A Review of The Tree of Life by Mark Michalowski (a Bernice Summerfield Adventure)

Yes, well… anywho, today I’m reviewing a Bernice Summerfield adventure called The Tree of Life by Mark Michalowski.

Some of you will already know who Bernice Summerfield is. Some of you won’t know but will be curious. And there’ll be those who don’t know, don’t care and have stopped reading this review.

Bernice Summerfield is an odd beast. She’s a character created by author, TV writer and all round nice guy Paul Cornell. She first appeared in a Doctor Who New Adventure book in the 90s called Love and War. By the end of that novel – a very good one mind you – Bernice (known to her friends as Benny) joined the Doctor on his travels. And, somehow, from that point on, she became one of the Doctors most popular companions, despite only appearing in print and never, ever appearing on the actual show.

This popularity led to a spin-off book series in the late 90s by Virgin books and then an audio series produced by Big Finish. After a number of audios, Big Finish also decided to publish a range of Benny books, including novellas, novels and short story collections (of which my own brilliant work has appeared in… for I am a self confessed fan of Ms Summerfield).

So what else do you need to know? Oh yeah, Bernice… she’s a smart arse, who drinks too much, is an archeologist, has a great fondness for 20th Century pop culture, drinks a lot, now has a half human half alien son, likes a good shag and drinks allot. Did I mention how much she drinks? I only emphasise it because unfortunately her excesses have sort of become her character, turning her, in recent years into someone very, very annoying, predictable and stereotypical.

Still, I like the character, I like the range published by Big Finish and so I’ve bought the books.

And that leads me to The Tree of Life.

The thing about Mark Michalowski is that he’s a damn fine writer. You know how I used the pejorative term McHackery above? Well, the fact is that Michalowski doesn’t fit that description. He might be writing about a spin-off Doctor Who character, but he doesn’t just churn out the words for the sake of some easy cash. Or maybe he does, but it doesn’t show.

Michalowski writes a good sentence, and when you read plenty of crap it’s nice to come across a writer who imbues his words with personality. He captures Summerfield’s character well, focusing on her internal insecurities and her issues without falling back on the cliché of her heavy drinking and her need to shag all that moves. He lets Benny be a little bit more human. And thank Goddess for that.

As is the norm with these books, Benny finds herself on an archeological mission (of sorts) on a tropical jungle planet called Tollip’s World filled with strange goings on. Those strange goings on centre around a female archeologist who has gone missing in the jungle. Anywho, Benny pretending to be someone else, joins the corporate run research team presently on the planet. Soon she’s gonna discover what secrets the planet holds, where the missing archeologist ended up and how all this links up with Mr Hugo Tollip who funds the research team on Tollip’s World.

The book does a great job in building up the mysteries and the suspense in the first half of the novel. It becomes a bit exposition city at the halfway mark where Michalowski decides to answer a good chunk of the questions he’s raised. But the thing is, you don’t mind reading chunks and chunks of explanation because the ideas that Michalowski is throwing around are so damn interesting. I’m not going to spoil them, because that would ruin the fun of reading the novel.

Unfortunately, it’s about the halfway mark where the novel stumbles. The pacing dies down and the focus drifts more towards the characters – Benny and the supporting case. The problem is, other than Benny, the supporting cast aren’t really that well developed and never really get beyond the hell of one dimensionalism. The only exception to this would be Belize, the security woman running Tollip’s research team. She’s the first character we get any insight into in the book and she is by far the most interesting. The others, whether they be the baddies (who I’m not gonna reveal) or the other members of the research team sort of float around the novel, following the groove set down by the plot.

All that said, when the plot picks up again, about 40 pages from them end (which isn’t as bad it sounds as the book is only 180 pages long), so does the fun factor. The ending is ingenious, and one I didn’t pick at all. It’s also an ending, or a resolution, that actually could have been developed further. I’m writing a bit vague here because I don’t want to spoil it, but it’s an ending that has psychological consequences which deserved a few more pages.

The Tree of Life is more than just hackery or forgettable franchise fiction. It’s a book that when judged as a “proper” novel is still brimming with personality, with jokes and ideas and a kick-arse ending. It’s only issue is the supporting cast, but as the book focuses mostly on the main character Benny Summerfield, this really isn’t a deal breaker.