The Game of Death (novel)

The Game of Death is the sixth book in The Darksmith Legacy series.

Publisher's Summary
The hunter becomes the hunted, as the Doctor tracks the Agent's journey from Paris across the Milky Way towards the Silver Devastation. Where is it heading? What force can destroy the Crystal? Where is the robot Agent, and why did it come here? What is the strange and sinister game is taking place in an elegant house in the Home Counties? Find out by reading the next thrilling adventure in "The Darksmith Legacy".

Story Synopsis
The Doctor and Gisella, having tricked the Darksmith Agent into leading them to an unknown destination in order to destroy the Eternity Crystal (which he still holds safe from use), arrive in the region of interstellar destruction known as the Silver Devastation.

Instead of the nothingness they expected they find themselves at an elegant country house situated in very well maintained grounds reminiscant of a Home Counties estate. The owner of Devastation Hall, Miss Amelia Birch aided by Ted, Site Manager and Stokes, the Butler, invites the Doctor and Gisella, to meet the other visiting guests (retired general Augustus Korch, competition winner Lenny Sprang, champion race pilot Horatio Hamililton, Miss Scarlett Plume and Professor Doofus), all ready to start the Game of Death for the prize fund of one hundred million galactic credits. All they have to do is survive.

The house, Devastation Hall, is located on a tiny asteroid floating in space and surrounded by an environment bubble, creating an enclosed micro climate with sunlight being provided by a polarised energy field held in a containment sphere.

Players of the Game of Death are told at dinner that a Nocturn lives on the asteroid. This vicious merciless predator has a natural ability to precisely mimic the life form it hunts (meaning it could be any one of the guests) and hunts only at night. The Noctune paralyses its prey and drains it of its blood. The game is one by surviving the night.

The guests panic and scatter when the lights go out. Kenny is the first to be found dead followed soon after, by Korch and Ted.

The Doctor finds Horatio recharging his two-seater rocket ship ready for takeoff and gets him to agree to take Gisella to safety if anything happens to him. The Doctor heads off to find the environmental controls so that the lights can be turned back on but finds that only Ted knew the codes and the controls have been deadlocked. Ted is found dead and the Doctor returns to the house to seek Birch’s help.

Unfortunately Miss Birch reveals herself to be a Nocturn and while she attacks the Doctor, Gisella as instructed runs off to find Horatio, picking up Lady Scarlett on the way.

At the spaceport facility, Horatio reveals himself as an undercover policeman (called Zalenby) investigating the Game of Death but Lady Scarlett then reveals herself to be a Nocturn and as she closes in on Zalenby for the kill (Gisella having no interest to her), the Darksmith Agent appears.

Locked in a fight with the Nocturn, the Agent sustains further damage before killing the Nocturn, but is then crushed when Zalenby lowers the landing gears of his craft squashing the Agent.

The Doctor sees the Agents blaster attack reflected by the chromium surface of a Silenus cruiser and realizes that Gisella may be in danger. Stokes, assists the Doctor taking him on a secret route from the kitchen to the Library where Doofus is found hiding. But then all three, Stokes, Doofus and Birch are revealed to be Nocturn. Luring them outside where Birch is waiting all three shed their skins to attack but the Doctor is one step ahead and now vulnerable and exposed, the Doctor remotely activates the environmental controls bringing bright light that leads them to collapse.

With the Nocturn rendered harmless, the Doctor races to the spaceport in time to rescue Gisella and Horatio/Zalenby from the Darksmith Agent. Badly damaged but still dangerous, the Doctor finally destroys the Agent by inserting a hose from the energy generator into its now-exposed innards.

Zalenby is left to clear up the mess, and with a Judoon ship on its way to pick up the criminal Nocturn, the Doctor and Gisella leave with a computer core matrix scavenged from the Agent’s brain, the TARDIS heads to their next destination, a location where the commissioning clients of the Eternity Crystal recently met with the Darksmith Collective, Ursulonamex, otherwise known as Planet of Oblivion…..

Characters

 * The Doctor
 * Gisella
 * The Agent

The Books

 * Interspersed with the main fiction is;
 * TARDIS Data Bank (extra information on 'The Silver Devastation').
 * Activity pages x3 (The puzzle solutions give the reader the chance to think like the Doctor!)
 * The Story so far, next installment cover preview and opening preview.


 * The Darksmith Legacy's overall story was devised by Justin Richards who contributed four of the ten titles.
 * The Darksmith Legacy was certificated to 13, with under 13's needing parental approval.
 * This first book in the series was released along with the second before the remaining titles saw a monthly release throughout 2009.
 * Each book in the series was priced £4.99 (UK) and featured a foiled cover with illustration by Peter McKinstry.

Interactive Website Content
By visiting the website and participating in the Quest participants can unlock additional content like computer wallpapers to download. The Quest itself features; games - (like finding a specific target in an image, by using the sonic screwdriver as a detector, to hone in (to register 100 on the scale). Once located the 'Target' then provides additional information used in further puzzles involving both words and numbers.

Continuity

 * The story setting, at the Silver Devastation, has been previously referenced as where Professor Yana (aka The Master), was found and also where the Face of Boe came from.
 * Thermotronic excitation possibly to explain the day and night control system at Devastation Hall.
 * The TARDIS uses extrapolator shielding which helps protect it from the journey following the Darksmiths craft through the tear in reality and back into local space.
 * The TARDIS console’s mallet is used by the Doctor to assist the smooth operation of the craft.
 * A reference to lots of running being involved in travelling with the Doctor
 * The Doctor mentions the planet Cheem where trees talk. This is a reference to the trees met on Platform One at the Earth Death event namely Jabe, Coffa and Lute
 * The Doctor’s psychic paper is used to confirm the Doctor and Gisella’s invitation to the Game of Death.
 * The Doctor with some trepidation wears a formal suit and black tie for dinner at Devastation Hall. Previous outings for this suit include; when the Cybermen attacked on the parallel Earth, at the demonstation of the Lazarus experiment and when the Titanic craft nearly destroyed the Earth.
 * The Doctor wears his glasses to look intelligent while working on the component salvaged from the Darksmith Agent’s head following its destruction.
 * The Doctor’s sonic screwdriver is used for a variety of tasks including; cracking a pane of glass, to carry out a biometric scan, to open doors, to highlight a safe passage across the patio at Devastation Hall by detecting ultra violet characters and to remotely activate the environmental controls for the creation of day and night light on the asteroid.
 * From the Doctor's massive 'Gallifreyan' coat pockets he produces a bicycle torch.
 * A Judoon ship is mentioned as being sent to collect wanted criminals in space.

Timeline
The Darksmith Legacy adventures occur after the Doctor has left Donna Noble back on Earth. This latest adventure, follows on directly from The Vampire of Paris and are immediately followed by those in The Planet of Oblivion.