Prodigals

When my hair gets too long to stand up and starts to flop, everyone thinks I’ve had a haircut. Every time. It’s puzzling.

The Marktha have returned from Canada – rejoice! Martha (formerly known, for no good reason, as Steve) met Mark (aka Scone, aka Hot Throbbin’) on a holiday to Canada a few years ago and, after a whirlwind romance, was married in 2005. The following year, Mark having comet to live in Edinburgh, they moved to Vancouver, got a kitten and jobs, and other than biannual meetups with Martha’s mum for Hershey’s and general bitching, that appeared to be that. But Martha got homesick and so they abandoned the colonies for the more civilised Scottish homeland. It’s like they were never away. Yay!

Now it’s true, I’m a bit of a Dr Who nerd. But I’m more of a post-1989 nerd – I far prefer the series of original novels that were published between 1989 and 2005 to any of the other media, although I still enjoy both the Original and the New-And-Improved-With-Added-Kissing TV serieseseses (this is like trying to stop spelling bananananana! Help!).

During the post-TV Movie run of the novels, starring the Paul McGann-style 8th Doctor and published by the BBC, probably the most original of the writers – and certainly the most controversial – was Lawrence Miles. Outspoken, original, you either love him or loathe him and whichever side of the fence you live on, you are likely to be vitriolic in your reactions to the other side.

The first chapter of his Grand Plan was Alien Bodies, which introduced a new Power, Faction Paradox, and also the concept of Biodata – kinda like DNA but for your timeline as well as your genetics. The latter has suffused all of Who-land in one way or another since then, but the Faction have had a hard time of it. Miles set up a huge, universe-changing plot in his two-parter Interference, which was generally shat upon by the other authors and the BBC, resulting in a lot of bad blood and no more Mad Larry.

Instead, Faction Paradox were taken out of the Whoniverse entirely. Mad Norwegian Press rescued them and published a number of stand-alone novels over the following years, not just by Lawrence Miles but also Phillip Purser-Hallard, Lance Parkin, Mags Halliday and Kelly Hale. These were all extremely strong works, all separate and often not even featuring any members of Faction Paradox. BBV also produced a set of six audio dramas, written by Miles, and there were two issues of an abortive comic to boot.

And then Mad Norwegian Press pulled the plug. No more novels. Until Random Static came to the rescue, announcing that they would be releasing Newtons Sleep by Daniel O’Mahoney in 2008. Woo! Having only recently picked up the last of the MNP books, it wasn't until we were due to go away to Czechland that I decided I had to have it. [The last time we went on holiday, two years ago, I made a special detour to Forbidden Planet in London so that I could buy one of the previous novels; it kept me going for some time during an otherwise boring holiday…]

Having received the book in time, I had no chance to read it while we were away because we were SO BUSY. So, on our return I picked it up and made a start.

And it was a sloooowww start. The author’s previous Who-ish novels, Falls the Shadow and The Man in the Velvet Mask, had never been in my top ten favourites, far from it, but they were long ago and I knew that the style would have changed. If anything the writing was more dense. I despaired. But I didn’t want to give up – there’s so little Factionalia! And so I kept at it. And it got better.

Probably the first in the series to feature members of Faction Paradox as main cast, they’re only part of a fair ensemble. Set in the 17th Century, we jump across a period of decades, watching characters being manipulated by various Powers as the War in Heaven rages in the background. It’s confusing. The characters are almost all antiheroes, at best. And yet they’re so fascinating: seeing how their actions are governed by their paranoia and selfishness, sitting back and watching as they allow frightful things to happen – a scene where someone is hung, drawn and quartered forced me to put the book down for half an hour in disgust at the glorious gore – it’s absolutely compelling! And as the narrative cantered towards the conclusion I found myself more and more excited by it.

Slow starter indeed, but gosh! I’m tempted to hunt down other novels by Mr O’Mahoney – although I’m afraid of being let down purely because they wouldn’t be set in such a complex world which I already feel comfortable in. In the meantime, I feel compelled to register my enjoyment of the novel.