Oblivion is a novel written by Dave Stone. Released in 1998, it is the eleventh novel in Virgin's Bernice Summerfield series and serves as a direct sequel to Stone's earlier Doctor Who novels (both published by Virgin) Sky Pirates! or the Eyes of the Schirron and Death and Diplomacy. It tells of Bernice Summerfield working with the crew of the Schirron Dream to save all of existence from a being known as Deed.
Characters[]
- Bernice Summerfield
- Nathan li Shao, or
- Nathan Leshane - a private eye
- Nathan le Shadon - a great detective
- Nathan L - a former Researcher
- Leetha t'Zhan, or
- Lisa Chan - the daughter of an inventor
- Miss Tzanov - the daughter of a professor
- Lisa T - an Underclasser woman with whom Nathan L has an affair
- Kiru, or
- Jimmy Kiru - a friend of Leshane's
- James Kiru - the chronicler of the great detective's adventures
- Simon Deed - a mysterious young boy who is described as being "broken inside". The name of Simon Deed reoccurs numerous times throughout the story.
- Sgloomi Po
- Jason Kane
- Chris Cwej
- Roz Forrester
- Mr. Jackie Pelt - the psychopathic human returns from Sky Pirates! to bring Deed the egg
- Fenn Martle - Roz's partner within the Adjudicators
- Logh - a native of Zarjax
- Mabra - one of the children Benny babysits
Publisher's summary[]
Roz snarled up into the face of her abductor. "If you touch me I'll kill you. Who are you? Just what the hell is going on?" The blond man looked down at her with a mixture of what looked like fear and pain. "My name's Chris Cwej," he said. "And as to what's going on, hell is probably as good a word for it as any."
Something has burst through the worn and patchwork fabric of the universe, like a high-velocity round through a rotten apple. The timelines are cut loose and whipsawing — alternative pasts, presents and futures slicing through the world we think of as real.
At the centre of the disruption three adventurers, Nathan li Shao, Leetha and Kiru, are trapped on a parallel Earth — flung from one twisted alternative to another by a man called Deed, who has usurped the power of the Godhead. If their friend Sgloomi Po cannot reach them in time they will be obliterated. Deed is attempting to forge his own reality and consign all others to oblivion.
To help end the chaos, Sgloomi has assembled a number of old friends: Bernice Summerfield, the feckless Jason Kane and Christopher Rodonante Cwej ... but there has been one small mistake. A miscalculation has placed someone among them who should not be there. Someone who should be dead.
Summary[]
Prologue: Refrigerated Dreams of Me and Another Prologue: Getting Inside[]
After waking up from a nightmare, young Simon Deed finds a mysterious man sitting near his cradle. This man reveals himself to be one Mr. Pelt and offers to give Deed a mystical and extremely beautiful clockwork egg if he does certain tasks. This involves Simon killing his new baby brother and hiding the "wrongness" inside of him.
Meanwhile, a new Adjudicator named Roz Forrester makes her very first planetfall (specifically on the planet Zarjax) with her partner Fenn Martle. The Adjudicators' visit to Zarjax is meant as a decoy while Covert Ops find the source of a drug flowing into the Fnarok population of the Overcities which has been traced to Zarjax.
In a place "not recognizable as any place on Earth", a clockwork egg ticks away.
Strike One: The Oncoming Storm[]
Chapter 1: A Fractured Surface[]
To get out of a destitute state, Bernice Summerfield begrudiginly takes a job babysitting a group of richly parented children while they explore the ruins of temples on the planet of Malanoor. Finding the job extremely displeasing, Benny decides to scare the children by telling a (somewhat sensationalised) tale of the extremely disturbing history of the "Lost Temples". While doing this, one of the children notices something falling onto the planet.
Chapter 2: Signals from the Underground[]
When this thing crashes onto Malanoor, it shuts off the fields protecting "explorers" from encountering any actually harmful wildlife. As such, Benny has the Malanoorian guides surround the children and keep them safe while she finds out what exactly crashed. At first, Benny looks through the jungle but is drawn to the temples. While examining the tunnels, Benny begins thinking about mythical "Great Beast" before she falls into a chamber and is found by a tentacled creature.
