Candy Jar The Schizoid Earth A Lethbridge-Stewart Adventure

Author	David A. MacIntee
ISBN#	0 993 32211 5
Published	2015
Cover	Nathan Hudson and Adrian Salmon

Synopsis: Lethbridge-Stewart was supposed to be in the mountains of the east, but things didn't quite go according to plan. On the eve of war, something appeared in the sky; a presence that blotted out the moon. Now it has returned, and no battle plan can survive first contact with this enemy. Why do the ghosts of fallen soldiers still fight long-forgotten battles against living men? What is the secret of the rural English town of Deepdene? Lethbridge-Stewart has good reason to doubt his own sanity, but is he suffering illness or injury, or is something more sinister going on? Plagued by nightmares of being trapped in a past that never happened, Lethbridge-Stewart must unravel the mystery of a man ten years out of his time; a man who cannot possibly still exist.

• A Review by Steve White

A Review by Steve White 30/12/18

Before we start with the review, it would be helpful for future readers to know the history of this era of the range. The Schizoid Earth was meant to be Book 3, not Book 2. Book 2 was due to be The Horror of Det-Sen by Lance Parkin, but sadly he had to pull out. This left things in disarray, and, as a subscriber, I got various apologetic e-mails until finally the decision was made to bring The Schizoid Earth forward, and have range editor Andy Frankham-Allen hastily write a replacement. Things were not quite that simple though, and author David McIntee had personal issues, which delayed The Schizoid Earth even further and probably resulted in him releasing a book he wasn't happy with, which is alluded to in the author notes.

Issues aside, I am going to review this book based on its own merit. I adore David McIntee's regular work but am not going to say The Schizoid Earth is a great book, when it isn't. Likewise, whilst I'm sympathetic to Candy Jar Books and Andy Frankham-Allen for having Lance Parkin pull out, I'm not going to let that stop me from being harsh where needed.

So Lethbridge-Stewart should have been going to Det-Sen monastery, probably to investigate the Great Intelligence some more, but - due to Lance Parkin pulling out - he never got there, and this is quite nicely referenced in the book by having Lethbridge-Stewart vanish on a plane trip to Det-Sen. He wakes up in a sleepy English village of Deepdene, but things are not quite as they seem, and it soon becomes clear he is far from England. Meanwhile, soldiers are found believing they are fighting wars that ended years ago, and it's up to Anne and Edward Travers to help investigate this.

The Schizoid Earth really is a book of two halves, and the first half is really poor. The story flicks from one plotline to another, and this confuses you more than it needs to. You have what is happening to Lethbridge-Stewart going on; the people investigating what's happened to Lethbridge-Stewart; Anne and Edward's investigation into the past soldiers; and random bits you don't have a clue about. I'll be honest and say I struggled with this novel at this point but persevered.

Luckily, the second half more than makes up for the first, as Lethbridge-Stewart's and the random bits are merged, the people investigating Lethbridge-Stewart's disappearance just vanish, and the Travers are kept to a minimum. At this point, it becomes clear that Lethbridge-Stewart isn't in his own time and is in fact in a parallel universe, supposedly the one from Inferno. Here James, Lethbridge-Stewart's dead brother from The Forgotten Son, is still alive and kicking, and it's Alistair who died when they were young. The two then have to work out their differences and launch a daring escape whilst also stopping people from sending the soldiers forward in time and across universes. I'll be honest and say the plot is fairly thin, but it works if you go with it.

Onto the characters then, and as you'd expect Lethbridge-Stewart is done very well indeed. He gets to play action hero, which you can just see Nicholas Courtney getting behind and enjoying every second of. Lethbridge-Stewart does, however, get drugged, and these bits are a bit less enjoyable.

James Lethbridge-Stewart is also done exceedingly well, and he is essentially Lethbridge-Stewart of the parallel universe. His initial apprehension at Alistair's claims to be his brother and his progression to helping him escape is done very well indeed. My only niggle with James, however, is that if indeed it is the same universe as Inferno, he should be dead, as Alistair features heavily in that serial so obviously wasn't the one to die. It's really is a minor niggle, though, as these bits make the novel. Whilst we are talking about the parallel universe, Marianne Kyle is featured, who appears in the Past Doctor Adventure The Face of the Enemy. It's a nice link, and she is a really strong character and helped to make the second half of the novel as good as it was.

When we take a step back to our reality, things get less positive. Anne and Edward Travers' inclusion is nice, but they don't have a very strong story to back them. They are essentially just hunting soldiers out of time, but these bits are not well written, as you rarely see anything other than the aftermath. Anne is integral to the range in future novels, but here she plays second fiddle to her father, who is as he is on TV. Just like in The Forgotten Son, the military men have no identity other than names. As Lethbridge-Stewart's investigations are all hush-hush, a journalist is sent to look into his disappearance, and for some reason it's not Harold Chorley, which makes little sense seeing as he is a huge part of the future range. The journalist we do get, Larry Greene, is as you'd expect, but his investigation is dull to say the least and goes absolutely nowhere.

I ended up really enjoying the novel, despite almost chucking it in, and I'm sure that given more time David McIntee would have delivered a far more polished affair. Sadly, the first half really lets the novel down, so much so that I can see lots of readers just giving up. So far, the range hasn't really delivered for me, but there is still time and The Schizoid Earth does shows a marked improvement from The Forgotten Son, especially in its latter half.

5/10