Book Reviews
The Infinity Doctors
A real weird story. I can't
tell if it's a PDA or an EDA--although the timing of it suggests First
Doctor from WAY back, in fact, in this tale he
still lives on Gallifrey
and he's a member of the High Council and keeps a special Zero Room in memory
of his wife. Yes, I said wife.
Wife wife wife wife WIFE. <BWEG>
It's supposed to be a 35th
anniversary celebration of Doctor Who, and it fits the bill perfectly.
There's Time Lords aplenty, bad guys, cool swirly things,
and the end of
the universe, which is of course averted at the last minute by the Doctors(hahaha)
and a showdown with Omega in the
Eye of Harmony(woohoo!) Lance Parkin rules....
The Taint
This is the story where we
meet Fitz, a German-English fella with a jones for Woodbines and a sick
mother. His mom's in therapy for
her hallucinations along with many other
people, but the Doctor suspects that the treatment is just making them
worse...
Interference 1 and 2
The cover art is really neat.
Stick 1 and 2's covers side by side, and you get either a pic of PaulDoc
or JonDoc(depending on which book's on the left.)
t's also Sam's farewell
story, and K9 and Sarah Jane make an appearance.(K9 rules!)
Ok, the review...this story
takes place in multiple times and places with multiple Doctors. It's hard
to get all the details down but basically it starts
with members of a society
called The Remote who are on Earth trying to negotiate a deal with military
organizations. The product: a weapon called
'The Cold' that removes its
victims from space-time and leaves them abandoned in another dimension
to be retrieved later...or not.
The plot is really labrynthine
and messy to write out so I won't, ok, it's a 2-book job anyway, and you
can't really describe it well after one read
'cause there's SO MUCH of
it.
But I really liked it. A lot.
It made me think. It's the kind of book that stays with you for weeks after
because it deals with social issues and politics,
albeit in a sci-fi setting.
Much is made in this story of the differences between the Remote and late
20th century Earth--the 'signal dependency'
and all that. There's enough
to write a small essay about. This book also introduces a new companion named
'Compassion.' She is one of the Remote,
a tough-cookie who wears a reciever
in her ear (like the rest of the Remote) so she can pick up the transmissions
from their home city, Anathema.
She and her compatriot, Guest, are experiments
in a sense, because they are the first Remote to acquire principles, something
Compassion repeatedly
argues is the one thing a utopian society can't have.
The whole story and the concept of 'thinking for yourself versus letting
the media think for you
' is very well wrought. The notion that we're just
like the Remote, only subtler in our methods, is a definite twist.
A lot of people thought that
Miles was just using the book to go off on a political tangent. To which
I say, yeah, but so what? Writers do that all the time.
It's still a good
set of books, it makes some interesting points...It's very heavy reading,
you need a couple of goes at it to really get the whole picture,
but where's
it written that books should be easy to read? There's something nice
about reading a book repeatedly and getting something new out of it each
time.
Oh, and then there's that
whole alternate history on Dust thing, and the regeneration that never
was, and Number Thirteen, and the Doctor losing his
shadow and Fitz losing
his arm....
The Taking of Planet 5
In the present, a team of
scientists in Antarctica discover an amorphous, telepathic creature entombed
in the earth. In the past, a team of genetically
modified Time Lords are
exterminating a race of fictional creatures. Another pair of meddlers tries
to unleash a creature that eats ideas. A world outside
of the universe
is losing its memory. And Compassion discovers her talent for talking to
baby TARDISes. Weird.
Blue Angel
Oddly paced and phrased, this
book hops between universes with no apparent concern for the comprehension
of the reader, but eventually, the story
gains its footing and the two
main plots weave together quite nicely. More of a mood piece than a plot
piece, this features an old girlfriend of the
Doctor's, a Star-Trek-like
spaceship crew, and the Doctor losing his temper with his companions. It
reads like a dream....the kind of dream you have
after eating too many bourbon
balls and staying up till 2 am.
Frontier Worlds
Genetic engineering gets the
poke here, as the Doctor and his companions land on a world with artificial
weather and a food-manufacturing plant
shrouded in secrecy. In the guise
of employees, Fitz and Compassion discover that there's something very,
very odd about the company's board of
directors, and the TARDIS starts acting
up.
Parallel 59
This book was okay. It was a smart, well-paced read, and the Doctor's character is fairly well developed, as are those of his companions, Fitz Kreiner and Compassion. However, it's quite dry, revolving more around military technology and pseudo-reality(Matrix, anyone?) than human(or TimeLord) interaction. The exception is Fitz, who, while he's in the virtual world of Mechta, boinks just about every girl who crosses his path. His character is not too likable in this book.
The Shadows of Avalon
On Gallifrey, President Romana discovers a future development that is so shocking that just thinking about it caused some older Time Lords to regenerate spontaneously. She begins plotting to ensure that it happens.
The TARDIS explodes in a
head-on collision between Earth and Avalon, the land of dreams. A wormhole
is created between the two worlds and the
Brigadier awakes to find himself
on the other side. Instead of finding death and reunion with his lost love
Doris, he finds Queen Regent Mab, ruler of Avalon.