Chapter 3: The Interminable Salutation (Alternate Earth)[]
As the clockwork egg ticks interminably on, a hand approaches it.
While eating lunch at a diner with his friend Jimmy Kiru, private eye Nathan Leshane is approached by a mysterious Reptilian woman named Lisa Chan. Lisa reveals herself to be a friend of a friend (one Bernice Kane, whose name Nathan immediately forgets after it is mentioned and who Nathan can only vaguely remember) and asks him for his services as a private eye.
Chapter 4: Fairly Strange Reunions[]
The "beast" that grabbed Benny is revealed to be Sgloomi Po, who Benny vaguely remembers. Sgloomi reveals that hir "family" within the Schirron Dream is in grave danger while bringing Benny back to the vessel - which has crashed onto the surface of Malanoor. While walking to the Dream, Benny tries to get Sgloomi to reveal what the danger is but hir simply says that "a friend" will explain further. Once inside, this friend is revealed to be Chris Cwej - who begins to explain what has happened before Benny finds her ex-husband Jason within the ship.
Chapter 5: Made of This (Alternate Earth)[]
Lisa reveals that her father (a brilliant inventor who made a mysterious device which is presumably a primitive computer) was murdered. Though it seems like a cartel killing, Lisa (and Nathan) have reasons to doubt this. Shortly after discovering this, Nathan departs to stake out the former apartment of Lisa's father. While this seems like a bust, Nathan notices a group of "Billy Boys" entering the apartment and follows them in.
Chapter 6: Getting Up to Speed[]
After Jason leaves, Chris discusses what is threatening the universe. According to him, something has been trimming away the alternate possibilities created by every action. While most people are unaware of this, time travellers such as himself, Benny, and Jason along with inhabitants of other dimensions (such as the crew of the Schirron Dream) have some insight into this process. Chris claims that this will greatly hasten the end of the universe (meaning that it only has ~1-2 billion years left) and that the nexus point of this is Earth - where Nathan, Leetha, and Kiru are trapped - which is causing the planet to fracture into various "pocket-sized hells".
Chapter 7: Minimal Cutting (Alternate Earth)[]
As Nathan enters into the apartment and confronst the Billy Boys, the hand begins twisting the mechanisms within the clockwork egg. This causes reality to begin to fall apart around Nathan while the Billy Boys surround him. This is closely followed by Nathan being plunged into nothingness and his body seemingly exploding.
Chapter 8: The Elevation of the Masses, Altogether[]
Within his bunker, the owner of the hand (a being named Bane who has connected the clockwork egg to a being known only as "Employee Zero") makes a tiny adjustment to the mechanisms.
As the Schirron Dream prepares to launch, Benny learns that her ex-husband is flying the ship. This leads to a brief argument that causes Jason to purposefully fling Benny into one of the Dream's chairs using the ship's rapid acceleration. Though this is seemingly only due to the argument, Sgloomi reveals that this was to escape the dark matter clouds surrounding Malanoor as fast as possible so as to show Benny "the current state of affairs" as quickly as possible to avoid her lapsing into a psychotic state. Upon looking at the screen showing the nearby universe, Benny is lost for words.
Strike Two: Somewhere Between Now and Then[]
Chapter 9: The Mysteriously Elusive Villain, Part One (Alternate Earth)[]
While visiting the house of Professor Tzanov, Dr. James Kiru discovers the great detective Nathan le Shadon being clawed at by a large lizard creature. He soon realizes that the "lizard creature" is actually young woman rescussitating the detective from the effects of a poisoned dart. Upon recovering, Nathan reveals that the woman is the daughter of Professor Tzanov who was "most cruelly murdered". Nathan also reveals that he purposefully visited the house to ensnare the murderer - who he reveals to be the malevolent Dr. Simon Deed.
