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When Benny is asked to authenticate some highly significant
artefacts in the Goronos System, she leaves her baby son Peter
in the hands of bickering rival "father figures" Adrian and
Jason. But for some reason Lady Ashantra of the Goronos System
would have preferred Benny to have brought the child with
her...
The
title refers primarily to the jealous rivalry that exists
between Bernice's ex-husband Jason Kane (Stephen Fewell) and
Peter's natural father Adrian Wall (Harry Myers). But it also
refers to the comically in-bred princes that Lady Ashantra
du Lac (Maria Darling) hopes to put on the throne, once certain
artefacts have been authenticated.
The
green-eyed princes get up to some pretty revolting antics
involving their lust for Benny - or, indeed, anything female.
We only hear about these bodily functions via Lady Ashantra's
disparaging commentary, but the images created work upon the
imagination all the more effectively because of that.
It's
been a while since Stephen Fewell last brought the character
of Jason Kane to life on audio - not since Just War
in 1999, in fact. This story deals with the emotional impact
of Peter's birth upon the lives of Benny, Adrian and Jason,
and as such it is long overdue. Writer Dave Stone's tale is
also overdue in the quite literal sense - originally intended
for release ahead of The Plague Herds of Excelis, this
story actually takes place before Plague Herds, as
is given away by the fact that Benny says she hasn't had a
drink since the birth.
I imagine that if Big Finish's Bernice Summerfield novels
were still being published (and what a shame that they aren't,
although there is a short story collection coming soon) then
such character development might have been reserved for prose.
But it is no less welcome in this medium.
Richard
McGinlay
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