Scan barcode
nenya_kanadka's review
4.0
The introduction of Compassion, plus Sarah Jane Smith working with Sam Jones in the present day, some nailbiting trauma for Eight, and an old adventure with Three and Sarah Jane. That last one didn't really hold up for me--I kind of got what they were doing with I.M. Foreman, but in a novel starring my two favourite Doctors I was disappointed not to have more interaction between Three and Eight. Still, Eight's hyper-math in jail--drawn in his own blood, yikes!--and his ability to send messages across spacetime was great.
Love, love, loved Sarah Jane in this--bold clever investigative journalist, loyal friend, and exactly the person for Sam to end up with when she leaves the TARDIS. As much as I hate to see Sam go, if she's going to end up in Sarah Jane's care, I feel like she's in good hands. And I can imagine all kinds of adventures for them as Sam settles back into life on Earth.
The Father Kreiner plot really disturbed me, but the "remembrance" of people in the Remote was really fascinating (if also worrying). If anyone can put Fitz back together, it's the TARDIS, but at the same time, this was an adventure that will definitely leave its mark.
Love, love, loved Sarah Jane in this--bold clever investigative journalist, loyal friend, and exactly the person for Sam to end up with when she leaves the TARDIS. As much as I hate to see Sam go, if she's going to end up in Sarah Jane's care, I feel like she's in good hands. And I can imagine all kinds of adventures for them as Sam settles back into life on Earth.
The Father Kreiner plot really disturbed me, but the "remembrance" of people in the Remote was really fascinating (if also worrying). If anyone can put Fitz back together, it's the TARDIS, but at the same time, this was an adventure that will definitely leave its mark.
hidekisohma's review
3.0
Well, it's been a hot minute since I read an 8th doctor novel, and now we're onto the first half of the last story of Sam. Thank god. I was super excited to get into this book knowing this and...well... okay it doesn't happen in this book (spoilers but not really)
So this book is really the setup to the next one. it's a 2 parter and it's setup that way. Every single thing that happens in this book has no pay off, but then again, i don't think many of us were really expecting that as it's more of a necessity to get into the huge big finale of the 2 parter. (aka the next book)
Faction paradox is up to its old wacky shenanigans again and doc, sam, and fitz are all separated doing their own thing. (most of which ends up with them being captured in some way because of course it does). The real big addition to this story is Sarah Jane. She's in this book QUITE a lot (in fact i'd say she's in it more than the 8th doctor) and while this book advertises the 3rd doctor as being a big part, he's really only in this one for about.. like..... 50 pages at the end. and he talks to the 8th doctor for like 3 of them. So he technically DOES meet 8 in this one, but for a very VERY brief time.
The basic premise is that there's some strange arms dealing going on with this alien race called "the Remote" that have this weapon called "The Cold" which is basically a teleporter that sends you to a weird dimension that people can come pick you up out of if they feel like it. Everyone gets captured separately except for Sarah who's off doing investigation things.
That's all you really need to know for this book as Faction Paradox is kind of just there in the background.
The third doc stuff at the end basically has his walking around this desert planet and hanging out with this lady and the remote are there being jerks.
The parts are interspersed with 8 talking to someone named I.M. Foreman after the events of this book and the parts are treated like he's telling the story to this woman on a planet while having a picnic.
It's hard to judge this book because in all honesty, it's not really a whole book. It's literally half of a book. the entire book is parts 1 and 2 together, but it was split into 2 books because well, then the book would be over 600 pages. and also they wanted double the money i'm sure.
As it is, this book is just a LOT of setup. like a LOT. That's literally all it is. I mean, i could have done without the doctor being in prison, because well......i'm tired of stories of him being in prison and being tortured. But honestly i could have used more 8th doctor in GENERAL. There wasn't a lot of him IN this one. like if you added up all the 8th doctor pages, out of 309 you'd probably have somewhere around.... 50 maybe? He's not very prominent in his own book in this one. There's a LOT more Sam, but ESPECIALLY Sarah. Fitz is barely in it too. He's maybe in... 15-25?
