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Bernice Summerfield Novels #5
Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Glass Prison
Don't ever annoy the Fifth Axis. They might throw you into the Glass Prison on Deirbhile and then throw away the key. Once you're inside, there's nowhere to hide. They can see your every movement. They control you. You're going to be watched for the rest of your life, wherever you go, whoever you are. Even if you're a professor of archaeology. Even if you're a friend of the famous Irving Braxiatel, and you've written several popular coffee-table books. Even if you're pregnant, and your baby's due any day now. But, of course, they know all about your baby. And they're planning to take it away. That is, unless the loony cultists you're locked up with don't get it first.
176 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2005
About the author
Jacqueline Rayner
134 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 - 7 of 7 reviews
October 31, 2022
This is another brilliant effort from Jaqueline Rayner, mostly taking place in the eponymous prison. The tone is a mix of surprising lightness and unflinching horror, with a lot of character development for Bernice. Lisa Bowerman’s reading is once again so spirited you won’t want to pause.
May 19, 2021
Bernice è stata catturata dal Quinto Asse ed è stata incarcerata nella Prigione di Vetro di Deirbhile, una prigione completamente trasparente in cui si è costantemente osservati, e dalla quale nessuno uscirà più per il resto della loro vita.
Benny non ha alcuna speranza di uscire: i suoi amici non sanno dove si trova, e il Quinto Asse non avrà nessuna pietà per lei, neanche considerando il fatto che è incinta e prossima a partorire.
Infatti, sanno perfettamente del bambino, e pianificano di portarglielo via, mentre una setta è convinta, secondo un'antica profezia, che sia la chiave per la salvezza del loro pianeta.
Se il primo libro scritto dalla Ranyer, The Squire's Crystal, è caratterizzato da una certa leggerezza e scorrevolezza, questo è decisamente più pesante nei temi.
Si parte con Bernice che è già incarcerata, da qualche settimana almeno, e vengono dati solo brevi flashbacks per farci capire come si è trovata in quella situazione.
Vengono descritte le difficoltà che deve affrontare in questo posto disumano, ma è il senso di impotenza in cui lei si ritrova che rende tutto molto deprimente.
Anche in prigione Benny non è esente dai guai: una setta è convinta che il suo bambino sarà una sorta di salvatore (e quindi cercano di salvaguardarla), ma dall'altra parte qualcuno sta cercando di ucciderla. Per non parlare dei piani che il Quinto Asse potrebbe avere in serbo per lei (e per la galassia).
Nella seconda metà si smuovono un po' le acque (scusate la battuta), e le cose iniziano a farsi più interessanti. Il finale è per contrasto un'apoteosi di ottimismo e speranza per il futuro.
Uno splendido happy end per questa stagione, che va quasi a ricordare il matrimonio di Benny e Jason (appunto in Happy Endings, di Paul Cornell), con un sacco di vecchie facce che compaiono per un cameo, e altre che non possono essere nominate ma solo vagamente omaggiate.
Finendo in questa nota positiva, tutti felici e contenti, mi viene quasi voglia di finirla qui per evitarmi tutto il dramma e il dolore che arriverà sicuramente nelle prossime stagioni.
Quasi.
Benny non ha alcuna speranza di uscire: i suoi amici non sanno dove si trova, e il Quinto Asse non avrà nessuna pietà per lei, neanche considerando il fatto che è incinta e prossima a partorire.
Infatti, sanno perfettamente del bambino, e pianificano di portarglielo via, mentre una setta è convinta, secondo un'antica profezia, che sia la chiave per la salvezza del loro pianeta.
Se il primo libro scritto dalla Ranyer, The Squire's Crystal, è caratterizzato da una certa leggerezza e scorrevolezza, questo è decisamente più pesante nei temi.
Si parte con Bernice che è già incarcerata, da qualche settimana almeno, e vengono dati solo brevi flashbacks per farci capire come si è trovata in quella situazione.
Vengono descritte le difficoltà che deve affrontare in questo posto disumano, ma è il senso di impotenza in cui lei si ritrova che rende tutto molto deprimente.
Anche in prigione Benny non è esente dai guai: una setta è convinta che il suo bambino sarà una sorta di salvatore (e quindi cercano di salvaguardarla), ma dall'altra parte qualcuno sta cercando di ucciderla. Per non parlare dei piani che il Quinto Asse potrebbe avere in serbo per lei (e per la galassia).
Nella seconda metà si smuovono un po' le acque (scusate la battuta), e le cose iniziano a farsi più interessanti. Il finale è per contrasto un'apoteosi di ottimismo e speranza per il futuro.
Uno splendido happy end per questa stagione, che va quasi a ricordare il matrimonio di Benny e Jason (appunto in Happy Endings, di Paul Cornell), con un sacco di vecchie facce che compaiono per un cameo, e altre che non possono essere nominate ma solo vagamente omaggiate.
Finendo in questa nota positiva, tutti felici e contenti, mi viene quasi voglia di finirla qui per evitarmi tutto il dramma e il dolore che arriverà sicuramente nelle prossime stagioni.
Quasi.
August 24, 2017
Eh. I mean . . . it's okay?
