EDA #15 The Scarlet Empress

The Scarlet Empress by Paul Magrs

In Brief:  A quest through a land of wizards, hairless guard-bears, giant spiders and an evil empress alongside a lizard-man, bearded-lady and a half-crazed Time Lady in her double-decker bus shaped Tardis.

It's becoming somewhat apparent that I've been slowing down in getting through these books. From an average of 3 or so earlier in the year I now seem to be getting through around one a month. However considering the number of times I've ended up writing "this book was disappointing" it's hardly surprising that I'm not tearing through the novels with the voraciousness that was once there. Also moving countries and other life upheavals has meant that fitting in the time for a 15-year-old series of books has lowered in the ranks somewhat.

However, I don't intend to give up on them since it gives me the chance to experience some "new" Who (well to me since the Eighth Doctor books were completely ignored at the time). The best thing about Doctor Who (for me) is is that "where will we go *this* week?" that so imbues the show at its best (IMHO). I've never understood the criticism of some that they can't stand the show since there's no regular cast each week, as if that's somehow a bad thing. However it *is* a bit annoying when you get a particularly good setting or situation.

Such is the case with The Scarlet Empress as The Doctor & Sam gate-crash a world of magic and wonders. The book itself is some of the best Doctor Who fiction I've read, well written and filled to the brim with great characters, charm and wit. We also get the introduction of Iris Wildthyme, an escapee from Gallifrey who travels all of space & time in a bus that's slightly smaller on the inside than the outside.

Also, The Eighth Doctor has really come into his own in the series, still based on Paul McGann and his youthful energizing of the character but with more of a connection to the past. If anything we seem to have a future echo of what will be on screen once David Tennant and Matt Smith appear.

While the plot of The Scarlet Empress is mainly a series of set-pieces it hardly matters as Magrs has created such a vibrant world, one which is very different from most seen previously. Here the planet Hyspero is a land of magical beasts and little explained wonders, akin to something out of Arabian Tales. One of the things I do after finishing each novel is go to The Doctor Who Ratings Guide to get a contemporary sense of what fandom though of it (and to see if I agree or not). Interestingly in the late-90s a lot of fans took issue with the overt use of "magic" in Doctor Who, since it just wasn't the norm.

However, coming to the book in 2012 such qualms are greatly lessened after televised adventures against witches, giant doll-houses and however the hell The Master came back to life during "The End of Time". Doctor Who has generally been Science Fantasy rather than Science Fiction, despite the opinion of many. It's about the fun of experience, even if you don't get all of the explanations (unlike much of say Star Trek, which is all about the explanations, even if you don't get the fun).

However this being a book written in the late-1990s its very post-modern and filled deconstructionism, as the prose flits about the place and characters have conversations around story-telling and narrative.  Iris, with her tendency to claim The Doctor's adventures as her own (and mention of previously unheard of adventures between the two) is a very new style of character, acting as both part of as well as comment on the story.  Such a complexity of story-telling is the usual in the series today ("Love & Monsters" on TV being the most overt example), but this was very new to Who in 1998.

But most importantly this is a glimmer that even in the Doctor Who dead-zone of 1997-2002 (post-move, pre-announcement of comeback) there were those ready to take the series into new directions. The Eighth Doctor Adventures up until now have been too much about rehashing the past and living off the fumes of nostalgia. Now it remains to be seen if much else in this series keeps up to the promise of The Scarlet Empress, but at least I'm living in hope again.

EDA #14 Vanderdeken's Children

Vanderdeken's Children by Christopher Bulis

In Brief: The Doctor and Sam get caught up in escalating tensions between two warring planets both laying claim to a mysterious derelict ship floating in space. Ghosts are involved.

The author of what I ranked as one of the worst of the New Adventures (Shadowmind) now contributing to the so far sub-par Eighth Doctor Adventures range. Need less to say I approached Vanderdeken'd Children with some trepidation. However much to my surprise I found that the novel managed to reach and maintain a level of "not bad (with caveats)".

One of the caveats is that the characterisation is somewhat light, these aren't the most memorable group of characters in the history of Who. But then that's nothing new to the series, we don't need in-depth character drama all of the time. The other issue is that things don't really wrap up well at the end, with a horrible timey-wimey time-loop explanation and is completely unsatisfying.

But, up until the end the book manages to keep a good sense of mystery going as The Doctor and Sam (impersonating government moderators) help to investigate the abandoned ship. Although it's essentially a spooky old house in space there are a few decent surprises along the way. I didn't have a feeling of tedium while working through this entry in the range as I have some others. Well except for anything not set on the ship, there's a bit of MILITARY EXPOSITION! going on throughout.

But other than declaring Vanderdeken's Children to be a decent book that unfortunately doesn't *quite* hang together there's really not much more to say.

Um, it's free of references to the past, which is nice after the continuity-fest of Placebo Effect. The Doctor is also decently proactive and involved in the story for once, there's been a bit of a tendency to keep him out of events a bit too much in these books. I realise it's most likely to raise the tension a bit it does make the character come across as somewhat ineffectual.

And Sam...is there. Despite the good work of some authors (most notably Kate Orman) to try to make her character work in the series the "right-on girl of the late-90s" remains an obvious struggle for many of them. Here she's just acting as Generic Companion who is a bit perky and gets into trouble every so often but otherwise has no notable personality (*cough* Amy Pond *cough*). While disappointing by this point I've just had to accept her presence and get on with it.

So, to sum up, book is ok. That's about it.