There are
indications that The Infinity Race should be a novel catered to me. Simon Messingham’s second and final Eighth
Doctor Adventure takes some of its inspiration from Barbara Clegg’s Enlightement,
a personal favorite, and reads in places as a tribute to certain aspects of
fantasy role playing games of the time.
Sadly, referencing things that a reader may like is not the same as
writing a compelling narrative. To have
a compelling narrative, first you must have a narrative that maintains itself through
the length of the story being told, something that Messingham just does not
do. The Infinity Race is a story
that flits from plot point to plot point, not being content with the initial
setup of a regatta set on a distant ocean planet of “friction-nullifying light
water” in a parallel universe. The
parallel universe aspect of the novel is the weakest plot point, it suffers
from Messingham not using any aspects of a parallel universe story. The fate of humanity in this future is
different, however with the nature of Doctor Who as a franchise that does
not actually mean anything. Instead of
using it to make any connections to our three protagonists, or even to Sabbath,
Messingham keeps it largely a background detail behind everything. That also means that because this is one of
many parallel universes there is a sense that the supporting characters of The
Infinity Race don’t actually matter.
When Messingham finds himself almost bored of the regatta plot, he
introduces the Warlocks (later Warlock) of Demigest, humans changed by a
completely different planet that are on Selonart, that is the ocean planet of
the novel, because they are essentially Sabbath’s MacGuffin. This plot leads to one of the few interesting
scenes for the Doctor here, Messingham doing a decent job of playing with the
Eighth Doctor’s harsher morality, but outside of that he is a background player
in events.
The scenes
where Sabbath does appear, largely contained to the final third of the novel,
are clearly the one regular character Messingham enjoys writing for. When Sabbath is on page there is immediately this
sinister charm added into the scenes, something that has become a standard in
the Eighth Doctor Adventures now that his own arc is taking the forefront, but
he just breathes some life into an otherwise lifeless book. His plan here is nothing special, it almost feels
as if Messingham substituted Sabbath for a different, possibly original villain
of the novel and changed it ever so slightly to fit Sabbath when the commission
confirmed where it would be placed in the range of novels.
The changing
characterization to fit is also what plagues Fitz and Anji as companions. Because the parallel universe plot thread is
not really exploring many of the side characters (although Bloom is at least
intriguing and part of me wonders if the theme with the supporting characters
is naming them after playwrights and literary critics), it is imperative for
Fitz and Anji to at least work. Messingham
at least makes the attempt of getting into their heads by alternating there perspectives
at several points. This should be a slam
dunk for exploring where their mindsets are, and Anji’s perspective gets closest
to this aim, however Messingham is not content from being in their perspective. Instead, The Infinity Race is a novel
that attempts to change from third person limited to first person limited and
back again. This does not work. The first person segments are Fitz and Anji
separately, but the way Messingham writes their internal narration is this similar
over the top style of breaking the fourth wall.
This has a knock on effect of making the prose itself clunky throughout,
meaning that a story already light on plot is quite difficult to actually get
through. By the time you get to the
conclusion, again where things improve by the presence of Sabbath, you’re left with
nothing but this empty feeling that nothing mattered and you took way to long
to get to nothing mattering.
Overall, The
Infinity Race is another of Simon Messingham’s missteps as a novelist. Its best moments are building on the work of
others, mainly the characterization of Sabbath as written by Lawrence Miles,
Justin Richards, and Lloyd Rose specifically and Barbara Clegg’s contribution
to Doctor Who. Everything else
about it feels almost retro fitted into the current arc and characters without
really succeeding. The characters are
all one-note outside of a few select moments and there isn’t much here to
really grasp onto. At least it’s not offensively
bad, but it’s a novel that is difficult to get through because of a lack of focus. 3/10.
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