As promised, something to take my mind off the brutally prosaic “normal” world: the latest Doctor Who novel round-up…
Written by Dale Smith
This is, hands down (excuse the pun), the best of this batch of books. It’s dark, it has a historical setting, it’s full of creepy-crawly body horror, mad scientists, angry soldiers, disembodied hands, and Benjamin Franklin…what more could you ask for?
Most likely you’ll be asking for a plot. Luckily, there’s plenty of it: rich and well structured. The author’s previous book (the much underrated 7th Doctor novel Heritage) created a world of dry & dusty secrets, full of hidden pain. On this occasion, Dale Smith plunges us into the busy streets of 18th century Edinburgh. Having a ready-made world to play with in this novel allows him to embellish the gothic nature of the city (which is positively dripping from the ramshackle buildings of the Old Town), adding layer upon ghoulish layer to the story and its characters. He then sends the story off at a breakneck pace; we join the action already in progress, with a scene that would have looked spectacular on television, but feels equally spectacular on the printed page.
The Doctor and Martha are far more mature here than in the previous novels. Clearly set during the latter half of their TV adventures, they are expertly handled by Smith’s pen. The Doctor is full of his usual manic energy, but there is an equally brooding and contemplative element on display. Martha is far more confident about herself and her abilities, and she wastes no time getting into the thick of things. That said, there is plenty of fear and terror in her character, which makes her reactions even more natural and sympathetic to the reader. Believe me, she has much to fear about the horrific mess in which she finds herself…
The setting and tone are very reminiscent of the Big Finish audio play Medicinal Purposes, but The Many Hands is the far superior work. It flies by at an incredible rate, yet it’s packed with so much detail, so much nuance, and so much character that it’s bursting at the seams. Easily the best of the 10th Doctor novels to date.
10
Written by Justin Richards
BBC Books Editor Justin Richards has always been a very hit and miss author for me. He’s nothing if not prodigious and ambitious, and in the past, he’s offered a number of amazing, powerful, and exceptionally well-written adventures (I’d highly recommend both The Sands of Time and The Burning). However, he’s also responsible for a number of dull clunkers, and I’ve found most of his 9th and 10th Doctor output to be extremely forgettable.
That is, until now…
Martha in the Mirror isn’t the deepest, most compelling, most mind-blowing effort I’ve ever read, but for pure entertainment value alone, it’s shockingly enjoyable. It plays with all sorts of standard Doctor Who cliches and set-ups, but makes them feel fresh and invigorating, as if they were being used for the first time.
You name it, it’s here. Evil doubles, important & imposing castles, parallel universes, monks, space opera, an inter-galactic peace conference, a shoot-em-up climax…mixed with all sorts of Alice Through the Looking Glass allusions. All of this should cancel itself out in the biggest literary explosion you can imagine…but nothing of the sort occurs. It’s all wrapped up in an enjoyable adventure that concentrates on atmosphere and pace. Not very deep, but so broad it stretches to the horizon, and helped by a continuation of the maturity of writing for the Doctor and Martha that was present in The Many Hands.
It’s very much in the style of classic Graham Williams-produced, late 1970s Doctor Who. Perhaps not a vintage that inspires a great deal of confidence, but when it was on top form, it produced stories of great wit, imagination and excitement. I’d lump Martha in the Mirror into that era, and it would be sitting comfortably in the company of stories such as The Sun Makers and The Androids of Tara.
8
Written by Mike Tucker
The first two thirds of this novel are in the running for most cliched and dull Doctor Who writing ever. Prose that competes with Terrance Dicks during his most banal, novel-a-month period. It’s full of info-dumps that would make Dan Brown’s DaVinci Code proud, and the characters all appear out of the random-character-generator that I believe must have been kept in the basement of BBC Television Centre, and was transferred to the offices of BBC Books. Only the solid characterization of the Doctor and Martha offer any solace for an otherwise limp experience…
…until we get to the final 75 pages, at which point the book completely transforms…and goes a bit bonkers!
It’s not easy writing action. Action is visual. Bangs, flashes, chases…they all require the senses to be engaged. Writing action is usually akin to trying to dance about architecture; it’s never going to give you any of the same sort of satisfaction as a good TV or film overload-of-destruction. But to his credit, Mike Tucker supplies an astonishing amount of action on the page, and it actually works. More than that…it works brilliantly! The final third of Snowglobe 7 races along at warp speed, and you’ll find yourself breathlessly (and increasingly mind-shredded) turning the pages, determined not to finish until the roller-coaster action ceases.
If only the first two thirds lived up to the conclusion. On its own, the last bit of the novel is as top rate as anything BBC Books have recently produced…wickedly cool family of monsters included. :D But working your way through the first 150 pages is like trawling through a smelly bog, in search of a diamond.
6
