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iphigenie72's review against another edition
3.0
The 3rd Doctor, Liz Shaw and Jo Grant visit Russia on the eve of Rasputin assassination.
On the Doctor Who level, I was a little disappointed; I don't think the author had the tone of the third Doctor right and neither Jo or Liz for that matter. I was really attracted to this story because I love the third Doctor, but this book felt like a Doctor-lite episode there were too many characters and so it turned this into a political intrigue book with a sprinkling of Doctor Who. I also think that the author should have chosen between Jo or Liz, one of those could have done all of what the two characters do (maybe with the help on a minor female character). I was glad Liz finally got a spin in the TARDIS, but I think she deserved better.
I am a big fan of this period in Russian history and I think that didn't help me get in the story... I was always looking up something that I thought might be wrong. I forgot to use my suspension of disbelief.
Now that was the negative, the positive : as a political intrigue it was interesting, well paced with nice twists. All in all a quick read that was set in a fascinating time.
On the Doctor Who level, I was a little disappointed; I don't think the author had the tone of the third Doctor right and neither Jo or Liz for that matter. I was really attracted to this story because I love the third Doctor, but this book felt like a Doctor-lite episode there were too many characters and so it turned this into a political intrigue book with a sprinkling of Doctor Who. I also think that the author should have chosen between Jo or Liz, one of those could have done all of what the two characters do (maybe with the help on a minor female character). I was glad Liz finally got a spin in the TARDIS, but I think she deserved better.
I am a big fan of this period in Russian history and I think that didn't help me get in the story... I was always looking up something that I thought might be wrong. I forgot to use my suspension of disbelief.
Now that was the negative, the positive : as a political intrigue it was interesting, well paced with nice twists. All in all a quick read that was set in a fascinating time.
chicafrom3's review
dark
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Three, Jo, and Liz get mixed up in the assassination of Rasputin.
nwhyte's review
3.0
http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2154103.html[return][return]Hurrah! Another Liz Shaw story, as the Dctor, newly freed by the Time Lords, takes her and Jo for a spin. Liz being Liz, she asks to see the Tunguska Event; the Tardis being the Tardis, they arrive instead a few years later in St Petersburg just in time to get embroiled in the assassination of Rasputin (to which I have a mild family connection). As usual, McIntee's historical research is superb and detailed, without crowding out the regular characters; I'd have liked more banter between Liz and Jo, but I enjoyed what we got, Liz as the more serious cerebral type occasionally wrong-footed by Jo's stronger practicality; and the ethical dilemma of non-interference with history is brought home to the Doctor rather brutally at the end. Rather more (implied) sex and (explicit) violence than most Who books, but rather difficult to write a book on this topic without it.[return][return]I'm trying to think of any other "pure historical" Third Doctor story, and coming up blank, which is actually a little surprising.
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