| THE ULTIMATE TREASURE by Christopher Bulis |
| Story ? Synopsis: Shopping on Astroville, the Doctor and Peri stumble on a murder, and are arrested. Held in custody for a week, they learn that it was connected with the fabled Ultimate Treasure of the legendary Rovan Cartovall, which has been quested for millennia. They use a set of co-ordinates vouchsafed to them before his death by the murder victim, and find themselves on Gelsandor, with other parties seeking the treasure. Curious, they set out to try and find it. The journey takes them through a wood, across a plain, through a valley and up a cliff. Then they struggle through a marshland and into a forest. After many tough experiences, they pass a barbed wire fence, cross a gorge, and travel behind a waterfall, eventually reaching four doors, each offering different paths. One door merely leads back to their starting point where they landed. A second contains the ephemeral treasure, but at the cost of the seeker's swift death. A third contains an electronic device that offers the seeker a perpetual delusion. The last is the Ultimate Treasure, which the Doctor chooses: the freedom to explore the infinite possibilities of the universe. With justice done, the Doctor and Peri return to the TARDIS, as Gelsandor's secrets become secret once more. |
| Review:- The quest is a tricky plot device to keep interesting for a length of time, and when, as here, several groups take differing paths to the same problems, the risk of repetition becomes a tricky one. The set-up on Astroville seems rather superfluous, though a familiar trick from stories as varied as The Seeds of Doom or Earthshock. Once things reach Gelsandor, and the quest begins, then so does the fun. Inspector Jaharnus and Sir John Falstaff make useful redoubtable allies, and through Professor Thorrin and the Marquis te Rosscarrino are too dedicated for their own good, Arnella and Brockwell prove a friendly pair who find they are better off together. On the other side, Crelly Qwaid and his cohorts Gribbs and Drorgon are less likeable, though still nicely written. Their fearsome boss, Alpha, disappears for about half the book, but still remains all the more impressive for his effect on Qwaid, and later, his ruthlessness to take the treasure. Shalvis, the mouthpiece of the Gelsandorans, seems enigmatic, though sympathetic. Her reluctance to show favour at the beginning, or at the moment of decision, paints her as rather cold, but it's clear from the opening that their motives are just ones, and she shows the Doctor Rovan's final message after all. Red is another oddball ally, though his eventual reveal as a facet of Kamelion seems rather strange. More blatant plot device than properly written character, unfortunately. The slithery Dexel Dynes allows for many, many pointed jabs at the media circus, which has not improved much since the book was published. His DAVE cameras do allow for helpful shifts in the narrative to keep the book from degenerating into too random a mess. Though whether he merits his return in Palace of the Red Sun is another matter. The various traps along the way prove interesting, visual and memorable, though their solutions usually come from nowhere as if their allotted space was at an end. By the time of the Trial of Braal, a reader might wonder whether the book is going to keep meandering all the way to the end - certainly the Trial feels less of a challenge than the other tasks. On the whole, it's a decent little book that sustains entertainment, if not quite interest, and with happy endings on top, too. For an old-fashioned genre, it stays true to form. |
| Disclaimer: I own a copy. |