Review: Vienna – The Memory Box / Author: Jonathan Morris / Publisher: Big Finish / Release Date: Out Now

What do you get when you mix Chase Masterson (Leeta the Bajoran dabo girl from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), Philip K. Dick, some space detectives and a large dose of cybernetic zombies? The answer is Vienna Salvatori, the impossibly glamorous bounty hunter (read assassin) in Big Finish’s latest spin-off (out of a recent story called The Shadow Heart, by Jonathan Morris). The Memory Box (also by Morris) is her first solo outing, and very good it is too.

We launch straight into the action; trillionaire Berkeley Silver lies dead in the penthouse suite of the Galileo Hotel, a space station immediately put into lock down by the galactic police, whose mind-probes Vienna escapes thanks to her memory box – a device that allows you to hide your own memories until you retrieve them with a code phrase.

We are then treated to a fast-paced chase first to an abandoned research station then the mining world of Volcana. The plot takes several twists, some more predictable than others but by the end our heroine has given the forces of law and order a good run for their money. The announcement that we are to get a box set of three more stories soon is most welcome. Overall a highly enjoyable start to a new spin-off.