Psi-ence Fiction

"If I can imagine it, it must be true."

Writer: Chris Boucher
Format: Novel
Released: September 2001
Series: PDA 41

Featuring: Fourth Doctor, Leela

Synopsis

It's Reading Week at the University of East Wessex, but not everything comes to a stop.

The wood is still haunted. Experiments in telepathy, remote viewing, precognition and other paranormal phenomena continue in the Parapsychology Department. The department heads still think the Kellerfield Research Fellow is out for publicity rather than psychic results. A grisly murder remains unsolved by local police. The students are still holding seances in the graveyard.

When the TARDIS arrives in Norswood, the Doctor and Leela are caught up in events that are spiralling out of control. Leela is chased by a phantom, and the Doctor takes the waters. But soon it isn't just the Parapsychology Department's funding that's in question – it's the whole of existence.

Verdict

Psi-ence Fiction was an outstanding novel! I loved this one from start to finish and it was an absolute joy to read. The opening chapter set the tone in superb style with Chloe being introduced and the atmosphere was set and it never wained. I thought the eery feeling and playing with the theme of parapsychology was wonderful and right up my alley. I couldn't help but feel throughout that the adventure would have made for a terrific horror movie and that is a great compliment. I thought the author nailed the characterisation of both the Fourth Doctor and Leela and that made for an even better read. The setting of the University of East Wessex campus and the nearby Norswood was fantastic and was just perfect for a story concerning mental powers. Some of the characters were excellent with Barry Hitchins, or his full Ghostbuster nickname as Leela was intent on saying every time, was good and having spent four years at two different universities, I couldn't imagine one of my lecturers doing an experiment on me the way that was portrayed here. Maybe that's what they did in the sciences? I didn't get that during my History Bachelor's or Master's! The way the university lifestyle was written was terrific and I thought the group of students that much of the story was centred on was a fine example of capturing what uni life is like. There was the right mix of male and female and the banter and harmless sexual innuendo was very well done. I was a big fan of that. Chloe was a great character and the passages where she was locked in the experiment naked and thinking she was dying with blood poring out of her pores was superb. I was a huge fan of the way Boucher wrote this book with a number of lengthy passages that were just downright creepy, but very informative. The one with Leela in the woods as she saw darkness within darkness and then eventually coming into sight with the TARDIS was fantastic. The Doctor being impacted by the local time disturbance of the multiverse overlap was very fun and I loved that he was often forgetful and not quite being able to remember things. That worked well for the fourth incarnation and I can just imagine Tom Baker would have played that well. The similarities drawn in this book to The Face of Evil and Leela likening the demon to the Tesh were wonderful and a great use of the main characters. She had a really strong outing and the way her getting teased by the Doctor was handled was a big positive. I thought she was lovely with Chloe and her tribal instincts playing a part with the threat in the woods was magnificent. Joan was a good character and the passages with the ouija board were great! I was taken aback by her suicide though and the police investigation that followed and tying in with a death in the woods six years previously was very good. It tied in nicely and we soon learned that Finder was the true villain of the story. The disturbances were caused by his efforts to go back in time and stop himself from killing his daughter in anger. That was very powerful and the need for a psychic was intriguing. Josh Randall being the one that was showing heightened powers and the subtlety with how the Doctor found out was really good. His dealing with the water that was given away freely at the university was also very fun and he was convinced throughout that there was something more to it, except that he ended up getting drugged by the bottle rather than its actual contents. That was a lot of fun. I thought the conclusion with the Doctor being thrown through time but the machine Finder had concocted not having the stabiliser that the TARDIS did was very well done and combining it with what Leela was seeing in the darkness was fantastic. The TARDIS actually saving the day worked very well and tied in very nicely with how she chose to land there at the start which I thought was really good. The fact that it ended up change the timeline and the events of the story technically never having existed was very good and the little epilogue passage of sorts with all of the students together again was very nice. The way darkness was used and the adult language gave credence to the story as a whole and the university setting which I was very much a fan of. Overall, this was just a joy from start to finish!

Rating: 10/10