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 | with a exception a great introduction |
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| By: | John Reid, Upminster Essex |
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| Date: | Sunday 22 April 2007 |
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| Rating: |   9 |
Finishing The third arc of New adventures and the first that coulnd't have been used if the t.v show had continued, Cornells quest at that time for a Epic ultimate story is written from the point of view of The two assistants on one Hand Ace as Maniplative and prepared to be seen as devious as her mentor and on Benny's side camp ad Portentous, This was the first New Adventure I had read I knew there was a new companion I didnt know Ace had seen her partner die in Cornells previous Love and War(making this hard to follow), I didnt know There were Gallifrey invadors called Vardons. Celeverly acting on cold war paranoia put about by the Press in the 70's the idea of even the most serious yet anti establisment Doctor not getting the help of his old chums U.N.I.T and featuring his oldest Arch enemy The Monk plus an interesting setting of The Punk scene with references this is a neglected classic as new to Who in 1994 the fanzinie dated cyberpunk scene with tardis reality game and cybermen plus the rowing on the tardis were a great intro to me, Cornell admits the ending was rushed Hes Just rewrote Human nature for T.V perhaps this could make a great radio play
| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Friday 19 April 2024 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
Paul Cornell's "No Future" finishes the alternate history arc begun with "Blood Heat." We finally get told who is playing with The Doctor's timeline and why. Set in London, 1976, things are once again historically not quite right. The government's losing control, riots and mob violence are escalating, and certain technologies, such as the cd, are available too soon. Yet, The Doctor seems hardly concerned with any of that. Instead, he is concerned with Ace, who has now pretty much completely broken with both him and Benny, and with inserting Benny as lead vocalist of a punk rock band so that she can keep an eye on the lead guitarist, Danny Pain, who in some undefined way is "important" to the future. The novel starts out well enough and moves through its paces fairly smoothly, until about 3/4 in when all the battles and flashy things start happening. At that point, like many of his predecessors, Cornell loses control of the story. In this novel, Ace is more insufferable than ever, while Benny has apparently decided that her fate rests with The Doctor. The real problem of this novel for me is that the outcome rests on magic, in this case a super-powerful being that, godlike, can stop and start time, change reality on a whim, and do just about anything else. When such beings come into a story, I stop investing in the story, because at that point anything goes. The writer can do as they like, fix any problem, and generally short-circuit the entire first part of the novel. And that is exactly what Cornell does. He also indulges his usual everything and the kitchen sink fan winks. The denouement is mostly just The Doctor giving a long explanation of how clever he had been. Given the reasonably good start of this novel, I was hoping for much better than what I got at the end.
