Beltempest by Jim Mortimore
In Brief: The Doctor and Sam have a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.
The Tardis hurls The Doctor and Sam into the potential collapse of an entire solar-system. Billions of people are set to be killed, millions have already died. The Doctor tries to get to the bottom of the situation while Sam becomes involved with an undying messiah.
Then it turns out to be caused by powerful super-beings going through berthing pains and we are reminded of our place in a large and uncaring universe.
Ok, so there's more to it than that but Beltempest felt like Jim Mortimore in an iPod shuffle. What's here is good, but we've seen (or read it rather) all before (in the likes of New Adventures's Parasite and Eternity Weeps). It's his normal mix of the apocalypse writ large mixed with a dollop of dark humour.
But this minor complaint makes it sound like the book was dull, which it wasn't. It's possibly the most intense entry in the series so far, especially as Sam faces the weight of choices she must make. Actually this is possibly the best use of the character so far, as her being driven to the verge of madness by events in the book gives an edge that's so far been missing. Too often she's come across as a somewhat empty and under-written character (The Amy
Pond of the 90s?).
What I also appreciated though is that a story like this could *only* be done as a novel, there's no way a television production could capture the sheer *size* of what happens. However it can be heavy going, and the book felt very rushed towards the end. Still, it's a well-written and challenging entry in the Eighth Doctor Adventures, which is very welcome.
I can't quite say that the book was great, but it was a very good and memorable experience. Albeit one I probably don't need to go through again.
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