NA #54 The Death of Art

The Death of Art by Simon Bucher-Jones

In Brief: The only book from the series I gave up on back in the day.

More Descriptive Brief: Strange things are afoot in late 19th-century Paris. Or something.

More specifically involving intelligent bacteria and a doll's house of unimaginable power.

And mutants in sewers.

Yes, of the 62 books in the run of The New Adventures, The Death of Art is the one that back when it first came out I gave up on part-way through. I can't recall the exact reason I had back in 1996/97, but I think it was just the feeling of being absolutely uninvolved and wanting to move on to something better. So I was curious this time around to see if I was justified in skipping much of the book or if it would turn out to be a neglected gem.

The verdict: It's not the worst book in the series (I think at this point that "honour" still belongs to either Shadowmind (sentient carbon, psychic squirrels) or First Frontier (Aliens in New Mexico, The Master)) but it's definitely a contender.

So this time I triumphed and managed to finish the thing. But it's proved to be a hollow victory since the book just isn't very good. The frustrating thing is that Bucher-Jones has a decent prose-style and is very good with his description of events and the setting. The problem is that his plotting and grasp of character (in regards to having that are in any way memorable, or even really rememberable (shut up, it's a word)) needs a lot of work. Earlier in the series, when new authors to the range were common and the overall quality was more variable, this was less noticeable. However with the standard of the books being high for a long while (basically since before Ace left around 15 entries ago) having a mess like this sticks out like a sore thumb.

He'd probably work better co-authoring a book with someone who is better with plot and character.

Although the strange thing is that the book is no worse than the recent GodEngine with it's tales of Ice Warrior romance. But that book got away with being sub-par through being a fast-paced action romp. The Death of Art desperately wants to be gothic horror (what with passages devoted to torture and body mutilation) but completely fails. While I'm often able to appreciate lofty ambitions here I just don't have the patience. The whole thing feels lazy.

So, about the book itself: "The story" deals with The Doctor, Roz and Chris receiving a message from Dorothée (sorry, I mean Ace) that something is terribly wrong with time in late 19th-century Paris. Once there the three manage to ingratiate themselves with various goings-on which involve a mysterious Family with strange powers fighting a powerful figure known as Montague who wants...um...I can't actually remember (power or something, or the desire to recreate mankind and stuff). And that's the big problem, while Bucher-Jones is able to describe Paris and discuss various news stories and politics from the period he can't get away from weak central story and forgettable characters.

The whole plot (involving all of the powers of the Family and Montague stemming from lost atom-sized aliens the Quoth, or something) ends up being wrapped up with a paragraph-long conversation. With not much of a plot to speak of (or read about rather) the gap is filled with page after page of random happenings as various characters interact with each other without really saying or doing anything of note or interest. Chris spends most of his time being somewhat useless as a fake policeman (and what is with the authors and their vivid description of how muscular he is? It's like a gay porn star has entered the Tardis. And not in a good way.), The Doctor is a *smidge* more proactive but disappears for long stretches and Roz spends most of the middle part of the book tied up while being whipped.

But what's frustrating is that the book's not *completely* awful. Maybe, with a really huge edit it could have been made into something good. But what we have is a lot of set-up with very little pay-off. There are too many characters with too many sub-plots that end up having not much to do with anything at all. While this can work when the author involved has a great prose-style and can keep the reader's interest here it just all falls flat.

What I'm reminded most of (especially since I just got the DVD) is of the TV serial The Android Invasion. It's not a good story, but neither is it a total failure. However in fandom and polls (and other useless things) it consistently is ranked as one of the "worst ever stories" due to the fact that it's a poor story during an era of the show widely seen as the Golden Age (1975-1977). The Death of Art feels similar. It's definitely a weak entry in the series, but one which commits the sin of being Not Very Good during a period of greatness.

So overall The Death of Art, while not the worst in the series, hasn't improved much in my estimation. It all just felt like filler not worth the time or effort.