Dead Romance (novel)

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Dead Romance was the eightieth Virgin 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 by Mad Norwegian Press as a "tie-in" to their 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

Worldbuilding

Biology

  • Cwej's employers give regenerative powers to their agents, Chris Cwej included.

Individuals

Literature

Locations

Planets

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

  • 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 the novel Interference, 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 and rightfully ignored.
  • Starting on page 199 is a discussion of Bernice Summerfield's family tree.
  • The cover of the novel is the photo Christine takes of London shortly after Cwej's employers invade the bottle Earth.

Continuity

Cover gallery

External links