It's the 1600's and the Tardis touches down in Venice. The Doctor, Steven and Vicki find soon find themselves invariably enmeshed in strange goings on.
The Empire of Glass is a fun book. Not a great one, but really enjoyable. The plot (of an intergalactic weapons treaty) is one that easily could have become bogged down, fortunately Lane completely ignores it and uses it only as a vehicle to shoehorn Shakespeare (British Spy), Marlowe (Assumed Dead) and Gallileo (Drunkard) into a run around while the two main alien species involved are both intriguing, and both treacherous.
Two tiny little niggles with the book. One, it's utterly impossible to imagine the Sontarans and the Rutans sitting down together for any reason, let alone to ban weapons of mass destruction, and secondly the ever so slight implication that Steven harbours homosexual feelings for Kit Marlowe, which, while I'm not against having a homosexual companion, it doesn't do to subvert an existing character, and certainly not Steven. But as I say, the implication is slight at best and probably unintentional. These in no way affect the enjoyment of reading the book.
The plot is quite absurd, but dealt with so matter of factly that it's quite impossible to ridicule. Cardinal Braxiatel wants to solve the Universe's problems. So he invites the Doctor to chair his weapons treaty held on a giant artificial island near Venice. Inevitably he gets the wrong man who does a better job, while the Doctor and Steven try and work out whats happening. Vicki gets kidnapped by an amorous flying alien.
The ending feels slightly superfluous, as the scene abruptly changes to England and the court of James I, but again, it's fun as the Doctor and Vicki improvise their way through MacBeth, the only problem lies with reading The Empire of Glass and The Plotters back to back as I did, as they are contradictory (Plotters, written after Empire, set before) results in King James failing to recognise the two Time Travellers despite only having just said goodbye to them in his timeline. Trying to reconcile the problem is rather futile and it's bext to leave a gap between reading both excellent novels so as to minimise the continuity jar.
7/10
Showing posts with label 7/10. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 7/10. Show all posts
Saturday, 28 November 2009
Tuesday, 23 June 2009
The Sensorites - Nigel Robinson
The Sensorites was a Target I read as a child, one of the many stories that would only see the light of day on VHS after I had practically grown up and had other things to worry about. The serial is not well loved I gather. But the book, I adored.
Nigel Robinson has turned in a book of two halves. The first part, set aboard the spaceship, is positively dripping with anticipation and claustrophobic dread as the unseen Sensorite assailants move in on the Tardis Crew who are at their mercy. The Sensorites even succeed where Dalek, Cyberman and Sontaran have failed in harming the Tardis by cutting out the lock.
The second part, by the nature of the Serial, is very different as the Doctor engages in making peace with this race and solving the mystery of the poisoned water, it's far more open and action orientated and again Robinson does an effective job in describing the planet and especially the action in the water tunnels.
The serial obviously suffered from the problem that The Sensorites, beings of power and mystery in the first half, turn into perfectly ordinary and not very distinct aliens in the second, the book is so well written that this does not intrude, however, it does have a problem that the serial did not have, The Sensorites do not have names. Poor Nigel Robinson has to spend the entire second half of the book delineating one character as "The Evil Sensorite" and a second as "The Sensorite's Senior Scientist". But it's The Evil Sensorite which causes the problem, as, despite being Evil, he is never given a motive and after a while this becomes very wearying. It's hardly Robinson's fault and he does his best to overcome this with an excellent narrative, to no avail, this single problem drags the story which is a huge pity. But if you can overcome it, there are some great riches to uncover here. The Sensorites is, for the most part, very enjoyable.
7/10
Nigel Robinson has turned in a book of two halves. The first part, set aboard the spaceship, is positively dripping with anticipation and claustrophobic dread as the unseen Sensorite assailants move in on the Tardis Crew who are at their mercy. The Sensorites even succeed where Dalek, Cyberman and Sontaran have failed in harming the Tardis by cutting out the lock.
The second part, by the nature of the Serial, is very different as the Doctor engages in making peace with this race and solving the mystery of the poisoned water, it's far more open and action orientated and again Robinson does an effective job in describing the planet and especially the action in the water tunnels.
The serial obviously suffered from the problem that The Sensorites, beings of power and mystery in the first half, turn into perfectly ordinary and not very distinct aliens in the second, the book is so well written that this does not intrude, however, it does have a problem that the serial did not have, The Sensorites do not have names. Poor Nigel Robinson has to spend the entire second half of the book delineating one character as "The Evil Sensorite" and a second as "The Sensorite's Senior Scientist". But it's The Evil Sensorite which causes the problem, as, despite being Evil, he is never given a motive and after a while this becomes very wearying. It's hardly Robinson's fault and he does his best to overcome this with an excellent narrative, to no avail, this single problem drags the story which is a huge pity. But if you can overcome it, there are some great riches to uncover here. The Sensorites is, for the most part, very enjoyable.
7/10
Wednesday, 17 June 2009
The Aztecs - John Lucarotti
The Aztecs is a damn hard book to review, mainly because it's basic, but no less brilliant for that.
Lucarotti adds nothing and takes nothing away. He presents us with The Aztecs serial in written form. It is an excellent script, and Lucarotti, having written it, knows exactly what it is trying to do and how and conveys this simply. The Aztecs pootles along in third gear doing everything well but not attempting or caring to reach greater heights as the Serial so effortlessly achieved through the efforts of the actors. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the book, it made me worried for our heroes when I was meant to be worried, it had me laughing at the Doctor's engagement and I enjoyed reading it immensely and the characters felt alive, however, there is just a slight sense that Lucarotti is on autopilot as he certainly was for Marco Polo, that he hasn't stretched himself in writing and that the novelisation of The Aztecs is better than Marco Polo is down to the shorter, more structured story and an amazing script rather than great writing. As a result, The Aztecs is a good book, but falls short of being a great book because Lucarotti made no attempt to get out of third gear. Lucarotti's third gear is bloody good, but it leaves me wondering what he could achieved with this book if he'd pushed himself.
7/10
Lucarotti adds nothing and takes nothing away. He presents us with The Aztecs serial in written form. It is an excellent script, and Lucarotti, having written it, knows exactly what it is trying to do and how and conveys this simply. The Aztecs pootles along in third gear doing everything well but not attempting or caring to reach greater heights as the Serial so effortlessly achieved through the efforts of the actors. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the book, it made me worried for our heroes when I was meant to be worried, it had me laughing at the Doctor's engagement and I enjoyed reading it immensely and the characters felt alive, however, there is just a slight sense that Lucarotti is on autopilot as he certainly was for Marco Polo, that he hasn't stretched himself in writing and that the novelisation of The Aztecs is better than Marco Polo is down to the shorter, more structured story and an amazing script rather than great writing. As a result, The Aztecs is a good book, but falls short of being a great book because Lucarotti made no attempt to get out of third gear. Lucarotti's third gear is bloody good, but it leaves me wondering what he could achieved with this book if he'd pushed himself.
7/10
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