| PARASITE by Jim Mortimore |
| Story 33 Synopsis: The TARDIS lands in a low-gravity chamber of a gigantic ammonite. The travellers meet the survivors of a mission to investigate. They are attacked by local creatures which kill many of them. One surveyor, Rhiannon, establishes a psychic connection with the Artifact. Both Ace and Bernice become infected by parasites which are part of the life cycle of the Artifact. The Doctor is also psychically affected, and has to spend long spells asleep to escape, and even then he succumbs to a parasite as well. The Artifact is a living being which organises the smaller creatures living inside as part of its birth pattern. Once he realises that the scale of the creature's eggs, and its demands for water, would threaten the entirety of the universe, the Doctor uses the TARDIS to create a psychic link to temporarily prevent such a calamity. Barely surviving, he gets his friends back to the TARDIS, and away... |
| Review:- No rest for the curious, as a giant puzzle nearly spells the difference between life and death... Mortimore's penchant is clearly for scale. His previous solo work, Blood Heat, just about got away with it by using familiar framing references of UNIT and the Silurians. Here, with nothing safe for a reader to cling to, he lets his imagination run riot. It also seems like a sort of sequel to Lucifer Rising, with the real Mark Bannen turning up, and the same sense of vast planetary environment. Mortimore has been crudely drubbed as writing "death on a biblical scale" which is a curious attempt to kill two birds with one stone. It doesn't feel that way, though, as most of the people who die are given such little attention that they feel like ciphers. Some might the same about the Bible, I guess. Not that there is no danger present - most of the creatures living in the parasite seem inimical to humans, and it's a telling idea that sometimes space is not a friendly place to be. The abnormal gravity soon leads our heroes into trouble, and their splitting up is just asking for it. Whilst Ace gets to show off her brilliance (yawn), Bernice nearly dies a few times, and has to get by thanks to her people skills. She it is who befriends the tragic Elenchus, and the even more tragic Ben Green. As for the Doctor, he succumbs to a mental attack and goes out of commission for long periods, which is convenient for a writer trying to spin out the resolution and/or doesn't like writing for the Doctor. That he and his companions all fall victim to the parasitisation going on shows how vulnerable TARDIS-travel can sometimes be, and it's luckily convenient that they all make it through, even if it takes crude operations in some cases. To keep up with the story, it helps to read the book quickly. Left too long, it might be hard to keep a hold, and then you'd just drift off. Read properly, the growing drama as the scale of the parasite is explained, works quite well, though I can understand why Mortimore found it a struggle to write at times. The climax is perhaps a little weak, with Bannen shooting the Doctor for no good reason, the parasites nobbled in vague fashion, and question marks over Ace and Bernice. But that's nothing compared to the sloppy work seen in his final New Adventure, Eternity Weeps. On the whole, whilst justly known as a struggle to read, it can make sense and be enjoyed, but perhaps the message is lost along the way. |
| Disclaimer: I own a copy of this book. |