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The Faction Paradox series is a standalone collection of audio, prose and comic stories set in and around the War in Heaven, introduced in Lawrence Miles' 1997 Eighth Doctor novel Alien Bodies.

The Faction Paradox Protocols
At the time that Lawrence Miles wrote Alien Bodies, he never intended for the War in Heaven to become a large arc, but after he learned that Kate Orman and Jon Blum were including Faction Paradox in their novel Unnatural History, he felt justified to explore them further in his 1999 two-part novel Interference, which introduced the Eleven-Day Empire and the Remote.

However, after Interference received unfavorable reviews in DWM 281 and elsewhere, Miles felt he had "lost [his] mandate" and resigned from writing Doctor Who to instead develop a Faction Paradox audio series for BBV Productions. These Faction Paradox Protocols audios introduced several concepts that would later become staples of the Faction Paradox range, such as the Faction's shadow-weapons and alternate names like "Great Houses" for the Time Lords or "timeships" for TARDISes. Miles described these alternate names as the continuation of the reinvention that he began in Alien Bodies: as he explored more of the mechanics of the War, the War-era Time Lords evolved further and further away from the Time Lords of the past.

In September of 2003, BBV Productions announced that they were ending their Audio Adventures in Time & Space range to focus exclusively on the The Faction Paradox Protocols line.

The series ended with when BBV's audio production branch closed in 2004.

The True History of Faction Paradox
After BBV Productions ended The Faction Paradox Protocols in 2004, Lawrence Miles, impressed by the quality of actors in the Kaldor City series, reached out to Magic Bullet Productions to continue the Faction Paradox audios. Though the resultant True History of Faction Paradox series was designed to be standalone from the earlier Protocols audios, it continued to feature the characters of Justine, Eliza, and Lolita, albeit played by different actors.

The six True History audios were released between 23 July 2005 and 23 November 2009.

Novels
This process would not be completed until the writing of The Book of the War, an encyclopedia-style "guidebook to a series that doesn't exist yet" intended to be a standalone companion to the Protocols audios. As Miles collected, edited, and synthesized stories from nine other authors, he developed the War as a more mythological setting, which had the scale and appearance of science fiction but none of the props. For instance, instead of using aliens in The Book of the War, Miles characterised all non-humans as either gods, like the Great Houses and Celestis, or monsters, like the Yssgaroth and Mal'akh.

"The Faction's universe is on the surface an SF universe, but it works on the same principles as traditional folklore. It's all very feudal. There are, or were, 'people' who ran history - 'history' being a way for us to deal with the world around us - and these 'people' are generally nameless and faceless, but with the attitude of an aristocratic upper class. Ruling Houses, in effect.

At some point these Houses engaged in a war with an equally inscrutable enemy, and the war intersected - still intersects - human history like a biblical, impacting on humanity but without direct human involvement. Usually. So that makes Faction Paradox a Prometheus among the Titans, it's a splinter-group halfway between the elite and humanity, which believes in (a) introducing its principles to the "collaterals" caught in the crossfire... that's us, essentially... and (b) interfering in the plans of the Houses whenever possible."

- Lawrence Miles

The Book of the War was published in September 2002 by Mad Norwegian Press, and it was such a success that, in December of that year, Mad Norwegian announced that it was beginning a series of standalone Faction Paradox novels edited by Miles. Despite the series' name, these novels did not specifically focus on the Faction, instead exploring "a myriad of times/settings" throughout the universe. Along with several original novels, they also republished Miles' 1999 book Dead Romance, which had originally been released in Virgin Books' New Adventures line.

The Mad Norwegian Press novel series continued until, in September 2006, CEO Lars Pearson announced that the return of Doctor Who to television had focused fans' attentions elsewhere, so the Faction Paradox novels would end with Erasing Sherlock that December. However, the following July, the New Zealand-based publisher Random Static announced they would be continuing the Faction Paradox novel line with Newtons Sleep, eventually published 12 January 2008 to some media attention. Concerned that the Faction Paradox branding was scaring off unfamiliar readers and distracting reviewers, Random Static also released the novel online as a free ebook. Despite plans for a novel to be released in 2010, this would be Random Static's only Faction Paradox release.

Following their success publishing Faction Paradox short story anthologies, Obverse Books announced on 23 December 2011 that they were taking over the Faction Paradox prose license in its entirety.

Anthologies
On 7 June 2010, Obverse Books announced that it had obtained the license to publish a series of Faction Paradox short story anthologies, beginning with A Romance in Twelve Parts in 2011.

After the success of the first Faction Paradox anthology, Obverse Books began the City of the Saved series of short story anthologies, edited by Philip Purser-Hallard and set in the eponymous City, first introduced in the Faction Paradox books The Book of the War and Of the City of the Saved....

Short stories
Mad Norwegian Press and Random Static both released short stories as prologues to their Faction Paradox novels. These were often released online or were included with other releases.

Comic
"December, 1774. America stands on the brink of armed revolt. With Boston placed under martial law and the colonies straining at the British Empire's bit, England's King George III is about to receive a rare gift from the Empress of Russia--the last living woolly mammoth in the Western hemisphere.

Among the dignitaries gathered at the mammoth's reception are two representatives from Faction Paradox. Though the details remain vague, the 1700s have apparently become a crossroads, an intersection between known history and the cosmic "War in Heaven." The Faction seems determined to involve itself in local politics ... for whomever controls this intersection in time will ultimately control history."

- Mad Norwegian summary

At the same time that they started the Faction Paradox novel series, Mad Norwegian Press began producing a bimonthly Faction Paradox comic to be published by Image Comics beginning in the latter half of 2003. Each issue had a central, 16-page comic along with shorter, illustrated text stories. The ongoing main story was set after the end of the War and tied into Lawrence Miles' 2001 Eighth Doctor novel The Adventuress of Henrietta Street, albeit in a way that required no prior knowledge of that novel or any other Faction Paradox story. The Faction Paradox Protocols audio stories Sabbath Dei and In the Year of the Cat were intended to be prequels to the comic.

The comic was listed as one of Diamond Distribution's "Gems of the Month" and was received favorably by several comic reviewers. . It was written by Lawrence Miles, edited by Lars Pearson, penciled by Jim Calafiore, inked by Peter Palmiotti, lettered by Christa Dickson, and coloured by Paul Monts. The covers were made by Steve Johnson.


 * Political Animals
 * Bêtes Noires & Dark Horses
 * Creatures of Habit (unreleased)

For various reasons, Mad Norwegian decided to end the comic series after the second issue, leaving the story unfinished.