Fiction Paradox

And we're back. Iris Wildthyme returns in the short story "Femme Fatale" by Paul Magrs. Iris and our heroes mix it up with Andy Warhol and the denizens of The Factory. Iris and Sam encounter Valerie Solanas and perhaps get embroiled in her attempt to do away with Warhol...

We are back with a look at Simon Messingham's The Face-Eater.

The Doctor and Sam land on Proxima II only to find a serial killer on the loose in a colony still trying to find its feet. The colony’s executive officer, Helen Percival, uses fear, surprise, and ruthless efficiency to keep order as the increasingly disenchanted laboring class begins to assert itself and agitate for its rights. And of course our heroes throw themselves into the middle of everything.

Join Brooke, Sasha, and Skip as they discuss this book which features no face eating.

We're back and we are kicking things off in 2021 with Beltempest by Jim Mortimore. The Doctor and Sam are enjoying some time on the beach while having a really awkward chat about motherhood and parturition when it suddenly explodes and pandemonium reigns. Sam ends up meeting the members of a religious cult undergoing a schism while the Doctor finds himself in a race against time and tsunamis.

But wait! There's more!

There's Eldrad and Sutekh and weird things inside the golden sun, Bel. (Not all of that is true.) You could say this story is pregnant with possibilities...

I'm melting!

We are back with The Janus Conjunction, the first novel by stalwart Doctor Who writer Trevor Baxendale. He brings us a tale of former allies now enemies ensconced on their own planets. But what is the function of these columns? There are giant spiders that put Shelob to shame, the titular conjunction, and melting flesh. Lots of melting flesh.

Sasha has returned to the ranks and not a moment too soon. For we chat about the further adventures of Iris Wildthyme whom Brooke & Skip met last month in a short story by Paul Magrs. Now she gets the novel-length treatment with The Scarlet Empress.

Color us impressed by this tale of storytelling and confabulation. It's surreal, magical, and perhaps not all that it seems. (Sasha has some good adjectives about it, as you'll hear.)

Brooke & Skip take a break from all of their summer fun to do a socially-distanced mini-episode featuring a brace of Short Trips as Sasha is incommunicado.

First up is the audio-only "Bounty" by Peter Anghelides (pronounced how exactly?) which reveals what the Doctor and Sam got up to immediately after The Eight Doctors. This is followed by our first ever non-Eighth Doctor tale, "Old Flames" from Paul Magrs. (Pronounced with a silent G.)

"WTF are they doing reviewing a Fourth Doctor story?!" you ask. Well, "Old Flames" marks the debut of Iris Wildthyme who stars in the next EDA we'll be taking on, The Scarlet Empress. So think of this as a prelude.

We hope everyone is safe and healthy as we post this episode. This time around it's "Vanderdeken's Children" by Christopher Bulis. It's chock full of horror and ghosts and warmongers with some timey wimey bits for good measure. This one proved a little divisive amongst the FP crew so tune in to hear who liked it and who was less enthusiastic.

Brooke & Sasha are a bit tired so things get a little loopy as your intrepid hosts ponder Gary Russell's Placebo Effect and its surfeit of characters. How is Sam's arc coming along? And just how does one pronounce "Wirrn"? (Or is that "Wirrrn"?) Take a listen and find out!

And we're back! This time around we have "Seeing I" by Kate Orman and Jonathan Blum. We get a new & improved Sam while The Doctor descends into madness. Plus there's a new baddie - the I - which causes us some pronoun/ocular confusion. Featuring music by The Regrettes.

Sasha's sabbatical is over and it's back down to business with Paul Leonard's "Dreamstone Moon". The Doctor and Sam are galaxies apart seeking one another when they are thrust into a Phildickian dream world replete with untethered corporate greed and tentacled nightmares. Well, sort of.