December Books 5) [Doctor Who] The Well-Mannered War
5) [Doctor Who] The Well-Mannered War, by Gareth Roberts
A "Missing Adventure", with the Fourth Doctor, the Second Romana and K9 Mark II, which I downloaded from here. The author confesses in his notes that he deliberately aimed to write a novel that could have been filmed in a gravel pit, and he certainly succeeded. I very much liked the way in which the apparent theatricality of the setting turned out to have well-founded roots; I was able to suspend my disbelief in the layers of plot convolution which probably wouldn't survive careful analysis; the shock ending was audacious but successful; I liked also the characterisation of Romana. Not so convinced by the characterisation of K9, especially his interaction with the Doctor; and the Femdroids fell into the category of one of my pet hates. I did like the idea of K9 running for President, but unfortunately it didn't last for long.
I couldn't really recommend this book to anyone who wasn't already a Doctor Who fan, but I think it captures the early season 18 feeling (The Leisure Hive / Meglos) very well, with both the good and bad points of that. The Whoniverse points out its internal and external continuity flaws; the Doctor Who Ratings Guide includes other people's reviews here.
A "Missing Adventure", with the Fourth Doctor, the Second Romana and K9 Mark II, which I downloaded from here. The author confesses in his notes that he deliberately aimed to write a novel that could have been filmed in a gravel pit, and he certainly succeeded. I very much liked the way in which the apparent theatricality of the setting turned out to have well-founded roots; I was able to suspend my disbelief in the layers of plot convolution which probably wouldn't survive careful analysis; the shock ending was audacious but successful; I liked also the characterisation of Romana. Not so convinced by the characterisation of K9, especially his interaction with the Doctor; and the Femdroids fell into the category of one of my pet hates. I did like the idea of K9 running for President, but unfortunately it didn't last for long.
I couldn't really recommend this book to anyone who wasn't already a Doctor Who fan, but I think it captures the early season 18 feeling (The Leisure Hive / Meglos) very well, with both the good and bad points of that. The Whoniverse points out its internal and external continuity flaws; the Doctor Who Ratings Guide includes other people's reviews here.