Rather than admit he
likes her(and in his mind betray Doris) he throws himself into politics
between Britain and Avalon. Unknown to him or the Doctor,
a pair of Interventionists,
Cavis and Gandar(who read like the Gallifreyan equivalent of Team Rocket)
are plotting war. And war they create, between the
Celts and the Faeries,
in a very Yojimbo-esque manner. Fitz is stranded in the Faerie Court with
Compassion, who has begun talking about dying,
changing, and being turned
'inside out.'
Before long the
Doctor is tearing around the countryside on dragons, the Brigadier is
finding new reasons to live on the battlefield, and Fitz and
Compassion
are back on Earth, trying to awaken Constantine, the king whose dreams keep
Avalon in existence. But it's not even about all that.
Yes, the war
is averted at the last moment when the Doctor discovers Cavis and Gandar's
scheming. Yes, the Brigadier finds new reason to live,
and love, with Mab.
Yes, Avalon is saved. But that's not what it's about. It's about Compassion,
and why she must die. Cavis and Gandar have
been sent to kill her so that
she will undergo this last great change and become what Romana witnessed
in the future--a Type 102 living TARDIS.
The Fall of Yquatine
Interesting storyline about a doomed planet, and how sometimes,
knowing the future is a bad thing.
Compassion continues
to change and even attempts to live up to her name. But not before
she throws the Doctor out on his ear. But since he installed the Randomiser
in her, he deserved it.
Coldheart
The Doctor is in fine form
as he tries to avert an ethnic-cleansing crisis, counsel Compassion, and
save a desert planet from a slimy end.
Fitz is in his usual 'interdimensional
man of mystery' mode, imbibing and shagging the local culture with abandon,
but he manages to heal
a broken father-son relationship in the process.
The Space Age
The plot is a bit of a 'West
Side Story' retread, on the surface. There are mods and rockers and stupid
gang fights. But that's all it has in common
with WSS. There are weird
aliens, major wrinkles in space and time, and a grieving Doctor.
The Banquo Legacy
A bunch of useless rich gits
in turn of the century England are getting whacked by a guy who's already
dead, the Doctor plays dead, Fitz plays German,
and there's a guy whose
eyeballs are a pair of trained rats. Ohhhhhhkay! It's an interesting story,
but there's almost zero Doctor POV, which sucks.
It's a nice little slice
of conspiracy action though--the Randomiser's not really random, the Time
Lords have figured out how to predict where and
when it will take Compassion
so they can catch her. Those bastards.
The Ancestor Cell
A nice, action packed resolution
to the whole Interference arc. And who better to take a bash at the mythology
than Peter Anghelides(who can write
a damn good Eighth Doctor) and Stephen
Cole(not too shabby himself)? A love it or hate it kind of book, it's got
a lot of characters and at the start
it seems quite disconnected, but over
time all the bits come together and these two fellas manage to make sense
of the entire arc, put the Doctor's
history back on track, and open up
a major can of whoopass on the Time Lords. It also sends Compassion vworping
out of the storyline in one piece,
but with a companion of her own. For
some reason the way she acts in this story makes me think that if this
book were to be made into an episode,
she'd be played by Anne Robinson from
'Weakest Link.' Goodbye!
Escape Velocity
Sucked.
Earthworld
I hate to be uncomplimentary
but this book....ugh. The author's got a good grasp on Anji's character,
but that's IT. The Fitz characterisation is
spotty and the Doctor--well,
he's not himself right now, yes, but that's no reason to start taking liberties
is it? Hasn't the poor Doc been through
enough already? The style of writing
is great, especially the Anji-messages to Dave, but the story just wasn't
there.
Vanishing Point
Weird story about genetics, religion and the Doctor still hasn't got his memory back. A hard read but well worth it.
Eater of Wasps
One day, Trevor Baxendale
will write a DW book that doesn't have slimy things crawling out of people's
mouths...I hope.
This was an ok book
but really nasty, worse than Coldheart(his other book which was much better)
on the gross factor. The story was ok,
simple plot really, but it's the
details that stick with you. Like the guy who ate the wasps. EEEEEEEEEEW.
The Slow Empire
Dave Stone wrote it, that's all you need to know. :D
Heart of Tardis
Dave Stone wrote it, that's all you need to know. :D Plus bonus Moody Blues reference!The Gallifrey Chronicles*new*
If you didn't like this book, then you need your head examined. There are two books out there by this title - one is a total yawner by John Peel,
a basic 'All the timelord stuff from the old series' compendium, plus a dash of fanwank. This book, however, is a wonderful cliffhanger/finale to the
Eighth Doctor book line. The story's good - the Doctor discovers he isn't the last survivor of Gallifrey when he runs into another Time Lord stranded on Earth,
there are some creepy insect monsters, Fitz and Trix make a big decision, and the Doctor learns why he lost his memories and how he can get them back.
The whole book is a great big squishy kiss to the fans, with cameos from old companions, lots of action, and a wonderful passage about the
Doctor finding out who he really is.
"Is silence! Is not nice to use such word. Is lower the lofty tone no enormously end,
monkey-hominids going shit sod bugger all the sodding time." -Sky Pirates