Paul Cornell crafts an OK book in Happy Endings.  His other New Adventures were among the best in the series.  I have to admit that I was a bit disappointed by Happy Endings after having read so many geat books by Cornell in the past.  However, anything would be an improvement after Death and Diplomacy, which was easily the worost New Adventure of all time, bar Transit.  Happy Endings generally keeps you interested the whole way through, with the exception of a couple of chapters, which are so dependent on your knowledge of New Adventure in-jokes that they can hardly be followed by anyone.  Even someone like myself who has read almost every New Adventure can’t remember every character from every book.  Happy Endings was the 50th New Adventure, for God’s sake, hence the special cover and the special nature of the story.  It is a very comedic novel, but at least in this novel, unlike its predecessor, some of the humor is genuinely funny.  The book also does have a couple of good dramatic scenes, although not as many as I was hoping that there would be.  Benny and Jason’s relationship is still a bit on the eccentric side, but at least in this book, it keeps the reader smiling and entertained as Benny is pulling her hair out over Jason’s real and imagined infidelities.  Happy Endings is very much a continuity-fest with many characters from previous novels showing up for Benny’s wedding.  This is certainly not a book for a beginning reading of the New Adventures to start with as there are so many characters and so many references to past events that it becomes very confusing in places.  The book has little in the way of a true main plot, but the character who is ultimately the story’s villain is very appropriate for a book of this type.  Because there are so many characters presented in this book, few of them come across with much depth.  Even the Doctor suffers in this regard.  Only Ace is really given a good role in the story.  The normally solid character of Benny Summerfield is dragged down somewhat because of Jason.  This book ties some plotholes up from previous New Adventures, sometimes in some pretty unrealistic ways.  Another thing that is appropriate for a book of this type is that it is an old plothole that effectively saves the day for the Doctor and Benny from the clutches of an old villain.  There are certainly times when different aspects of New Adventures continuity could have been weaved into the plot better, but, overall, this 50th New Adventure is not bad.  It just seems like it could and should have been so much better.  The cover illustration is pretty nice as it gives us a chance to see many of the characters we’ve read about in so many of the books. 

        This novel, which features Benny leaving the Doctor, is effectively the end of an era.  Chris and Roz are now going to be alone with the Doctor although Benny will continue to show up from time to time.  I’ve never really cared much for either Chris or Roz, and so, on a personal note, Happy Endings will be the last New Adventure I’ll read as part of a conscious attempt to keep up with the series sequentially.  From now on, I’m only going to read them if the plots are particularly good or important.  To steal a few sentiments from Matthew Jones, thanks for all the memories Benny.  It’s been a lot of fun.