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Bernice Summerfield Novels #3
Professor Bernice Summerfield and The Squire's Crystal
Legend tells of an evil sorceress who used the power of magical crystals to transfer her mind into the bodies of others. Her reign of terror was long and bloody, and her final defeat the cause of great rejoicing. But that's just a legend, a story told to childrenisn't it? Finding the last resting place of the Crystal Sorceress is an archaeological dream on a par with discovering the Holy Grail. So it's hardly likely that someone will just offer the solution to Professor Bernice Summerfield on a plate. But sometimes the unlikely actually happens. And one thing that's very, very unlikely is that Benny will suddenly find herself to be a member of the opposite gender!
224 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2005
About the author
Jacqueline Rayner
130 books169 followersJacqueline Rayner is a best selling British author, best known for her work with the licensed fiction based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who.
Her first professional writing credit came when she adapted Paul Cornell's Virgin New Adventure novel Oh No It Isn't! for the audio format, the first release by Big Finish. (The novel featured the character of Bernice Summerfield and was part of a spin-off series from Doctor Who.) She went on to do five of the six Bernice Summerfield audio adaptations and further work for Big Finish before going to work for BBC Books on their Doctor Who lines.
Her first novels came in 2001, with the Eighth Doctor Adventures novel EarthWorld for BBC Books and the Bernice Summerfield novel The Squire's Crystal for Big Finish. Rayner has written several other Doctor Who spin-offs and was also for a period the executive producer for the BBC on the Big Finish range of Doctor Who audio dramas. She has also contributed to the audio range as a writer. In all, her Doctor Who and related work (Bernice Summerfield stories), consists of five novels, a number of short stories and four original audio plays.
Rayner has edited several anthologies of Doctor Who short stories, mainly for Big Finish, and done work for Doctor Who Magazine. Beyond Doctor Who, her work includes the children's television tie-in book Horses Like Blaze.
With the start of the new television series of Doctor Who in 2005 and a shift in the BBC's Doctor Who related book output, Rayner has become, along with Justin Richards and Stephen Cole, one of the regular authors of the BBC's New Series Adventures. She has also abridged several of the books to be made into audiobooks.
She was also a member of Doctor Who Magazine's original Time Team.
Her first professional writing credit came when she adapted Paul Cornell's Virgin New Adventure novel Oh No It Isn't! for the audio format, the first release by Big Finish. (The novel featured the character of Bernice Summerfield and was part of a spin-off series from Doctor Who.) She went on to do five of the six Bernice Summerfield audio adaptations and further work for Big Finish before going to work for BBC Books on their Doctor Who lines.
Her first novels came in 2001, with the Eighth Doctor Adventures novel EarthWorld for BBC Books and the Bernice Summerfield novel The Squire's Crystal for Big Finish. Rayner has written several other Doctor Who spin-offs and was also for a period the executive producer for the BBC on the Big Finish range of Doctor Who audio dramas. She has also contributed to the audio range as a writer. In all, her Doctor Who and related work (Bernice Summerfield stories), consists of five novels, a number of short stories and four original audio plays.
Rayner has edited several anthologies of Doctor Who short stories, mainly for Big Finish, and done work for Doctor Who Magazine. Beyond Doctor Who, her work includes the children's television tie-in book Horses Like Blaze.
With the start of the new television series of Doctor Who in 2005 and a shift in the BBC's Doctor Who related book output, Rayner has become, along with Justin Richards and Stephen Cole, one of the regular authors of the BBC's New Series Adventures. She has also abridged several of the books to be made into audiobooks.
She was also a member of Doctor Who Magazine's original Time Team.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
October 31, 2022
Lisa Bowerman reads this massively energetic bodyswap comedy, with Jaqueline Rayner providing lots of fun different perspectives between the characters. I raced through it.
March 8, 2019
Really enjoyed this novel. Short , faced paced novel with golden Brax and Benny moments❤️
January 1, 2020
Benny discovers a legend right under her feet and the action begins with body swapping and goes fast paced from there.
June 5, 2025
★★★☆☆ – Alright!
Oh, It’s a Comedy…!
And of course it is – it’s a Jacqueline Rayner book! Why did I expect any different?
If you, like me, have done your time skulking around the wiki; if you’ve read anything about this book, you probably know one thing about it. The one thing this book is famous for (to the degree that this book is famous, which it isn’t particularly). If you don’t, your proficiency in spoiler avoidance is of impressive caliber, but in case you think you do, let’s say it on three: One… Two… Three! It’s the book in which .
