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Emily is dead, murdered by an unknown assailant. Honoré
Lechasseur is called to identify the body, but who else should
arrive at the mortuary but Emily! The pair find themselves
caught up in a plot reaching from the future to their past,
with their very existence, and that of the entire world, at
stake...
This is the first in an ongoing series of adventures, part
detective story, part science fiction, featuring Honoré Lechasseur
and Emily Blandish, following on from their impressive introduction
in the Doctor Who novella The Cabinet of Light.
Taking into account the fact that some readers might not be
familiar with the previous book, author Lance Parkin subtly
brings us up to speed with the peculiar lives of the time-sensitive
"fixer" Lechasseur and his amnesiac associate.
At
just 80 pages, this book is short, but sweet. Unencumbered
by an introduction of the type that prefaces the Who
novellas, which sometimes build up the stories a little more
than they deserve, The Winning Side efficiently gets
on with its task of telling a good story. Parkin begins by
killing Emily, then presents Lechasseur with the mystery of
how the woman can still be alive, then goes on to establish
the series' sci-fi credentials by hurling the pair into an
Orwellian future, complete with all-seeing television screens
and euphemistic terms such as Conversation Room.
Like
the BBC Doctor Who novel History 101, The
Winning Side concerns itself with Orwell's fears about
government manipulation of the media and therefore of history
itself. The erasure of all conflicting viewpoints in order
to create a "definitive", authorised version of the past is
something to be feared and condemned, as Emily discovers.
While
Lechasseur remains his complicated but level-headed self,
Emily comes into her own in this book. With Telos obliged
to cease their publication of Who fiction, Time
Hunter is being groomed as a substitute. Emily is essentially
the companion to Lechasseur's "Doctor", but she is actually
the more mysterious of the two. Like the Doctor's original
companion, Susan, her knowledge of the world is advanced in
some areas but surprisingly ignorant in others, suggesting
that she may be from another time, possibly even from another
world.
The
novella comes to a rather sudden halt, but nevertheless it
marks an impressive start to the series - it certainly won
me over.
Richard
McGinlay
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