The Book of the War (novel)

The Book of the War was the book which launched the Faction Paradox series. It was the only book to precede the first of The Faction Paradox Protocols

Publisher's summary Edit

The Great Houses

Immovable. Implacable. Unchanging. Old enough to pass themselves off as immortal, arrogant enough to claim ultimate authority over the Spiral Politic.

The Enemy

Not so much an army as a hostile new kind of history. So ambitious it can re-write worlds, so complex that even calling it by its name seems to underestimate it.

Faction Paradox

Renegades, ritualists, saboteurs and subterfugers, the criminal-cult to end all criminal-cults, happy to be caught in the crossfire and ready to take whatever's needed from the wreckage... assuming the other powers leave behind a universe that's habitable.

The War

A fifty-year-old dispute over the two most valuable territories in existence: "cause" and "effect."

Marking the first five decades of the conflict, THE BOOK OF THE WAR is an A to Z of a self-contained continuum and a complete guide to the Spiral Politic, from the beginning of recordable time to the fall of humanity. Part story, part history and part puzzle-box, this is a chronicle of protocol and paranoia in a War where the historians win as many battles as the soldiers and the greatest victory of all is to hold on to your own past...

Notes Edit

• Although purporting to be an encyclopaedia of the first fifty years of the War in Heaven, The Book of the War offers mostly original information rather than summaries of established events. It should be understood as a work of fiction in its own right, somewhere between an anthology and a collaborative novel.
• Its narrator is unreliable, at times unaware of details from other sources which might cast a different light on the events related. Information offered as 'fact' in the book should not be uncritically accepted as such.
• Lance Parkin submitted an entry for the book which would have told the story of Mr Saldaamir, a character who appeared in several Doctor Who novels written by Parkin. Miles removed this section from the final draft of the book, leaving only an apology sentence in the first pages of the book.

References Edit

• Anvil Stars
• Beshielach
• Ghost clusters
• Grandfather Halfling
• Gravity spider
• House Military
• Redemption Cult
• War King
• Yssgaroth
• Umbaste
• Entarodora
• Carmen Yeh
• Cwejen
• Charles Babbage created the Clockwork Ouroboros.
• Father Timon
• Unkindnesses

Continuity Edit

• Earth was destroyed c. 10,000,000. (TV: The Ark)
• There is a frontier in time beyond which the Great Houses do not go. (PROSE: The Infinity Doctors, TV: Frontios)
• Casts were the pre-War "first line of defense" of the Homeworld. (COMIC: The Tides of Time)
• The Imperator's rushed execution was 866 years before the War. (TV: The Brain of Morbius)
• The renegade presidency was founded on Dronid 392 years before the War. (TV: Shada, PROSE: Shada)
• The Order of the Weal began to disintegrate 380 years before the War. (PROSE: Newtons Sleep)
• The Grandfather of House Paradox escaped/was released from the Great Houses' prison planet 155 years before the War. (PROSE: Christmas on a Rational Planet)
• Umbaste's death was not, as the Book claims, a suicide. (AUDIO: A Labyrinth of Histories)
• Academician Devonire failed at reconciliation with the Faction in year 6 of the War, leading to the Second Wave's genocidal assaults on the Remote and Ordifica. (PROSE: Interference - Book One, Interference - Book Two)
• Some of the history of Cousin Octavia is explained. (PROSE: Warring States)
• The Book mentions that the Houses have created defences which will destroy entire tracts of history if the enemy gains too much ground. (PROSE: Interference - Book One, Interference - Book Two)
• Chris Cwej was recorporated. (PROSE: Dead Romance, Tears of the Oracle)
• By the time of his Faction Hollywood mission, Cwej had found a way to return to his old body. (PROSE: Twilight of the Gods)
• Chris Cwej was the template for the Cwejen. (PROSE: Warlords of Utopia, AUDIO: The Adventure of the Diogenes Damsel)
• Michael Brookhaven's history is explained. (PROSE: Remake/Remodel)
• Robert Scarrat and Entarodora are mentioned. (PROSE: The Brakespeare Voyage)
• The Book gives some background on the City of the Saved. The City cut off contact with the universe in AF 291, year 47 of the War. (PROSE: Of the City of the Saved...)
• Humanity's culture became banal and meaningless after the Ghost Point. (PROSE: This Town Will Never Let Us Go)
• Faction members are usually encouraged to punish themselves, rather than having punishment proscribed. (PROSE: Alien Bodies, AUDIO: The Eleven Day Empire)
• A promising Little Sister has recently been returned from Dronid to the Eleven-Day Empire (PROSE: Alien Bodies, AUDIO: The Eleven Day Empire)
• The plot of Mujun: The Ghost Kingdom has many similarities to Lolita's attack on the Eleven-Day Empire. (AUDIO: The Eleven Day Empire, The Shadow Play)
• The War King keeps a hypercube on his desk as a reminder of his former life. (TV: The War Games)
• The Shift describes the future fall of Mictlan. (PROSE: The Taking of Planet 5)

External links Edit

• The Book of the War at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
• Reading guide to how to read The Book of the War and which order to read entries (via Internet Archive: Wayback Machine)