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Post by kg redhead on Dec 4, 2005 14:25:07 GMT -5
the NA's are the originator of Doctor Who novel adventures  |
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Post by kg redhead on Apr 12, 2006 8:48:38 GMT -5
I've finally got a complete set of NA's today, when my copy of The Dying Days arrived in the post |
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Post by kg redhead on Jan 27, 2007 4:49:37 GMT -5
Timewyrm: Genesys
by John Peel
Where to start? The story itself is simplistically simple, the Doctor defeats an insane maniac and the rest of the book is given over to the morality of child rape and public nudity. It's filled with mysogonistic murderers gripped with blood lust getting drunk and getting in fights and taking advantage of married women and that's the alleged hero of the book! This isn't so much a Doctor Who story as something that should be referred to the Vice Squad!!! Also the regulars didn't appear in the book, just people who looked like them...
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Post by kg redhead on Jan 27, 2007 4:50:10 GMT -5
Timewyrm: Exodus
by Terrance Dicks
A really good story, lots of twists and turns as the story unfolds across a revised timeline which the Doctor and Ace get caught up in and nearly get killed in. The image of Nazi Britain is horribly visualised and I mean horrible as in disturbingly very well done. The terrible thought that things could have gone so differently and brought out the worst in people instead of the best is a hard thing to do but here it adds an extra oomph to the proceedings before the action switches back in time when the Doctor tries to undo the meddling and nearly makes things worse in the process. This really is a great story, well written and highlights the author's skill and ability to make the unrealistic all too realistic...
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Post by kg redhead on Jan 27, 2007 4:50:31 GMT -5
Timewyrm: Apocalypse
by Nigel Robinson
An interesting tale and the first non-Earth adventure of the range. It's a tale of monstous steps taken to preserve life and in doing terrible acts it raises many issues of morality and concience. Can you do evil acts to achieve a greater good? One life for all of existance? The Timewyrm is again reduced to a cameo appearance but make up for it with some nice posturing and she gets her come-uppance in the end. All in all a good story.
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Post by kg redhead on Jan 27, 2007 4:50:53 GMT -5
Timewyrm: Revelation
by Paul Cornell
Whereas the previous 3 stories were action/adventure this one is more of a psychological thriller as the Doctor and the Timewyrm match wills inside the Doctor's mental landscape for control of his mind. Featuring cameos by the 3rd, 4th and 5th Doctors too. The Timewyrm here is reduced to the status of a viral infection and dealt with accordingly and there's the usual angsty trauma for Ace to endure too.
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Post by kg redhead on Jan 27, 2007 4:52:45 GMT -5
Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible
How much do I hate this fan wank? Let me count the ways? It is a human number, it's number is six hundred and sixty six. This is the antichrist of novels, the blasphamous lie, the falsehood that so much work was forced to be based on and thus become apocryphul themselves. A cheap sexist sci-fi show hires mainly male stars, that must mean there's no children and no women in the universe, lets perpetrate that sexism and justify it's existance in books that are suppossed to be bigger than that, better than that. This is a gross slap in the face to sufferage and a callous betrayal of everything that the show is supposed to stand for. Also it's too damn long, only taking breaks to watch episodes of 24 helped me through this book without screaming bloody murder at times, it's so painfully numbing to endure.
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Post by kg redhead on Jan 27, 2007 4:53:27 GMT -5
Cat's Cradle: Warhead
There's no link with the previous book in the trilogy and there's no warhead in the story either. However these are the least of the complaints about the story. It's surely a parody of Doctor Who, a violent, depressing, downbeat parody, more akin to Blade Runner than teatime BBC sci-fi. There's nothing of redeeming value in the story, at every turn the author makes sure to bring out the worst in the characters and when that fails he throws confused and garbled visuals to confuse and distract from the hollow storyline that fails to tap any sort of meaning or sense of the characters and events. I'd rather re-read War of the Daleks than this book everytime...
