Infinite Requiem By Daniel Blythe
In Brief: In order to ensure the safety of the entire universe, The Doctor and Bernice must combat an all-powerful enemy split across three different points in time & space.
A milk-run really.
Infinite Requiem is a good (but not great) entry into the range of New Adventures. However coming after what has been an excellent yet somewhat heavy run of books lately having something a little bit light-weight isn't a bad change of pace.
However when I say "light-weight" I mainly mean that we've got a mainly straight-forward action story rather than the more psychological terrors of the past few books. In a similar method to his earlier The Dimension Riders Blythe reuses a plot-point from the never-shown serial "Shada" (an enemy who wants to create and control a "universal mind") with some rather neat plotting across multiple times and places. In Infinite Requiem we get the God-like Shanstra, who emerges from the time vortex on a war-torn planet in the 25th-century with one thing (total-control BWAHHAHAH, or something) on her mind. However her influence is felt in 1997 London (where The Doctor and Benny get involved) as well as a Dream-Therapy Centre millennia in the future due to reasons explained in the book.
The book is best in its first half as it draws together what at first seems to be unrelated events as the Doctor and Bernice (both still missing the recently departed Ace. A bit.) investigate. Unfortunately the novel has a slightly poor second half, as the more interesting setting in the modern day is altered to a more futuristic yet blander location. But this isn't to say that any part of the book is bad, it's just mean that the threat of Shanstra's plan feels somewhat lessened as we lose the more "real-life" feeling setting.
This minor problem is made up for though by Blythe being a decent writer with a good grasp of keeping the non-regular characters interesting, even including the alien Phractons (aka Blobs in Floating Balls). The only real disappointment is that the main baddie Shanstra doesn't really develop into more than a cackling "I will rule/destroy you all!" type of villain. However it actually turns out by the end this is somewhat on purpose and actually fits in with how *spoiler* the Doctor eventually defeats her.
But these are all minor complaints in what overall was an enjoyable entry in the book series. It didn't blow my socks off but it did keep me entertained and interested throughout its 200+ pages. There are worse sins than being a bit unmemorable.
No comments:
Post a Comment