Chapter 10: Foreign Music[]
Upon looking at the screen, Benny sees what looks like static. This is revealed to be a representation of a universe in which every single potentiality of every single planet in existence has become somewhat real. Though these possibilities are invisible and somewhat intangible, it is suggested that flying through them actively destroys them. Benny is horrified at the thought of effectively committing mass genocide - which leads to an argument with Jason which is ended by Sgloomi. Chris reveals that there are still a few more people that need to be collected before they can enter into "the nexus" and that, even this far from the center of disruption, it will be a "bumpy ride".
Chapter 11: Suspicious Gestures[]
Shortly after landing on Zarjax, Fenn and Roz split up. Roz is struck by the sheer alienness of Zarjax (having never been to a planet largely inhabited by aliens) and teams up with a Zarjaxi militiaman named Logh. The two watch over a gathering of Fnaroks before Roz is frantically called by Fenn - who says that things have gone "oogli shaped" at a shebeen.
Chapter 12: The Mysteriously Elusive Villain, Part Two (Alternate Earth)[]
After revealing the presence of Simon Deed, Nathan brings Miss Tzanov to a nearby hansom (powered using radium) and has her sent away to the protection of "Chief Inspector Bullstradd". Though Kiru questions this act, Nathan reveals that he has good motive. While examining a cache of burnt papers linked to Professor Tzanov, Nathan found links to the Sojourners. As such, Nathan intends to visit the Downtown.
Chapter 13: Incidental Arrivals[]
Roz and Logh travel to the Three Jade Shebeen in a flier. To enter into the Shebeen, Roz has Logh send the flier through one of its roof coverings. Once inside, Roz and Logh discover a chamber holding several unconscious Zarjaxi humans (which greatly disturbs Logh). Before the two can find any sign of Fenn, a blaster beam strikes Logh and kills him. Roz attempts to fire at the beam but is hit by another beam.
Chapter 14: A Small Sojourn in Subterranea[]
As Kiru descends into the Downtown, he begins to have strong feelings of everything around him being unreal as memories of a different life flow through his mind. Nathan speaks of similar feelings but assumes it is just a side effect of Deed's poisoned dart. Once inside the Downtown, Nathan asks after a Sojourner and is attacked. During this attack, "Dr. James Kiru" and "Nathan le Shadon" phase into becoming Kiru and Nathan li Shao before the world splits apart.
Chapter 15: Displaced Relationships (Hybrid Timeline)[]
The Schirron Dream arrives at a planet none of its crew recognizes and Sgloomi departs while telling Jason, Chris, and Benny to stay behind. Around the same time, Martle finds Roz in one of the hospital beds and rescues her before any parts of her brain can be extracted. Shortly after this, Roz is found by Sgloomi (who is forced to sedate her after hir is attacked by Roz and Fenn) before bringing her to the Schirron Dream presumably while being chased by Martle. Sgloomi demands that the ship take off as soon as hir arrives. Once this begins, Benny visits the aft section and finds Sgloomi and Roz.
Chapter 16: Degrees of Attrition (Alternate Earth)[]
As a food break for a paper-reclamation plant staffed by "Underclassers" finishes, a native of "the City" known as Nathan L hides among them. Originally a "Researcher" (effectively, a copyist and producer of propaganda for the regime of Simon Deed and the Market), Nathan discovered a file known as DORMANT-CLASSIFIED://101 which detailed how his entire life was essentially a fraud. Shortly after this, Nathan began an affair with an Underclasser woman named Lisa T. While meeting with Lisa, Nathan finds himself unable to feel anything as his body seemingly works all on its own to have him embrace Lisa and talk about his feelings of internal emptiness before hearing a voice from the darkness saying "nothing inside".
Chapter 17: Retrogressive Definitions[]
Chris is deeply disturbed by the fact that Sgloomi effectively brought his closest dead friend back to life. He demands that Sgloomi return Roz to her native time period but the Sloathe reveals that the Schirron Dream seemingly wanted Roz to accompany them. As such, Chris watches over Roz and attempts to calm her down after she awakens. Meanwhile, Benny and Jason get into an argument that only ends when Sgloomi attempts to calm them down.
