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Reviews for Mad Dogs & Englishmen

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Unfortunate

By:Mark Corden, Birmingham, England
Date:Friday 8 March 2002
Rating:   4

I was expecting a lot from Mad Dogs and was unfortunately dissapointed. It wasn't very funny and the threadbare plot reveloved around a concept that was just plain silly.

I realise that after the shock of 'Adventuress' and it being the 100th novel they wanted to do something a little lighthearted but the story totally undermines what's just been going on and throws the series off track. I think I would have appreciated this more if it had come before 'Adventuress'. As it was, I was wanting to know how the Doctor was dealing with the loss of his heart, how the others felt to be travelling again after a year in 1782 etc. Whilst these are more gripes with the range, I felt the novel was spoiled by its' inability to deal with these issues. The story itself was too inconsequential to stop me wondering about the continuity problems.



Surprising

By:Jerry Lewandowski, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
Date:Tuesday 7 May 2002
Rating:   6

My first opinion of this book was one of shock....i mean, how could they publish a book in the dr. who line that had such an outrageous cover (I'm the type that is allergic to hot pink *laugh*), not to mention a gun-weilding french poodle. What i expected was something very silly and not worthy of the title of dr. who. well, to my surprise i actually started getting into the book. I have not yet read Adventuress (due to its style and very small print), so I thought that I'd miss out on much of the storyline of this book. I surprisingly didn't and so got right into the book. I admit, some of it was a bit far-fetched and I was expecting a major plot twist involving something along the lines of the mind robber, but nothing like that happened. And of course, the sudden appearance of Iris really helped to understand why the silliness was around (aren't all of the stories involving her silly??).

My biggest complaint, however, was the whole sheers explaination with noel coward. that was extremely over the top. a time ring like the one given to bernice at her wedding would've been more appropriate (once again Iris' silliness came through though)

I really enjoyed the fact that a character from the doctor's pre-amnesia past was brought back making us think that more of the gaps in his memory would be revealed. maybe sometime soon we'll see the doctor chasing down iris for some answers??

all in all, apart from the silliness of the storyline, i found this book quite entertaining. its a nice interlude between all the dark and brooding books.



A jolly romp

By:Cam Cobb, Canada
Date:Saturday 12 October 2002
Rating:   7

EQUATION: Paul Magrs to the exponent Tom Stoppart = A jolly romp!
UPSHOT: The Doctor, Fitz, Anji, and a cook visit various times in the 20th Century to counter a bunch of history-changing poodles.
THE GOOD: The laughs (the spacestation filmwatching scene is an absolute hoot!), Magrs' prose ... and we have a collection of timetravelling Noel Cowards!
THE BAD: The conclusion could have been tighter.
THE UGLY: Something is revealed about Freer on page 214 ... YUCK!



Indifferently written but fluffy fun

By:Phil Ince, Location? Mind yer own bloody business!
Date:Friday 16 July 2004
Rating:   8

No worse or better written than an average Tezza Dicks Target novel (Mawled Prose eulogises The Mighty Tel in a simpering postface to The Scarlet Vulva. It works though. A piece of fun with C S Lewis and Tolkein's Inklings being borrowed for The Smudglings and various spoofings including Princess Leia's holographic distress call from Star Wars. Certainly can't be accussed of trying too hard but at the same time finding Fitz and Anji inspecting and then recoiling from dog shit on a carpetted alien space station is an unexpected pleasure.And for a characteristically unpretentious addition to the post-Ancestor Cell community of the Doctor's acquaintance. Recommended as a change of style and pace. No great shakes but I've read worse (by Mawled Prose himself, amongst others).



Woof!

By:Gary Pryke, Ipswich, Suffolk
Date:Tuesday 27 September 2005
Rating:   6

I was a bit shocked at how much this story seemed to be played for laughs for a while. It has it's more nasty moments but could easily be described as a "romp". The return of one of the characters was a little too obvious and Noel Coward was brilliant, but I didn't think it was incredible.



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