I had a great time with The Glittering Prize after struggling a bit with Call for the Dead. It feels a little closer to what I wanted out of Call for the Dead, with more of a presence for the Master and a lot more implied scheming going on front and centre for us. I think this is a great audio for setting up the rest of The Master of Callous, while adding an appropriate level of intrigue it also has a pretty satisfying ending with Teremon being introduced as a real presence here. It left me both enjoying what I got here, and eager for what is to come. All very exciting, even if the music and effect kinds of lean towards more generic for me, I'm hardly complaining with such delightful acting along the way. Derek Jacobi is always a treat, and he is served well here by a great supporting cast with Cassie, Martine.

I think what really sticks out about this is the setting itself. We really get a sense of this being a proper space colony, with all the associated feelings of desperation and hope, coupled with greed forcing these people to just push and push themselves. You get a sense this place is losing more and more hope as they get desperate to maintain what they've build here, and I think it all comes together pretty nicely. I feel like while a lot of these ideas were introduced pretty well in Call for the Dead, it took until The Glittering Prize for it to really capture my attention.

The net tightens slowly but surely in part two, as we fast forward a year after Cassie answered the call. Now Mr Orman has ingratiated himself as a jovial elderly benefactor, hosting children’s parties where he dons clown makeup (horrifying), and eventually, after masterminding a breaking point in relations between Cassie and the governor, convinces the colony to help him steal all the pure Sueno from the mines and pulls off the heist. Once it is stowed, with Cassie’s wife Martine, he is captured by the governor, who threatens to torture him until he gives up the location, which we sense is going to be a violently losing battle in the next installment.