NA #42 Toy Soldiers

Toy Soldiers by Paul Leonard

In Brief: It's 1919 and aliens are kidnapping children and forcing them to become soldiers in a meaningless war on a far-off world.

The Doctor is not amused.

Toy Soldiers, like Zamper immediately before, is a book for which I held absolutely no memory. Re-reading it now I can understand why, the characters and situations just never rise above being "a bit dull". There's not enough plot to sustain an entire novel and several parts of the book are taken up with descriptions of various air and ground battles on the alien planet that become a bit tedious. Also the author becomes rather heavy-handed in his anti-war message so things turn a little preachy. While I'm all for a nice pacifist message I've seen it done better elsewhere (such as in Human Nature).

Also the book is lacking a decent antagonist. While the reason behind the kidnappings (a big alien computer trying force technological upgrade through war) makes sense and fits in with the "pointlessness of war" theme it leave the reader feeling somewhat unsatisfied.

However there are some aspects of the book that work well and raises Toy Soldiers into the ranks of the "mediocre yet worthy". The novel makes good use of Chris and Roz for once, who in being separated from The Doctor and Benny for much of the book get a chance to develop as characters as they're forced to cope with 1919 attitudes. Roz gets some good moments as she slowly comes to realise the prejudice surrounding her darker than average skin.

Benny also gets a good chunk of the action, as she struggles to break her brain-washing when she is captured and sent to the alien war-zone. The Doctor is absent for long stretches of the book, which works well as it forces the other characters to figure out problems on their own.

While nothing in the book is actually bad the whole thing is just uninspired. There's nothing in the book that's really that much different from what has gone before in the New Adventures. With the subject matter and setting Toy Soldiers should have been one of the highlights of the series but as it is just remains a forgotten and forgettable entry in the lexicon of Who.