Sky Pirates! by Dave Stone
In Brief: The Doctor, Benny, Chris and Roz find themselves in a nihilistic version of The HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
But with song-and-dance numbers.
Insane, bizarre, probably divisive and quite quite enjoyable, Sky Pirates! is definitely one of the most memorable of the books in the entire range of New Adventures. While I imagine the book wouldn't be to everyone's taste the huge imagination involved in Stone's world-building mixed with his OTT writing-style meant that I was totally with this book from Page 1.
That's not to say that the book is perfect, it could probably due with a bit more focus and a bit of an edit (at 300 pages it's the longest of the New Adventures), but at the same time I don't mind a bit of indulgence here and there when the result is so enjoyable.
So what is the book about anyways? The Tardis falls into a small pocket universe known as The System, which is filled with a variety of humanoid species on a collection of rather improbable planets. However The System has been invaded by the villainous shape-shifting blobby Sloathes, who are enslaving the local population and stealing all of their pretty things. Add to this a pirate crew, a "chosen one" and a quest for The Eyes That Will Save Everything. The book goes for a bit of a "quest" feel as the regulars (including new additions Chris and Roz, a little underused) end up in various parts of The System over a course of several weeks.
Sky Pirates! is a great book for Benny, as the sense of humour which follows the character is really allowed to come to the fore-front as she's faced with planets shaped like snowmen and a sun with a giant smiley-face on it. However it's her view of The Doctor that really stands out in the book, as she realises that her earlier hope of being an equal to him was a false hope, at best she might be a prized pet. That's not to say that the book makes The Doctor out to be uncaring, but this is easily the character at his most manipulative and alien, getting people to do what he needs through subtle hints and false comedy. The climax in particular, as The Doctor faces the reason The System has him at his most God-like and terrifying (although that's not visible to most).
So while much of Sky Pirates! at first seems to be extremely OTT by the end it's surprising at how serious, and actually horrific, much of what happens ends up being. Like the earlier Parasite this is a disaster of huge proportions, with only the survival of a few giving a sense of victory (well relatively few compared to the earlier book's survival-rate of none). Still, the book is hardly a downer. In fact it in many ways pushes the Doctor Who envelope farther than any other book so far (and definitely more than almost any TV-story). Although I guess that's the benefit of a novel not having to worry about the budget.
So an excellent, if diabolical, entry into the series. This book has reminded me about how enjoyable Who can be when it goes for something new and succeeds.
Original Sin by Andy Lane
In Brief: 30th-Century Earth. Empires are crumbling, the rich live in luxurious floating Over-Cities while the poor toil in the dark below and people are randomly becoming insane killers. Plus ça change...
Oh, and The Doctor picks up a couple of new companions, Adjudicators (Future-police) Roz Forrester and Chris Cwej. And while the whole thing ends up being the fault of an old enemy amazingly it *isn't* The Master.
Original Sin is a very good book. One of the best in the series so far in fact. It's got that combination of good story, good writing and good characters that reminded me why I was investing my time in revisiting The New Adventures. I'd say that it's actually a smidge better than Human Nature even though the previous story was the one that ended up being filmed. Of course with it's futuristic world-hoppping sci-fi trappings you'd need a budget in the tens of millions to bring Original Sin to life, not just a school-house in Wales.
Something that's very interesting to me, reading these books, as to how one author can manage to make their characters really stand out and be memorable where another fails dismally. Why is it that Andy Lane's writing means I can easily follow everything that is going on, but an author like David A. McIntee (Sanctuary, First Frontier) ends up with some vivid description of scenery but I can never tell anyone apart. I guess it must just be a skill that some have that others lack, like musical ability.
Anyways, decent characterisation is just one of the aspects of the book that made it enjoyable. Lane's version of the 30th-century is one very much like that of "The Fifth Element", with an earth covered in massive high-rises and filled with all types of alien visitor. Although in a lot of ways this goes further than anything in that movie in making the place a tangible domain where people (and aliens) live. Throw into this setting Bernice and The Doctor, following the dying words of a large slug (aka Hith Warrior), warned of a danger to Earth. The threat is that people are randomly going insane and killing anyone in their path.
It turns out eventually that the culprit is one Tobias Vaughn, last seen as a stooge for the Cybermen in 1968's "The Invasion".
Having a returning villain could have been awful, as it has been in the past (The Master, The War Lords. etc.) but in Original Sin it works surprisingly well. Lane has taken care to make sure that Vaughn's appearance doesn't feel shoe-horned in. The character's presence has been thought through, with a plausible reason for him to have survived his earlier story and to still be around 1000 year later. While not mandatory having seen the earlier story does help though.
But alongside a good setting, villain, etc., Original Sin is notable in that we get two new companions for The Doctor in the form of Adjudicators (Future-police) Roz Forrester and Chris Cwej. The two join the Tardis since after siding with The Doctor against their corrupt employer it becomes too dangerous to stay on Earth after the events of the book. Considering Bernice is still around this makes for the most crowded Tardis-crew since Adric landed in Mexico. Of the two of them Roz is the better defined at the moment, mainly as we get a bit more of her back-story than with Chris. Also the fact that Chris starts the book looking like a large Teddy-Bear (thanks to a trendy 30th-century "Body-Bepple") means that he's more the comic relief to begin.
It's good to see the book series taking another step away from its TV-roots. If the publishers had tried to keep the stories based around the original show I don't think the New Adventures would have been even close to being as interesting as they are. Of course with the show back in TV it means that these books are now rather forgotten I do think that their influence has not been completely ignored as so many authors have since written for the show proper. They really did fill the gap between the adventurous original run and the more character-led stories (for the most part) we've had since 2005.
Human Nature by Paul Cornell
In Brief: The Doctor decides he wants to learn what it means to be human and becomes School-Teacher John Smith in 1913 England. Challenges faced include unruly school-boys, an alien family who want his DNA and falling in love.
If this seems familiar it's because the book was turned into a 2-part TV-story in 2007.
It's almost impossible to judge Human Nature now on its own terms since we now have a version shown on TV with the 10th-Doctor and Martha (remember her?) replacing the 7th and Bernice.
However there are more than a few differences between the 1995 book and 2007 TV-episodes, some drastic and some subtle. Let me show you them:
-The Doctor here becomes human not to hide from The Family but instead of his own volition in order to learn and understand Bernice’s grief at losing Guy at the end of Sanctuary.
-The Doctor uses a red pod bought from an alien market to become human rather than a Tardis stop-watch.
-Benny pretends to be “John Smith’s” niece rather than maid.
-The Family are given the name of Aubertides and don’t take over people’s bodies but instead arrive as is through a time tunnel. They are chasing The Doctor after learning of his buying the pod.
-Joan has a cat named Wolsey that she gives to The Doctor at the end of the book.
-There are several additional characters not seen in the TV version, Alexander the museum-curator, Constance the Sufferagette, etc.
-No stupid scarecrow-soldiers.
-The school blows up.
-I didn’t have to look at that weird-faced kid who was in “love, actually…”
Overall though, I don’t think I can actually say that either the book or novel trumps the other. Both are real highlights of the Doctor Who lexicon, and it’s obvious why the decision was made to take this story from the page to (small) screen. Although I did find that I preferred the novel's approach to why The Doctor became human here, as it allowed for a more character-based basis for the book and also helped to make The Doctor feel more alien when he eventually “returned”. Of course having the 7th-Doctor suddenly being romantic was a bigger shift for the character in 1995 than what we got in 2007 considering the 10th’s “unrequited love” aspect of his relationship with Rose. The Doctor pre-2005 was an almost entirely asexual being, so the change in Human Nature is much more pronounced.
However I will give kudos to the TV-version for its version of Joan, Smith/The Doctor’s love interest. Partly through being a more strongly written version of the character but mainly thanks to Jessica Hynes’ performance TV-Joan was one of the more memorable characters to come out of Doctor Who ever. The book version unfortunately pales a bit in comparison and feels a bit bland. Also the novel’s final scene between The Doctor and Joan lacks the force of the televised version.
Joan’s on-screen accusatory “on a whim” has an impact greater than a combined army of Daleks and Weeping Angels ever could.
But I guess I should try to extract myself from media comparison and talk about just the book. As usual Paul Cornell’s writing style is fantastic and things move along at a great pace. After this drudge of Sanctuary this was a welcome experience. Benny is never better than when being written by her “creator” and here again takes centre-stage. I do hope that at some point the poor woman will be allowed to actually appear on TV rather than remain The Greatest Companion Who Never Was.
Of course considering that her main competition is a talking penguin there’s not a lot of competition for that title.
However, one aspect of the book which came as quite a surprise was the violence involved. The book has a much higher body count than the TV-version, with several of the students at the boys’ school being gunned down or killed in a giant explosion (that also blows up the school). Also, rather than the more “fairy tale” end that The Family meets in “The Family of Blood” here the Aubergines are almost completely killed off in various nasty ways by the end.
Human Nature is definitely one of the best books in the series so far, although it’s not envelope-pushing enough to be called great (unlike Cornell’s earlier Timewyrm: Revelation). While in some ways it’s been out-classed by the TV version (which still IMHO is probably the best post-2005 story we’ve had) the fact that it was good enough to actually be filmed speaks volumes. If anyone out there does want to sample one of the New Adventures this is the place to do it.
Sanctuary by David A. McIntee
In Brief: Forced to flee the Tardis, The Doctor and Bernice find themselves in 13th-century France. There they find a beseiged fortress, religious zealots, an amorous mercenary and no aliens or monsters.
Going into Sanctuary I expected the worst. Considering the pain I felt while reading McIntee's earlier First Frontier (Nevada Desert. The Master.) I was expecting another 250 pages of poor characterisation, languid plotting and giant impenetrable blocks of descriptive text. I'd *like* to be able to say that I was pleasantly surprised and that suddenly McIntee has become a good and enjoyable author. Unfortunately the best I can say is that he's gotten better, he's at least seeming competent but needs a much better editor.
While I still have the problem with his books (going back to White Darkness) of not being able to tell some of the characters apart at least here he's decided to work with a smaller group so it's a bit easier to tell who is who. I also find that I tend to not be able to keep track of the various motivations at play so always feel at a disadvantage with some of the parts of the book, particularly if The Doctor or Bernice aren't involved.
However McIntee has managed at least one decent character in Guy DeCarnac, a mercenary who gets a warm tingly feeling for Bernice by the end of the book. While at times not much more than a medieval cliche at least he's memorable enough to remember from chapter to chapter. But otherwise no one character other than The Doctor or Bernice manages to feel like more than if they were part of a not very good medieval Knights & Castles film.
Probably starring Nicholas Cage.
Thankfully the setting is a good one, with the Catholic Inquisitions offering a fairly dramatic threat in the book. And McIntee has done his research, although sometimes it can slow things down a bit as we get a bit of a descriptive history-lesson rather than an important part of the narrative.
The last section of the novel, as the refugees sanctuary of The Roc is pillaged is definitely a stand-out as McIntee doesn't pull his punches in describing what are some very horrific, and historically accurate, atrocities. Unfortunately (there's that word again) the build-up lets the book down, as there's really not much of a story, as a lot of the characters meander around and occasionally get into sword-fights. The tone seems to be set by The Doctor and Bernice, who never really feel like active participants in the narrative as they're really just waiting around until the Tardis repairs itself and returns for them.
I'd say the best aspect of Sanctuary is that it holds a unique place in the New Adventures series in having no extra-terrestrial element other than the regular characters. No Timewyrm, no Pyrovilles, no Tereleptils, just the Tardis and the locals. While I have some problems with the book I still think that "pure" historical stories have a place in Doctor Who, and yet we've not seen it in the show itself since 1967's "The Highlanders".
I realise I'm missing 1982's "Black Orchid" but I'm not counting that story since it's crap. and dancing.
So I won't say that Sanctuary was a bad book, it was just that all of the problems I've mentioned meant that it was uninvolving (which explains why it took me so long to finish the thing). I can put up with a lame story if the characters are interesting and vice versa, but I can't live on setting alone.
Which probably explains why I'll never get through the Lord of the Rings books.
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.
Set Piece by Kate Orman
In Brief: The Doctor, Bernice and Ace are scattered throughout history due to a rift in time after a plan goes disastrously wrong. Each thinks the others are dead and try to carry on despite the threat of a living ship filled with giant mechanical ants.
At the end one of them leaves the Tardis for good.
(hint: it's Ace.)
Set Piece would be notable just for the fact that it (finally many would say) sees the permanent departure of the character of Ace from "current" Doctor Who after 8 years (since the character first appeared in "Dragonfire" back in 1987). However it it also turns out to be one of the highlights of the New Adventures. Kate Orman, in her first return to the series since the equally fantastic The Left-Handed Hummingbird, puts together a fantastic story of multiple time-zones and a threat to all of time and space. Set Piece is what the recently televised "A Good Man Goes to Way" *should* have been, with the narrative use of time really having an impact on the characters rather than just being in aid of empty spectacle.
And the return of time-travelling Kadiatu Lethbridge-Stewart from the earlier novel Transit feels like the character of River Song done right.
What made the book really enjoyable for me is how Orman uses what could be a generic sci-fi situation (characters separated through time) but uses it to really dig into how it impacts the series regulars. Orman manages, in the character's last appearance as a regular in the series, to make the fist really successful use of the New version of Ace that we've had through the majority of these books. Gone is the cartoonish "Space Bitch" of earlier novels and instead we get a fully-rounded character that brings the character we first met in 1987 full circle and ready to live on her own.
Although with a portable time-machine to help protect the earth from the rift created by events of the book (and also to allow for occasional guest appearances).
Reading Set Piece I was reminded of how Ace was such an important character for Doctor Who once upon a time. Easily the best "companion" of the 1980s (although does she really have competition?) Ace was a huge step forward in terms of quality of character for the show. Although compared to what we get today her stories may seem light on back-story and somewhat clunky (her "seduction" scene in "The Curse of Fenric" defies description) at the time it was a *huge* improvement compared to some of the rather cardboard "shriekers" that had come beforehand. And in some ways Ace is more of a strongly defined character than the likes of Rose, Martha or Amy. I couldn't imagine any of them attacking a Dalek with a baseball bat.
And as a side note one of the things that has irked me about the 2011 series so far is how poorly the characters of Amy and Rory have been realised. They're on the verge of outdoing Mel, Dodo or Peri in terms of being "Generic Companions #1 and #2". While Amy was a bit light on personality last year at least it could be explained away as being due to Steven Moffat's crack. This year it's just feeling lazy.
But despite the importance of the character in the canon of Who having her permanently leave the series was definitely over-due. By 1995 the New Adventures needed to move more away from the TV-show more and stretch the potential for Doctor Who. Set Piece feels like the culmination of the run so far, looking somewhat to the past but getting us ready to enter a fresh phase for the series.
Although still with Dr#7, it's been said that Virgin *wanted* to regenerate The Doctor at the time but weren't allowed by the BBC.
So if you couldn't tell I liked Set Piece a lot, Orman again manages to combine a terrific story with
great writing style and a fantastic grasp of character. Who'd (hah!) have ever thought that a time would come that I'd get more enjoyment out of literary Doctor Who than what was being shown on TV? I say someone needs to head over to Australia and get her writing for the show proper!
But really, sorry to keep harping on about it but this season on TV is feeling rushed and a bit lacking, as if the strain of writing half of the episodes and running the show is proving to be a bit too much for Steven Moffat. TBH I wouldn't mind a bit less of his input.
Warlock by Andrew Cartmel
In Brief: One-Time Doctor Who Script-Editor Andrew Cartmel is back with a tale of the near-future (again), potent hallcinogenic drugs, crime, violence, prostitution and Animal Experimentation.
Things get messy.
Andrew Cartmel has some very strong political opinions.
He really really *really* wants you to know about his political opinions.
And agree with him.
While his earlier Cat's Cradle: Warhead definitely had a certain agenda lurking (not too deeply) under the surface (the horrors of a polluted future, the increasing place of technology in our lives, etc.), he'd managed to keep it for the most part in the sub-text of a very engaging story. Warlock unfortunately puts THE MESSAGE (Animal Experimentation=BAD, Drug Enforcement=BAD, etc.) before givng the reader an interesting and cohesive story.
However I still ended up enjoying the read, despite the sections of the book that get a little nasty in dealing with events involving lab animals (think PETA-pamphlet stuff). Cartmel is good at keeping events moving along, none of it is boring and his prose-style is very accomplished. Unfortunately where he (IMHO) fails is in offering a balanced argument, in particular how every person who works in the Drug Enforcement Agency or animal testing lab are almost cartoonish in their "evil" ethics. There's very little room for moral ambiguity in Cartmeland.
And let's not talk about what happens to Ace's pet cat.
So what is the book about? The main plot is *really* just that there's a drug called Warlock which has the effect of increasing the user's psychic powers and The Doctor wants to know more about it (the whole Lab Experiments thing pops up due to Ace's side-story and actually ends up having no real point in the narrative). There's not much more in terms of plot than that. However that's not really a problem since the author, as with Warhead, keeps the setting and characters (other than the "Bad Guys") interesting. We're back in the Doctor's House on Allen Road, which is a fantastic setting I'd love to see in the show itself (you know, if they ever get back to making stories based about interesting people and places again). The book opens with the regulars having been in the house for a significant amount of time (possibly at least a year, probably recovering from the events in Parasite.) so there's an interesting sense that they really have some "normal" days in between adventures.
Also, Cartmel is really a good author for Ace, probably since he was so involved in the character's creation back in the late 80s. Rather than the OTT Space-Bitch we've gotten on occasion the reader gets the sense that this could well be an older version of the TV-character. Also, the main non-regular characters are given depth which sometimes can be lacking in some lesser New Adventures. It may seem a silly thing to point out, but a few authors have seemed to forget that in a novel it's important to have interesting characters, not just continuous action and continuity references.
So, while not as good as Warhead (which I still think as one of the best of the series, despite the now very dated early-90s view of the future), I found Warlock to be another good book in the series, although the issue of the heavy-handed politics and lack of strong narrative do get in the way. And it's not that I really disagree with all of his political opinions, it's just that I don't like having them screamed at me.
