Faction Paradox novels

[rulandor]

Today my first Faction Paradox novel arrived (Of the City of the Saved by Philip Purser-Hallard). As it is increasingly difficult to buy these books for reasonable prices: are there other titles that those of you with a better knowledge of all things Who and Faction Paradox would recommend I read before Of the City of the Saved?

Also, I am increasingly interested in the fascinating concepts of the Time Lord Chapter Houses Prydon, Acalia and Patrex and the Great Houses of Gallifrey. As these seem to be more or less a subject matter of the Extended Universe, any recommendations for my reading or perhaps Audio list?

[misterharry]

The 8th Doctor novel Alien Bodies is Faction Paradox's first appearance and is an excellent book, so you may want to read that first to get the basic concept of Faction Paradox. Also perhaps, Interference (which is split into two books). Otherwise, I'm not sure that you need any others before tackling Of the City of the Saved - I think it's the first appearance of the City itself, so there's no previous knowledge required for that. The only thing is that is does feature various versions of Compassion, one of the 8th Doctor's companions from the BBC novels - you'd need a separate reading list to catch up on her:

SPOILER: Click to show

She's introduced in Interference and during the course of the following few books is transformed into the first living, humanoid TARDIS before leaving in Ancestor Cell.

As for other recommendations, I haven't yet read any of the more recent Faction Paradox titles from Obverse Books, but I'd recommend Lance Parkin's Warlords of Utopia (from Mad Norwegian Press) which pitches the Roman Empire against the Third Reich. And of the audios, the Magic Bullet series is excellent, though it forms a serial so you can't just pick and choose one or two titles.

However, I'm far from an expert on Faction Paradox (in fact, I think it's a tad overrated as a concept and too obtuse at times, perhaps deliberately), so others may advise differently.

[Marnal]

The Book of the War is the single best starting point for Faction Paradox and The City of the Saved info. Its also rapidly becoming the single most expensive starting point.

Alien Bodies is great intro, as is Unnatural History.

The BBV audio serials tell a nice big story. The Magic Bullet serial tells a different nice big story with the same character dealing with Sutek the Osirian.

There was a really nice website that can be found in the Wayback machine.
web.archive.org/web/20060704213349/http://factionparadox.co.uk/homepage.htm

[rulandor]

Thanks for the advice, guys. Just ordered a used copy of Alien Bodies for a barely reasonable price. The Book of the War or Unnatural History are out of any acceptable price range.

Some Mad Norwegian Press titles are still available on Amazon.uk. What I am not sure of: whether I can buy and watch/listen to/ read UK Video and Audio Downloads or Kindle books in Germany. Have to try.

Curious to see whether I am really going to like these stories. I became interested in them because of some underlying conceptual similarity to my Docter Who RPG campaign. It is a "no Time War" campaign with the Houses of Gallifrey in a war in heaven against some sinister cosmic enemy, the Darklords. So perhaps the Faction Paradox stories will lend themselves to some inspiration for that.

In case you are interested: I had an interesting experiment in this campaign. The players learned at some time that their characters are not anymore the original characters they created, but identical, mind-changed copies made by the TARDIS of Time Lady Professor Gran. And whoops, they accepted this and went along! Their copies are still working on Earth for UNIT, while the originals are slowly rehabilitating somewhere in the care of UNIT's Cassandra programme. The poor guys had looked into the Untempered Schism/beyond the End of Time/into the business end of a Black Hole Generator, while Professor Gran fought Darklord Ra Kendon through time and space. Perhaps the Originals might get back into play in the City of the Saved ...

[Corone]

I must admit I found 'City of the Saved' really hard going,
but 'This town will never let us go' was awesome.

Book of the War is a great companion volume to anything in the setting,
but starting to become rarer than a Dune Encyclopedia1

The audio dramas are, for me, the best starting point as they detail the Eleven Day Empire a little.
If you can find the comics they are great, but but there is only the first 2 parts of a story we'll never see the end of.

The saddest thing about the series is that it ended up in the hands of several writers who all had a different idea about what to do with it in the BBC novels.
It becomes a virus at one point, which I found rather dissapointing.

[Marnal]

Did you check out the archived FP website? Lots of good info there.

Sorry about the price of The Book of the War. I'll pester the publisher and see if there's any chance of digital re-release.

[rulandor]

Mar 1, 2017 23:28:26 GMT Marnal said:

Did you check out the archived FP website? Lots of good info there.

Sorry about the price of The Book of the War. I'll pester the publisher and see if there's any chance of digital re-release.

I have started reading it. Indeed quite interesting stuff!

A digital re-release of The Book of the War would be great. Or perhaps Obverse could be interested in acquiring the licence from Mad Norwegian Press?

[koloth]

I've finished Weapons Grade Snake Oil and it's very good. Highly recommended.

[rulandor]

My used, but supposedly very good preserved copy of Alien Bodies is en route. I think I am going to read that first, before tackling Of the City of the Damned.

[misterharry]

Mar 1, 2017 23:28:26 GMT Marnal said:

Sorry about the price of The Book of the War. I'll pester the publisher and see if there's any chance of digital re-release.

Mad Norwegian Press were asked about the possibility of an ebook release of The Book of the War a couple of years ago. Unfortunately, it was written by about a dozen different contributors and none of their contracts included the option of an ebook publication (it was published back in 2002 when such things weren't done). So the response at that time was that it's unlikely ever to happen as it would be too much hassle to sort out.

[Marnal]

Ah, thanks for the heads up. I'll quite pestering the publisher.

[misterharry]

Mar 6, 2017 16:04:39 GMT Marnal said:

Ah, thanks for the heads up. I'll quite pestering the publisher.

Well, it's always worth asking them - if they get enough requests, they may realise there's sufficient demand for an electronic edition to make it worth while for them to get the rights sorted.

[Null and Void]

For more recent books, both Head of State and Weapon's Grade Snake Oil are great. They are Available from Obverse books. I've been working my way through the City of the Saved Anthologies. Against Nature was .... weird, and dense, and hard to read. But had some fascinating concepts in it.

The Book of the Enemy should be out in January

[Null and Void]

For anyone who is interested, Obverse Books now has the Faction Paradox Novel "Spinning Jenny" by Dale Smith available, and the just released anthology The Book of the Enemy.

Also, for us Faction fans, I found this nifty little crossover work:
www.jameswylder.com/blog/rachel-survived-a-20th-anniversary-crossover

James Wylder crosses over his works with characters from Andrew Hickey's Faction Novel 'Head of State' for a celebration of Faction Paradox's 20th anniversary.