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 | Reviews for Demon Quest: A Shard Of Ice |
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There are 2 reviews so far. To add a review of your own for this item, visit the voting page.
| By: | Matthew David Rabjohns, Bridgend, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Tuesday 9 November 2010 |
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| Rating: |  10 |
This is in the same vein as Hornets Nest: Paul Magrs relies more on simplicity, which therefore makes the tales all the more engaging and easy to follow. Its all well and good thinking of mind blowing plots but its sad if theyre so convuluted you cant get your brain around them. Gladly, Paul always keeps away from that sort of story writing.
A Shard of Ice is just simply chilling and cold at the core. This fits so well in with the Fourth Doctors tenure as the Doctor on screen, its up there with the greats like The Sunmakers and State of Decay, and The Seeds of Doom. All of those stories had simple plots too, with very interesting and deep characters. And thats what we've got here too. A minimal cast, with everyone getting a decent chance to shine.
Jan Francis is brilliant as the Ice Queen. She oozes Ice! And Tom sparks off her brilliantly, as he did with most villains in the past. Its also really nice to hear Richard Franklin back again as Mike Yates. He was always one of the most interesting UNIT characters.
This has good moments of horror along the way. This Demon Quest series is already better than the brilliant Hornet's Nest. The "Gobbets of flesh" line immediately brings nasty visions to the imagination.
Its wetting my appetite more and more this series. It just keeps on getting better and better all the time. I cant wait to hear the final two installments.
Its so good to have Tom back as the Doctor. This is all that Doctor Who should be. Simple, engaging and entertaining.
| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Tuesday 24 March 2015 |
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| Rating: |  7 |
"Demon Quest" started well with "The Relics of Time," dropped off quite a bit with "The Demon of Paris," then came back up with "A Shard of Ice." This is a nice little atmospheric supernatural tale set in the Alps in 1847. The narrator this time is one of the locals, Albert Tiermann (Animal Man), storyteller to the blind King. The Doctor has a bogus book supposedly of Tiermann's stories, and uses this to track down the next clue in this series' paper chase. The Doctor, Mike Yates, Tiermann, and his driver and footman bunk down in the last hotel for miles to weather a snow storm. Tiermann has a deep secret involving visitations from his benefactress, a mysterious ice queen. The hotel gets attacked by a demonic creature. The setting and story work well together, and as with "The Relics of Time" the story works because Magrs greatly turns down the level of superfluity that usually screws up his writing. Magrs' imagination also works best in 19th-century settings, which correspond with his prose style. However, his favorite word - benighted - reappears. Also, the climax and denouement are rather obvious given what we already know. The presence of Mike Yates does not amount to much. He ends up being the damsel in distress, but otherwise contributes little to the story. It was an enjoyable, but not brilliant, listen.