Let’s dig into that a bit. Bernice Summerfield, of course, has had an active fiction line since 1992 – thirty-three years, at the time of writing. With the last Virgin New Adventures book being published in 1999, twenty-five of those years have been spent in the care of Big Finish. Despite this, I get the impression – and I cannot say how true it is, as I haven’t read enough of them to be sure – that Big Finish’s Bernice Summerfield novels are considerably fluffier fare than the New Adventures, in both senses: less dark, and perhaps of less substance.
Benny’s Virgin outings live in the collective cultural consciousness to this day – you hear extolment not only of heavy Doctor Who hitters such as Love and War and Just War (no love in that one), but even occasionally of her Doctor-less adventures like Down. Meanwhile, her Big Finish novels are not only not extolled, but… hardly ever mentioned, in my limited experience. With the Virgin novels both better remembered and known for their emphasis on continuity, then, it’s odd to think that most of Bernice Summerfield today – her personality; her continuity – is built on that Big Finish output that’s hardly ever discussed. Paul Cornell’s Bernice “I like a drink” Summerfield is who she was; Big Finish’s Bernice “I need a drink…” Summerfield is not altogether different – but certainly noticeably so.
A Comedy with Non-Comedy Consequences
With two decades of hindsight, this novel feels mind-boggingly odd. The reason? It’s a genre work where the genre trappings have consequences far removed from its genre.
In this book, the villain . This is played for laughs, which in all fairness – despite that it’s a writing choice that one could imagine would be avoided today – works just fine in the context of the novel… but then they ran with it. “She’s running decadently amok with your body!” works as an amusing circumstance – “”does not. It’s an emotionally immaterial setup to a heavy story arc – a scene borne of comedy, its result deferred tragedy. The sort of genre-subversive whiplash that’s worthy of, say, The Boys, but it seems to have come about accidentally. Of course, when the fallout is eventually handled in The Glass Prison, it still doesn’t feel all that heavy – that is, after all, also a Jacqueline Rayner novel – but it’s the sort of thing that’s impossible to read a synopsis of (or even stop and think about in the shower) without it coming off as profoundly terrifying.
Coming from later releases, this serves to somewhat weaken the house of cards that is Bernice Summerfield’s continuity. When you hear about her past it sounds enticing and rich – so when it’s revealed to rest on a joke, that richness is made a tad poorer. It might serve the series better to experience it in order – going from “haha” to “oh” is decidedly a stronger experience than from “whoa” to “pfft” – but with the two decades of content released after this novel, that’s not necessarily the natural approach. Bernice Summerfield has, in a way, hurt its own structural integrity as a series by being as long-lived and successful as it is.
The Scent of Butter
On its own merits, The Squire’s Crystal is classic Rayner: It’s popcorn literature. It never makes any particularly daring story decisions, and all psychological exploration of the premise – the classic “gender swap” being famously ripe for a panoply of angles – is deftly dodged in service of being an effective, digestible vessel for comedy and a high pace. No palpable angst results from the body swap (Benny is portrayed as experiencing angst, but I can’t in good conscience say the book is written in an angsty tone), and gender roles are only explored from the perspective of genre tropes (“now that I’m a man I can’t use my feminine wiles!”). In a particularly funny moment, the book displays that it’s written by a cis woman a smidge too prominently: It’s apparently vexing that Benny’s new male body’s bits constantly “bounce around”. While wearing tight leather pants. In case you’re not familiar, I’ll tell you here and now: Such is not the penile experience.
This review undeniably sounds like damning with faint praise (mixed in with a helping of regular damning), but if I’m to be honest, as a trans woman currently battling a particularly lengthy bout of debilitating dysphoria, I was dearly hoping not to have to confront the intricacies of sex and gender today. There’s a time and place for popcorn literature, and mine – listening to an audiobook while moving – was certainly it. I suppose one could’ve wished for a few twists and turns to help the book skirt around being quite so “by the numbers”, but alas.
For once, we have a story that’s infinitely stranger in context than on its own.
Oh, It’s a Comedy…!
And of course it is – it’s a Jacqueline Rayner book! Why did I expect any different?
If you, like me, have done your time skulking around the wiki; if you’ve read anything about this book, you probably know one thing about it. The one thing this book is famous for (to the degree that this book is famous, which it isn’t particularly). If you don’t, your proficiency in spoiler avoidance is of impressive caliber, but in case you think you do, let’s say it on three: One… Two… Three! It’s the book in which .