The one new thing about this book is that we meet compassion. (who is important for reasons i don't want to spoil) She's...interesting. She's kind of soldiery, but i can't seem to nail down exactly what she is. they talk about how they're human, but also how they look a bit different but aren't REALLY human...it's complicated. But from what I could gather, she's all right. She's no nonsense, but after dealing with Sam for so long, seeing her get slapped was always fun.
I want to see more of Compassion and see where the story's going with her.
It's hard to rate this book because there's not a lot TO it. It's like taking a deep inhale before screaming when you go down a roller coaster. It's very hard to rate the track leading up to the big drop because the real fun stuff hasn't happened yet.
All in all, is the book good? Not really? But i'm excited to see where it leads because there's a LOT of threads that need to be tied up and storylines to be resolved.
Still, i didn't HATE it, i just wish more things happened rather than just the setup, but that's a tricky thing because in actuality, that's all this book is. (still though. i didn't need an ENTIRE book of 8 in prison again).
When all's said and done, i'll give it an even 3 out of 5. If the sequel book is garbage, i might go back and change this, but for now, giving it the benefit of the doubt to see if the payoff is worth the 300 pages of setup.
Also, i sincerely hope 3 and 8 hang out more in the next book rather than a 3 page "how do you do?"
even 3 out of 5.
So this book is really the setup to the next one. it's a 2 parter and it's setup that way. Every single thing that happens in this book has no pay off, but then again, i don't think many of us were really expecting that as it's more of a necessity to get into the huge big finale of the 2 parter. (aka the next book)
Faction paradox is up to its old wacky shenanigans again and doc, sam, and fitz are all separated doing their own thing. (most of which ends up with them being captured in some way because of course it does). The real big addition to this story is Sarah Jane. She's in this book QUITE a lot (in fact i'd say she's in it more than the 8th doctor) and while this book advertises the 3rd doctor as being a big part, he's really only in this one for about.. like..... 50 pages at the end. and he talks to the 8th doctor for like 3 of them. So he technically DOES meet 8 in this one, but for a very VERY brief time.
The basic premise is that there's some strange arms dealing going on with this alien race called "the Remote" that have this weapon called "The Cold" which is basically a teleporter that sends you to a weird dimension that people can come pick you up out of if they feel like it. Everyone gets captured separately except for Sarah who's off doing investigation things.
That's all you really need to know for this book as Faction Paradox is kind of just there in the background.
The third doc stuff at the end basically has his walking around this desert planet and hanging out with this lady and the remote are there being jerks.
The parts are interspersed with 8 talking to someone named I.M. Foreman after the events of this book and the parts are treated like he's telling the story to this woman on a planet while having a picnic.
It's hard to judge this book because in all honesty, it's not really a whole book. It's literally half of a book. the entire book is parts 1 and 2 together, but it was split into 2 books because well, then the book would be over 600 pages. and also they wanted double the money i'm sure.
As it is, this book is just a LOT of setup. like a LOT. That's literally all it is. I mean, i could have done without the doctor being in prison, because well......i'm tired of stories of him being in prison and being tortured. But honestly i could have used more 8th doctor in GENERAL. There wasn't a lot of him IN this one. like if you added up all the 8th doctor pages, out of 309 you'd probably have somewhere around.... 50 maybe? He's not very prominent in his own book in this one. There's a LOT more Sam, but ESPECIALLY Sarah. Fitz is barely in it too. He's maybe in... 15-25?
The one new thing about this book is that we meet compassion. (who is important for reasons i don't want to spoil) She's...interesting. She's kind of soldiery, but i can't seem to nail down exactly what she is. they talk about how they're human, but also how they look a bit different but aren't REALLY human...it's complicated. But from what I could gather, she's all right. She's no nonsense, but after dealing with Sam for so long, seeing her get slapped was always fun.
