The Virgin New Adventures

Surprisingly, we never had a Thread for the very first Wilderness Doctor Who Books, so time to change that and complete the Quadrilogy of Wilderness Book Ranges with this one.

Feel free to discuss the whole Range (yes the Solo Benny ones too!) or some specific Books (some earlier Entries have already their own Threads with the Book Clubs, a List of those and more can be found here: Book Club Backlog)

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I’ve now finished all the VNAs I own that have the Doctor, and I really enjoyed them! I read Nightshade, Love and War, The Highest Science, Lucifer Rising, The Left-Handed Hummingbird, Conundrum, No Future, Theatre of War, Blood Harvest, Set Piece and Human Nature (which I borrowed from the library). I don’t think I could pick a favourite, the only one I didn’t love was The Highest Science, which was just alright.
I really like Ace’s character development, and I vastly prefer this version of her to what happened in the TV show, but I am pretty annoyed that all her love interests were men (Did none of the writers watch Survival??!! That girl is GAY.)
BENNY :star_struck: The best thing to come out of the VNAs in my opinion. Love and War was a great introduction, I loved her from the beginning! Her and Ace sorta hating each other was a bit irritating, but I’m glad it got resolved because it’s so much nicer when the TARDIS team all like each other. One thing that definitely didn’t help her and Ace’s relationship was that the writers kept splitting them up :melting_face:
I’m also 5 books into Benny’s solo books and I think I do prefer on her own.
I’m planning on getting some more of them at some point, and I’m looking forward to meeting Chris and Roz later on!

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Lovely! I still need to do a lot of the VNAs (but agreed the Highest Science is one of the weaker Entries (at least for me so far). Very glad to hear that you have been enjoying them!! And yes, Benny is great, isn’t she? No wonder why she became THE EU-Character for many!

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ā€œOh No It Isn’t!ā€ now counts as the only story with Benny in it I’ve read or heard.

Was fun, though.

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Wait the only?!?! Damn, then you have so many great Audios (or Books/Short Stories) to read :star_struck: ! Glad you enjoyed ā€˜Oh No It Isn’t’, quite a fun one, both the Audio and the Book!

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Well, bear in mind that while I’ve watched all of Classic, New Who, and all of 15 except for yesterday’s episode, the novels and Big Finish are where I’m weakest. I’ve listened to a few audios, but not that many, and none with Benny as of yet. (Of course, now that I am mostly up to date on tv, it is mostly side series, audios, comics, and novels I’ll probably be going after…)

Largely went with ā€œOh No It Isn’tā€ because it seemed like a reasonable starting point for knowing more about her character.

Of course, now I want the adventures of Wolsey…

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Ah very fair! I do recommend her, especially since she is really all over the Place through Doctor Who’s EU (VNAs, her Solo Series, Apperances in other Series, Connections to certain Doctors etc). While I like ā€˜Oh No It Isn’t’, I think I do rather recommend the Eternity Club or the New Series Adventures Series of her, they seem a bit more friendly as a Starting Point (although ā€˜Oh No’ is great either way and not a bad one to start with).

Either way, good luck on your Quest! :saluting_face:

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