Let’s dig into that a bit. Bernice Summerfield, of course, has had an active fiction line since 1992 – thirty-three years, at the time of writing. With the last Virgin New Adventures book being published in 1999, twenty-five of those years have been spent in the care of Big Finish. Despite this, I get the impression – and I cannot say how true it is, as I haven’t read enough of them to be sure – that Big Finish’s Bernice Summerfield novels are considerably fluffier fare than the New Adventures, in both senses: less dark, and perhaps of less substance.
Benny’s Virgin outings live in the collective cultural consciousness to this day – you hear extolment not only of heavy Doctor Who hitters such as Love and War and Just War (no love in that one), but even occasionally of her Doctor-less adventures like Down. Meanwhile, her Big Finish novels are not only not extolled, but… hardly ever mentioned, in my limited experience. With the Virgin novels both better remembered and known for their emphasis on continuity, then, it’s odd to think that most of Bernice Summerfield today – her personality; her continuity – is built on that Big Finish output that’s hardly ever discussed. Paul Cornell’s Bernice “I like a drink” Summerfield is who she was; Big Finish’s Bernice “I need a drink…” Summerfield is not altogether different – but certainly noticeably so.
A Comedy with Non-Comedy Consequences
With two decades of hindsight, this novel feels mind-boggingly odd. The reason? It’s a genre work where the genre trappings have consequences far removed from its genre.
In this book, the villain . This is played for laughs, which in all fairness – despite that it’s a writing choice that one could imagine would be avoided today – works just fine in the context of the novel… but then they ran with it. “She’s running decadently amok with your body!” works as an amusing circumstance – “”does not. It’s an emotionally immaterial setup to a heavy story arc – a scene borne of comedy, its result deferred tragedy. The sort of genre-subversive whiplash that’s worthy of, say, The Boys, but it seems to have come about accidentally. Of course, when the fallout is eventually handled in The Glass Prison, it still doesn’t feel all that heavy – that is, after all, also a Jacqueline Rayner novel – but it’s the sort of thing that’s impossible to read a synopsis of (or even stop and think about in the shower) without it coming off as profoundly terrifying.
Coming from later releases, this serves to somewhat weaken the house of cards that is Bernice Summerfield’s continuity. When you hear about her past it sounds enticing and rich – so when it’s revealed to rest on a joke, that richness is made a tad poorer. It might serve the series better to experience it in order – going from “haha” to “oh” is decidedly a stronger experience than from “whoa” to “pfft” – but with the two decades of content released after this novel, that’s not necessarily the natural approach. Bernice Summerfield has, in a way, hurt its own structural integrity as a series by being as long-lived and successful as it is.
The Scent of Butter
On its own merits, The Squire’s Crystal is classic Rayner: It’s popcorn literature. It never makes any particularly daring story decisions, and all psychological exploration of the premise – the classic “gender swap” being famously ripe for a panoply of angles – is deftly dodged in service of being an effective, digestible vessel for comedy and a high pace. No palpable angst results from the body swap (Benny is portrayed as experiencing angst, but I can’t in good conscience say the book is written in an angsty tone), and gender roles are only explored from the perspective of genre tropes (“now that I’m a man I can’t use my feminine wiles!”). In a particularly funny moment, the book displays that it’s written by a cis woman a smidge too prominently: It’s apparently vexing that Benny’s new male body’s bits constantly “bounce around”. While wearing tight leather pants. In case you’re not familiar, I’ll tell you here and now: Such is not the penile experience.
This review undeniably sounds like damning with faint praise (mixed in with a helping of regular damning), but if I’m to be honest, as a trans woman currently battling a particularly lengthy bout of debilitating dysphoria, I was dearly hoping not to have to confront the intricacies of sex and gender today. There’s a time and place for popcorn literature, and mine – listening to an audiobook while moving – was certainly it. I suppose one could’ve wished for a few twists and turns to help the book skirt around being quite so “by the numbers”, but alas.
For once, we have a story that’s infinitely stranger in context than on its own.
July 4, 2017
Well, three stars might be generous, but what the heck.
I read this to fill a gap in the Bernice Summerfield audio series. Early on, Big Finish had this habit of using two different forms of media to continue the adventures of Benny & Co, so to get the whole story, first you'd listen to an audio drama, then the next "episode" might be a book, and then back to an audio drama, etc.
So if you only listened to the audio series (as I initially did), you were probably kind of surprised when Benny was pregnant at the end of Series 2. Unless you'd also been reading the books. Because The Squire's Crystal explains how that happened. (Although she doesn't discover that she's pregnant until another book, which is out of print and quite costly on the secondary market.)
All that to say, that's why I bought this book when it was recently released as an eBook -- to fill the gaps.
