I’ve decided there may be room in my heart for more than one Time Travelling Archeologist… I’m going to give Benny a chance.
I will document my journey here! It will probably take a long time because there are a lot of books and I never really find time to sit down and read a book (plus some are out of print so I may have to find ways of reading them).
I’m going to be using @ivqks159’s excellent guide to do the order, and also I’ll be skipping lots of books to get to the main event (for me, the Big Finish Audio Dramas are the main event).
I’ve already read Love and War, but I’ll start this journey by listening to the audio drama adaptation.
I’ll then listen to series 1 of Big Finish Bernice Summerfield.
My first question: as the ones with stars on in the guide are apparently the only really important ones, I’ll probably only read those, plus all the audios, and any other short story anthologies I can get my hands on. Are there any in that guide which aren’t highlighted which you think I should read anyway?
My experience with the Benny range is that the early audios are more traditional, standalone adventure stories, while the anthologies and books are more experimental and often develop the supporting cast really well.
Season 4 onwards the audios start to carry some of the main narrative, and from season 8 onwards the audios are more plot-important (with the exception of Present Danger.)
Some of my favourite non-essential prose stories (and I haven’t read all of them) are:
The Glass Prison is harrowing and really touching, has phenomenal characterisation (and introduces some recurring characters, particularly Peter!).
A Life of Surprises is just a really solid anthology and a delight to read.
Hiding Places from Parallel Lives is a fascinating, weird little tale that has some great development for Bev and Adrian (you’ll meet them down the line).
I really hope you enjoy your adventure! Benny is fantastic <3
Unfortunately, the novels and short story collections are where the bulk of the arc is four at series two and three. Fortunately, the novels have been rereleased as audiobooks narrated by Benny herself. The really key plot points in the novels (up through Season 3) are Benny’s pregnancy (The Squire’s Crystal), Jason Kane’s return (The Infernal Nexus) and the birth of Peter (The Glass Prison).
The Doomsday Manuscript was the first one and it was really fun. It was basically a story that put Benny in an Indiana Jones movie complete with Nazi surrogates in the form of The Fifth Axis.
I AM SUMMONED !!! I’m still really busy with schoolwork but I wouldn’t miss any chance to talk about the novels and anthologies! I’m gonna list the ones I enjoyed (and the ones I REALLY enjoyed) but keep in mind I like brax a lot, so I have a bias ….
The Dead Man Diaries (N01)
for an introduction to what life is like on the collection and a lot of fun moments between Benny and Brax who had a big change of dynamic from their academic colleague days on Dellah (they are now employee and boss. Which is still pretty chill because they are still friends earlier in Collection era, but as the series gets darker the power dynamic changes into something a lot sadder…) for the same reason I recommend:
The Doomsday Manuscript (N02)
Written by Brax’s creator Justin Richards with his signature way of writing really enjoyable character dynamics between Benny and Brax!
Infernal Nexus (N05)
It’s not like, a Favorite but it is important for the return of Jason Kane in a fun trip in hell! I feel my standards are high because Big Finish made lot of really good books in this era and I found the prose kinda hard to understand because English is my second language, but still it’s an enjoyable book!
A Life in Pieces (N11)
Brax centric anthology featuring him absolutely wrecking people’s lives and Jason having a bad time (). I think it’s kind out out of character for brax because Brax normally does not go out of his ways to get things and wreck people’s lives for selfish reasons? But it’s also enjoyable because Brax is having a blast in this book where in this period of time in Collection era he’s pretty miserable.
