Time for another book! We are going to read together Love and War
Introducing: Bernice Summerfield!
Please discuss below - no need to finish it first, discuss as you go along but please add spoiler tags for anything that could be considered a spoiler!
If you’ve previously read the book and want to join in the discussion, that’s great too!
Participating in the Book Club will earn you a badge
Paul Cornell is one of my favourite writers to ever work on Doctor Who and there are to reasons as to why that is: Human Nature and Love and War.
Frankly, I think many people argue that this is where the VNAs start and that everything from Timewyrm: Genesis through Nightshade can be seen as an extended prologue and, you know what, I have a hard time disagreeing with them.
This is the book where we get Benny, where we get New Ace, where we get the Doctor being a manipulative bastard. I consider Love and War to be the absolute best execution of a “dark doctor” out there and when the topic is brought up I always mention this.
Benny is great, she took a couple VNAs to fully grow on me but Cornell gives her a good first impression here.
Ace gets some unrivalled character work and I found her relationship with space traveller Jan to be incredibly endearing (and then especially tragic).
The Hoothi are some of my favourite antagonists ever: an intelligent fungal virus that insidiously takes over the planet of Heaven, travelling around the universe in inflated bags of skin like hellish hot air balloons. They’re an inspired idea and genuinly very terrifying.
My one complaint with the book is pacing - it took me ages to really get into it - but hot damn if it doesn’t pick up. Around the half way point, the plot starts moving, and doesn’t stop.
I had to read the last quarter of it in one go because I was just stuck turning pages, and you know it’s a really special book when it can do that.
All in all, Love and War is a seminal Doctor Who book and the manual for what the VNAs should be (shame so many people didn’t follow it).
I have had some time off with the books lately because I just haven’t had the time, but I definitely want to read this because I need to get to know Benny more and what better place to start?
So can anyone please tell me if I missed anything important by skipping every book since finishing Timewyrm: Revelation?
The funny thing is that the Hoothi actually originated as a throwaway fart joke from Brain of Morbius.
MAREN: No ship can approach Karn without detection. Even the silent gas dirigibles of the Hoothi are felt in our bones while still a million miles distant.
Oh man, Love and War. I’m more familiar with the audio version than the paper one, but it’s so good I occasionally check out eBay to see if there’s a version selling that isn’t a million quid. Everything from Benny and New Ace to the dodgy 90s cyberpunk vibes and a decent if terribly 90s attempt at a non-binary character.
Just finished chapter 3 and this is really interesting. Almost feels more like an NSA then a VNA (in a good way). It is also fun to read the first story with Benny who you guys love so much.
I’ve been reading this over the last week and a half (pausing during my Doom’s Day marathon), and I find it very interesting. It’s at times very exciting and fun and at times a bit confusing. But the Ace/Jan thingy and the fungoid creature stuff truly carry the book so far.
I love “Love and War”. Such a fantastic introduction for our new TARDI-BOX regular. Professor Bernice “Benny” Surprise Summerfield is one of my very favourite companions full stop. And a big shout out to Lisa Bowerman here who just nails every single second she has as Benny
The Hoothi are such a great monster for this story, and I love how their eventual demise came about. They are genuinely creepy and a proper threat.
The romance between Ace and Jan is good, if a bit rushed for my taste. I much prefer the “meet-cute” romance Ace had with Robin in “Nightshade”. But the fallout from the romance with Jan and the Doctor’s manipulations is heartfelt and so well done. Listen to the Big Finish adaption to listen to how Sophie Aldred packs an emotional sledgehammer into that whole sequence of events - it’s so well acted!
I think Paul Cornell’s writing style feels much more confident here compared to “Timewyrm: Revelation”. I would say that “Love and War” is the best of his books that I have read, and just generally one of the very best Doctor Who books I have ever read
If this book doesn’t deserve a 5/5 I don’t know which does! (Well yes I do, The Day of the Doctor novelisation )
I went into Love and War with conflicting expectations: on the one hand, I adore Cornell’s Whoniverse work and know how beloved this book is; on the other hand, I struggled a bit with Cornell’s previous VNA, Timewyrn: Revelation.
Fortunately, this turned out to be a fun read. I might not love it as much as most people seem to do, but I greatly enjoyed its themes, characters, ideas and action.
Spoilers below!
Love and War = 9/10
First of all, the book is better written than Revelation. The setting is interesting, and the supporting cast is genuinely intriguing. The Hoothi are a great concept for a monster, and used effectively. The Puterspace scenes are often confusing but also allow Ace to deal with her past.
The Doctor is wonderfully manipulative. Ace falls in love again (Cornell completely ignores the ending of Nightshade!), and I’m not fully sold on the love story, even if the Doctor’s machinations mean that it has a tragic end, and sees Ace leave the TARDIS in a brilliantly dramatic finale. I also feel that Máire’s Dalek killing stuff and Jan’s pyrokinetic powers weren’t utilised to their full extent.
Then we have Benny. What a wonderful introduction! Clever, witty and brave! It’s going to be interesting to follow her adventures!
And Paul Magrs pops up in a fun real-world reference!
I thought this one would feature the Draconians in a large role at first. They get a few mentions but never appear, which is a shame. When are we going to meet returning monsters in these books?
Edit: I’m probably going to listen to the Big Finish adaptation next week to compare it with the novel.