I’m already skipping things because I am going to go straight into another book and skip lots of Audios but I will go back to them eventually.
Why is it so confusing lol
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And to think you used to lambast me for not doing things in order!
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Well I want to, but when they are mixed media and I’m on holiday and want to read books not listen to audios and drown out the beach sounds, I kinda have to give up
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Now I’m wondering why Big Finish released them like this. Some as audios, some as books, some with audio adaptations…?
Enlighten me please!
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There’s this thing called money…
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I think it was just to have a mixed media series!
Series 1 was very much Big Finish starting out, proving to the BBC that they could make audio drama, and adapting stories that already existed made everything a bit easier.
When they decided to make Bernice’s series ongoing, I don’t think it was a hard decision to add books into the range as well! Especially early BF which released far more books than these days.
But I’m not an expert on the timeline! Bernice Summerfield: The Inside Story might have a better history!
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Well they did audio adaptations at first because that’s all they had license to do and at that point Virgin were still doing Benny books
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We need to send you on holiday more often!
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I doesn’t hurt that Series 2 (which are the audios in between the novels you’re reading) didn’t really have anything outstanding in my opinion. There weren’t any bad ones, but the four stories of that season ran from fine to good. The big series defining moments from that period are in the novels.
The Doomsday Manuscript sets up the Fifth Axis and gives us a character who will play a major part in The Glass Prison. And it was a lot of fun. Gods of the Underworld is just a generic Benny adventure (that I never finished). The Squire’s Crystal gives us Benny’s pregnancy. The Infernal Nexus gives us the return of Jason Kane. And The Glass Prison gives us the birth of Peter, wrapping up that arc. The audio dramas around that are just kind of filler. Series 3 does have a short story collection[1], but I found the audio dramas much stronger this season. The first story is just a lot of fun, and the last story of Series 3 features all the main characters and start laying threads for the future. Plus the Benny/Iris Excelis story falls between 3.2 and 3.3.
which I haven’t read ↩︎
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That collection, A Life of Surprises, is really good and I’d recommend it! A lot of fun.
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I’ve been reading Glass Prison, enjoying it so far but it’s killing me that I’ve not got any context about Jason still, as I didn’t read the books where they met, got married, divorced, or where he got stuck in another dimension and then came back.
But oh well, I’ll get to those another day!
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I still haven’t finhshed the book where he came back but these context have served me well! I went into the Benny series wanting to know more about Brax (as I already knew him from Gallifrey, and I know Benny exist because of Human Nature), and now I think Jason is my favourite?
Not related but… Isn’t Jason named “Jason Peter Kane”? So benny still sort of named Peter after him despite her vetoing “Jason”??
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Yeah I just read that bit. She says it wasn’t intentional.
Just finished The Glass Prison!
It was a good read, although I don’t think enough was really done to take advantage of the unusual setting. I also think the central mystery of who was trying to get her was a bit of a weak conclusion.
But very good! I like Benny.
I have loads of audios to catch up on now. But next I think I’ll read A Life of Surprises.
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I listened to Just War yesterday, the next in my Benny listening order.
I agree that it is a very effective and very good story, however it’s about my absolute least favourite subject (Nazis) and has some pretty awful torture scenes so it loses a point for that.
Also it was not very well connected to the other audios. I know it was a rewrite.
I give it 4/5!
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I will accept a 4/5 and then you can read my review and realise why it needs to be 5/5.
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I did read your review already. I even gave it a “like”.
But no, sorry, Nazis and torture is an automatic 1 star removal at least for me.
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I’m really torn about what to do next.
The next anthology book is so far ahead that I skip loads of audios. I don’t want to do that in case I miss stuff.
So maybe I should read VNAs until I meet Jason, then discover how they met etc?
On the plus side, I’ll be able to join in with the book club again. On the other hand, it will take forever.
Not sure what to do!
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To my memory, A Life of Surprises doesn’t rely on any audios. Life During Wartime and so on definitely do, but up till then I think you’re okay? But that’s only off the top of my head.
If you want to meet Jason he first appears in Death and Diplomacy and they get married in Happy Endings. That is 30+ books after Love and War!
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Well read it again…
Nah it’s fine. I’ll give you not loving Just War if you give me not loving Heaven Sent.
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You can’t compare it to that masterpiece!
Oh, no I’m not taking that bait.
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