I want to see more of Compassion and see where the story's going with her.
It's hard to rate this book because there's not a lot TO it. It's like taking a deep inhale before screaming when you go down a roller coaster. It's very hard to rate the track leading up to the big drop because the real fun stuff hasn't happened yet.
All in all, is the book good? Not really? But i'm excited to see where it leads because there's a LOT of threads that need to be tied up and storylines to be resolved.
Still, i didn't HATE it, i just wish more things happened rather than just the setup, but that's a tricky thing because in actuality, that's all this book is. (still though. i didn't need an ENTIRE book of 8 in prison again).
When all's said and done, i'll give it an even 3 out of 5. If the sequel book is garbage, i might go back and change this, but for now, giving it the benefit of the doubt to see if the payoff is worth the 300 pages of setup.
Also, i sincerely hope 3 and 8 hang out more in the next book rather than a 3 page "how do you do?"
even 3 out of 5.
rebelbelle13's review
2.0
This was convoluted, overwritten, and a huge missed opportunity.
The Doctor spends most of the novel in prison being tortured again (really, guys? can't come up with anything new?), Fitz is off on his own playing spy, and Sam is gathering information and getting into her own brand of trouble, and making friends along the way. All things that have been done in the EDAs plenty of times previously. Three and eight spend all of five minutes together in a fever dream, even though both of them are on the cover. Three doesn't even really show up properly until more than halfway through the novel. Sarah is only truly there for the sake of exposition. This could have been a wonderful opportunity for both dapper dressed Doctors to band together and save the world through Venutian Aikido and diplomacy. The three companions could have commiserated and supported the Doctors in their plans to defeat the Faction Paradox. Instead, we get a messy jumble of alien-type futuristic humans, side characters we don't care about, Fitz getting put in hibernation and then brainwashed, the history of some out of the way dust bowl planet, and the Doctor recounting and waxing about this adventure.
To put it frankly, it's just not interesting, and it really could have been. I only hope that part two starts to make more sense or picks up the pace- because as it stands, it's one of the most forgettable installments yet. Not bad- simply not good.
The Doctor spends most of the novel in prison being tortured again (really, guys? can't come up with anything new?), Fitz is off on his own playing spy, and Sam is gathering information and getting into her own brand of trouble, and making friends along the way. All things that have been done in the EDAs plenty of times previously. Three and eight spend all of five minutes together in a fever dream, even though both of them are on the cover. Three doesn't even really show up properly until more than halfway through the novel. Sarah is only truly there for the sake of exposition. This could have been a wonderful opportunity for both dapper dressed Doctors to band together and save the world through Venutian Aikido and diplomacy. The three companions could have commiserated and supported the Doctors in their plans to defeat the Faction Paradox. Instead, we get a messy jumble of alien-type futuristic humans, side characters we don't care about, Fitz getting put in hibernation and then brainwashed, the history of some out of the way dust bowl planet, and the Doctor recounting and waxing about this adventure.
To put it frankly, it's just not interesting, and it really could have been. I only hope that part two starts to make more sense or picks up the pace- because as it stands, it's one of the most forgettable installments yet. Not bad- simply not good.
joshulkin's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
nwhyte's review
http://nhw.livejournal.com/1114003.html[return][return]A typically rambling Lawrence Miles story, rambling in this case over two volumes, linking together his Faction Paradox concept with the truth about I.M. Foreman, and bringing in also Sarah Jane Smith as an investigative journalist to supplement EDA regulars Sam and Fitz. There are some passages of vivid writing (the Saudi prison cell, Sam's experiments with LSD) and a fairly spectacular plot resolution, with an intricate narrative structure which I suspect actually does make sense (though I remained a little confused about the various versions of Fitz' story). I think really one for completists only (as with almost the whole Eighth Doctor range), but engaging enough to keep my interest over both volumes.
More...