Dragons' Wrath

Bernice Summerfield: Virgin New Adventures #2

by Justin Richards

Are the Knights of Jeneve more than legend? Why is the warlord Nusek so desperate to secure Benny's services? In a world of secret societies, concealed motives and overly elaborate executions, Benny must divine the truth behind the propaganda--or become a footnote in the chronicles of a maniac's rise to power.

Genres: Doctor Who, Fiction, Science Fiction

247 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Justin Richards is a British writer. He has written many spin off novels based on the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who, and he is Creative Director for the BBC Books range. He has also written for television, contributing to Five's soap opera Family Affairs. He is also the author of a series of crime novels for children about the Invisible Detective, and novels for older children. His Doctor Who novel The Burning was placed sixth in the Top 10 of SFX magazine's "Best SF/Fantasy novelisation or TV tie-in novel" category of 2000.

Reviews

[April Mccaffrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVED THIS BOOK SO MUCH.

Oh boy, where to start?

The book kills me in the beginning for if anybody knows Braxiatel's history, Dragon's Wrath takes place right after the audios-Gallifrey; Disassembled and here we are, seeing Braxiatel away from Romana, Narvin and Leela, 'lost'on Dellah and at a crime scene when he bumps into Benny.

I loved the full scale of history and archaeology in this and the talks of the Eastern and Western dragons and what really went on with the Knights. I also liked the different types of characters he introduced like Mastrov and Webbe who despised each other but worked together for the sake of Nusek.

The early development of Braxiatel's and Benny friendship was wonderful to read. Even if Brax wasn't sure at first if she was a friend, he relaxed with her at ease and the two had a lot in common despite their completely different backgrounds and time-lines. I also loved how similar Braxiatel could be to the Doctor in this book too-there were many parts especially towards the end when they got captured and Brax wondered off down an more interesting corridor to be greeted by the end of a blaster really reminded me of the eleventh doctor behaviour and it was wonderful to see how similar yet how different they were, given the fact they are brothers.

Justin Richards writing in this made the readers feel really engaged with the book and was most disappointed I had finished it so soon.

5/5

[Jacob Licklider · Rating 4 out of 5]

While the Virgin New Adventures went on past The Dying Days with Bernice Summerfield, it no longer felt like the same range simply because of the protagonist change and the inaugural book in the range, Oh No It Isn’t!, while brilliant, felt incredibly stand alone which made it feel less like the start to a new series and story arc and more like just a special release to see if people would actually continue reading. The second installment, Dragon’s Wrath, while also standalone actually feels more like some character progression is happening and features the return of one character to actually build a character relationship which sets up a lot of what’s going to be happening in future books. Justin Richards pens a tale fully embracing the archeologist nature of Bernice Summerfield as a character, as she is tasked with finding the Gamalian Dragon, a statue from a conqueror of many galaxies. One small problem, the Gamalian Dragon seems to be in Benny’s bag already. And there’s been a murder at St. Oscar’s, of a man who had a rare appointment with one Irving Braxiatel. Setting the book up like this means that Richards can take control of where the range is going and reintroduce audiences to Braxiatel and his chess playing ways. Interestingly, in the audio adaptation from Big Finish Productions, Irving Braxiatel is written out, which makes the adaptation make no sense and barely resemble the book.

The audio adaptation seems to be more readily available as it has been in print for over twenty years and just recently been made available on download, but those who have listened to it perhaps doesn’t have an understanding of what Dragon’s Wrath is. It’s the starting point for the rest of the series: Benny goes on an adventure and gets swept up in a conspiracy to unravel historical truths. Richards’ writes a story where the whole point is examining a period of history and revealing it for the actual truth. The highlight of this book is the interplay between Benny and Braxiatel, a character Richards created for Theatre of War and grew to be one of the more popular Doctor Who spin-off characters after this book. In the Doctor Who books, outside of his introduction, Braxiatel only appeared in The Empire of Glass and Happy Endings prior to this. As with Theatre of War, Braxiatel was responsible for much of the plot occurring and resolving: throughout this book he’s the one nudging Benny in the correct direction based on his own suspicions. Brax is a character who is always one step ahead, but importantly he is charming and keeps bringing Benny closer. Benny, on the other hand, is wrapped up in unraveling the mystery around her. She’s still trying to get over her divorce to Jason and has a slight crush on Nicholas Clyde, a professor of history who accompanies her to see and examine the Dragon. Benny as detective is also an excellent angle to take her character, as the book makes it feel like she is using this expedition as a distraction from everything else going on in her life which allows Richards to really explore her psyche.