Chapter 18: Janus Walking (Alternate Earth/s)[]
Nathan L is brought before the People's Patrol alongside Lisa T. While the People's Patrol reveal that DORMANT-CLASSIFIED://101 was a trap created by them to see what Nathan would do with the knowledge of the true nature of his life, Nathan can only think of odd memories of a land that cannot possibly exist. Soon, Nathan's "fellow collaborator" is brought in. The close presence of Nathan, Kiru, and Leetha causes their memories to completely return. As they escape from the clutches of the Patrol, Bane readies himself for "the Conversion".
Strike Three: Final Approach[]
Chapter 19: Crossmatched Cover Stories[]
The Schirron Dream materializes at the edge of the Solar System - specifically near the Tenth Planet, as this is as close to the event horizon as the Dream's star-drive will allow it to get. Jason is forced to fly towards Earth using sublight engines (something that will take several days). Along with this, Sgloomi predicts that they will encounter "strangeness". Though hir is unworried by this due to the various experience the crew of the Dream have with "strange" events, Benny points out that Roz has basically no experience with these events. Shortly after this, a wavefront begins to approach the Dream. As it does, Chris attempts to convince Roz that she has been kidnapped for secretive purposes within the Adjudicators but accidentally frees Roz - who promptly attacks Chris. Shortly after this, the wavefront hits and Roz is deeply affected by it - with even her body slightly shifting due to its effects.
Chapter 20: Past Times Catching Up (Alternate Earth)[]
After regaining their memories, the three natives of the System find a place to hide and begin sharing stories from the System as a way to regain more and more of their memories. Soon, the three fall asleep but wake up several hours later to find a mysterious wall of blinding white light which eradicates everything it touches on an atomic level barrelling towards them. While Nathan has no real way to prove this, he believes that they are now able to view what happens the world reassembles itself. Seeing that there is nothing they can do, Nathan and company simply stay close together as the wall crawls nearer and nearer.
Chapter 21: A Hell of a Life in the Glory Hole[]
Shortly after Roz breaks out of her restraints, the Schirron Dream runs into three warships. Benny and Jason discover that the Dream effectively has no weapons. To compound their problems, Roz emerges onto the bridge with Chris and forces them into the "brig" of the Dream (thinking that they are mutineers). While in the brig, Benny says that this version of Roz has gone through a process known as "the Haze" which the Legion forced onto her (and which failed). With Jason and Benny in the brig, Roz (who believes that the Dream is a warship) prepares to ram the ship into the nearby Shelaarg warships. While she is able to start this process, Chris attacks her and tries to stop her. Benny and Jason arrive on the brig just in time to see as Roz knocks Chris out. Roz lunges at Jason but he is able to deftly stop her (greatly surprising Benny) as another wavefront smashes into the ship.
Chapter 22: Could Be You (Premonitions of the Nexus)[]
After the wall passes over Nathan, he goes through an extremely odd experience. At first, he experiences what it is to be completely formless (with extremely surreal memories largely involving drugs filtering through his brain) before he moves "outside". Once "outside", he finds himself nearby a dying machine which had been sucking his lives dry while a friendly presence speaks to him. Soon, though, this reality is proven to be a false one and Nathan wakes up beside Leetha and Kiru. The three speculate that the various realities they have been within have slowly been "eating" away at them before looking over their surroundings.
Chapter 23: Peeling Back the Skins[]
As the Schirron Dream approaches Earth, it encounters the various other planets in the Solar system (including Hestia, the "fifth planet") - almost as though they are being followed by the planets. Once the Dream reaches near-Earth orbit, memories of alternate futures flow through the minds of its crew. Benny and Jason do their best to keep their minds in check while Roz (who has been moved to the cabin that Nathan, Leetha, and Kiru live within) is driven to nigh-incoherence by this. While Chris attempts to help Roz, the Earth comes into view. It has been split into various alternate "layers" linked together by strands of light. Upon seeing this, Benny is unsure how they will find Nathan and company but Jason says that they will follow the lead of the Schirron Dream and (when that fails) improvise.
