BOOK
Professor Bernice Summerfield
The Big Hunt

Author: Lance Parkin
Big Finish
RRP £14.99
ISBN 1 84435 107 6
Available 27 August 2004


Bernice feels she's entitled to a break. So why won't anyone leave her alone? Before long, she is asked to find an old space artefact, only to crash land on a planet apparently devoid of life. Devoid of life, that is, except for robotic animals, big game hunters and ruthless corporate administrators...

And so Professor Bernice Summerfield returns, at last, to the realm of the novel, though unlike the previous paperback series, they are going to be released in hardback for the foreseeable future. The Big Hunt isn't that big, however, weighing in at less than 170 pages, so I think the price tag of £14.99 is a little steep. Also, why isn't this book called ...and the Big Hunt, as per the usual style of Bernice titles from Big Finish?

But enough of such trivia. The important question is: is the story any good? Well, after a relatively slow start (the book begins with Benny holidaying on a recreational world, only to be dispatched to a different, uncharted, planet when asked to track down a centuries-old space probe), Lance Parkin deals with some fascinating theories about evolution, applying its principles to the development of technology. Benny finds herself in some truly hair-raising situations as she is menaced by killer robots and Alien-style unethical businessmen alike.

In another possible Alien connection, the author seems to have a preoccupation with stripping his leading ladies to their vest and knickers. In the first issue of the Miranda comic, his heroine was beamed up to a spaceship in said undergarments. The very same thing happens to the Professor here.

Fortunately, that is the only context in which I would mention The Big Hunt and "pants" in the same sentence! Pants it isn't... though it is a little brief!

Richard McGinlay

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cover
£10.49 (Amazon.co.uk)

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