This isn’t to say that Dragon’s Wrath isn’t without its problems: it drags quite a bit throughout the middle section and there are points which could be trimmed down here and there, but overall it’s a book which really sets the Benny series in motion. The villain, Romolo Nusek, is an interesting character, but there is a character shift that wasn’t quite there right at the beginning where he is introduced as trying to uncover his family history. There could have been more done to make him either an effective twist villain or an outright villain from the start, as Richards doesn’t really decide if it’s supposed to be a twist. The murder mystery plot also feels just a bit half baked overall, as it almost is just a starting point to get Benny and Braxiatel to have that first conversation which of course is great, but it doesn’t quite connect. The ending, however, is perfect and there is this sense of doom that there will be repercussions to what Brax has done here. 7/10.

[Finlay O'Riordan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish I could give it 3.5 rather than 3 to be honest, but it's definitely not quite at that 4 out of 5 mark sadly.

Overall, this book was up and down for me. It certainly has its moments. Braxiatel's first meeting with Benny in particular is quite uncanny given everything that will go down between them over the following 25 years, and we also, of course, have a scene featuring Benny drinking. It wouldn't be a Summerfield story without one!

The first half is definitely slower than the second. I had to really stick with the book and give it a chance before the drama and action picked up around the middle of it and when Benny gets back to Dellah.

The aforementioned first half sees Benny spending most of her time playing second fiddle on an expedition which I'm not even sure why she is so invested in. She kind of ends up pushed into it so I struggled to get on board with any of her choices or actions throughout the book purely because I just didn't feel she had much motive to be involved in any of it.

But, as I said, the second half does pick up in terms of pacing and drama. The stand-off at the Inquiry was great and I like how the Steggies aren't just forgotten about, and there's also Nusek and Mastrov doing their bad guy thing. Though sadly, the quality dips again in the conclusion, which mostly consists of info-dumping dialogue throwing too much information at you rather than properly answering any of the burning questions.

I really like the theme of future history as well. The book is set in the 26th century and discusses the 200-300ish years before that in the same way we would the 18th or 19th centuries. It's pretty fun to have that kind of framing and context and easily comprehensible, which is not always the case for many Doctor Who books, or Sci-Fi books in general.

[Julia]

A Benny viene offerta una spedizione per ritrovare il famoso Drago Gamaliano da uno dei discendenti del proprietario originario, che vuole usarlo per reclamare il suo diritto a governare quel settore. Ma il mistero si infittisce quando Benny si trova tra le mani una copia di quel drago e uno dei suoi colleghi viene trovato morto ai piedi del Dipartimento di Teatrologia, diretto guarda caso da Irving Braxiatel.
La versione audio omette la presenza di Braxiatel e, dato che lui è molto centrale nel libro, alcune delle sue parti vengono date a un personaggio che originariamente era secondario. Dato che la scena in cui Brax incontra per la prima volta Benny è stata poi adattata alla fine di Gallifrey: Disassembled, dopo che Brax è caduto in un portale spazio-temporale, si può considerare il libro come direttamente successivo a quella storia, mentre l’audio è quello che sarebbe successo in una timeline alternativa. (La vita di Irving è molto wibbly wobbly, questo è solo la punta dell’iceberg…).
Quindi anche se l’audio è bello, consiglio di più il libro.

[Nicholas Whyte · Rating 3 out of 5]

https://fromtheheartofeurope.eu/dragons-wrath-by-justin-richards/

Usually his writing is accessible and enjoyable, so I’m sorry to report that I somewhat bounced off this, the second of the independent Bernice Summerfield novels. It’s a story about a historical artefact which appears to exist in several duplicate forms, but the format kept shifting from strange dig to heist to detective novel to courtroom drama, and I felt too much was being put in without enough explanation of what was going on. A rare miss for me, for both author and series.

[Louise · Rating 3 out of 5]

A rather fun read involving conspiracy and intrigue as Bernice is tasked to obtain a draconic artefact. Also the first introduction of Braxiatael to this universe, and his dynamic with Bernice is good.

[Christy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This took some CAREFUL reading because I was confused half the way through. But I love a book with a lot of Braxiatel time! This was good.

[Leela42]

I just couldn't get into it, the writing was too bad. It's a shame, as I read a detailed outline and the plot developments sound mostly interesting even if the plot itself is trite. Braxiatel gets quite a bit of exposure.