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 | Reviews for All-Consuming Fire |
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There are 4 reviews so far. To add a review of your own for this item, visit the voting page.
| By: | Neil Collins, Burnley, UK |
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| Date: | Wednesday 22 May 2002 |
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| Rating: |   9 |
For those who love both Doctor Who and Sherlock Holmes, this is a great novel. Although it is admittedly true that Andy Lane doesn't quite succeed in capturing the Watsonion style, he does just as well as most apocryphal Holmes authors. What really makes this novel stand out is his highly perceptive ideas on the likely reactions of Watson and Hlomes to finding themselves in an alien environment. It is a shame that we cannot see more crossover novels - it would be interesting to see how Lane and others would write a Bond or Red Dwarf crossover, for example. 'All Consuming Fire' is an excellent example of the way in which crossover novels allow the characters from either series to explored in a way that would not otherwise be possible.
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| Greatest men of their time |
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| By: | Elle, Liverpool, England |
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| Date: | Wednesday 18 June 2003 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
Of all the Doctor Who stories I have read this is my favourite. It has taken two of my favourite ficticious characters and put them into one boo
| By: | Nick Forbes, Australia |
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| Date: | Wednesday 31 May 2006 |
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| Rating: | 8 |
This was my first Virgin novel, and my first Doctor Who novel to date actually, and I wasn't dissapointed.
I've always HATED cross-overs, but this one, believe it or not, really works well. Its well written, the characters sound exactly as they should, and the plot is very interesting.
A ripping good yarn!
| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Sunday 18 August 2024 |
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| Rating: | 3 |
All-Consuming Fire is a dreadful double crossover story, the kind that certain types of fans think are "a good idea." This one takes Doctor Who, places it into the world of Sherlock Holmes, and then transfers that mashup to the Cthulhu Mythos. The result is a nonsensical story with weak plotting, poor characterization, and more useless trinkets for fans than the last merch table at a ComiCon. The story is told primarily from the point of view of Watson, and in this respect is more Sherlock Holmes than anything else. In the first half of the novel, The Doctor is just an annoying side character, Benny gets no mention at all (except in the very brief prologue), and Ace is reduced to one short report. In fact, throughout the novel Ace is almost nonexistent. The story, such as it is, involves Holmes being commissioned by the Vatican (a meeting with the Pope, no less) to recover some books stolen from a secret library. This leads to Holmes and Watson meeting The Doctor in said library, some running around dodging danger in London, a trip to India where things get mystical, and from there a trip across a magic tunnel opened by intoning a nonsense incantation, leading to an alien world. In this novel, we return to the ultra canny Doctor 7, who uses oh so many words to say almost nothing, gives no information to anyone, and is just really irritating with his smug, evasive answers to any question. He is also the manipulative Doctor, planting his agents in dangerous foreign locations, Benny in India and Ace on the alien world, without telling them what to expect, how to get around, or any of the basics of survival, let alone what they are supposed to do there. And indeed, the reader never finds out what The Doctor does or does not know about this situation, why he has planted his agents in these places, how he knows where to plant them, or what he is trying to accomplish with this elaborate scheme. With the companions, Andy Lane has gone for the badass women characterization, so mostly they bully, blast, shoot, beatup and generally show off their fighting skills. It's utterly boring 1990s action film stuff. Ace is particularly irritating when she finally makes a real appearance in the last 30 or so pages. This is "military" Ace as fans who know nothing about soldiers understand it. All she wants to do is shoot things and blow things up and talk tough and condescend to everyone around her. One good thing about this novel is that Lane does a passable pastiche of Conan Doyle's style. This, however, does not elevate a novel of thin plot, riddled with holes, unimaginative characterization, and a portrayal of the TARDIS crew that is, frankly, reprehensible.
