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Post by Digi on Nov 11, 2015 3:46:18 GMT
I know Benny was a longtime prose companion for Seven, before being spun off for solo novel adventures, and then eventually BF came along and scored the rights. But barring the more recent releases (ie: boxsets, New Adventures, Novel Adaptations), that's about the extent of my knowledge. I gather that some of the BF single releases either share titles with or are (in some way) adaptations of previous Benny stories, and that's where I get lost. I'm interested in diving into the BF single release adventures, but I'm wondering: what foreknowledge to I need to do so without being completely lost? Do I need to read a primer somewhere? A particularly essential novel (I'd prefer not, honestly)? Or is it safe to just listen to the BF singles through in the order they were released? School me, my fellow BF ex-pats!  |
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Post by redsharkJason on Nov 11, 2015 4:12:35 GMT
Dive in and enjoy - you'll be fine! And when you get to series 2, especially before listening to The Stone's Lament, Google yourself the general idea of what happens to Benny within The Squire's Crystal novel.
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Post by Ela on Nov 11, 2015 4:50:58 GMT
Yeah, my experience is you can pretty much dive in and start listening to the Big Finish stories without the background from the Virgin New Adventure books. I've listened to series 1-11 of the single releases and all the older box sets, and that was before I read the Benny books, which I am now working my way through.
The Big Finish single releases do have a story arc, though some are stories that can be listened to out of order without losing what's going on. A couple of the audio stories (Birthright and Just War, if I recall correctly) are adaptations of Seven, Ace, and Benny Virgin New Adventure stories, but without Seven and Ace, since Big Finish didn't have the rights to Doctor Who when those CDs came out.
It's a great series and Lisa Bowerman is fantastic as Benny. I pretty much went whole hog once I decided to get the Benny releases and got the series 1-7 bundle, which was a big savings over buying individual CDs at the time. That was before the whole range was discounted. I got everything else from the Benny ranges when they had the big Benny sale last spring.
With the whole range discounted now, you can probably get a better deal than I did, if you are willing to spend the money all in one fell swoop,
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Post by omega on Nov 11, 2015 6:37:37 GMT
If you're after a good jumping on point, 11.03 Year Zero is a great place to start. It's got no necessary continuity and pretty much goes back to basics for Benny. The box set Epoch is also good for jumping on with (it was written that way), and the rest of the box sets are relatively stand-alone. You might miss some of the character development, but it's easy to jump into any one and understand what's going on. Missing Persons is the finale for the box sets, so a bit of background from Epoch and/or New Frontiers might be useful.
There's the download only charity release Many Happy Returns, which touches upon each point in Benny's audio life. There are vignettes with old and current characters, so it might be an interesting way to decide what point to start listening at. There are spoilers for a development back in a 2008/2009 release, but Many Happy Returns was released in 2012, for Benny's 20th anniversary. Everyone involved gave their time for free, and all proceeds from this story go to charity.
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Post by Digi on Nov 13, 2015 4:09:24 GMT
Thank you for the advice, all |
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Post by Audio Watchdog on Jan 4, 2016 22:06:11 GMT
How essential are the BF novels & story collections?
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Post by randomjc on Jan 4, 2016 22:10:43 GMT
Not particularly. The only ones that are really essential, in my experience, are the really early out of print ones, but it's not too hard to get past and figure out what happened. At least one audio has a previous on, that gives you the highlight of a story that leads into it from an anthology, as well.
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Post by davygallagher on Jan 4, 2016 22:47:59 GMT
The Squire's Crystal is crucial and the audios don't do a very good job of filling you in on what you need to know for it. It's also very important as part of the story so you'd feel - even if you do just listen to the next audio - that you've missed a major part of Benny's story.
The Infernal Nexus is also quite important.
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Post by Audio Watchdog on Jan 4, 2016 22:57:16 GMT
The Squire's Crystal is crucial and the audios don't do a very good job of filling you in on what you need to know for it. It's also very important as part of the story so you'd feel - even if you do just listen to the next audio - that you've missed a major part of Benny's story. The Infernal Nexus is also quite important. Oy that book is expensive. |
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Post by omega on Jan 4, 2016 23:04:54 GMT
For the out-of-print books you can look for a synopsis online. In hindsight, telling an arc through books and audios wasn't the wisest move, especially since neither have a download option.
