Also, this thread is giving me the itch to marathon all of Benny’s stuff which I’ve been meaning to do for a few years as I have listened to the majority of audios but hardly read any of the BF books. I’ve still got the tail end of the Virgin ones left to read but I am soooo tempted! I’ve already made myself want to reread Sanctuary and Just War and I really, really don’t have the time for that!
OK but that will probably take me a few months lol I just want to skip ahead to get to the new audios
Speaking as someone who started the audios before reading any VNAs, I don’t think any are essential. You just need to know that 1. Benny is married to Jason and 2. they divorced. (But Benny Series 1 has that down!)
There are absolutely some fantastic VNAs and ones that do great things with Benny’s character, but IMO none of them are essential for the Big Finish series.
Yeah I wasn’t really asking for recommendations of good books, I’m sure they are all good! I just wanted essential reading tips because I hate missing out plot points.
I’ll swing back round to read those books later.
Prioritising audio stories which I can listen to while I do chores or go running, otherwise it’ll be 2026 and I still won’t have gotten to the modern episodes.
Don’t ask if you don’t want an opinion…
I do think Birthright, Sanctuary and Just War give important groundings in Benny’s character which are built on for her audio incarnation. She goes through a lot in those stories.
But no, none of them are essential for the BF era.
On the other hand, because the Big Finish novels are available as audiobooks, it’s possible to listen to them while you’re doing chores and running. Either 2024 or maybe even 2023, I started my (super-slow) Benny journey with Series 2 and listened to the novel audiobooks and audio dramas in the order intended.
That would be: Doomsday Manuscript (N), Secret of Cassandra (A), Gods of the Underworld (N), The Squire’s Crystal (N), The Stone’s Lament (A), The Extinction Event (A), The Infernal Nexus (N), The Skymines of Karthos (A), The Glass Prison (N) and then Series 3 which is all audio drama with Plague Herds of Excelis which fits in between 3.2 and 3.3.
I’m up to Series 4 without reading the books. Some mentions of things that come from books, but they don’t interfere with the serial of the moment. Just mentioned for context in the story.
It does make me want to read/listen to those missing pieces, but I’m plodding along fine with audio just fine.
I only did the audios and never felt lost.
I listened to Oh No It Isn’t!
My first Bernice Summerfield audio!
I was fully bracing myself to not like it - I’ve heard that it has bad production values and awful panto jokes - but actually it was a lot of fun
I’m enjoying Benny so far!
Benny is the best!!! All of s1 is a bit janky but it’s endearing for the most part <3
We need a ‘phew’ emoji.
Oh no it isn’t is an awesome audio!!! One of the strongest s1 episodes along with Just War (audio adaption only, I don’t think Jason was in the book? But trigger warning for nazi torture in that one)
Jason replaces Roz and Chris in the audio version, just as he replaces Ace in the Birthright adaptation. I’m not sure if he’s in the book version of Walking to Babylon as I’ve not actually read it.
flips table
Not going to follow your journey any more. You don’t agree with me that this audio is awful. Your opinion is wrong.
(Seriously, glad you liked it. I couldn’t stand it for the most part.)
I just kept thinking the whole time I can’t believe they got Nicholas Courtney (The Brigadier) to voice a talking cat
Wait…
WHAT?!?
OK I managed to get through Beyond the Sun.
One word describes this: forgettable.
I’ve already forgotten most of what happened lol.
My thoughts:
- Sophie Aldred is in this, although it meant I just imagined her as an evil version of Ace
- Anneke Wills was in this, she was good
- Benny was great in this, I like her!
- Jason Kane doesn’t sound like I expected from the images
- There’s a really weird part in this audio where (spoiler & NSFW) a male character (Scott) asks a young male character (Emile) if he wants to have sex, and Emile refuses, then later realises he is gay, so he tells Scott actually yes he would, and this is after Scott has had sex with Emile’s fellow student and got her pregnant. I wanted to add LGBTQ+ tag to this story but actually I don’t feel that’s good representation it was just… gross.
- Oh and Scott, the horny bisexual alien who doesn’t like commitment, was voice by Dalek Operator Nicholas Pegg!
It’s been years since I listened to this and your bullet points are about all I remember too! Emile features in other Bernice novels.
What.
The.
Blinking.
Flip.
I don’t plan on listening to that audio any time soon!