Tears of the Oracle (novel)

Tears of the Oracle
Main character(s):	Bernice Summerfield
Featuring:	Braxiatel, Clarence, Chris
Main setting:	Dellah, 2595 KS-159, 2595 Worldsphere, 2595
Key crew
Publisher:	Virgin Books
Writer:	Justin Richards
Cover by:	Fred Gambino
Release details
Release number:	20
Release date:	2 June 1999
Format:	Paperback Book, 294 Pages
ISBN:	ISBN 0-426-20533-2
Virgin Bernice Summerfield New Adventures
← Previous	Dead Romance
Next →	Return to the Fractured Planet

Tears of the Oracle is the twentieth Virgin Bernice Summerfield New Adventures novel.

It is a return to the "main narrative" after the two previous novels, which went down different avenues. Irving Braxiatel, Clarence and Chris Cwej return.

Publisher's summary

"Benny, you're ill. Let us help you. We want to help you. Really we do. This paranoia. These delusions. What you've done — it's driven you insane. Nobody wants to hurt you. We're your friends."

On Dellah, the shattered former home of Bernice Summerfield, only the Advanced Research centre survives — the last remnant of the once famous university. But it's under siege from fanatical groups of religious inquisitors, searching for new converts or dangerous heretics.

Benny would have to be mad to go back.

Jason Kane, Bernice's one-time husband and all-time opportunist, has found the ancient remains of the Oracle of the Lost on an obscure planetoid known only as KS-159. Or so he says.

Benny would have to be mad to believe him.

The mysterious Irving Braxiatel is looking for somewhere quiet to house his huge collection of... everything.

Benny would have to be mad to suggest KS-159.

The Oracle of the Lost, legend says, can answer any question. But the cryptic answers she gives are never helpful, and often dangerous.

Benny would have to be mad to reawaken her. Or ask a question. Or believe the answer.

Chapter titles

1. Finale (1)
2. An Account of a Meeting of the Funding Council of the Colloquian Museum of Ancient Artefacts
3. Conversations
4. Faith Healing
5. Storage Facility X One Nine
6. Transcript of a Lecture by Professor Edward Watkinson at the Colloquian University (Extract)
7. Communication
8. A Plea for Help
9. Finale (2)
10. Rescue and Survival
11. Escape and Death
12. A Visitor
13. Jason's Story
14. Mikelz's Message to Watkinson from the Delfus-Orestes Expedition (Extract)
15. A Gamble
16. Arrivals
17. Extract from the Diary of Bernice Summerfield
18. Departure
19. Recollections of Divson Follett
20. Excavations and Discoveries
21. The Oracle of the Lost
22. Finale (3)
23. Post-Mortem
24. Mikelz's Second Message to Watkinson (Fragment)
25. Heat Seeking
26. Report of Captain Riva Gordenski, Duty Officer Extraction Unit Five, Cavanora System - 11 September, 2515 (Extract)
27. Links
28. Gregor's Log (Extract)
29. Correspondence of Louisa Mikelz (Fragment)
30. Questions
31. Merely Players
32. Diagnosis
33. Anomaly
34. Research
35. Extract from Living Archaeology, the Biography of Edward Watkinson, by Herve Pottle
36. Conversation
37. The Oracle's Story
38. The Ship
39. Visual Log
40. Evidence
41. Guilt
42. Finale (4)
43. Discovery
44. Changes
45. Answers
46. Contacts
47. Paracletes
48. Personal Journal of Professor Edward Watkinson (Extract)
49. Personal Journal of Ableet Gorvalis (Extract)
50. Background Reading
51. Transcript of Watkinson's Final Lecture (Extract)
52. Observations and Arrivals
53. Freedom of Information
54. Identity Crisis
55. In the House of God
56. Confrontation
57. The Tears of the Oracle
58. Showdown
59. Preoccupations
60. Last Message to God
61. Data Input
62. Sanctuary
63. Simulation
64. Poisoned Chalice
65. Finale (5)
66. Fallout
67. Question and Answer
68. Closure

Plot

to be added

Characters

• Bernice Summerfield
• Irving Braxiatel
• Clarence
• Divson Follet
• Emilia Winston
• Hayward Denson
• Chris Cwej
• God
• J-Kibb
• B-Aaron
• Skutloid
• Drexton
• Garshal
• Oracle of the Lost
• Oleg Mikelz
• Louisa Mikelz
• Gregor

References

Locations

• Braxiatel wins KS-159 in a card game on Vega Station.

Species

• Skutloid, Drexton and Garshal are Ice Warriors.

Time travel

• Lack of telepathy hinders the People in mastering successful time travel.

Titles and offices

• Bernice holds the Watkinson Chair of Archaeology, named in honour of Edward Watkinson.

Notes

• This book was supposedly meant to be the last in the Virgin Bernice Summerfield New Adventures line.

Continuity

• Braxiatel uses a communication cube to contact his people for assistance in the same way the Second Doctor does in TV: The War Games.
• Chris was exposed to the lethal dose of radiation in PROSE: Dead Romance.
• Benny mentions getting a Mary-Sue. (PROSE: The Mary-Sue Extrusion)
• PROSE: Demontage features the Vega Station.
• There is a brief revisit to Benny's wedding in PROSE: Happy Endings.
• !C-Mel (the ship Clarence once was) first appeared in PROSE: The Also People.
• When discussing his imminent regeneration of Chris Cwej, the Time Lord mentions Chris had a body bepple to appear as a giant teddy bear in PROSE: Original Sin.
• Skutloid, Drexton and Garshal all first appeared in PROSE: The Medusa Effect.
• Emilia Winston first appeared in PROSE: Dragons' Wrath.
• In PROSE: The Book of the War Cwej's new form was explained to have been designed by the House Military to be resistant to the Fat.

External links

• Tears of the Oracle at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
• The Discontinuity Guide to: Tears of the Oracle at The Whoniverse
• The Cloister Library: Tears of the Oracle
• Doctor Who Bewildering Reference Guide to Tears of the Oracle