And it's . . . not very well written. It's got a rather sloppy prose style and there are some points that seem a bit contrived. It's still a step above Fan Fic, however. But I accept that it's not intended to be anything other than what it is -- tie-in genre fiction.
But you're probably like me: you're reading it because you want to know about this point in Benny's history. And it's surprisingly light and funny and clips along at a good pace. The whole premise of Benny's mind being stuck in a man's body is mined for every possible bit of humor imaginable. Yep, it's a bit bawdy.
I say "surprisingly" funny because I expected that given the aftereffects of this incident, it would be a rather disturbing story. Benny stories seem to be either barking mad (The Greatest Shop in the Galaxy for example) or unsettling and dark (The Draconian Rage). So I was glad this one was on the light side.
Anyway, if you're a completist and must fill in the gaps, this is good for some light-and-funny summer reading.
I read this to fill a gap in the Bernice Summerfield audio series. Early on, Big Finish had this habit of using two different forms of media to continue the adventures of Benny & Co, so to get the whole story, first you'd listen to an audio drama, then the next "episode" might be a book, and then back to an audio drama, etc.
So if you only listened to the audio series (as I initially did), you were probably kind of surprised when Benny was pregnant at the end of Series 2. Unless you'd also been reading the books. Because The Squire's Crystal explains how that happened. (Although she doesn't discover that she's pregnant until another book, which is out of print and quite costly on the secondary market.)
All that to say, that's why I bought this book when it was recently released as an eBook -- to fill the gaps.
And it's . . . not very well written. It's got a rather sloppy prose style and there are some points that seem a bit contrived. It's still a step above Fan Fic, however. But I accept that it's not intended to be anything other than what it is -- tie-in genre fiction.
But you're probably like me: you're reading it because you want to know about this point in Benny's history. And it's surprisingly light and funny and clips along at a good pace. The whole premise of Benny's mind being stuck in a man's body is mined for every possible bit of humor imaginable. Yep, it's a bit bawdy.
I say "surprisingly" funny because I expected that given the aftereffects of this incident, it would be a rather disturbing story. Benny stories seem to be either barking mad (The Greatest Shop in the Galaxy for example) or unsettling and dark (The Draconian Rage). So I was glad this one was on the light side.
Anyway, if you're a completist and must fill in the gaps, this is good for some light-and-funny summer reading.
April 7, 2022
The Squire's Crystal is the third Bernice Summerfield novel from Big Finish and falls between Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Gods of the Underworld and Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Stone's Lament. With the print version long out of print, Big Finish released it as an audiobook download read by Benny herself, Lisa Bowerman. I consumed this novel via the audiobook.
This was surpringly a really good book. Jacqueline Rayner is an excellent writer in the worlds of Doctor Who, and as such produced a wondefully funny adventure. Because it deals with body swaps, I wasn't sure going in if I'd like it. But, it was a fun adventure that was quite funny in places. Definitely not for kids though as it includes Benny's comments on being stuck in a flawless male body, and while funny and not overly graphic, there's enough inferrences that I wouldn't let anyone younger than maybe fifteen or sixteen read this. That said, if you're an adult who enjoys Bernice Summerfield, you might enjoy this novel. Lisa Bowerman does do an excellent job with the narration.
This was surpringly a really good book. Jacqueline Rayner is an excellent writer in the worlds of Doctor Who, and as such produced a wondefully funny adventure. Because it deals with body swaps, I wasn't sure going in if I'd like it. But, it was a fun adventure that was quite funny in places. Definitely not for kids though as it includes Benny's comments on being stuck in a flawless male body, and while funny and not overly graphic, there's enough inferrences that I wouldn't let anyone younger than maybe fifteen or sixteen read this. That said, if you're an adult who enjoys Bernice Summerfield, you might enjoy this novel. Lisa Bowerman does do an excellent job with the narration.
May 19, 2021
Bernice viene contattata dal ragazzo più bello che abbia mai visto, che le dice di avere informazioni sulla “Succhiatrice di Anime”, Avril Fenman, che si riteneva essere una stregona malvagia che grazie ai poteri di un cristallo poteva trasferire la sua mente da un corpo ad un altro. Dopo aver portato morte e distruzione sul suo pianeta, si dice che sia stata infine sconfitta e imprigionata... e il bel Dominic ritiene che il suo sepolcro si trovi proprio sul planetoide della Collezione!
Benny è dubbiosa al riguardo, ma non riesce a dirgli di no, e in caso fosse vero sarebbe la scoperta archeologica del secolo.
