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Title: Infinite Requiem (Doctor Who-The New Adventures Series) by Daniel Blythe ISBN: 0-426-20437-9 Publisher: London Bridge Mass Market Pub. Date: May, 1995 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $5.95

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Average Customer Rating: 2 (1 review)

Rating: 2
Summary: Would calling it Infinite Tedium be too cruel?
Comment: INFINITE REQUIEM was a book that I thought had a very strong beginning with a lot of potential set up early on. Initially, I enthusiastically turned the pages, extremely curious as to what was going to happen next. By the time I got to the end, I was somewhat disappointed and had ended up simply not caring what any of the characters did. The process of getting from one reaction to the other was so gradual that I really didn't notice it happening at all during my first read. But each time I picked the book back up after taking a break, it was with less eagerness than I had felt before. I can't describe any specific plot-point or event to say that this is where I got fed up; it just seems to be a case of too much build-up and not enough pay-off.

The beginning has a large portion focused upon events taking place on modern-day Earth, and it was these sections that I found most enjoyable. As the book progresses, the attention shifts towards future and outer space settings. The farther away the action drifts from Earth, the less interested I became in the events that were unfolding. By the time the story has reached the part where everything takes place in the distant future, on a far-away planet, in some strange virtual reality thingy (or whatever), I had just gone completely past the point of caring. This really is a shame, as Blythe tells the modern-day Earth sections with real heart. Once that setting is abandoned, the book becomes much poorer for it.

There are a few other things about INFINITE REQUIEM that I enjoyed. The Phractons are quite an interesting creation, feeling like proper aliens and far more worthy of attention than the vastly overrated and boring Chelonians. I also liked the follow-ups pertaining to events in the previous adventure, SET PIECE. One gets the impression that Kate Orman sent Blythe a checklist of all the bodily injuries that the Doctor and Benny had suffered in that book so that he could go through the bruises one by one. Blythe handles the sections dealing with the recent departure of Ace as sensitively and maturely as one would hope for.

There are also a few things in the narrative, their reason for inclusion being one that I just couldn't fathom. Benny finds a holographic projector that displays a simulation of the Doctor, and this projection becomes a running plot-strand in the story. Why is this in the book? I don't know; it doesn't add anything and only becomes annoying as the pointless distraction keeps getting pulled out. A character from Blythe's previous NA (THE DIMENSION RIDERS) comes back. Why? I don't know; he's an all-right character, I suppose, he just doesn't strike me as being interesting enough to merit a return appearance. The narrative goes to great lengths to expound on the familial relationship between two of the characters. Why? I don't know; I suspect that the story was going somewhere with this, but it just ended up being angsty and misplaced.

This isn't a particularly awful story, it just has an unfortunate inconsequential feel. Certain parts read as though they weren't thought through as fully as they should have been, as if the author came up with some potentially great ideas but never got around to integrating them properly with each other or with the story. I wouldn't mind seeing Blythe return to the Doctor Who book range. If he weren't attempting to squeeze too many science-fiction concepts into his work, I think he could produce something fantastic.