Chapter 24: Light Come Down (A Meeting of Minds)[]
As Nathan, Leetha, and Kiru wander through the wasteland they encounter various tendrils before encountering an extremely mutated human (who looks more like a bloated sausage or a massive slug than a human) who introduces himself as "Jackie Pelt" and tells how while in the middle of keeping a woman alive while slowly slicing her to pieces he was brought to this world by Simon Deed before violently exploding. The entire incident greatly disturbs Leetha (who wishes to never even speak of it). Before the three can wash themselves off, they hear a loud crack and see something that brings Nathan great joy.
Chapter 25: Grounding Out[]
This sight is revealed to be the Schirron Dream - which has finally arrived on Earth. While Benny meets with Nathan, Leetha, and Kiru while on a rope ladder, the possibility-equivalent of static electricity begins to build up within the Dream and a group of extremely mutated zombies shuffle together into one massive humanoid being. This being (which an extremely disturbed and frightened Roz reveals is Simon Deed) declares that the "Old Gods" are dead by its hand and that "the imprecation" of the Dream cannot be allowed to continue under its presence. It then destroys the Schirron Dream with a searchlight-beam - killing every member of its crew.
Chapter 26: A Break from Unreality[]
After spending a good portion of his life spending every waking hour within the hermetically-sealed environment of his bunker, Deed emerges to keep "an appoinment". Upon emerging, Deed finds the still-intact Schirron Dream sitting nearby his bunker. By this time, its crew (who are all still alive) are being led away by Bane's agents while their mental activity is being dampened. While this is happening, one of Bane's agents points out that two of the crew (presumably Sgloomi and Roz) show unusual brain readings and that the dampers might not work on them. Bane wishes to have them destroyed, but decides not to do so while his agents are watching. He then returns to his bunker and prepares for "the Conversion".
Strikeout: The Nexus of All Possible Events[]
While the crew of the Schirron Dream experience various personal dreamscapes due to the influence of the neural dampers (with Jason reliving his childhood, Benny reliving her service in the "Space Legion", and Chris experiencing a life as a corrupt Adjudicator), the neural dampers are unable to give Roz a coherent personal hell and she is soon woken up by Sgloomi (who was able to neutralize the dampers due to hir plasmic nature). Though Roz at first assumes that Sgloomi is the one who kidnapped her, Sgloomi is able to convince her this is not the case. As such, the two explore Bane's bunker before they are found and captured by him.
Bane has his two captives brought to the inner sanctum of his bunker, where he sits in his hospital bed in front of the egg. After Sgloomi feigns interest in his "works", Bane begins to gloat on how he became the "new God". Originally, Bane was the immensely wealthy and influential owner of the "Bane Incorporation" but soon became obsessed with cheating death. Soon, Bane found the "clockwork egg" and Simon Deed. He discovered that if he hooked Deed up to the egg, he could use its powers to control a small slice of reality. But this was not enough for Bane, and he decided to kidnap time travellers to fuel the egg further. Now, he plans to make their dreamscapes into personal hells and rework reality in his own image.
Though Bane begins this process, Sgloomi remembers that he has Roz's gun on hir and (right before Bane can have them killed) shoots at the automaton holding Roz. An enraged Bane attempts to strangle the escaped Adjudicator to death but Roz is able to smash the egg. While this awakens the crew of the Schirron Dream (who promptly begin screaming in agony) and briefly revives Simon Deed's dessicated corpse so that he can kill Bane, it also seemingly kills Roz. Seeing all of hir friends either screaming in agony or possibly dead, Sgloomi experiences hir own personal hell until the Schirron Dream (which had been slowly regaining power from within Bane's bunker) smashes through the roof and floats into the bunker.
Dénouement: Reset Endings[]
While Earth returns to normal and the crew of the Dream begin to recover from their experience within the hellscapes, Sgloomi works on healing Roz. While it appears hir is making very little progress, Sgloomi hopes that Roz will return to her native time period. Some time later, Roz wakes up in an alleyway on Zarjax with Martle standing over her. She finds that her gun and equipment is missing but seemingly has no memories of what happened.