Ma a volte le antiche leggende sono vere, e capita che ci si risvegli per scoprire che qualcuno ha preso possesso del proprio corpo. A volte si finisce pure per possedere il corpo di una persona del genere opposto...
Ho adorato questo libro!
La comicità di Benny che si ritrova nel corpo di un uomo (e le tocca pure frenare le avances della fidanzata di lui), il fatto che nessuno si accorga che Benny non è più se stessa, l'incapacità di contattare Brax per spiegargli la situazione fino all'ultimo e altri equivoci vari...
Forse sono dei cliché, ma davvero godibili. Ho preso l'ebook per fare una pausa dagli audiolibri (perché 7 ore di registrazione per volta sono comunque un po' pesanti), e l'ho letto in una sola seduta senza fare pause, vola via che è una bellezza.
L'autrice non cerca neanche di dare una spiegazione pseudo-fantascientifica di quello che sta succedendo. Benny ad un certo punto dice chiaro e tondo: “Sì sì, lo so che non sono cristalli magici e che sicuramente ci sarà qualche stramba spiegazione scientifica dietro, ma chissenefrega”.
Tuttavia non è un film della Disney, e ci sono anche delle gravi conseguenze a causa di tutti questi scambi di corpi, finendo pure con una nota un po' amara.
Benny è dubbiosa al riguardo, ma non riesce a dirgli di no, e in caso fosse vero sarebbe la scoperta archeologica del secolo.
Ma a volte le antiche leggende sono vere, e capita che ci si risvegli per scoprire che qualcuno ha preso possesso del proprio corpo. A volte si finisce pure per possedere il corpo di una persona del genere opposto...
Ho adorato questo libro!
La comicità di Benny che si ritrova nel corpo di un uomo (e le tocca pure frenare le avances della fidanzata di lui), il fatto che nessuno si accorga che Benny non è più se stessa, l'incapacità di contattare Brax per spiegargli la situazione fino all'ultimo e altri equivoci vari...
Forse sono dei cliché, ma davvero godibili. Ho preso l'ebook per fare una pausa dagli audiolibri (perché 7 ore di registrazione per volta sono comunque un po' pesanti), e l'ho letto in una sola seduta senza fare pause, vola via che è una bellezza.
L'autrice non cerca neanche di dare una spiegazione pseudo-fantascientifica di quello che sta succedendo. Benny ad un certo punto dice chiaro e tondo: “Sì sì, lo so che non sono cristalli magici e che sicuramente ci sarà qualche stramba spiegazione scientifica dietro, ma chissenefrega”.
Tuttavia non è un film della Disney, e ci sono anche delle gravi conseguenze a causa di tutti questi scambi di corpi, finendo pure con una nota un po' amara.
September 7, 2018
Some amusing ideas
For some reason, even though I have read books containing the Bernice Summerfield character for very long time, I never thought to read the Big Finish ones. Until now. I am making my way through them in order.
This is my least favourite so far. It doesn’t seem especially well written, the only part I do like is when Burniece inhabits the body of an extremely vain and attractive young man and effectively hold him ransom by threatening to damage it.
Other than that it’s a fairly standard body swap tale, and I even struggled to hear the voices of the characters that I know well from the Bernice audio range, which is a shame.
For some reason, even though I have read books containing the Bernice Summerfield character for very long time, I never thought to read the Big Finish ones. Until now. I am making my way through them in order.
This is my least favourite so far. It doesn’t seem especially well written, the only part I do like is when Burniece inhabits the body of an extremely vain and attractive young man and effectively hold him ransom by threatening to damage it.
Other than that it’s a fairly standard body swap tale, and I even struggled to hear the voices of the characters that I know well from the Bernice audio range, which is a shame.
Read
May 10, 2022This has to be one of my favourite Bernice books, funny and a rollicking read. Poor Bill, I'm glad Bernice set up the Save Bill Society. And poor Avril. She might have done some cruel things, but in the circumstances it's not surprising. Are we such suckers for beauty and physical perfection? Do we still use medieval notions of the outer package reflecting the quality of the soul within? Are we a prisoner to our hormones? Don't worry, the tale isn't so profound as to dwell on such issues, but lightly brushes past them.
April 1, 2023
I was really close to giving this 4 stars because of how engaging and funny it was. But when you take into account what Avril does with Adrian while possessing Bernice's body...it's creepy to think about.
November 5, 2022
This one was nuts! But Jacqueline Rayner is such a good author. Always a good read.
June 28, 2026
Audiobook
October 23, 2020
SOLID.
But I don't understand the ending all that well.
But I don't understand the ending all that well.
April 16, 2017
Decidedly average.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews