Oblivion (novel)

Oblivion is the eleventh Virgin Bernice Summerfield New Adventures novel. This novel is the final part of the trilogy that began with Sky Pirates! and Death and Diplomacy, and as such it features characters and themes from both of those earlier novels, including Roz Forrester from before her first appearance in Original Sin.

Publisher's summary
''Roz snarled up into the face of her abductor. "If you touch me I'll kill you. Who are you? Just what the hell is going on?" The blond man looked down at her with a mixture of what looked like fear and pain. "My name's Chris Cwej," he said. "And as to what's going on, hell is probably as good a word for it as any."''

Something has burst through the worn and patchwork fabric of the universe, like a high-velocity round through a rotten apple. The timelines are cut loose and whipsawing — alternative pasts, presents and futures slicing through the world we think of as real.

At the centre of the disruption three adventurers, Nathan li Shao, Leetha and Kiru, are trapped on a parallel Earth — flung from one twisted alternative to another by a man called Deed, who has usurped the power of the Godhead. If their friend Sgloomi Po cannot reach them in time they will be obliterated. Deed is attempting to forge his own reality and consign all others to oblivion.

To help end the chaos, Sgloomi has assembled a number of old friends: Bernice Summerfield, the feckless Jason Kane and Christopher Rodonante Cwej ... but there has been one small mistake. A miscalculation has placed someone among them who should not be there. Someone who should be dead.

Chapter titles

 * Prologue: Refrigerated Dreams of Me
 * Another Prologue: Getting Inside
 * Strike One: The Oncoming Storm
 * Chapter 1: A Fractured Surface
 * Chapter 2: Signals from the Underground
 * Chapter 3: The Interminable Salutation (Alternate Earth)
 * Chapter 4: Fairly Strange Reunions
 * Chapter 5: Made of This (Alternate Earth)
 * Chapter 6: Getting Up to Speed
 * Chapter 7: Minimal Cutting (Alternate Earth)
 * Chapter 8: The Elevation of the Masses, Altogether
 * Strike Two: Somewhere Between Now and Then
 * Chapter 9: The Mysteriously Elusive Villain, Part One (Alternate Earth)
 * Chapter 10: Foreign Music
 * Chapter 11: Suspicious Gestures
 * Chapter 12: The Mysteriously Elusive Villain, Part Two (Alternate Earth)
 * Chapter 13: Incidental Arrivals
 * Chapter 14: A Small Sojourn in Subterranea
 * Chapter 15: Displaced Relationships (Hybrid Timeline)
 * Chapter 16: Degrees of Attrition (Alternate Earth)
 * Chapter 17: Retrogressive Definitions
 * Chapter 18: Janus Waking (Alternate Earth/s)
 * Strike Three: Final Approach
 * Chapter 19: Crossmatched Cover Stories
 * Chapter 20: Past Times Catching Up (Alternate Earth)
 * Chapter 21: A Hell of a Life in the Glory Hole
 * Chapter 22: Could Be You (Premonitions of the Nexus)
 * Chapter 23: Peeling Back the Shins
 * Chapter 24: Light Come Down (A Meeting of Minds)
 * Chapter 25: Grounding Out
 * Chapter 26: A Break From Unreality
 * Strikeout: The Nexus of All Possible Events
 * Denouement: Reset Endings
 * Appendix

Plot
to be added

Characters

 * Bernice Summerfield
 * Chris Cwej
 * Roz Forrester
 * Jason Kane
 * Sgloomi Po
 * Nathan li Shao
 * Leetha
 * Randolph Bane
 * Kiru
 * Deed

Astronomy

 * According to Chris, the universe has 1.5 billion years left to go.

Locations

 * Jason has some unfinished work in the Catan Nebula.
 * Sloogmi Po found Jason in the Lower Habitats of the Proximan Chain.

Continuity

 * The Schirron Dream and her crew last appeared in PROSE: Sky Pirates!
 * Roz Forrester last appeared (and died) in PROSE: So Vile a Sin.
 * Jason Kane last appeared in PROSE: Deadfall.
 * Chris Cwej last appeared in PROSE: Mean Streets.
 * The Shadow Directory's "Egg" first appeared in PROSE: Christmas on a Rational Planet.
 * Chris mentions that the universe's higher powers keep going on about "some imminent Big War". (PROSE: Alien Bodies, Dead Romance, et al.)