completely cancelled altogether. I liked Lucifer Rising, Blood Heat, and Campaign. But Beltempest sits alongside Parasite as being a thoroughly depressing novel that isn't interested in giving the reader a fun time. 2/10

[Justin Partridge · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bringing this one home as my 150th read here on this funny lil’ app and it’s a weird one!

It’s written in this semi-lyrical, stream-of-consciousness style that makes it really hard to keep a purchase on whatever is happening and where the Doctor and Sam are going scene-to-scenes.

There were multiple times were I would have to backtrack a few pages just to make sure I didn’t miss some kind of transition bit or exposition. Nope. Just weird cuts throughout and incredibly breezy set building that does not care to hold the reader’s hand at all.

This also I think gets a little muddied by the Faction Paradox threads that we are starting to get here in the middle of the EDA range. I have really enjoyed how these middle ones have felt of a shared continuity, but all the infusion of the FP stuff and Sam’s backstory give it all a Too Many Cooks vibe on top of a purposefully gonzo and baroque story.

BUT STILL, I had some fun with it. I think Mortimore’s Eighth Doctor is particularly charming. The runner about his constantly eating sweets and taking all sorts of bullshit from his frock coat pockets was very sweet and funny. I also really love him largely deciding that he CANT involve himself in the story’s denouement and has to just leave it up to Sam. That’s Good Doctor Who.

Maybe just like…one more editing pass could have made this one stronger? If only just to tighten up its truly Barking mad story.

[Michel Siskoid Albert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just before Jim Mortimore's Beltempest, the Eighth Doctor Adventures offered The Janus Conjunction, ANOTHER story about a star system under threat from wonky planets and misbehaving sons, in which Sam is separated from the Doctor and almost dies due to radiation and exposure. Soooooo... Either the editor of the line shouldn't have scheduled these back to back, or he didn't have a choice due to a deadline problem. Either way, I'm about ready for a story in which the Doctor and the Companion aren't separated for 90% of the novel. Mortimore initially has a good handle on the leads, even if his Doctor's eccentricities get to be a bit much as the danger ramps up, and he's telling a truly epic story with hundreds of billions of lives on the line. However, I do think it needed 50-100 pages more to do it justice, as we go from the brink of destruction to everything resolved in a couple of elliptical pages at the end, and I just don't feel the consequences, especially to Sam after the things she's done, or been made to do, during this crisis. I like how the author uses physics as poetry, but if you'll allow me to mix artistic metaphors, his canvas here was way too large for his brush.

[Mole Mann · Rating 3 out of 5]

I actually liked this one.
Some really beautiful prose but it confused me at times. I'm still not entirely sure what happened and I feel like this was what Mortimore was gunning for.
My advice for anyone looking to buy this book: Don't purchase it direct from Mortimore, he is an anti-vaxx conspiracy theorist (I can personally attest to this. I followed him on Facebook back in 2020/21). Buy the original version second-hand off of amazon like i did (or if you live in the UK see if they have it at a used bookstore).
Also I don't know how good the rewritten verison Mortimore published is since I don't have a copy of it. Apparently it has new stuff in it that Mortimore wanted to put in the original but I have absolutely no interest in buying a copy of a book I already own just because the author added new stuff to it. Should have been in the original. Might see if I can find a summary of the new content online.

[Hannah Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a bizarre yet intriguing book. Lots of philosophy about religion and life. I felt a bit bad for Sam in this book, she really couldn't catch a break. And it seems like the doctor doesn't quite approve of her lax attitude in the end, I'm interested to see how their relationship will be moving forward

[Ian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review here: https://fsfh-book-review2.webnode.com...

[Allen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to read this out of curiosity but I couldn't get myself through the book because of the characterization of the Eighth Doctor was Uncomfortably Off.

[James Barnard · Rating 3 out of 5]

By this point the cracks were definitely starting to show in the BBC Books range of Doctor Who novels. We had a Doctor whose on-screen presence consisted of a film which was made nearly three years previously, and a companion who wasn’t the easiest to love. A bold editorial decision meant the characters were obliged to make the most of the TARDIS’ ability to travel in space and explore Earth’s future, so it had been a long time since we touched down on our own planet, so there was a lack of familiar ‘hooks’ for the reader. Most of all, the regulars were in dire need of company.

This is a shame, because ‘Beltempest’ is actually a pretty good book. It just suffers from the context it’s placed in. The stipulation that the authors keep their plots away from Earth was designed to make the most of the inherent freedom of the format. Unfortunately, it led to a series of books which seemed to tell more or less the same story, a fact which even Sam realises when she compares the events of the previous book to the situation here.

I can understand why ‘Beltempest’ was kept where it was in the running order – no one does an apocalypse quite like Jim Mortimore, and the presence of the soon-to-arrive extra companion, Fitz Kreiner, would hardly have helped matters here. Like I said, it’s the context, rather than the plot itself or the way it’s told, which lets this one down. The reader has seen it all before, very recently, and finds it all a bit dull.

I doubt anyone counts this as one of their favourites. It’s a good read in itself, but suffers from problems which aren’t of its own making.

[Shamus · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was something of disappointment. Definitely my least favorite of the series, so far. The Doctor is overly shown as being crazed and nonsensical in the beginning, and Sam is caught up in visions of her future that aren't her future. I understand that the writer was trying to keep you confused, just as the characters were, about what exactly is going on until the explanation at the end, but the solution for how people are infected with the ability to never die doesn't satisfy. I loved the overall explanation for what was causing the rebirth and later destruction of the sun, but Jim Mortimore failed to hold my interest for the couple hundred pages leading up to the big reveal. Overall a mediocre addition to the Eighth Doctor's adventures.

[Christopher Hatch · Rating 1 out of 5]

I though maybe the other reviews were wrong and I would see some hidden depth to this book.

I didn't. If I hadn't decided to read all the EDAs I would have abandoned this book early on. Instead I skimmed to the end to discover that nothing really happens in this book.

I do hope the next book is better.

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Doctor and Sam get separated while a galaxy is tearing itself apart. This is a high concept storyline, and is quite clever. My main problem with it was the depiction of Sam, she'd matured a lot in previous books and this just seemed out of character for her. A good read.

[Gruff Williams · Rating 1 out of 5]

The story this book tries to tell is very ambitious and could definitely work, but it leaves too many important questions unanswered, and by the end I was forcing myself to finish it for the sake of completion. When I finished it though, I didn’t feel relieved, I just felt very annoyed.

[Andy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not the best portrayal of the doctor or sam by a long way
The story was strong enough but the characters seemed a little washed out