From: jsm@cs.nott.ac.uk (John Smith)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.drwho
Subject: Re: The New Adventures -- REVIEWS?
Keywords: Timewyrm, Cat's Cradle
Date: 7 Apr 92 14:23:41 GMT
Organization: Nottingham University

In article <1992Apr6.181438.21502@henson.cc.wwu.edu> n8744926@henson.cc.wwu.edu (m e bracher) writes:
>if there are reviews of The New Adventures floating around, would
>someone mind either posting them (there's a reasonable chance someone
>else is interested) or mailing them?  I've read the books, but I'm
>interested in seeing other people's critiques.

Okay then, here are my opinions on the first 5 New Adventures books. (Spoilers
of course)



Timewyrm:Genesys by John Peel
Not that great. The plot is basically a mix of Marvel Comics, Eric von
Daniken (sp?) and the historical stories from the Hartnell era (not that I
have anything against the historicals mind). John Peel takes a rather
childish pleasure in describing the scenes of sex and violence in this
otherwise rather uninspired story.

Timewyrm:Exodus by Terrance Dicks
Much better! While it's not that original, drawing on themes from The War
Games and Inferno, it's an action romp that's great fun to read. However, it
begs the question: if Terrance Dicks can write a great original novel like
this, how come his TV scripts and novelisations of TV stories are generally
sub-standard, not to mention his tenure as script editor? (IMHO)

Timewyrm:Apocalypse by Nigel Robinson
Yawn. Apocalypse isn't that bad, it's just that it is so run-of-the-mill,
it leaves you with no strong feelings about it whatsoever. In many ways, it's
a homage to the stories of Christopher Bidmead. It also has much fewer pages
than the other books _and_ a bigger type size. 

Timewyrm:Revelation by Paul Cornell
Excellent. However, I can see that people will either love or hate it, as in
many ways it's not a Doctor Who story at all. If you like stories like
The Mind Robber and Kinda, you'll probably like this as well. However, Paul
Cornell does get rather self-indulgent (lots of in-jokes) at times.

Cat's Cradle:Time's Crucible by Marc Platt
Too clever for it's own good. I really liked Ghost Light, but it seems that
Marc Platt is deliberately trying to make this as obscure and convoluted as
possible, purely for the sake of it. And I personally couldn't give a damn
about the bits involving Rassilon and early Gallifrey. May well be some
people's cup of tea though.


In summary, the first 3 books are fairly standard Who stories, standing or
falling on the quality of writing (actually it's just occurred to me: Peel
& Robinson have both produced fine novelisations but a bad original story,
whereas Dicks writes bad novelisations but has given us a good original
story). The later stories (including the forthcoming Witch Mark) are
experimenting with the genre conventions & boundaries of Doctor Who, with
varying results. With 2 excellent stories (Exodus & Revelation), 2 flawed
but still worth reading stories (Time's Crucible & Warhead) and 2 bland but
not appalling stories (Genesys & Apocalypse), I don't think the New
Adventures series has come out too badly so far.

Anyone care to comment further?
-- 
John Smith | Dept of Computer Science, University of Nottingham, UK.
           | Email  jsm@cs.nott.ac.uk  or  psyfjsm@unicorn.nott.ac.uk
Newsgroups: rec.arts.drwho