Benny Summerfield Series Continues

Big Finish has announced the continued exploits of Bernice Summerfield, the character originally created by Paul Cornell for Virgin Publishing's "Doctor Who: The New Adventures" series, spun off into its own line of audios and publications by Big Finish. Among the new items for 2005 are five new audio CD's following the delayed Masquerade of Death this spring; they include The Heart's Desire by David Bailey and Neil Corry, The Kingdom of the Blind by Jacqueline Rayner, The Lost Museum by Simon Guerrier, The Crystal of Cantus by Joseph Lidster and The Goddess Quandary by Andy Russell... which finds Benny Summerfield "confronting some familiar foes from the Doctor Who universe. This time it's... errr... the Monoids in 'The Kingdom of the Blind' and the Cybermen in 'The Crystal of Cantus.'" Monoids! Also, the Benny audio range will be supplemented by three hardcover books, following the same pattern of releases as 2004. The first will be The Tree of Life, a full-length novel by Mark Michalowski. That will be followed by an as yet untitled trilogy of novellas, written by Rebecca Levene, Paul Sutton and Dave Stone with linking material by Gary Russell. Then the last book of 2005 will be a short-story collection entitled Something Changed, edited by Simon Guerrier. Amongst the contributors to this will be Benny's creator Paul Cornell, alongside Joseph Lidster, Dave Stone, Jonathan Clements and making his Big Finish debut, Ben Aaronovitch. Additional authors will be announced later. Looking ahead to 2006, two of the five audios have been confirmed: The Tartarus Gate by Stewart Sheargold and The Dyson Ring by Jim Mortimore. Big Finish has also confirmed that artist Adrian Salmon will continue to provide the cover illustrations for both the books and the audio dramas.