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A fine and evocative collection
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 | A Fitting Sequel To A Superb TV Serial |
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| What: | The Sands of Time (Missing Adventures novels) |
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| By: | Yumchan, Doncaster, England |
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| Date: | Tuesday 15 July 2003 |
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| Rating: |   9 |
A story, similar to 'Festival Of Death', where most of the end of the adventure happens before the beginning has started. Here though it is done flawlessly.
The Doctor is obviously the 5th with his little quirky mannerisms, though Tegan is just Tegan. There is the odd moan from her here and there, as usual, but she doesn't really seem to come out of her shell.
My only other negative thought about the book was that after such a complex tale of events (Sometimes I had to pop back to one of the little joining passages to check on little details) the end seemed to be a little rushed.
Apart from this, this really does deserve to be on the top of the Missing Adventure list. A Superb book.
I think there should have been clips of the films and series he was in
Ilove it
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| Another Superb 4th Dr & Romana II Novel |
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| What: | Festival of Death (BBC Past Doctor novels) |
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| By: | Yumchan, Doncaster, England |
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| Date: | Thursday 3 July 2003 |
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| Rating: | 9 |
This book neatly follows on from Gareth Roberts excellent trilogy featuring the 'perfect' television coupling of Dr 4 and Romana 2.
The characterisation is exactly right once again, but the style is obviously different from Mr Roberts.
The premise of initially arriving to complete the cycle of events which you have already done in the future (!) is very similar to the excellent 'The Sands Of Time' Missing Adventure, however it works well here too.
Definitely worth reading.
| What: | Father Time (BBC Eighth Doctor novels) |
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| By: | Chris, Oxford |
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| Date: | Wednesday 2 July 2003 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
A brilliant Story. Even non - Doctor who fans will enjoy it. great descriptions of derbyshire, and a great book overall.
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| The Center Cannot Hold... |
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| What: | The Last Resort (BBC Eighth Doctor novels) |
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| By: | John Ellison, Atlanta, Georgia, USA |
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| Date: | Monday 30 June 2003 |
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| Rating: | 8 |
I found this to be another solid adventure for the eighth Doctor and his companions...I loved the book by page 40. Perhaps because this book, more than any other to date, has made me feel as if I could hear the knelling of a cloister bell!
I get the sense that reality IS really collapsing...that maybe the destruction of the timelords was a terrible price that the universe may now have to pay...that things may finally be coming to a head in this story arc...that maybe someday the Doctor will remember his actions and finally have to deal with them...now wouldn't that be interesting to explore?
I also found a little more acceptance for Sabbath (who has just never "sat" right with me) during this story.
If you are a fan of Greg Egan's early works then you will probably find this latest Who offering to your tastes. Also, some of the themes presented in the Virgin Novel BLOOD HARVEST are present here--primarily where is the energy to support these alternate realities coming from?
Ultimately, the question seems to be continuity or discontinuity--an arguement that has raged since Lawrence Miles killed the third Doctor on Dust rather than Metabelious 3. Will we have canon or canon fodder? At least this story suggests an answer is looming.
This episode has a good dark undertone. Most of the props and monsters are believable (except the giant rat). The midget (pig-man), I thought was well done. The Character of Li H'sen Chang was well acted. This a very well written story with very little weakness. If I was to show one episode to someone who had never seen the show this is the episode I would show them.
I lived in England in the early and mid 60's and had the opportunity as a child to see many of the episodes that no longer exist. I have seen all the episodes available past the 1968 season (left England in August of 1968). It is my opinion that this is the best episode produced and certainly is my favorite. ‘The Sontaran Experiment’ and ‘Genesis of the Daleks’ are good too.
Cat's Cradle: Witch Mark is a beautifully textured adventure steeped in the English tradition of Welsh and Celtic lore. One can almost feel the moistness of the moors, the chill of the fog, and the strangeness of this most ancient land and its secrets coming right through the pages.
This is the England that J.R.R.Tolkien had in mind when he wrote "The Lord of the Rings;" the quaint little village of Tir na Nog and its sleepy inhabitant seem remenicent of the Hobbit town, which Tolkien based on an old English mill he had seen; the quest the Doctor and his freinds are sent on also has a vaguely Tolkien-ish ring to it.
