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The Sword of Forever was the seventy-fifth Virgin New Adventures novel.
The cover of this novel was the last to feature the "The New Adventures" titling and the "NA" logo. It was also the final to feature a conventionally illustrated cover; all future covers were computer-aided in design rather than this and previous covers' painting/drawn aesthetic. As such, this was the final Virgin novel to feature Bernice Summerfield on the cover; the next prose-based publication she would appear on would be 2000's Big Finish Productions' anthology Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Dead Men Diaries.
This was also the final monthly release in the novel series. Hereafter, the frequency of release was reduced.
Publisher's summary
"I'm sure the Beach Boys didn't have mutant elephants in mind when they wrote "Surfin' USA.".
When Bernice Summerfield finds human skull fragments containing her own DNA in the stomach of a mummified dinosaur, she embarks on a trail of murder and betrayal. From the alien jungles of France to the primal continent of Pangaea, the trail leads ever further back in time. Together with Patience, the cloned smart-raptor, Benny must brave alien hybrids, agents of the Knights Templar guarding a secret older than time — and have breakfast with the man who would be Emperor of Earth.
All to find the fabled Sword of Forever, a mythical device with the power to destroy and create civilisations — but at what price?
Everything goes critical as Bernice and Patience travel across 120 million years and two universes — where ancient traps guard crumbling ruins, love is unrequited, time is running out, treasure is always buried and X never fails to mark the spot.
Chapter titles
- Prologue: Guardians of Forever
- Egypt: 1287
- Arginy: 2562
- Paris: 1307
- Arginy: 2560
- Paris: 1314
- Part One: A Map of Skulls
- Antarctica: 2595
- Paris: 1314
- Antarctica: 2595
- Paris: 1314
- Egypt: 2595
- Paris: 1314
- London: 2595
- Arginy: 1354
- London: 2595
- Part Two: The Breath of the Serpent
- Pangaia: 80 Million BC
- London: 2595
- Pangaia: 80 Million BC
- London: 2595
- Pangaia: 80 Million BC
- The Midlands: 2595
- Pangaia: 80 Million BC
- Glasgow: 2595
- Pangaia: 80 Million BC
- Loch Ness: 2595
- Pangaia: 80 Million BC
- Loch Ness: 2595
- Pangaia: 80 Million BC
- Loch Ness: 2595
- Pangaia: 80 Million BC
- London: 2595
- Part Three: A Labyrinth of Ghosts
- Arginy: 2595
- Ethiopia: 2575
- Arginy: 2595
- Ethiopia: 2575
- Arginy: 2595
- Ethiopia: 2575
- Arginy: 2595
- Ethiopia: 2575
- Paris: 2595
- Hampuchea: 2577
- Paris: 2595
- Part Four: The Blood and the Flame
- Antioch: 2595
- Pangaia: 80 Million Anno Quincunx
- Hampuchea: 2595
- The Orient: 4500 Anno Quincunx
- Hampuchea: 2595
- Jerusalem: 3355 Anno Quincunx
- Hampuchea: 2595
- Hampuchea: 150 Anno Quincunx
- Quincunx
- Epilogue: The Birth of Forever
Plot
to be added
Characters
Worldbuilding
Culture
- Indiana Jones: Final Genesis was made sometime after 1998.
Individuals
- Bernice Summerfield marries Marillian to get a research license.
- Patience is a super smart velociraptor.
Locations
- Marillian owns London.
- Kenya and Somalia are sites of massive bio-infection (caused by viruses from the Dalek invasion of Earth).
- The Library of Things That Never Were reappears as the Museum of Things That Don't Exist.
Objects
- The Sword of Forever has four parts: the Spear of Longinus, the Crown of Thorns, the Holy Grail and the Ark of the Covenant.
Organisations
- Knights Templar agents follow Benny throughout her quest.
Religion
- The Freemasons assassinate Benny.
Sports
Notes
- This is the last novel to have the "New Adventures" front-cover logo and title that had been in place since Oh No It Isn't! (although it was retained on the spine) and the cover design format that had been in place since Happy Endings.
Continuity
- Benny trades the platinum American Express card that the Doctor gave her and Jason in PROSE: Happy Endings and Eternity Weeps.
- Benny previously encountered intelligent dinosaurs in PROSE: Blood Heat.