NA #14 Lucifer Rising

Lucifer Rising by Andy Lane & Jim Mortimore

In Brief: The Doctor, Ace and Benny visit a futuristic research base located on a moon circling an Impossible Planet filled with Angels.

And the cover-artists' inability to even approach an accurate likeness of Sophie Aldred is starting to become an art-form in itself. Yes, that's Ace holding the gun.

Many elements of Lucifer Rising reminded me of 2006's Doctor Who and CGI Devil Thing of Deathly Doom (or whatever it was called). However unlike its televisual counterpart the book doesn't suffer from a terminal case of the stupids (nor is it as Ood...). Despite the similar surface-trappings (off-planet team researching the left-over advanced technology of a long-dead race. Oh, and black-holes are involved.) the book has a tone and style that is quite serious and somewhat grim (although with the occasional lighter moment thrown in).

But the feeling I got most while reading was one of being rather disconcerted. Being so used to the normal Tardis Lands/meet new characters/see new place/etc the book through me for a loop since it starts some time after the Doctor & Co. have been in place.

And we don't even learn until the end why they went there in the first place.

While this sounds like a potential for confusion it actually works quite well. The technique really helps to keep you a little off-kilter so that you never *really* feel safe in this environment. While all is explained by the end it keeps interest-levels high as the reader has to try to piece together what is *really* going on and then go back and re-evaluate once certain answers are finally given. The novel also has probably the best written and realised non-regular characters since at least Transit and a great deal of intrigue to work though (things start off with a murder-whodunnit and ramp up to an apocalyptic climax).

We also have a much better use of new-Ace than in Deceit. After the events of Love & War (and really even since 1989's "The Curse of Fenric") we have a companion who has become so traumatised and bitter due to her relationship with the Doctor that she begins to willingly act against him. This rejection leads to a much more guilt-ridden Time Lord than anything seen before, as the Doctor realises that his earlier plans and schemes have hurt his friends and come back to bite him in the sonic screwdriver.

The thing that really struck me while reading Lucifer Rising was how much the books have improved and progressed since the unsure first-steps of the Timewyrms. This is really a very good book in any context. That's quite the change from the "for the fans" feeling that was present earlier on as the series has by now managed to transform itself into far more than just another spin-off.

I really appreciate that the publishers decided that the books would follow an on-going narrative rather than being a series of "one-offs". Many of the events in the novel are a direct result of what has come before, in particular all that has happened since the Doctor landed on Heaven back in Love & War. While someone could come to this book "cold" and still enjoy it having an understanding of how the ongoing narrative has built up to this point definitely does add (although it would involve willingly subjecting oneself to Deceit).

While it seems an obvious thing to do in this age of the story-arc it was quite the novelty back in 1993 after the far more discombobulated show we were used to.

I liked Lucifer Rising a lot. While not perfect (things go a bit wonky about 2/3rds through but thankfully recovers) it's another reminder that Doctor Who in book form was a very good thing indeed since it's freed from pesky things like budget and being meant for a "family audience" (I've never read any of the post-2005 so don't know if it's still the case). While of course I love that the show is once again on television reading through these books is reacquainting me to why I really started to love it so much in the early-90s.