The Judgment of Sutekh

Magic Bullet’s Faction Paradox series comes to a close in the fairly confusing final instalment, The Judgement of Sutekh. If you think Steven Moffat does ‘timey-wimey’ try this audio on for size. The action jumps around from Mars to Earth to the Osirian Court and back again. The final battle between Sutekh and Horus is raging across time and consequently characters meet in the wrong order and we see events from various points of view. To be honest, it all got a little confusing and I have to admit to being underwhelmed by this last part of a series I have enjoyed immensely.

This is a story which definitely requires more than one listen. Whatever happens in it though, it all builds to leave Sutekh defeated and in the position he is at the beginning of Pyramids of Mars. It also ends on something of a cliffhanger regarding Eliza’s position as Horus with her regaining control of her body but realising she needs to continue posing as Horus for the benefit of the Osirians. There is also a tragic ending for both Marne and Finton following their traumatic adventures – Marne is stranded on Mars and Finton dies soon after being returned to 1764 by Sutekh.

The cast continue to deliver excellent performances and it is good to have Alastair Lock back on board if only for his brief scenes of Pennerton.

One minor niggle is the switching between locations is not reflected particularly well in the sound design. Ancient Egypt sounds no different to Ancient Mars and it would have been nice to have some soundscaping to back up the dialogue.

As a whole, Magic Bullet’s Faction Paradox series has been of excellent quality. I did prefer the earlier instalments to the latter because the final 3 parts tended to have a lot of action happen ‘off screen’ as it were with characters talking about what had happened rather than us actually being able to listen to it. This was in contrast to the earlier stories which had Naples under attack from monstrous Malakh and Eliza and Justine discovering Faction technology buried under Pompeii. We only hear the briefest snatches of the various battles, even between Sutekh and Horus, and this becomes a little frustrating towards the end as it feels a little anticlimactic.

All in all, though, this was a very enjoyable series and one which I would happily revisit in the future (if only to properly understand what happens at the end!)