The entire story literally breaths with English resonance, the landscape having a wild, untamed aspect to it - even though civilization has obviously been creeping in. The only real drawback I can find is that several of the later elements in the tale are not developed fully.
The brash warrior who eats the foul-tasting dragon skin is a loud-mouthed, yet cheerful, buffoon, and I thought the story could gain quite a bit of character from adding him into the Doctor's quest. Sadly, this was not to be.
Several excellent characters who could really have made the story swing are dealt with seperately, ending their roles well away from the Doctor and the main action. The bit with Goibhnie, however, is handled with sufficient grace, and the story holds together well enough.
"Witch Mark" is certainly more cheerful in tone than several of the books that came before it. It comes as a breath of fresh air right when one really needs it.
"Revelation," for example, by Paul Cornell, marks the point when the books became really dark and twisted. "Revelation" still leave me with an awful feeling inside, a really depressed and heavy feeling that "Witch Mark" thankfully takes away. Cornell's story, however, was destined to become something of the norm for Doctor who tales. It is such a strange story, so disjointed and cruel to the characters, that I could not finish it for a whole year.
Cornell's modern form of experiemental writing is really dark and dull, and all the slacker punk bits of Ace as a teenager are just the kind of things I try to escape from when I read a Doctor Who book. I blame Paul Cornell entirely for the miserable state 1of many of the Doctor Who stories that came after "Revelation", since his foray into experimental techniques opened the door for a whole bunch of miserable amateur writers, who probably couldn't write an old-fashioned Terrence Dicks thriller even if their lives depended on it.
Witch Mark, in summation, is a small, much appreciated blessing. The cover, also, is fantastic. Best TARDIS portrait I've seen for many a year.
| What: | The Horns of Nimon (BBC classic series videos) |
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| By: | Olly, UK |
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| Date: | Wednesday 18 June 2003 |
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| Rating: | 1 |
Leave the worst 'til last! I give it 1 out of 10 as it has proper opening titles and the fact Tom Baker is in it, though it is the worst of his stories. Purchased only to complete the set, that's about all its worth.
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| The shape of things to come.. |
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| What: | Meglos (BBC classic series videos) |
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| By: | Olly, UK |
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| Date: | Wednesday 18 June 2003 |
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| Rating: | 6 |
Meglos is ok, pleasing to watch yet nothing special, but gives a good glimpse of what is to come....the general rundown of K9 as a feasible and useful companion. A good story with some particular thick characters (such as the Gaztaks) and some now dated blue screen special effects. Nice cameo by Jacqueline Hill as Lexa.
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| Greatest men of their time |
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| What: | All-Consuming Fire (New Adventures novels) |
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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
| What: | The Monsters (Miscellaneous factual books) |
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| By: | Joy Sole, St Albans, Herts |
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| Date: | Sunday 15 June 2003 |
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| Rating: | 1 |
Very Derivative.
Interesting story and great artwork. Ocassionally available from Kazaa now or email for a 3.4MB PDF file of this rare book.
| What: | The Well-Mannered War (Missing Adventures novels) |
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| By: | Yumchan, Doncaster, England |
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| Date: | Thursday 12 June 2003 |
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| Rating: | 8 |
Hmm. This book has a reputation for being a very good book. This combined with its low print run has turned it into quite an expensive read.
(Luckily its now available 'free' from http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/doctorwho/ebooks/well_mannered_war/ !)
Frankly, I was a tiny bit disappointed. I was expecting an utter masterpiece. It is still a very good read and I would recommend it thoroughly , but the hype that surrounds it still hasn't really done it any favours.
However it is a very well thought out book. You are never really sure who the real bad guys are and the end was definitely a surprise!
Hopefully Gareth will one day write another book in the BBC Books range. I will definitely try to be at the front of the queue!
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| Get hooked on the Talons of Weng-Chiang |
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This is probobly the finest of the BBC DVD releases yet.
The story is one of the best and most of Doctor Who's and its setting adds an extra level of mystery around the plot.
With the Doctors Sherlockian deerstalker hat "The Talons" includes many elements of the victorian society and borrows from Jack the Ripper as well as Phantom of the opera, it mixes them well.
The commentary from the director, producer and some of the key actors make the track absorbing. Included is some rough footage of film taking place with directions being given to the actors.