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Post by kg redhead on Jan 27, 2007 5:05:52 GMT -5
Cat’s Cradle: Witch Mark
A simple story over-stuffed with padding and unnecessary characters. The long tracts of meaningless nothings really get in the way of what could have been a really great story. Alas something about everything is wrong, either the wrong emphasis is used, or the wrong character gets a back story info-dump or the action switches to the wrong scene at the wrong time. With a more confident editor this book would have been something special, alas it’s nothing remarkable.
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Post by kg redhead on Jan 27, 2007 5:06:12 GMT -5
Nightshade
A very quick read (less than 70 minutes!) but enjoyable and fun. I've never been a big fan of Quatermass but this pastiche makes it seem better than I remember it being. Also throw in an adult relationship for Ace and some emotional scenes for the Doctor with the sudden reappearnace of Susan and there's added depth to the story. The main villain is a pretty bland mind eater type, very common in sci-fi and this one shows nothing unique except by the way it feeds, by stirring up emotions in its victims as a way of getting inside of their heads. The prelude doesn't add much and neither does the coda at the end, but both serve their functions well.
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Post by kg redhead on Jan 27, 2007 5:06:59 GMT -5
Love and War
An interesting book, that I first read a couple of years after publication and read a very different story to the one I read over the last couple of days. The memory may cheat, lie and steal but the story doesn't, everything feels earned, the relationship deteriation between Ace and the Doctor, the threat of the Hoothi, the nature of the trap and the introduction of Benny, they all come across as feeling right. Benny is a breath of whisky-drinker's air, full of fresh problems and character quirks and possibilities and the insufferable Ace is booted out at last and good ridance to her. Things are looking up for the range at last.
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Post by kg redhead on Jan 27, 2007 5:07:17 GMT -5
Transit
It felt like a lifetime since I started reading it, but it's only been 8 days on and off. The story itself is like a cheap budget version of Terminator 3, without any of the plot, character or excitement. Rather it's a dull story full of swearing because it can be and not because it adds anything. In fact the whole story adds nothing at all to what we already know about the Doctor and Benny, and so it can be safely ignored if you want to.
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Post by kg redhead on Jan 27, 2007 5:07:44 GMT -5
Playback
While this story serves as linking material between the other stories, it non-the-less has a few charms of its own and is in its own right an interesting story with a twist ending...
The Highest Science
An interesting story with lots of hooks to draw the reader in, but alas they're all too easy to wriggle off of as they've very tenious and prone to breaking easily and the ending is far too safe and dull. The whole basis of the story being a trap for the most unlikely character is a good one, but alas it isn't followed up and is thrown aside when other ideas seem to have come along, weakening the story as a result. The regulars are pretty well drawn, although the Doctor seems to have some sort of personal force shield that's never been seen before or seen again (afaik anyway) and Benny's pretty well detailed, although she spends most of the story recovering from a drug addiction rather than a monumental hangover...
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Post by kg redhead on Jan 27, 2007 5:08:16 GMT -5
The Pit
Ancient enemies of the Time Lords from another universe, an amnaesiac Doctor, people tortured for the author's delight, I had to keep stopping to make sure I was reading a NA and not an 8DA! Much of what's in this book is recycled into much of the 8th Doctor's run of books, but somehow they work better with the devious 7th Doctor rather than the touchy-feely 8th Doctor. Some elements work better than others, Benny trapped with a mad android was good, the Doctor trapped in a dream world with William Blake - not so much. Also the 'unstoppable' Gallifreyan warrior idea is at odds with the mastermind concept of the 7th Doctor, who should have beaten Kopyion in about 2 seconds in any other book in the series. Here though the 7th Doctor's made to look more like the Master, much to the detriment of the character and the series.
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Post by kg redhead on Jan 27, 2007 5:08:39 GMT -5
Continuity Errors
A witty tale about the Doctor manipulating someone's life so he can get access to a book he needs to save a lot of lives. Benny's referred to only by her earrings, while adding a comic touch doesn't say much about her character, although her asking if the library contains a minibar is much more in character, and as for her cribbing notes from her future self, well maybe she's just imitating the Doctor for a laugh?
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