NA #46 Just War

Just War by Lance Parkin

In Brief: It's 1941 and the Nazis control the channel islands and possess a new super-weapon with which to win the war against England. Aliens, parrallel-dimensions and alternate-timelines are (surprisingly) not involved.

It's getting more and more difficult to find ways of saying "the book was very good indeed" with the recent run. Other than Shakedown (which was more juvenile than bad) I think it's been at least a dozen New Adventures since I ran into a poor entry in the series. I have to wonder if the decision to finally get rid of Ace (or rather the version of the character we had towards the end) helped to inspire the various authors involved. Or it could just be that after some notably lesser efforts there was a greater effort put into quality control and in particular having fewer "first novels" thrown at the reader.

And having David A. McIntee not write anything after the horrible First Frontier was a boon.

Although ironically Just War is Lance Parkin's first book and it's one of the strongest entries in the series. This is a great book for the regulars and in particular Roz gets a chance to gain some real depth during the book as she pursues a romance in WW2-London (not so easy for a woman from the 30th-century). Roz really reinforces that having an older companions (in the case in their 40s along with the 30-something Benny) for The Doctor is a very good thing, having someone who is more of an equal leads to a much more dynamic setup compared to the screaming-youngsters so often seen on TV.

Of course for a TV show someone younger *does* make demographic sense.

Although unfortunately Chris has yet to really been given a chance to shine, most of the time being too much portrayed as a naive and immature. Although the authors *do* like to go on about his physique...

But through and through this is Benny's book. Most of the narrative centres around her mission for The Doctor to investigate a suspected German super-weapon that's been spotted near the occupied island of Guernsey. Passages as she's captured and tortured by the Germans are the most harrowing and intense events in the entire range of books as Parkin pulls no punches. We know that what she goes through *hurts* and it's through luck and skill that she's able to escape, not a rescue by The Doctor. Having a version of The Doctor who's more the background manipulator was a running theme throughout the New Adventures, however more and more there is foreshadowing that it's eventually going to come at a price.

Also Parkin goes a good job of not making the Nazis typical stereotyped villains through having most of the characters (bar Benny's torturer Wolff) be *almost* sympathetic. At the same time the English are not complete good-guys but instead must act as people do in a time of war.

So to sum up: Interesting setting, well-written characters and a satisfying resolution to the main mystery (the "super-weapon" is slightly advanced technology that is due to The Doctor being unwise in discussing ideas to a scientist on an earlier visit to Germany ). Just War is a fault-less, if intense, entry in the series.