Review - The Doctor Trap

[neadods]

WHO DAILY: lj user="neadods"> a href="http://neadods.livejournal.com/739801.html">reviews The Doctor Trap

A quick check of Amazon.co.uk shows that Simon Messingham has written a number of Doctor Who tie-ins... but I've read none of them, so I can't tell if The Doctor Trap is typical or

Comments

[scarlettgirl]

I just ordered the new batch (my 10 and 12 y.o. are addicted to the novels) and saw a pretty damning review of this on the Barnes & Noble site. What a waste.

[neadods]

I tried looking for that comment, but I don't think we're shopping from the same B&N site.

[scarlettgirl]

Yes, well, probably because the review I was referring to was actually for "Shining Darkness". (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Doctor-Who/Mark-Michalowski/e/9781846075575/?tabname=custreview)

*facepalm*

I am verry intrigued about the December releases...

[neadods]

I'm slowly learning not to be intrigued about releases, but I know I'll be sucked in again.

[persiflage_1]

I was flabbergasted that Donna spent ages in the fake motel doing nothing but eat... WTF?

It's seriously disappointing when two of the three tie-in novels fail to write Donna as properly Donna!

[tiggerallyn]

Which is the other book of this release bloc that gets Donna wrong?

[persiflage_1]

Ghosts of India. Well it's not so much that it gets her wrong (there are flashes of S4 Donna there but not many) but the relationship with the Doctor isn't up to much...

The only author who really convinced me that he enjoyed writing Donna is Mark Michalowski...

[neadods]

Donna does nothing but eat, the Doctor passively worries that he's out of ideas and he's scared - Ten! Even in character as the standin, Ten should be thinking of all the terrible vengeance he's going to rain on Planet 1.

[benbenberi]

I read this a few days ago, agree with everything you said. There's so much potential in the core idea, totally wasted here. Donna was a shadow -- she might as well have been any Generic Companion, totally missed the awesome. (Which makes me wonder why they bothered to delay having novels with her till now, since there's nothing here that depended on actually being familiar with her character in Ser.4.)

I haven't read any of Messingham's other books either, but this sure isn't an impressive introduction. He doesn't seem to have been able to decide whether he wanted the reader to Know All or to be surprised and amazed when the All Was Revealed -- which is a pretty basic POV issue. I was confused and impatient, all right, but not in a good way.

Hopefully the other books in the batch are better.

[neadods]

So far I've only heard from Pers, who was a bit "meh" on Ghosts of India and liked Shining Darkness.

I'm still slogging through Trap, mostly because it's like an accident - you can't look away.