7.8 /10 1 Votes
Release number 27 Publication date June 1994 Originally published June 1994 Preceded by Theatre of War Page count 304 | 3.9/5 Goodreads Publisher Virgin Books Pages 304 Followed by Blood Harvest Genre Speculative fiction | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Series Doctor Who book:
Virgin New Adventures Subject Featuring:
Seventh Doctor
Ace, Benny Similar Works by Andy Lane, Virgin New Adventures books, Speculative fiction books | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
All-Consuming Fire is an original novel written by Andy Lane and 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 featuring the characters of both Holmes and Doctor Watson, and also with H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos. A prelude to the novel, also penned by Lane, appeared in Doctor Who Magazine issue 213.
Contents
Plot
"I've been all over the universe with you, Doctor, and Earth in the nineteenth century is the most alien place I've ever seen."
England, 1887. The secret Library of St. John the Beheaded has been robbed. The thief has taken forbidden books which tell of mythical beasts and gateways to other worlds. Only one team can be trusted to solve the crime: Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson.
As their investigation leads them to the dark underside of Victorian London, Holmes and Watson soon realise that someone else is following the same trail. Someone who has the power to kill with a glance. And they sense a strange, inhuman shape observing them from the shadows. Then they meet the mysterious traveller known only as the Doctor—the last person alive to read the stolen books.
While Bernice waits in nineteenth-century India, Ace is trapped on a bizarre alien world. And the Doctor finds himself unwillingly united with England’s greatest consulting detective.
Susan Foreman, the First Doctor, and the Third Doctor have cameo appearances.
Audio Version
Big Finish Productions released an audio dramatisation of the book in December 2015 alongside an audio dramatisation of Theatre of War. The audio play reunited Sylvester McCoy, Sophie Aldred and Lisa Bowerman as the Seventh Doctor, Ace, Bernice. Nicholas Briggs also reprised his role as Sherlock Holmes, one he had previously portrayed in Big Finish's Sherlock Holmes audio series.
Reception
Readers of Doctor Who Magazine gave the novel a rating of 76.61% (from 1165 votes).