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Post by davygallagher on Jan 4, 2016 23:23:55 GMT
For the out-of-print books you can look for a synopsis online. Which completely takes the fun and the craft out of the storytelling but what other choice is there? It's horrible that such a vital piece of the story is "lost". It would be like watching the Star Wars movies and having to just read the Wiki on Empire Strikes Back because you couldn't see the film. |
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Post by Audio Watchdog on Jan 5, 2016 2:06:39 GMT
For the out-of-print books you can look for a synopsis online. In hindsight, telling an arc through books and audios wasn't the wisest move, especially since neither have a download option. I know. I just did a quick search and saw the prices. And yeah, as a storytelling method, no it doesn't make a lot of sense, unless you are going to keep everything in print. As a short term business model it probably made a lot of sense as a way to get the print end of the business up and running. |
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Post by Ela on Jan 5, 2016 6:14:21 GMT
You can get enough of an idea of what is going on from an online synopsis of the books that are out of print and ridiculously overpriced. That's what I did and I didn't feel lost or that I was missing a major part of the story. I knew enough to get the background of what was happening.
It's true that I'd prefer to read the books, but not at the prices I'd have to pay to obtain them! Wish they'd reprint them or turn them into audio stories!
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Post by coffeeaddict on Jan 6, 2016 16:59:32 GMT
For kicks I took a look on a few used book sites - the asking prices for the out of print Bernice Summerfield books is absolutely mindboggling. There are a few going for between $50 and $100 - and they seem reasonably priced compared to the rest.
So, anyone who is debating getting those still available from BF, you may want to do so before they vanish.
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Post by Ela on Jan 6, 2016 23:59:08 GMT
The best I've done on an out of print book was about $25 on Dead Men Diaries.
And I got A Life Worth Living for $7, but that was before anyone realized it was out of print. I actually had it on order from BF and when I realized it had just gone out of print, I quickly ordered it elsewhere.
The other out of print books are WAY too expensive for me.
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Post by coffeeaddict on Jan 7, 2016 11:14:47 GMT
Which books are you missing Ela?
It seems Benny books are as rare in the local used book shops as Doctor Who books are. And like you I have a limit as to how much I am willing to spend on a used book needed to complete a collection. I managed to do that with the graphic novel collections of comics from Doctor Who Magazine - a couple of titles were crazy hard to find, though fortunately I grabbed them for around what the price would have been when they first came out.
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Post by whiskeybrewer on Jan 7, 2016 13:49:04 GMT
They should do adapts of the Important to the series Books. Otherwise its a bit much
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Post by Ela on Jan 7, 2016 19:39:02 GMT
Which books are you missing Ela? It seems Benny books are as rare in the local used book shops as Doctor Who books are. And like you I have a limit as to how much I am willing to spend on a used book needed to complete a collection. I managed to do that with the graphic novel collections of comics from Doctor Who Magazine - a couple of titles were crazy hard to find, though fortunately I grabbed them for around what the price would have been when they first came out. I'm missing The Squire's Crystal, The Infernal Nexus, and The Glass Prison. I'm almost finished buying the New Adventure Benny stories, but most of those can be found used for a price I'm willing to pay. The exception was Ship of Fools, which I couldn't find a reasonably priced copy of in good enough condition that I would be willing to order it. |
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Post by coffeeaddict on Jan 7, 2016 20:08:51 GMT
Which books are you missing Ela? It seems Benny books are as rare in the local used book shops as Doctor Who books are. And like you I have a limit as to how much I am willing to spend on a used book needed to complete a collection. I managed to do that with the graphic novel collections of comics from Doctor Who Magazine - a couple of titles were crazy hard to find, though fortunately I grabbed them for around what the price would have been when they first came out. I'm missing The Squire's Crystal, The Infernal Nexus, and The Glass Prison. I'm almost finished buying the New Adventure Benny stories, but most of those can be found used for a price I'm willing to pay. The exception was Ship of Fools, which I couldn't find a reasonably priced copy of in good enough condition that I would be willing to order it. Those three and A Life of Surprises are the ones I'm missing - all of which are crazy overpriced on the used market. One of these days I may stumble across one for a good price in a small hole in the wall used book store. Worked for tracking down all the books in the Hero's In Hell series. |
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Post by seeley on Jan 7, 2016 20:24:46 GMT
I'd be willing to bet that the Dead Men Diaries is the hardest to get, featuring as it does a story by a certain Mr. Moffat...
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