So much extras on top of this wonderfull story as well as the enhanced image and sound make this a must have for all fans of Who.
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| A moving story for the Sixth Doctor |
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| What: | Jubilee (Big Finish: The Monthly Adventures) |
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| By: | David Barton, The English Empire |
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| Date: | Sunday 25 May 2003 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
There is a lot to enjoy about Jubilee. For me my already over the top appreciation for Colin Baker's Sixth Doctor was raised to a new level. The Sixth Doctor and Evelyn are quite frankly the best thing, no better than sliced bread. Robert Shearman's script is amazing, I've been a bit bored of the same sort of re-use of the Daleks but this story uses them in such an innovative way. It is a very touching story with the bit in Episode 3 were Evelyn tells the Doctor how much he means to her is moving, and I felt sadness for the Doctor and even that Daleks plight. One of Big Finish's greatest yet!
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| Hilarious and Thought-Provoking |
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I found Bucher-Jones first New Adventure, The Death of Art, an incomprehensible mush, but thoroughly enjoyed The Taking of Planet Five despite its mind-stretching nature. Much of the faults of the former had to do with the turgid prose style, something thankfully absent from the latter since (Mark Clapham actually wrote that one according to Bucher-Jones' outline).
Ghost Devices is only the second Bernice New Adventure I've read (the rather disappointing Down being the other), and was pleasantly surprised that this one was far better. It's also nowhere near as convoluted as Bucher-Jones' 7th or 8th Doctor novels, and has a liberal dash of humor to boot.
I think one of the main mistake I made while reading The Death of Art was that I read it too quickly. Bucher-Jones' novels should be read slowly, maybe 40-50 pages a day. That's how I paced myself with Ghost Devices, and the experience was much more rewarding than reading in great big chunks of 150 pages a day (a surefire way to get mental indigestion). His novels are filled not only with complex concepts, but are told using complex sentences. Even his action scenes are filled with fascinating explanations and intricate jokes! It is unwise to skim these difficult passages, since they are what the book is about.
The novel comes across as the product of a more knowledgeable Dave Stone or a slightly less loopy Lawrence Miles -- both are authors I enjoy, but they often go too far in their respective realms of nuttiness. Bucher-Jones gives just enough leeway to his plot threads and concepts to keep them interesting and wild, yet keeps them in control enough so they remain comprehensible. Even the cycle of self-negating temporal paradoxes at the end -- which has the potential for a real befuddlement-disaster -- is presented in a way easy to understand.
I must admit that I'm a real sucker for time paradoxes, so the whole premise of this book I found irresistible -- a massive artifact called the Spire that conveys information from the future, whose transmissions are collected and studied by the sentient lizards who have developed an entire culture around it. It is an impressive premise, and was consistently the focus of the book's attention, nicely enhanced by a lengthy side-trip to the homeworld of the race who built the Spire.
The opening page and a half -- with an senile, old, city-sized Factory complaining about the dirty water and subsequently being nuked by the anti-AI drones -- is some of the funniest and intriguing *Who*-related writing I've read. Although it seemed totally irrelevant for most of the book, it's nicely explained on page 190. However, the rest of the Prologue (featuring suicidal businessman Sul Starren), as well as the scene toward the end with a Watchmaker (a.k.a., a Time Lord) painting a door (?) seem totally unconnected to the rest of the novel. These apparently unrelated scenes are my only complaint about what is otherwise a very interesting, funny, and well-written book. Highly recommended.
I'm not a big fan of Orman. Her New Adventures I found to be both silly and
dull (except maybe the first hundred pages of Set Piece), I avoided Vampire
Science like the plague (I hate vampires), but gobbled up the excellent
Seeing I in a single day. So I usually don't go out of my way to read her
books, but after that one good EDA I decided to give this one a shot.
Unnatural History nicely encapsulates all that is bad about Orman's work --
and I suppose that applies to Blum as well. They're great stylists and the
actual prose reads wonderfully. But the plot is silly -- a victory of style
over substance -- laden with adolescent-level seriousness and inane
angst-ridden philosophizing. All the characters run around like mad
teenagers while trying to decide whether to shag or not (in accordance with
their likewise teenage-level hormones), the Doctor/TARDIS get horribly
tortured and mutilated, and characters from previous Orman books pop up
making the reader stop cold and utter "Huh? Who? What?" Why does she expect
us to remember stupid characters from her previous books?! Ah well, it's not
like we're missing anything. The only one I actually do remember is that
stubborn receptionist from the beginning of Seeing I...