Appendix: Jason and the Big Mauve Cloud of Stroky Fluffy-Nurture Love - A Real Life True Adventure[]
While most of the potentialities unleashed by Bane detached, they did not completely stop existing. One "Jason li Shao" (a being who is seemingly a cross between Jason Kane and Nathan li Shao) was hired by one "Volan" to excise Alternatives. Jason recounts the time that Volan sent him to fix a problem of orgones. While Jason was originally extremely hesitant to do this, he found out a revolutionary way of solving the problem and put it into action.
Worldbuilding[]
- Due to sitting in a dark-matter cloud at the edge of Mutters' Spiral, Malanoor's sky is almost completely devoid of stars. Its inhabitants are troll-like beings with a complete inability to look up.
- In the first alternate Earth, J. Edgar Hoover was ousted as director of the FBI after a scandal and was replaced by William S. Burroughs. Burroughs began augmenting the agents with drugs, neurosurgery, and technology which made them into beings dubbed "Billy Boys".
- Zarjaxi buildings largely lack roofs.
- The second alternate Earth presumably takes place after events similar to The War of the Worlds. The Sojourners are a race from Alpha Centauri who briefly attempted to invade Earth before being debilitated by their own food source. They were forced into a subterranean structure known as the Downtown and became somewhat complacent - supplying humanity with advanced technology.
- Nathan, Leetha, and Kiru have a polyamorous relationship.
In-universe continuity[]
- Quite a few characters return from Sky Pirates! or the Eyes of the Schirron. This includes the crew of the Schirron Dream along with Mr. Pelt along with excerpts from the novel serving as short bursts of memory.
- The egg is presumably the same "Egg" (or amaranth) from Lawrence Miles' Doctor Who novel Christmas on a Rational Planet.
- Roz Forrester died in Ben Aaronovitch and Kate Orman's Doctor Who novel So Vile a Sin. Fenn Martle last appeared in Roz and Chris' debut novel, Andy Lane's Original Sin.
- Chris Cwej hints at the War in Heaven. He also references the events of Kate Orman's Doctor Who novel The Room With No Doors and the events of Benny's wedding.
- Benny and Jason got divorced in Jim Mortimore's Doctor Who novel Eternity Weeps. He married a new woman (one Charlene Connor) in Gary Russell's Deadfall.
- The Schirron Dream materializes near the "Tenth Planet". This is possibly Mondas, which first appeared in The Tenth Planet, but this is not outright stated. Along with this, the Dream passes by the "fifth planet" Hestia.
See Also[]
| Title | Author | Release date | Significance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sky Pirates! or the Eyes of the Schirron | Dave Stone | 1995 | Introduces many characters within this novel and is the first part of a "trilogy" which ends with this novel |
| The Quantum Archangel | Craig Hinton | 2001 | shows a being that uses immense powers to create various alternate timelines. Features its main characters being sent to alternate timelines that slowly become living Hells. |
| Spiral Scratch | Gary Russell | 2005 | details various alternate timelines |
| Death and Diplomacy | Dave Stone | 1996 | The second part of the "trilogy" which ends this novel. Introduces Jason Kane. |
| The Domino Effect | David Bishop | 2003 | part of the "alternate universe" arc of the Eighth Doctor Adventures |
| Dead Romance | Lawrence Miles | 1999 | a Bernice Summerfield novel detailing an apocalyptic scenario. Ties into the War in Heaven. Features Chris Cwej. |
| Mean Streets | Terrance Dicks | 1997 | a Bernice Summerfield novel featuring Roz Forrester and Chris Cwej |
| Dimension of Miracles | Robert Sheckley | 1968 | a novel with somewhat similar themes and setting |
| Time Trap | Keith Laumer | 1970 | a novel with somewhat similar themes and setting |
| Inherent Vice | Thomas Pynchon | 2009 | a novel which deconstructs the private eye genre, similary to the first alternate Earth |
| The Fifth Heart | Dan Simmons | 2015 | a novel which deconstructs Sherlock Holmes, similary to the second alternate Earth |
| The War of the Worlds | H.G. Wells | 1898 | the second alternate Earth partially deconstructs this novel |
| Nineteen Eighty-Four | George Orwell | 1949 | the third alternate Earth deconstructs this novel |
Sources[]
- TARDIS Wiki
| Bernice Summerfield novels | ||
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1997 | ||