| CONUNDRUM by Steve Lyons |
| Story 22 Synopsis: The TARDIS lands in Arandale, where it is wintry 1993. Ace is in a bad mood, Bernice is trying to lose herself in her locale, and the Doctor is aware that someone else may be playing games. Bernice meets Norman Power, who claims to be superhero The White Knight. She doubts him, but then his old nemesis, Doctor Nemesis, turns up. Ace tries to get out of town, but is prevented from so doing. The Doctor tells Bernice that Norman could be a superhero. There have been a series of murders in town, and Ace seems a possible future corpse. The Doctor befriends Matthew Shade, who is investigating. Ace nearly succumbs to a macabre game-player's version of MouseTrap. She has a fight with Bernice, whilst the Doctor makes contact with the eminence grise behind Arandale, namely the Master of the Land Of Fiction, now a youth called Jason. They talk, but what few clues the Doctor learns seem wasted, as he is forced into the Master's story. The killings come to a head, but despite several attempts to force his hand, the Doctor won't give in and replace the Master. During a diversion, the Doctor gets Ace and Bernice into the TARDIS, where the Master makes further attempts to trap them. But thanks to Ace's use of the chameleon circuit, they escape. |
| Review:- Enter Steve Lyons! So to speak. Hot on the heels of Kate Orman's debut, came Steve's debut too. This continued the Alternative Universe series - this time, in a bit of a remake of The Mind Robber, but with plenty of fresh spin, on an already top concept. The idea of superheroes is so amazing in our lives anyway, that when it begins to seem that there is scientific grounds to suppose that radioactive spiders, gamma-deficient remedies, and millenia-old amazons might actually not be the stuff of make believe. Of course, in many ways, the whole Land-Of-Fiction gimmick is a double-deal. The Doctor says that McAllerson's Radiation is the cause, but later says it was a ruse, and it IS impossible. It isn't as if Time Lords or Daleks are any more real, but it seems just a wet attempt to stop someone else creating a superhuman nemesis (or hero) in future. And then again, surely Cybermen et al are superhuman. What about Sutekh, and other Gods, whom we have been introduced to? It's all getting a bit tricky. This was a fun book to read, and is a pleasure to reflect on. That Steve progressed to other intriguing books is a good sign, and his subsequent non-fiction books have been a treasure to read, too. Many great jokes, but at the end of the day, Brian, the boy diminished his achievements here by saying that almost everything wasn't true. Which is a bit too much, in my book. |
| Disclaimer: I own a copy of this book. |