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Reviews for The Gallifrey Chronicles

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Hot off the press

By:steve, Bristol UK
Date:Monday 6 June 2005
Rating:   7

There are lots of plots of implausability. Alot of loose threads that are explained within a matter of pages, when it to 59 or more to get there. Very hot off the press, with lots of Now politics and occurances.
Ill have to read it again to go over the bits in the book that left me confused. Only took me 3 hours solid to read mind you.



Weak & confusing

By:Stephen, Portishead
Date:Tuesday 7 June 2005
Rating:   1

How many more stories does the 8th Doctor have where he loses his memory. We learn he has the Matrix in his head which contains all the Time Lords thoughts, but he had to lose his memories to fit it in...hmmm. So how does he keep all the thoughts of the other time lords in there, but his own. Very weak plot, nothing relevant to the New TV series. Very disapointing, and confusing.



Chronic fatigue

By:Phil Ince, Highbury, London
Date:Thursday 9 June 2005
Rating:   3

Occasionally ingenious but bland, this book is a shopping list novel. This is in essence a non-parodic, Five Doctors companion-fest with a diversity of whispers from the TV series such as an appearance from the Great Intelligence (perhaps in the form of a BOSS-like computer?).

The main action plot is substantially a retread of Frontios, its Tractators and - in its ultimate explanation of vanished humans - a piece of Bidmead-like illogic worthy of the Logopolis proposition to flush the Master out of the TARDIS as though the ship were a sewage pipe and the Master a stubborn turd.

The villain of the piece, Marnal, is yet another Earth-bound, peevish, hypocritical Time Lord. He stands as the latest in a less than illustrious line of banal, bureaucratic-minded, Gallifreyan aristo-wannabees. His redeeming feature is that whatever his shortcomings, he at least isn't as stupid as the clownish protagonist Vansell from some of Big Finish's more idiotic efforts.

The relationship that breaks out between Trix and Fitz like unsuspected meningitis and with similar threat to the health of the reader's brain is also in a noble tradition; that exemplified by Leela and Andred in The Invasion of Time. Absurd, abrupt, unconvincing declarations of affection spew out but of their mouths but without the attractive colouring of vomit.

A rollicking, breathless adventure story might have been the ideal tribute rather than the bastard offspring of Devil Goblins of Neptune and Frontios set - substantially - in a bedroom and a garage. The bedroom and garage of a Time Lord, admittedly, but even so ...

There's no sense of adventure really when 8D is reduced (sic) so explicitly to a consumerist's superhero; a hero who - if he crumples - will be replaced by The BBC Books' Fan Author Superhero Co Ltd with "a brand spanking, brighter, shinier, new, improved, better-than-ever version ...

... and still only £6.99!"

This Doctor is diminished to the state and status of the negligible by his intended elevation to invincibility.



Cool but confusing

By:Connor, England,Toworth
Date:Tuesday 21 June 2005
Rating:   9

The Gallifrey Chronicles was one of the best books in the eighth Doctor range. Im glad that Anji returned and that K9 suddenly popped out of nowhere. Though there are a few things that confuse me. How did marnal escape Gallifreys destruction. Was the Doctor talking to the Master when he looked into the heart of the TARDIS. How did Sam die. I was a bit dissapointed when the Doctor didnt regenerate at the end though i hear another book called Fear Itself is coming out in september.



One small complaint

By:Jerry Lewandowski, Las Vegas, NV, USA
Date:Monday 4 July 2005
Rating:   8

Well, I read the reviews on here before I ever received my book. What was once eager anticipation slowly became worry. I was so hoping to see a book that tied everything together and nicely introduced the new series.

Well, I finally received my book and sat down to read it, knowing what other people thought of it. All I have to say is BRILLIANT! It was an awesome book. I loved how it tied things togheter from the entire 8th doc run, the previous series and the movie. I even like how it alluded to the controversial half-human story line and the fact that Marnal mentions three different 9th doctors.

My only complaint comes with the new series. I was hoping to see how the doctor actually regenerates (although Fitz did make a mention to it when explaining the doctor invading the hive) and I am very confused over the new series' Time Wars. I was hoping this book would have something to do with how the Time Wars involved the daleks and destroyed Gallifrey when in the 8th doctor run of books, the Time Wars were with Faction Paradox and the Doctor obviously destroyed Gallifrey awhile ago. There is just this one loose end that hasn't been answered.

All in all, it was an outstanding book and one of my top 10 favorites for the 8th doctor. Well done Lance!!!



The Doctor never loses!

By:John Ellison, Atlanta, USA
Date:Wednesday 20 July 2005
Rating:   9

Like most, I awaited this book with mixed emotions. I knew the job of bridging the books with the new series was going to be hard and I, for one, was happy to see it put in the hands of Lance Parkin. I knew he would at least deliver an honest attempt to pay homage to the books while trying to bridge them with the history presented by the new series.

The homage! Wow, as a reader since the first of the Virgin novels was published, I was floored! Parkin makes reference to so many bits of trivia (Timewyrm, Bernice, etc.) that it really fleshes out the book for me...making the whole feel more real. As I've said before, I like it when the novels acknowledge their own continuity--but to see one that celebrates the written continuity from beginning to end was an unexpected treat.

Parkin has done an exceptional job of taking the darkest themes ever introduced in the novels (Grandfather Paradox, Faction Paradox, and the destruction of Gallifrey) and turning a solution that felt like a loss at the time into at least a partial victory.

I walked away from this novel satisfied. The Doctor knows what he did and doesn't regret it because he saved those he could and gave up his past to do it. In the end, that is what Doctor Who has always been about for me...the ability to make the hard choices even if the cost is self-sacrifice.

And at the end of the day, the story is left so that this Doctor can still find his fate. Perhaps even restore what he can of his world before the "unknown enemies" of the Time War strike the final blow.

Thank you, Lance Parkin, for a job well done.



Blank.

By:Bill Fulton, London
Date:Saturday 9 October 2010
Rating:   1

Tasteless. Flat. An experiment in dissociation. And very boring, too.

The continuity references were not graceful. Too many, too often. And frightfully little story, as if the book had been constructed from a spreadsheet. Very machine-like. I'm genuinely surprised at how little engagement this novel provoked in me.

My major sense during my reading was one of confusion; a sense of watching a pastiche, of I knew not what. Who was doing what? What was occurring or ending? What was motivating the characters? And do paper-flat, badly-illuminated stereotypes count as characters?

I skimmed most of this book. I only stopped when I saw a word or sentiment that I recognized. TARDIS. A conversation. Something straightforward actually happening. Some human interest.

Most of the book was built on veiled references, and the earth-bound Time Lord was an idea I had seen before, elsewhere. Unoriginal.

In light of the new series' explanation of the Time Wars, this seems very trite. A bad notion, not fully-worked out. Notable as a curiosity, I suppose. Not a very interesting one.

Sad.



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