Parallel Lives (N13)
Sorry I’m kinda recommending every single book at this point but I really love all of them . This features the death of a certain regular cast member and what role Benny & co. played in her death. Bev and Adrian’s backstories are introduced and explained and that one scene where Bev plays the Violin forever haunts me. My friend Rita did a piece of that scene in Bennyzine:
Nobody’s Children (N18)
The aftermath of Brax’s manipulation in Freedom of Information (audio s803), I don’t remember it well but you know how Benny is an adventurer and a mother at the same time and how those identities are rarely addressed together, this novella brings the conflict of those identities into one of Benny’s adventures and I feel it fleshes out Benny’s character SO much
My final and favorite rec… The Two Jasons
I wanted to die after reading this and then listening to End of the World. It retells Jason’s life from Death and Diplomacy up until the events in End of the World in Jason’s POV, but it actually isn’t Jason himself, it’s the memories of Jason that were planted in his Clones (introduced in Sex Secrets of the Robot Replicants from a Life Worth Living). I personally relate to Jason a lot because my family life was a lot like his in terms of abuse, and his story as an abuse victim thrown into a cruel universe with none of protagonist’s halo like Benny had and how he still tried his best to be kind and heroic moved me a lot… Brax is a very good foil to Jason in the way the ‘monster’ that Brax became in late Collection era resembles the role of an abusive traditional patriarch a lot, and Jason has first hand experience in suffering that kind of abuse.
You can highlight the text you want to hide, then click or tap on the cog icon to the right hand side of the tool menu on the text box and choose ‘Blur Spoilers’, it’s the lowest option.
Also, thanks, @shauny, for the topic and @ivqks159 for the guide! I’m planning on completing all of Benny this year as well. I’m currently listening through the New Adventures, but I will loop back to these once I’m finished listening to them! And that’ll give Shauny a headstart so I don’t get too much ahead of him
I’m looking forward to exploring this corner of the Whoniverse together with you guys!
Ok so I listened to the Audio Adaptation of Love and War.
After reading the book I was left a little disappointed, so I wanted to hear the audio as I do enjoy audios more than books.
The performances were all great, and I really enjoyed hearing Benny’s lines come from Lisa Bowerman. I never knew Benny without Lisa so she will forever be the image and voice that comes to mind when I think of Benny.
I still think it had the same issues as the book, some were even worse:
Ace falling in love with Jan was even more rushed in this version, it came out of practically nowhere.
The ending, where the Doctor used Jan who was already going to die, and saved the world, but then Ace rages and goes off in a hump with him, makes no sense. It wasn’t the Doctor’s fault that Jan died. He would anyway. The Doctor took a bad situation and saved the world with it. This really makes me dislike Ace.
But yay, one step closer to The Collection.
My next question for Benny fans:
Are there any VNA novels (preferably ones that have been adapted to audio) that I should listen to next, or should I skip straight ahead to Oh No It Isn’t!?
(I have no knowledge or context of why Benny leaves the Doctor and has her own adventures, apart from licensing issues lol)
I’ve just read and enjoyed The Highest Science, which has Benny travelling solo with Seven. It’s also been adapted by BF, so it could be worth a listen; however, I don’t know how it ties to her later character development.
I haven’t read many of the VNAs, but I believe Benny leaves the Doctor to marry Jason Kane. There’s also the Virgin Benny series that was written after Virgin lost the Doctor Who license that occurs before the Big Finish stuff.
Even though I’d been reading Benny before Lisa Bowerman took on the role, she is so inextricbly linked to the role that I can’t even separate book Benny from audio Benny. It helps that Bowerman is just a lovely, lovely, lovely person in real life.
I’m going to ignore the audio caveat and recommend you read Birthright, Sanctuary, Human Nature, Just War and The Dying Days. The book versions of Birthright and Just War are more powerful, to my mind, than the audio adaptations which are twisted a bit to fit in with the Time Ring trilogy they are included in (not least replacing Ace with Jason in Birthright)) - that said I also love the audio versions.
Sanctuary is brilliant and The Dying Days is Benny with 8.
Second level recommendations would be Death and Diplomacy, Happy Endings and Return of the Living Dad for establshing stories for Jason Kane and Bernice’s long lost father. These also tie into why she leaves the Doctor.
You will also being brushing up against Chris and Roz in a few of those, just to make things even more complicated.
). I think it’s kind out out of character for brax because Brax normally does not go out of his ways to get things and wreck people’s lives for selfish reasons? But it’s also enjoyable because Brax is having a blast in this book where in this period of time in Collection era he’s pretty miserable.
. This features the death of a certain regular cast member and what role Benny & co. played in her death. Bev and Adrian’s backstories are introduced and explained and that one scene where Bev plays the Violin forever haunts me. My friend 
