All-Consuming Fire
| File:All-Consuming Fire.JPG | |
| Author | Andy Lane |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | |
| Cover artist | Jeff Cummins |
| Series | Doctor Who book: Virgin New Adventures |
Release number | 27 |
| Subject | Featuring: Seventh Doctor Ace, Benny |
| Publisher | Virgin Books |
Publication date | June 1994 |
| Pages | 304 |
| ISBN | 0-426-20415-8 Search this book on  . |
| Preceded by | Theatre of War |
| Followed by | Blood Harvest |
All-Consuming Fire is a novel written by Andy Lane and the 27th entry in the Virgin New Adventures, a series based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. The novel is a crossover with Arthur Conan Doyle's fictional detective Sherlock Holmes and also with H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos.
Plot[edit]
The novel is framed as a book within a book, the majority of the story narrated by Dr. Watson.
On the request of Pope Leo XIII, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson investigate the theft of several books from the Library of St John the Beheaded, a secret Catholic library in England. One person on their list of suspects is the Doctor, who claims that the books were stolen to stop him from reading them, so they start working together to solve the case. The Doctor and Watson visit another suspect, but she spontaneously combusts when she recites words from one of the books. Holmes sees a fight to the death between dogs and a strange reptilian creature.
Sherlock's brother Mycroft summons Sherlock and Watson to the Diogenes Club. He informs them that most of the people on their list are members of the club, including Baron Maupertius, who is already suspected of shady business dealings. Sherlock and Watson follow Maupertius and eavesdrop on a conversation between him, a hooded companion, and a medium. They are caught and flee, hailing a cab which already contains the Doctor. They return to the library and meet with Sherlock's other brother Sherringford [sic]. Sherringford says that some of the stolen books were his father's journals, which talk about a hidden temple in India where people can open a portal to another world, Ry'leh. Maupertius intends to conquer Ry'leh for Britain.
The Doctor, Sherlock, and Watson travel to India and meet with the Doctor's companion Bernice Summerfield (Benny). After they arrive in Bombay, the Doctor is taken by a rakshasa, so the others continue on to Jahalbahad without him. They reach the temple, where they find the Doctor, and they confront Maupertius. Maupertius takes his army through the portal, then the others are given the chant to open the portal and follow. The Doctor is worried because the chant mentions Azathoth, one of the powerful Great Old Ones.
On Ry'leh, Watson finds Maupertius' army but is attacked by natives. He is rescued by Ace, another of the Doctor's companions who has already been on Ry'leh for a while. The group is kidnapped by the rakshassi and discover that Sherringford is there, having begun to worship Azathoth and turned into a rakshasa. Azathoth turns out to be a giant slug that's only pretending to be one of the Great Old Ones to convince her followers that she's a deity. She's being imprisoned on Ry'leh so that she can't endanger the universe. Maupertius' army was brought to Ry'leh as a distraction while Azathoth prepares to send her army to conquer Earth.
Maupertius' army and the local garrison destroy each other, giving Azathoth the opportunity to open a portal to Earth. The Doctor redirects the portal to the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and traps Azathoth and her followers in the Palace Hotel as it burns. Sherringford tries to kill Watson to avenge Azathoth, but Sherlock kills Sherringford first. The Doctor travels across the Atlantic to retrieve the TARDIS from London and returns Sherlock and Watson to the 19th century.
Development history[edit]
A prelude to the novel, also penned by Lane, appeared in Doctor Who Magazine issue 213.[1] In the acknowledgements for The Empire of Glass, Lane noted that All-Consuming Fire was his own version of Tim Powers' The Anubis Gates.[citation needed] Editor Peter Darvill-Evans told Lane that Holmes and Watson would become the Doctor's new companions in the New Adventures line. Lane said, "Even when I finished the book it was still on the cards – hence the ambiguous ending."[2][3] This did not eventuate, but the characters appeared again later in the series in Happy Endings. Starting in 2010, Lane also wrote the Young Sherlock Holmes book series featuring Holmes as a teenager.[4]
Reception[edit]
Readers of Doctor Who Magazine gave the novel a rating of 76.61% (from 1165 votes).[5]
Audio adaption[edit]
Big Finish Productions released an audio dramatisation of the book in December 2015. The audio play featured Sylvester McCoy, Sophie Aldred and Lisa Bowerman as the Doctor, Ace, and Bernice Summerfield respectively. Nicholas Briggs reprised his role as Sherlock Holmes, one he also portrayed in Big Finish's Sherlock Holmes audio series.[6][7]
See also[edit]
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- Shadows Over Baker Street, an anthology of short stories that similarly pit Sherlock Holmes against the Cthulhu Mythos
- Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened, a computer game that involves Holmes stopping a Cthulhu cult
References[edit]
- ↑ "none". Doctor Who Magazine. No. 213. 8 June 1994.
- ↑ Jones, Matthew (May 1997). "Licence to Kill". Doctor Who Magazine. No. 252. p. 30.
- ↑ Wilkins, Alasdair (22 March 2009). "22 Cases of Sherlock Holmes in Science Fiction". Gizmodo. Retrieved 26 January 2023.
- ↑ Cheetham, Dominic (2015). "Doctor Who and Sherlock Holmes and their Strange Confluence in Children's Stories of The Baker Street Irregulars" (PDF). English Literature and Language (51): 39–46. Retrieved 26 January 2023.
- ↑ Owen, Dave (May 1998). "The best (and worst) of Virgin". Doctor Who Magazine. No. 265.
- ↑ "The Doctor to team up with Sherlock Holmes in new Doctor Who adventure". Radio Times. 6 January 2016. Retrieved 26 January 2023.
- ↑ "8. Doctor Who: All-Consuming Fire". Big Finish. Retrieved 26 January 2023.
External links[edit]
- All-Consuming Fire title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
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