Oblivion (novel)
- You may wish to consult
Oblivion (disambiguation)for other, similarly-named pages.
Oblivion was the seventy-second Virgin New Adventures novel. This novel was the final part of a trilogy which began with Sky Pirates! and Death and Diplomacy, and as such it featured characters and themes from both of those earlier novels, including Roz Forrester from before her first appearance in Original Sin.
Publisher's summary
Roz snarled up into the face of her abductor. "If you touch me I'll kill you. Who are you? Just what the hell is going on?" The blond man looked down at her with a mixture of what looked like fear and pain. "My name's Chris Cwej," he said. "And as to what's going on, hell is probably as good a word for it as any."
Something has burst through the worn and patchwork fabric of the universe, like a high-velocity round through a rotten apple. The timelines are cut loose and whipsawing — alternative pasts, presents and futures slicing through the world we think of as real.
At the centre of the disruption three adventurers, Nathan li Shao, Leetha and Kiru, are trapped on a parallel Earth — flung from one twisted alternative to another by a man called Deed, who has usurped the power of the Godhead. If their friend Sgloomi Po cannot reach them in time they will be obliterated. Deed is attempting to forge his own reality and consign all others to oblivion.
To help end the chaos, Sgloomi has assembled a number of old friends: Bernice Summerfield, the feckless Jason Kane and Christopher Rodonante Cwej ... but there has been one small mistake. A miscalculation has placed someone among them who should not be there. Someone who should be dead.
Chapter titles
- Prologue: Refrigerated Dreams of Me
- Another Prologue: Getting Inside
- Strike One: The Oncoming Storm
- Chapter 1: A Fractured Surface
- Chapter 2: Signals from the Underground
- Chapter 3: The Interminable Salutation (Alternate Earth)
- Chapter 4: Fairly Strange Reunions
- Chapter 5: Made of This (Alternate Earth)
- Chapter 6: Getting Up to Speed
- Chapter 7: Minimal Cutting (Alternate Earth)
- Chapter 8: The Elevation of the Masses, Altogether
- Strike Two: Somewhere Between Now and Then
- Chapter 9: The Mysteriously Elusive Villain, Part One (Alternate Earth)
- Chapter 10: Foreign Music
- Chapter 11: Suspicious Gestures
- Chapter 12: The Mysteriously Elusive Villain, Part Two (Alternate Earth)
- Chapter 13: Incidental Arrivals
- Chapter 14: A Small Sojourn in Subterranea
- Chapter 15: Displaced Relationships (Hybrid Timeline)
- Chapter 16: Degrees of Attrition (Alternate Earth)
- Chapter 17: Retrogressive Definitions
- Chapter 18: Janus Waking (Alternate Earth/s)
- Strike Three: Final Approach
- Chapter 19: Crossmatched Cover Stories
- Chapter 20: Past Times Catching Up (Alternate Earth)
- Chapter 21: A Hell of a Life in the Glory Hole
- Chapter 22: Could Be You (Premonitions of the Nexus)
- Chapter 23: Peeling Back the Shins
- Chapter 24: Light Come Down (A Meeting of Minds)
- Chapter 25: Grounding Out
- Chapter 26: A Break From Unreality
- Strikeout: The Nexus of All Possible Events
- Denouement: Reset Endings
- Appendix
Plot
After waking up from a nightmare, young Simon Deed finds a mysterious man sitting near his cradle. This man reveals himself to be one Mr. Pelt and offers to give Deed a mystical and extremely beautiful clockwork egg if he does certain tasks. This involves Simon killing his new baby brother and hiding the "wrongness" inside of him.
Meanwhile, a new Adjudicator named Roz Forrester makes her very first planetfall (specifically on the planet Zarjax) with her partner Fenn Martle. The Adjudicators' visit to Zarjax is meant as a decoy while Covert Ops find the source of a drug flowing into the Fnarok population of the Overcities which has been traced to Zarjax.
In a place "not recognizable as any place on Earth", a clockwork egg ticks away.
Strike One: The Oncoming Storm
To get out of a destitute state, Bernice Summerfield begrudiginly takes a job babysitting a group of richly parented children while they explore the ruins of temples on the planet of Malanoor. Finding the job extremely displeasing, Benny decides to scare the children by telling a (somewhat sensationalised) tale of the extremely disturbing history of the "Lost Temples". While doing this, one of the children notices something falling onto the planet.
When this thing crashes onto Malanoor, it shuts off the fields protecting "explorers" from encountering any actually harmful wildlife. As such, Benny has the Malanoorian guides surround the children and keep them safe while she finds out what exactly crashed. At first, Benny looks through the jungle but is drawn to the temples. While examining the tunnels, Benny begins thinking about mythical "Great Beast" before she falls into a chamber and is found by a tentacled creature.
Characters
- Bernice Summerfield
- Chris Cwej
- Roz Forrester
- Jason Kane
- Sgloomi Po
- Nathan li Shao
- Leetha
- Randolph Bane
- Kiru
- Mr. Pelt
- Simon Deed
- Fenn Martle
Worldbuilding
Astronomy
- According to Chris, the universe has 1.5 billion years left to go.
Locations
- Jason has some unfinished work in the Catan Nebula.
- Sloogmi Po found Jason in the Lower Habitats of the Proximan Chain.
Cover gallery
Cover
Textless cover
Sketch
Notes
- According to author Dave Stone, this is the third part in a trilogy consisting of the novels Sky Pirates!, Death and Diplomacy and this novel.
- The character of Nathan le Shadon reappeared in Stone's short story Little Killers, published later the same year in issue 135 of Interzone; the story also mentions Queegvogel Duck Duck Duck Duck Duck Duck Seven.
Continuity
- The Schirron Dream and her crew last appeared in PROSE: Sky Pirates!
- Roz Forrester last appeared (and died) in PROSE: So Vile a Sin.
- Jason Kane last appeared in PROSE: Deadfall.
- Chris Cwej last appeared in PROSE: Mean Streets.
- The Shadow Directory's "Egg" first appeared in PROSE: Christmas on a Rational Planet.
- Chris mentions that the universe's higher powers keep going on about "some imminent Big War" as hinted at in PROSE: Alien Bodies and Dead Romance.
External links
- Oblivion at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
- The Discontinuity Guide to: Oblivion at The Whoniverse
- The Cloister Library: Oblivion
