Publisher’s Summary
The TARDIS lands in the Scottish capital, Edinburgh, during Easter 2003. The city is almost at a standstill, its public services close to collapse and its people terrorised by a bombing campaign.
Within hours one of the Doctor’s friends is caught in a deadly explosion, while another appears on television confessing to the murder of twelve people. The TARDIS is stolen by forces intent on learning its secrets. When the Doctor tries to investigate, his efforts are hampered by crippling chest pains.
Someone is manipulating events to suppress humanity’s development — but how and why? The trail leads to London where a cabal pushes the world ever closer to catastrophe. Who is the prisoner being held in the Tower of London? Could he or she hold the key to saving mankind?
The Doctor must choose between saving his friends or saving Earth in the past, present and future. But the closer he gets to the truth, the worse his condition becomes...
Characters
- The Doctor
- Fitz Kreiner
- Gets beaten repetitively during a police interrogation.
- Anji Kapoor
- Anji falls victim of extreme racism in the alternate Earth; British Empire.
- Sabbath
- The Oracle
- Alf
- Bill
- Charles Babbage
- Daniel Merrell
- Dee
- Edward Knox
- Francis Clooney
- Frank
- Hamilton
- Hannah Baxter
- Helmut Schreyer
- Herman Hollerith
- John Herschel
- Joshua Sutton
- Konrad Zuse
- MacLeod
- Mitch
- Neil Judd
- Rameau
- William Hastings
- William Kempton
References
- The TARDIS is "tortured" and through their link the Doctor is affected, and hears its screams.
Notes
- This novel takes place in an alternate universe on an Earth where an alternate Sabbath had murdered several key figures preventing the creation of the computer.
- This was the second novel to feature Alan Turing.
- A number of people similar to people the Doctor knows turn up ... Dorry the explosive expert, for example, is clearly Ace and the Patriarch is very likely The Brigadier.
Continuity
- Alan Turing makes an appearance in this novel. He was last seen in EDA: The Turing Test. However this version of Alan Turing is part of a parallel universe where he survived to live to ninety-one in 2003 instead of committing suicide in 1954.
Timeline
- This story takes place after EDA: The Infinity Race
- This story takes place before EDA: Reckless Engineering