Friday, June 15, 2012

Book: Professor Bernice Summerfield – Life During Wartime




I've read and reviewed my very first Bernice Summerfield book! Read the review after the jump!


Professor Bernice Summerfield – Life During Wartime
A short story anthology edited by Paul Cornell

It can be a bit daunting starting a book series with several volumes already on the market. With more books on the way it becomes a terrifying thought. The question that comes to mind is “Where do I start?” Do I start at the beginning or at a jumping on point? Do I even want to start a new series with already so many books in my back log? These and many more were the questions I asked myself before starting on my journey into the Bernice Summerfield book series. With little choice as I wanted to save some money, I chose a nice jumping on point rather hunting down rare expensive out of print books. And let me tell you, what a splendid jumping on point I picked! Things can only get interesting when you choose to start with a book titled Life During Wartime. Who doesn’t love a good war story? Don’t answer that question, just keep reading!

Bernice Summerfield, or Benny for short, for those of you who don’t know her, is a companion of the seventh Doctor, first introduced in the book Love and War. She also has the lovely job of being an archeologist. That’s right an archeologist companion, predating Riversong, who I am quite sure Benny could easily drink under the table. Suffice it to say, like all of the Doctor’s companions, she eventually leaves. The interesting thing is her story for us doesn’t stop there. She goes on to have her own book and audio series for us to enjoy. And enjoyable they generally are! It’s with the audio series that I began my own journey into discovering my love for the character. Regrettably though, some of the older tie-in books can get a bit pricey as they are out of print so I had to choose where to start reading the novels. Life During Wartime is what I picked up which takes place before the final of the 4th season of audio adventures. It literally leads into the final for that season, so I sort of needed to start reading it or venture being in the dark for what happens for a large chunk of the overall story.

                The book starts with Benny flying home as her employer, Irving Braxiatel or Brax for short, has sent her some lovely messages about their being danger afoot where she lives, which is also where her infant son currently resides. Benny, her son, and most of her friends live on a small planetoid owned by Irving Braxiatel. The planetoid is known as the Braxiatel Collection and houses countless ancient artifacts and wonders as well as a nice sized community of people who happily live there. However, as Benny is about to find out upon her return the Collection has been invaded and occupied by the 5th Axis forces. Think of them as space Nazi’s with a prejudice vendetta against alien species.  Benny and her friends are now forced to stay on the Collection under marshal law, and while some of her friends are planning a wobbly rebellion, some of the more un-earthly ones are pretty much used as slave labor or worse. Also, a certain close friend of Benny’s now works for the Axis. How could things get any worse? Trust me, they can get much worse. It’s wartime and during war things get messy.

                The interesting thing about Life During Wartime is it’s written by several authors. This is because it’s actually a short-story anthology that follows a near linear timeline. Each short story progresses the overall story and characters. It honestly works really well as the editor Paul Cornell, who also writes some of the stories in it, has done a great job keeping it all together. Generally the stories are all told rather well, with only one or two snags not quite catching right. Chapter 3, The Birthday Party comes to mind as it took me a bit to grasp what had happened during the chapter. Not so much because it was a complicated chapter, but more because the last few paragraphs were a bit confusing. Not confusing enough to break me, but enough to make me stop reading. I think this has to do with a bit of the wording used as we’re made to feel Benny’s confusion and realization during a certain situation with little else to go on except things from her perspective. Maybe a little deeper explanation on her part though inner monologue would have helped clean this up.

Throughout the book there are these small chapters called Lockdown Conversations.  Normally their only about 1 or 2 pages, however despite their short length they were the highlight of the book for me. I’d look forward to each of these chapters, which seemed to generally be placed at intervals between large chunks of chapters to give the story a bit of breathing room. It really lets you take in the book and the characters within, a nice little break between larger chapters. For instance the second of these chapters is between Benny and the alien father of her child, Adrian. For those of you unfamiliar with their relationship, their child wasn’t conceived in a normal fashion, more of powerful beings have control of their bodies situation and mate using them, rather than a loving intercourse situation. He has feelings for her, but she doesn’t share the same interest. In their Lockdown Conversations chapter you can easily feel Benny’s disinterest in Adrian’s feelings towards her without it dragging on or getting too melodramatic. The conversation is short enough that we don’t wallow awkwardly in their situation but get a grasp on just how much Benny wants to not focus on Adrian’s feelings and leave before having to deal with them. The last Lockdown Conversations chapter is more of a look into where each of the main characters in the book currently are at by the end of the book. I won’t beat around the bush; Life During Wartime is only the first part in a two part story, so expect a cliff hanger. It’s continued, and finished in the last story of the 4th season of Bernice Summerfield audio adventures.

                Life During Wartime, despite some very minor flaws that are easily overlooked, is really an enjoyable read. It can even be heart breaking throughout, but still changes things up every few pages with each new writer and story. The style of having twenty five short stories in one book keeps things from getting stale. If you don’t particularly care for one story, it’s alright because in a few pages you’ll have a new experience waiting for you. The book also succeeds in being a good way to jump into the Bernice Summerfield line of books and adventures. Backstory is explained early on in the book for each of the characters and this is the start of a new mega adventure continued in the audios. You really couldn’t ask for a better jumping on point whether you’re a fan of the audios or completely new to Benny and her friends. Trust me; you’re in good hands with Benny.

Rating: 4.5 our of 5

Life During Wratime can be purchased form big Finish here: http://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/bernice-summerfield-life-during-wartime-190

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