BASIC PLOT
In ancient Akrotiri, a young girl is learning the mysteries of magic from a tutor, who, quite literally, fell from the skies.

DOCTOR
Eighth.

COMPANIONS
None.

MATERIALISATION CIRCUIT
Pg 29 "That little dot up there, that tiny blue spot against the blue... that's my ship. That's where it's moored." We don't actually see the TARDIS, but it gets stuck up in the sky above Atlantis.

Pg 147 "Around her, she hears a strange fading grinding: mechanical wave-crash, a mis-blown wind." Again, we don't actually witness the TARDIS materialising above the beach west of Akrotiri, but this is likely its dematerialisation after saving the Doctor.

PREPARATORY READING
This is a prequel to The Time Monster.

CONTINUITY REFERENCES
Pg 16 "Not even half a god? Human on my mother's side, perhaps" The Telemovie

Pg 111 "--She came to me as I lay wounded and fallen. All my plans and hopes laid low by one inescapable act. She looked down on me, a creature of infinite compassion and unwanted mercy. And she stopped my heart [...] --But then she started it again. She picked me up from the ashes I'd left and gave me a clean slate, another chance." Grace Holloway, the Telemovie.

Pgs 143-144 "I've seen blazes claim whole worlds. I've watched them burn around me. There's blame enough to go around and around - trace the path of the fire back through decades and centuries of cruelty and inattention - but I can point to one moment when I failed to find another way. When I took the best way open to me. The great and the good, the cruel and the cowardly, all turned to silhouettes of ash." The Ancestor Cell.

OLD FRIENDS AND OLD ENEMIES
None.

NEW FRIENDS AND NEW ENEMIES
Alcestis, Deucalion.

CONTINUITY COCK-UPS
None.

PLUGGING THE HOLES [Fan-wank theorizing of how to fix continuity cock-ups]
N/A

FEATURED ALIEN RACES
Pg 25 Fiery bulls that age everything they touch to death.

Pg 76 The Atlantean Gods, aliens who have evolved to leave time. They are trapped in a volcano by fire-cyrstals and communicate telepathically.

FEATURED LOCATIONS
The islands of Akotiri and Kamenai, plus various ships and in the sky above them, in the Atlantis archipeligo, several centuries before its destruction (c 2300 B.C.).

IN SUMMARY - Robert Smith?
An extremely mature achievement, worthy of the Aurealis science fiction award it famously garnered. Every line breathes, with a thoughtful, literate approach to an extremely complex issue and deep things to say about the world we live in. Everything takes place in the ancient world of Atlantis, but -- Crucible-like -- it's really an allegorical tale about September 11th and its aftermath. There's also a fabulous plot twist halfway through and some lovely characterisation. The showdown in cyberspace is a little disappointing, but only a little. Otherwise, this is another winner in Telos's amazing run of novellas.