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Reviews for Dominion

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TV episode with a bigger budget

By:James, Bristol, England
Date:Monday 6 May 2002
Rating:   6

Nick Walters has remembered that the books don't have to stick to a budget like the TV series did! As such, he takes us to 'The Dominion', which is a very inventive and cool place. The new aliens in this book are also quite original (with the exception of the chest-burster). The plot is alright, but its basically TV episode fare with more effects. Little character development takes place (Fitz sulks, the Doctor acts weird and absent, Sam acts like watered-down version of Ace), and the wormhole could have been explained in more depth. Its good to see a story set in Sweden, and I liked the remarks about 'England always being invaded by aliens in the 70's and 80's, but Sweden staying curiously unscathed'. Overall, Ok but nothing special.



Traditional Story Nicely Told

By:Isaac Wilcott, Ridgecrest, California
Date:Sunday 30 March 2003
Rating:   8

"Dominion" is the first book by Nick Walters that I've read, and based on the cover blurb I seriously wasn't expecting anything special, or even very good. But I was surprised when, after reading a few dozen pages, I discovered I had a real winner in my hands.

First of all, he chose a very nice setting: rural Sweden. Such an unusual location would normally be mere window dressing, a name in which to set a routine action story. But Walters makes the best of it by populating it with genuine Swedish characters.

The novel is divided into thirds. The first deals mainly with a series of strange disappearances, and we are introduced to a small but interesting group of characters: Kerstin, a young girl, Bjorn, an old bereaved farmer, and Nordenstam, the rationalist detective inspector. Far from being just names whose sole function is to advance the plot, the author devotes much care and attention to establishing and exploring each one. By doing this it makes the story that much more effective, as the reader feels their emotions and understands their motives. This is especially notable when tragedy strikes -- rather than slaughtering faceless thousands, in messy technicolor splendor, as so many other "Who" authors do in order to evoke a cheap knee-jerk emotional response, the death of a single person here is deeply and sincerely felt, and better brings home the horrors of the situation than any massive body count ever could. (Things do get rather desperate towards the end, and there is a great deal of dying, but thankfully the author doesn't linger on it or punch the reader in the stomach with a page-after-page torrent of carefully and lovingly described mutilation and destruction, as in the abominable "Damaged Goods" or Mick Lewis' sickening novels.)

The second part of the book veers away from Sweden to another realm, and the third part is an exciting adventure, as the Doctor and his companions strive to prevent a disaster. We even get a bit of UNIT action, through the eyes of Major Wolstencroft, who resents what he perceives as the Doctor's interference, remembering previous UNIT entanglements with aliens and the typically disastrous results. We are even shown exactly *what* UNIT does with all the leftover alien bits, along with their spaceships and warp drives...

Another thing that is impressive about this book is how much effort and attention Walters put into producing it. Far too many other "Who" books read like the author was doing six other things while writing it, and never even bothered to re-read anything he'd written so far. Walters' attention to detail, and eye for internal consistency, make "Dominion" an excellent human-interest story as well as an intriguing adventure. So overall, well worth reading.



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