Amazon has irritated me.
I pre-ordered the three latest Doctor Who novels months before they were released…you’d think they would have filled the orders on time…but no. I had to wait for a staggered delivery of TWO of them…and the THIRD one was delayed until DECEMBER!
Yet…(a BIG yet)…I could find copies used in Amazon marketplace and on eBay…what was going on?
So I’m still waiting for Ghosts of India…ironically, the novel I was most looking forward to reading. Luckily, the other two far exceeded any expectations I might have had, based on their initial descriptions. Karma taketh away, but it also giveth, it seems…
Written by Simon Messingham
A total surprise. The back cover blurb would lead one to believe this would be a rehash of The Most Dangerous Game, in futuristic attire. Thankfully, the combination of the 10th Doctor and Donna neatly skewer this parody into something far more brilliant, and far more intriguing.
This is an insidious morality play about the pitfalls of paranoia…but it’s also terrifying and hilarious, in equal measure. The chief villain — Sebastiene — is clearly mad as a mongoose. But the author never forgets that bonkers can be humourous…and it can be cold and cruel. Combined with an ego the size of his planet, and a self-confidence that takes arrogance to an entirely new level, the end result is that Sebastiene is someone the Doctor can ridicule one moment, and fear the next, without losing credibility.
But this isn’t enough for our ambitious author. He has to go and surround his evil protagonist with robots even more paranoid than Sebastiene…and paranoid game hunters…and a frustrated, beyond paranoid Donna. Throw in a Doctor-wanna-be, mix in a simple little phrase that takes on a life of its own…and this most dangerous game transforms into a dangerously exciting, utterly compelling, beautifully ridiculous conflagration. It’s easily the most outrageous Doctor Who novel in quite some time (it makes Sick Building look like a fairy tale), and one of the most breathless. If you can’t finish this in one sitting, then there is something seriously wrong with you.
9.5
Written by Mark Michalowski
MORE strangeness, but wrapped up in an almost-cliched, mainstream science-fiction setting, Shining Darkness is a giant slab of Doctor Who comfort food.
It’s a chase story, with pretentious, high-minded and overtly-moral bad guys vs. long-suffering, scruffy, rough-around-the-edges good guys. It’s full of space stations, state of the art vessels, not-so-state of the art vessels, and a standard cast of misfit characters, dragged together into an adventure that spans the stars…
…but Donna has to come along and screw it all up…and the Doctor’s attempts to rescue her just make things worse. Oh, and half the characters are sentient robots. ;-)
Shining Darkness is the literary companion to last season’s TV episode Planet of the Ood. It’s exciting, funny, poignant, and gives Donna a great deal to do…so much so that you can hear Catherine Tate’s voice in every bit of authentic dialogue. It’s not exactly the deepest story (you can pretty much scope out the plot points from memory), but it does have an amazing breadth. The setting of the Andromeda Galaxy is used to suitable & strange effect, making Donna feel very alone, and a long way from home…and even the Doctor is slightly uncomfortable with its strange unfamiliarity. That said, it’s strange enough to keep the reader wrong-footed without total alienation. We might not understand this civlization, but we’re sympathizing with their problems, and adjusting to the new normal, as fast and as furious as Donna must do, over the course of the story.
It’s not a patch on the insidious brilliance of The Doctor Trap, but like Planet of the Ood, it knows its audience, and what it has to deliver…and it does so with a great deal of satisfaction. A pleasant and unexpected surprise.
8
