Godengine, 1996, Craig Hinton
One of the hardest charges to defend the “New Adventures” line against is that the books were overly obsessed with fanwank and continuity porn. And, brother, this book is like the King Daddy of Doctor Who fanwank. Not only does it take place during the events of “The Dalek Invasion of Earth” (but without the Daleks ever actually putting in an appearance, thanks to the magic of copyright), but at least in part the novel attempts to reconcile all the various different Mars based stories and enemies that appeared during the run of the original series, most notably in the case of the Ice Warriors and the Osirians.
Despite all that, it’s actually pretty good, with a crisp plot and engaging characterization. Even if having a Who reference guide handy while you read it might be a good idea.
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I believe the late Mr Hinton is often credited with having coined the word ‘Fanwank’. Not sure that would stand up to OED scrutiny though.
GodEngine is so full of stupid fannish shit it kind of bends right round the rubbish horizon and ends up being quite fun.
I was once told that this period of Doctor Who…existence (I call it “the interregnum”) was the Golden Age because the fans were truly in charge and could focus on what was important — which, apparently, meant that what was important was coming up with elaborate explanations for why this episode seems to contradict that one and how Susan couldn’t possibly actually be the Doctor’s granddaughter.
It has always been, for me, a quintessential representation of typical fandom.
It’s about this point that I found it impossible to find the books anymore as Virgin saw the writing on the wall. Never even seen copies of GodEngine, The Room With No Doors or Eternity Weeps anywhere in the past 13 years, although I did pay too much for Lungbarrow a couple of years ago and read The Dying Days a week after it was released, thanks to my local library at the time.
The BBC eighth Doctor books seem to be drying up now as well, but I was never as obsessive over them as I was over the NAs.
As for the fanwank factor, there have been so many Doctor Who novels and audios that have given in to the fetish since the NA days, the wank in the Virgin books seems almost quaintly naive….