Conundrum (Lyons novel)

Conundrum

Author	Steve Lyons
Cover artist	Jeff Cummins
Series	Doctor Who book: Virgin New Adventures
Release number	22
Subject	Featuring: Seventh Doctor Ace, Bernice
Publisher	Virgin Books
Publication date	January 1994
ISBN	0-426-20408-5
Preceded by	The Left-Handed Hummingbird
Followed by	No Future

Conundrum is an original novel written by Steve Lyons and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who . It features the Seventh Doctor, Ace and Bernice. ^[1] A prelude to the novel, also penned by Lyons, appeared in Doctor Who Magazine #208. This novel is the fourth book in the "Alternate Universe cycle" which continues until No Future .

Plot

What seems to be a simple murder investigation in a quiet English village becomes something far more deadly for the Seventh Doctor and his companions when the inhabitants begin to exhibit superhero abilities...

Continuity

• Conundrum features the Land of Fiction first seen in the 1968 television serial The Mind Robber . Lyons' later New Adventure Head Games is a sequel to this novel and also relates to the Land of Fiction.
• This novel is effectively written in the first person by Jason, the Master of the Land of Fiction. This enables metafictional concepts; for instance, he grows frustrated that he finds it impossible to read the Doctor's mind, a reference to the New Adventures guideline that the books should not show what the Doctor is thinking.
• This novel features the second occasion in which the Doctor manages to repair the TARDIS's chameleon circuit, the previous occasion being the Sixth Doctor story Attack of the Cybermen . Although technically this is not the same TARDIS.

References

1. Wolverson, E.G. "Conundrum". Doctor Who Reviews. Retrieved 17 November 2014.