Dead Romance (novel)
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Dead Romance is the nineteenth Virgin Bernice Summerfield New Adventures novel and the second in a row not to feature Bernice Summerfield in the main narrative. This story almost entirely focuses on Christine Summerfield and Chris Cwej. In 2004, it was reprinted as part of the Mad Norwegian Press Faction Paradox line.
Publisher's summary
"All right, let's start with the basics. The world ended on the twelfth of October, Nineteen Seventy..."
I don't know why I'm writing this. It's not like anybody's going to read it. At least, nobody who cares about the fact that I'm a desperate, dying, 23-year-old human being who's just had the whole of history taken away from her.
To whoever's out there, to whatever's left, this is the way things were, just before the end. This is the story about the last days of London, about murder and love and waking up in the ruins, about all the people buried in the wreckage...
I'm lying, obviously. This is my story. This is what I was doing, when October the twelfth came. Because, let's face it, I'm the only one who really matters.
I'm the only one who got out alive.
Plot
First notebook (128 pages)
to be added
Second notebook (128 pages, 12 missing)
to be added
Third notebook (128 pages, 8 blank)
to be added
Characters
References
Biology
- Cwej's employers have altered his biology to make him more suited to dealing in their affairs. They also changed his memory of his time with the Doctor, making him an "evil renegade" instead.
- Cwej's employers give regenerative powers to their agents, Chris Cwej included.
Individuals
- Christine Summerfield is probably no relation to Bernice Summerfield, except in name.
- Chris Cwej is an agent of the Great Houses.
- After meeting with the Daleks, Chris comes back to Christine and has sex with her, to make himself feel human.
- Khiste has regenerated at least once. He has sex with Christine to prove a point.
- Chris Cwej recalls Roz Forrester's death.
- The Horror is a gestalt of all the stuff lost in the Vortex.
- Father Kreiner appears as the voice of the Horror that Christine speaks to and negotiates with.
- The large machine intelligence is Pool, the gestalt from above Arcadia.
- Benny's earliest known ancestor is Jonah Summerfield I. He was born in 1930 and was killed in an industrial accident in 1975.
- Benny's distant ancestor Jason Summerfield was born in 2007. He had a son named Jubilation Summerfield in 2039.
Literature
- Christine writes much of her journal in the ruins of the Homeworld.
Locations
- Lady Diamond's shop is on Henrietta Street.
Planets
- The bottle universe is kept on Simia KK98.
- Simia KK98 is a colony of Cwej's employers. Inside is an eight-armed statue of their founder holding various artefacts.
- Cwej takes Christine to a market on Cygni 8.6, where she sees some Liquid Cats, which may be related to wetworks facility technology.
- Shada is described.
- Christine reads about Tyler's Folly.
- Khiste takes Christine to Ordifica.
- Christine, after being dropped off on Ordifica, visits a number of colony worlds including Shristostophon, Gardener's World, Hai Dow Seven, Lubellin, Shatner's Climax, Ultra Caprisis, then onto the Homeworld, before heading towards Dellah.
Species
- Cwej comes back from a meeting with machine people. Supposedly his employers "made a deal with them. Years ago," to let them build time machines.
- Cwej's employers are the Great Houses.
- Cwej's employers alter their treaty with the People, which means they can build time machines. God was present.
- The enemy is obliquely referred to.
Notes
- The Mad Norwegian edition contains several extras: a new introduction by Lawrence Miles, the essay The Cosmology of the Spiral Politic, and reprints of the short stories Toy Story and Grass.
- At the start of the original novel was a note from Miles which stated:
- Note for continuity purists and nobody else: the universe in which much of 'Dead Romance' takes place - the universe of the Gods, the planet Dellah and Bernice Summerfield - is the same universe in which 'Christmas on a Rational Planet, 'Down' and indeed every other New Adventure takes place. However, this absolutely and positively isn't the same universe in which any other books I might have written are set.
- Believe me.
- This referred to Miles' attempt, here and in PROSE: Interference - Book One and Interference - Book Two, to use the device of nested bottle universes to establish that the Virgin New Adventures and BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures occurred in separate continuities. However, Miles admitted in a foreword to the Mad Norwegian Press edition that this was a bad idea.
- Starting on page 199 is a discussion of the Summerfield family tree (from the 'real' universe, ie Bernice Summerfield's family tree).
- The cover of the novel is actually part of the plot. It is the photo Christine takes of London, shortly after the Time Lords take over the bottle Earth.
Continuity
- The Gods (from which Cwej's employers are preparing to escape) appeared in PROSE: Where Angels Fear.
- Chris Cwej last appeared in PROSE: Oblivion.
- Roz Forrester died in PROSE: So Vile a Sin.
- Father Kreiner fell into the vortex in PROSE: Interference - Book Two.
- The Time Lord - the People treaty was first mentioned in PROSE: The Also People.
- The concept of Time Lords regenerating for particular purposes/for war first appears in PROSE: Alien Bodies and Time Lords in non-bipedal forms appear in PROSE: The Taking of Planet 5.
- The bottle that appears is implied to be the bottle I.M. Foreman has in PROSE: Interference - Book One. Interference also mentioned that the Time Lords are making "Ogron Lords" by altering them to be time compatible. This concept is first introduced in this novel.
- Wetworks technology appears in AUDIO: The Genocide Machine.
- Henrietta Street features more heavily in PROSE: The Adventuress of Henrietta Street.
- In AUDIO: The Shadow Play, Christine (now called Eliza) mentions that one of the Great Houses was responsible for the invasion of her Earth.
- Pool appeared in PROSE: Deceit.
- The bronze spheres Christine saw above Simia KK98 were 90-form timeships. (PROSE: The Book of the War)
- In a newspaper, Christine reads about sea serpents sighted on Tyler's Folly in 2593. (PROSE: Down)
- Pool appeared in PROSE: Deceit.
Cover gallery
Mad Norwegian Press cover
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External links
- Dead Romance at the Faction Paradox wiki
- Dead Romance at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
- The Discontinuity Guide to: Dead Romance at The Whoniverse
- The Cloister Library: Dead Romance
- The Doctor Who Ratings Guide: Reviews of Dead Romance
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