Review: The Stealers of Dreams (Public)
Doctor Who: The Stealers of Dreams by Steve Lyons. HC, 254 pages, BBC Books, 2005.
The Ninth Doctor, together with companions Rose and Captain Jack, travel into the far future, but it doesn't seem that much like the future. It's much more like a 1984 future on another planet -- everybody wears gray, no fiction is allowed, there's fossil fuels, asylums, and lots of news shows plus one show that some people would dream about being on, if dreams were allowed. They're still figuring this out when everyone gets separated...
*Warning: SPOILERS* In the wake of the debates over who 11 might have as a companion, it was interesting to see the two companion dynamic play out here. I love both Captain Jack and Rose, not to mention I'm intrigued by the idea of a world without fiction (in a fictional way only), so it's easy to understand how this novel went over well with me. Splitting up the three main characters made me nervous at first but worked out well and all three lines maintained some interest.
The subplot with Kimmi Waller really got me! For the first half of the book I wondered why she didn't notice the little mistakes the Doctor kept making if she was so highly trained in observation. As I mentioned earlier, I'm not the best at guessing plot turns, and didn't see that ending coming at all. Nor did I foresee the ending of the Hal Gryden subplot, although I did figure out who he was before it actually happened.
Overall I quite liked this, it's one of the DW novels that I know I'll be rereading more than once. There are two other books with 9/Rose/Jack (which actually come before this one), I'm looking forward to reading those and shall be sad when they're done.
The Ninth Doctor, together with companions Rose and Captain Jack, travel into the far future, but it doesn't seem that much like the future. It's much more like a 1984 future on another planet -- everybody wears gray, no fiction is allowed, there's fossil fuels, asylums, and lots of news shows plus one show that some people would dream about being on, if dreams were allowed. They're still figuring this out when everyone gets separated...
*Warning: SPOILERS* In the wake of the debates over who 11 might have as a companion, it was interesting to see the two companion dynamic play out here. I love both Captain Jack and Rose, not to mention I'm intrigued by the idea of a world without fiction (in a fictional way only), so it's easy to understand how this novel went over well with me. Splitting up the three main characters made me nervous at first but worked out well and all three lines maintained some interest.
The subplot with Kimmi Waller really got me! For the first half of the book I wondered why she didn't notice the little mistakes the Doctor kept making if she was so highly trained in observation. As I mentioned earlier, I'm not the best at guessing plot turns, and didn't see that ending coming at all. Nor did I foresee the ending of the Hal Gryden subplot, although I did figure out who he was before it actually happened.
Overall I quite liked this, it's one of the DW novels that I know I'll be rereading more than once. There are two other books with 9/Rose/Jack (which actually come before this one), I'm looking forward to reading those and shall be sad when they're done.