So how fares the plot of Unnatural History? More space- and time-tearing
shenanigans in San Francisco. Ho-hum... I didn't even like this plot the
first time round, in that atrocious TV movie. Remember that? I sure wish I
didn't, and that Orman & Blum would quit reminding us. And they're really
not doing themselves any good by emulating it. The only time paradox story
set in San Francisco I'd ever want a repeat viewing of is Star Trek IV, and
considering my opinions on that particular franchise that's really saying
something.
And for the second time in a row, the TARDIS is nearly destroyed. This sort
of thing is exciting, but only when it *doesn't* happen every other day. It
was a big mistake to put this novel and Dominion right next to each other.
And the brief, out-of-the-blue solution to the hitherto insoluble
dimensional scar problem left me blinking my eyes with little *bink-bink*
noises, like Dee-Dee from *Dexter's Laboratory*.
And there's an incredibly stupid and insulting scene on page 156 where the
Doctor buys a bottle of beer and pours it out onto the ground in memory of a
friend who recently died. Doctor in da hood! "This is for my homies who got
da cap in da head..." I can't believe they actually wrote this scene, and
even more unbelievable is that it made it through the editing stages.
However bad the story and characters may be, there are several really good
jokes. Highlights include the Doctor shouting "Sam, number fifteen!" and
staggering across the alley to provide a distraction (p. 48), Fitz's
thinking about "ley lines" (p. 61), and the Doctor taunting the Faction
Paradox kid (p. 166).
Ah yes. Faction Paradox. I love these guys from Miles' books, but here
they're reduced to a group of trick-or-treaters, or creepy in-bred retards
from the backwoods of West Virginia, right out of a bad Lovecraft story. But
I must say the whole biodata concept was better explained here than in any
of Miles' books, and having strands of it lying around San Francisco was
interesting and nicely used. The temporal duplication machine that runs on
its own Blinovitch cancellation energy was quite clever and I enjoyed that.
And I thought the Doctor's biodata being inconsistent and self-contradictory
was a nice touch, emphasizing that time travellers suffer unusual
side-effects.
This book explains (in part) the whole "Dark Sam" business that was hinted
at in Alien Bodies and carried on in Interference, but it was annoying to
have to wade through this ghastly book just for those bits. And even so,
they weren't very good.
I never cease to be amazed by the obligatory massive acknowledgements
page(s) in these *Who* novels. I counted no fewer than FORTY people
mentioned in this one! I don't even *know* that many people! Much less
people whom I could sucker into helping out with my book... (It's like one
of these effects-laden movies, where the ending credits mention even the tea
lady who came in to substitute for Sally -- who had the flu -- for one
afternoon of filming.) And yet, with all this help and feedback, the book is
still crappy! You'd think one of these people would speak up and say "Ah...
you know, Kate, there are a couple hundred pages here that could use a
little more work..." Apparently not. They're either sycophants or idiots
themselves. What a waste.
Save yourselves the time, money, and effort by reading Cameron Dixon's
synopsis at http://www.drwhoguide.com/whobbc23.htm. The only outstanding
thing about this novel is the really nice cover. But remember: you don't
have to pay money to look at it!
| What: | Reckless Engineering (BBC Eighth Doctor novels) |
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| By: | John Ellison, Atlanta, Georgia, USA |
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| Date: | Monday 12 May 2003 |
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| Rating: | 9 |
Its humble beginnings seem to mark the book as mediocre. But then...at some point...it picks up speed and rumbles to a resounding finish that is truly unforgetable.
Walters orchestrates a tale driven by characters. Like several of the previous authors, he manages to *really* find the voices of Anji, Fitz and the Doctor. He drops them into a world of vivid horror (only a twisted mind could create the Wildren) and their reactions form the foundation for the rest of the story.
It is also evident that Walters has done his homework, tossing in tidbits from the novel line continuity. What more could a fan ask for in a book? Well gut wrenching moral dilemma comes to mind and Walters delivers there as well. The slow start prevents my rating it a 10 but even then it will stay with me for a very long time...
A must read!
