Tempest (novel)

Tempest
Main character(s):	Bernice Summerfield
Main enemy:	Costermann
Main setting:	Tempest, 2594
Key crew
Publisher:	Virgin Books
Writer:	Christopher Bulis
Cover by:	Peter Elson
Release details
Release number:	9
Release date:	2 January 1998
Format:	Paperback Book; 22 Chapters, 265 Pages
ISBN:	ISBN 0-426-20523-5
Virgin New Adventures
← Previous	Mean Streets
Next →	Walking to Babylon

Tempest was the seventieth Virgin New Adventures novel, published in 1998. This was Christopher Bulis' final contribution to the Virgin New Adventures range.

Publisher's summary

Smith consulted his watch very deliberately. "You have one hour to find the Imnulate and hand it over to me. If you do not, I will tear this train and its passengers apart piece by piece!"

Tempest: a wild and untamed world perpetually wreathed in cloud and storms. The only means of long-distance travel across its surface are the great transcontinental monorails that traverse its lonely and dangerous wastelands. Returning home from a lucrative lecture, Professor Bernice Summerfield finds herself on the most celebrated of these mighty trains.

The Drell Imnulate: a fabulous and unique religious idol. Precious enough to kill for. So important to those rival factions who follow the way of its maker that they will dare anything to ensure its return.

Isolated in the wilderness and far from civilisation, death strikes the luxurious Polar Express, and a routine journey turns into a nightmare. But can Bernice save a train on the brink of disaster?

Chapter titles

• Prologue

1. Tempest
2. Mr Smith
3. Departure
4. Murder on the Polar Express
5. Suspect
6. Shadows
7. Technical Matters
8. Special Duty
9. Detection by Numbers
10. Under Pressure
11. Heavy Weather
12. Landslide
13. A Shadow Explained
14. Deceptions and Rewards
15. Ultimatum
16. The Battle of the Train
17. Flight
18. Jigsaw
19. Anatomy of a Crime
20. Justice

• Epilogue

Plot

to be added

Characters

• Bernice Summerfield
• Nathan Costermann
• Gerv Ferlane
• Jordan Tyne
• Dell Lankril
• Tralbet
• Montague Klemp
• Lucas Sommers
• Clarris Sommers
• Owen Rosen
• Mr and Mrs Versons
• Merch
• Tempest

Worldbuilding

• Thaon 5 orbits the gas giant Thaon.
• Klondyke is a mining world.
• Hecten City is on Mondor.

Foods and beverages

• Benny manages to absolve herself of any crime on the train by being too drunk to do anything.

Objects

• Benny has a full environmental suit rating trained to function in 0–100 atmospheres.
• The Drell Imnulate is the crystal everyone seems to want.

Species

• Nargs are a race employed for physical labour.

Writers

• Benny mentions Agatha Christie.

Notes

• The setting and style of this novel is quite similar to Agatha Christie.

Continuity

• Benny mentions Agatha Christie. The Tenth Doctor would meet her in person during the events of The Unicorn and the Wasp ^[+]Loading...["The Unicorn and the Wasp (TV story)"].

External links

• Tempest at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
• The Discontinuity Guide to: Tempest at The Whoniverse
• The Cloister Library: Tempest