Of course, it's a necessary chapter in the ongoing saga, given that it features the birth of Peter (I hope that's not a spoiler. I figure by now everyone knew that). But the circumstances surrounding his birth are violent and disturbing. Benny is captured and incarcerated by the Fifth Axis, placed in a prison made of glass -- a sort of alien version of a Panopticon, although that aspect of it which should be a major part of the story feels glossed over.
There's a cult operating in the prison which believes that Benny's child is part of some great prophecy. There's also a Fifth Axis invasion ready to roll, and Benny wants to make sure that the information gets out to warn the galaxy.
The basic elements here should add up to an interesting story, but unfortunately, it really seems to drag for about three-quarters of the book.
The closing bits are nice, though. Rescued the rest of the book. I'm glad it finally got re-released so I could read it. But . . . it's probably for completists only.
Of course, it's a necessary chapter in the ongoing saga, given that it features the birth of Peter (I hope that's not a spoiler. I figure by now everyone knew that). But the circumstances surrounding his birth are violent and disturbing. Benny is captured and incarcerated by the Fifth Axis, placed in a prison made of glass -- a sort of alien version of a Panopticon, although that aspect of it which should be a major part of the story feels glossed over.
There's a cult operating in the prison which believes that Benny's child is part of some great prophecy. There's also a Fifth Axis invasion ready to roll, and Benny wants to make sure that the information gets out to warn the galaxy.
The basic elements here should add up to an interesting story, but unfortunately, it really seems to drag for about three-quarters of the book.
The closing bits are nice, though. Rescued the rest of the book. I'm glad it finally got re-released so I could read it. But . . . it's probably for completists only.
June 22, 2023
I wasn't a fan of how the baby was conceived, but I like how this novel dealt with the pregnancy. Some aspects felt like a soap opera, but it somehow did not bother me. It might have even made me focus more?
April 1, 2020
Benny is in a glass prison, held by cultists who want her baby.
June 5, 2025
★★★☆☆ – Good!
The Glass Prison is a Jacqueline Rayner novel, through and through. It has a light touch (despite its heavy subject matter), it’s eminently funny, and it’s decidedly more about its characters than its concepts. Make no mistake – despite an eponymous location that smacks of “high concept” as much as a “glass prison”, the ramifications of this odd setting aren’t explored so much as used as a source of emotional turmoil for the characters: Characters which, thanks to Rayner’s effortlessly human style,* are always immediately relatable; never impenetrable.
Exploring Bernice Summerfield’s pregnancy and labor, you would expect this novel to be a profoundly angst-inducing affair – and it does seem like something Rayner aims for! But she isn’t an author who writes spiraling psychological narratives: She writes fast-paced, (non-derogatorily) digestible, intuitive stories. When Bernice Summerfield worries whether her baby is truly hers or not (it’s some science fiction mumbo and/or jumbo), you never wonder on which side she’ll come down in the end – though that meshes with the tone of the rest of the book.
As nestled in my heart, Jacqueline Rayner is a comfort author. You get a good story, you’re never bored, and you aren’t too challenged. It’s the ultimate refinement of the “popcorn literature” that you expect a licensed novel to be. That’s not to say that she can’t write in a higher register – but I wouldn’t imagine that’s the mission statement here. Rayner writes quintessential Bernice Summerfield – she has a pitch-perfect grasp on her sarcastic, messy character, while assiduously maintaining the reader’s emotional connection to her. Of course, by virtue of her being one of the few female writers who consistently get work in the Doctor Who extended universe, you suffer no risk of running into chauvinism in her writing, and as a bonus, this particular novel centers on a cast of nigh-exclusively female characters – a breath of fresh air.
An odd feature of this novel is the passive nature of its plot – Summerfield and her gang are profoundly reactive.
If you, like me, are interested in immersing yourself in Bernice Summerfield as a franchise, this novel is a key inflection point. It chronicles the birth of her son, who goes on to be an important character in his own right, it’s another step in Bernice’s perennial will-they-again-won’t-they-again relationship with her (ex-!!!)husband Jason Kane, and it features a new angle on Rayner’s own pet alien species, the fact-obsessed, tentacle-faced, and deeply tickling (as in amusing, not with their tentacles, I— oh, forget it) Grel. It may also offer you some consolation as to why Bernice Surprise Summerfield’s son has a name as exasperatingly prosaic as “Peter”.
The audiobook version adds the value of Lisa Bowerman’s brilliant performance – who knew she had such a range of voices?
* Have you listened to Doctor Who and the Pirates?
March 12, 2023
An interesting idea, a prison with no solid walls, with nowhere to hide from guards or fellow prisoners (apart from the loo, apparently). Another tale of the on-going battle against the Fifth Axis and the conclusion to Bernice's surprise pregnancy. There's a seemingly happy ending, with matters to be fully resolved between Adrian and Jason, and even Avril/Bill gets to put in an appearance.
Ms Rayner may not at the time of writing the book have had the 'fun' of pregnancy and childbirth, but she has done her homework, unlike one particular audio author!
So who did cause the 'prophecy', and why is the future filled with so many crackpot belief systems?
Ms Rayner may not at the time of writing the book have had the 'fun' of pregnancy and childbirth, but she has done her homework, unlike one particular audio author!
So who did cause the 'prophecy', and why is the future filled with so many crackpot belief systems?
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews