2006-08-31
Hope
Author: Mark Clapham
EDA-53 w/Eigth Doctor, Fitz, Anji
I'm behind and catching up again ... this was a pretty good EDA, set in the far future on a world where pollution is incredibly out of control. The TARDIS is lost in a toxic sea, and the only way to get it back is to make a deal with the local businessman/warlord/de facto dictator. But he's willing to make more than one deal at a time, and what can you give a man who nearly rules his world?
After being completely skipped in EDA-52, the effects of what happened to the Doctor begin to enter the picture in this book. It's annoying when the nature of serial publishing shines through so obviously. Part of the book deals with that subject, but more of it is about Anji, who for plot purposes has Dave on her mind a lot more than usual. Fitz plays the cool straight man on this stage, where I'm always happiest to see him. As an Anji novel, Hope misses the mark, pushing her too far out of character for the convenience of the plot. As a Doctor novel, it's maddeningly unfocused -- we learn a bit about the Doctor's new physical limits, but it's not a main topic, and at the rate things are going I have to wonder if everything since The Ancestor Cell is ever going to go somewhere or if it was one-time shot to knock the series off in a different direction. Despite not being a classic, Hope is a fairly good novel that I read quickly.
EDA-53 w/Eigth Doctor, Fitz, Anji
I'm behind and catching up again ... this was a pretty good EDA, set in the far future on a world where pollution is incredibly out of control. The TARDIS is lost in a toxic sea, and the only way to get it back is to make a deal with the local businessman/warlord/de facto dictator. But he's willing to make more than one deal at a time, and what can you give a man who nearly rules his world?
After being completely skipped in EDA-52, the effects of what happened to the Doctor begin to enter the picture in this book. It's annoying when the nature of serial publishing shines through so obviously. Part of the book deals with that subject, but more of it is about Anji, who for plot purposes has Dave on her mind a lot more than usual. Fitz plays the cool straight man on this stage, where I'm always happiest to see him. As an Anji novel, Hope misses the mark, pushing her too far out of character for the convenience of the plot. As a Doctor novel, it's maddeningly unfocused -- we learn a bit about the Doctor's new physical limits, but it's not a main topic, and at the rate things are going I have to wonder if everything since The Ancestor Cell is ever going to go somewhere or if it was one-time shot to knock the series off in a different direction. Despite not being a classic, Hope is a fairly good novel that I read quickly.
