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hidekisohma's review
1.0
I'm just going to come right out and say it. This book was awful. Having read the previous 13 EDA's, i can say without a doubt this is the most boring one i've read. Every page was a chore to get through and i was starting to get a headache by the end.
The doc and sam find a derelict ship that two different planets are fighting over. Then magical time space ghosts start attacking. And i just made that sound way more interesting than it actually was.
Of course, you wouldn't really know this was a Doc and Sam book as they kind of take a backseat to the 400,000 other side characters they have going on. They have the photographer, the actor, the actor's manager, a young boy, his parents, a whipped husband, the whipped husband's wife, the girl the husband was talking to, an army guy who holds the photographer hostage, the two leaders of the ships, the 2 people who try to steer the derelict ship, their superiors, etc etc.
There are so many characters in this book i honestly didn't know who 2/3 of them were and just went. "ah. it's army guy #2. sure. why not?"
You knew every major plot point that was going to happen, and yet it was so dreadfully boring, i had to put it down for a few days and read another book in the middle. The doctor is VERY defeatist in this one, almost like he's tired, and Sam barely does anything other than....well talk to the doctor when he's there. I mean, she rescues a kid once, so there's that.
The whole thing reeks of depressed tiredness. It's kind of got the same vibe as Longest Day, except i actually enjoyed longest day more. The entire plot of the book can best be described as
Doc: Don't do the thing!
Army guy: we did the thing and it was bad
Doc: don't do THAT thing
Army guy: we did that too and it was bad.
Doc: can you stop doing the things?
Army guy: no.
Doc: welp, you're all screwed.
The end.
Pretty much the only side character i gave a remote crap about died really randomly. about 15 pages was devoted to this guy and he literally just...randomly dies. he doesn't even meet the doctor or sam. he honestly seemed like he was part of a different story and bulis didn't know what to do with him so he just exploded him.
Having read several of Chris' books, i know he likes to kill a lot of rando's. That's kind of his thing. and honestly, it's getting a bit dull.
In the past though at least the story was INTERESTING. Sorcerer's apprentice had a neat concept, i LIKED city at world's end. Imperial moon was tolerable. but THIS? This was just the death of fun. Everything was dreary, dark, and just sad. There was NO fun to be had here. The invulnerable ghost villains weren't scary. they were annoying. It was like the writer just turned on god mode for his baddies. When the good guys can't fight back AT ALL it doesn't make it scary, it makes it boring.
That's really the only real word you can use for this book. BORING. BORING BORING BORING.
I didn't care about ANYTHING that was going on, i didn't care if 95% of the people lived, and the science technobabble was overdone and the reveal of the ship was ridiculous.
I felt every single page as i read this. Normally when i zone out i go back having missed something. towards the last 60 pages i just said "Screw it" and didn't even go back to reread. I just didn't care. and that's the thing. i'd rather a book be BAD than boring.
This was the safest story you could possibly tell and then do it poorly. it's like a sandwich of wonder bread and yellow mustard. only the bread is stale and moldy but it's all the food you have.
I REALLY didn't like Seeing I, but at least the doctor was IN it. at least he TRIED to do stuff. This was more than half space politics. FRUSTRATING space politics. I didn't care, and the times i did, i was just incredibly frustrated.
This is the worst EDA i've read. it's going below Seeing I.
1.5 out of 5, rounded down to a 1.
The doc and sam find a derelict ship that two different planets are fighting over. Then magical time space ghosts start attacking. And i just made that sound way more interesting than it actually was.
Of course, you wouldn't really know this was a Doc and Sam book as they kind of take a backseat to the 400,000 other side characters they have going on. They have the photographer, the actor, the actor's manager, a young boy, his parents, a whipped husband, the whipped husband's wife, the girl the husband was talking to, an army guy who holds the photographer hostage, the two leaders of the ships, the 2 people who try to steer the derelict ship, their superiors, etc etc.
There are so many characters in this book i honestly didn't know who 2/3 of them were and just went. "ah. it's army guy #2. sure. why not?"
You knew every major plot point that was going to happen, and yet it was so dreadfully boring, i had to put it down for a few days and read another book in the middle. The doctor is VERY defeatist in this one, almost like he's tired, and Sam barely does anything other than....well talk to the doctor when he's there. I mean, she rescues a kid once, so there's that.
The whole thing reeks of depressed tiredness. It's kind of got the same vibe as Longest Day, except i actually enjoyed longest day more. The entire plot of the book can best be described as
Doc: Don't do the thing!
Army guy: we did the thing and it was bad
Doc: don't do THAT thing
Army guy: we did that too and it was bad.
Doc: can you stop doing the things?
Army guy: no.
Doc: welp, you're all screwed.
The end.
Pretty much the only side character i gave a remote crap about died really randomly. about 15 pages was devoted to this guy and he literally just...randomly dies. he doesn't even meet the doctor or sam. he honestly seemed like he was part of a different story and bulis didn't know what to do with him so he just exploded him.
Having read several of Chris' books, i know he likes to kill a lot of rando's. That's kind of his thing. and honestly, it's getting a bit dull.
In the past though at least the story was INTERESTING. Sorcerer's apprentice had a neat concept, i LIKED city at world's end. Imperial moon was tolerable. but THIS? This was just the death of fun. Everything was dreary, dark, and just sad. There was NO fun to be had here. The invulnerable ghost villains weren't scary. they were annoying. It was like the writer just turned on god mode for his baddies. When the good guys can't fight back AT ALL it doesn't make it scary, it makes it boring.
That's really the only real word you can use for this book. BORING. BORING BORING BORING.
I didn't care about ANYTHING that was going on, i didn't care if 95% of the people lived, and the science technobabble was overdone and the reveal of the ship was ridiculous.
I felt every single page as i read this. Normally when i zone out i go back having missed something. towards the last 60 pages i just said "Screw it" and didn't even go back to reread. I just didn't care. and that's the thing. i'd rather a book be BAD than boring.
This was the safest story you could possibly tell and then do it poorly. it's like a sandwich of wonder bread and yellow mustard. only the bread is stale and moldy but it's all the food you have.
I REALLY didn't like Seeing I, but at least the doctor was IN it. at least he TRIED to do stuff. This was more than half space politics. FRUSTRATING space politics. I didn't care, and the times i did, i was just incredibly frustrated.
This is the worst EDA i've read. it's going below Seeing I.
1.5 out of 5, rounded down to a 1.
rebelbelle13's review
2.0
Imagine for a moment that Rendezvous With Rama and the movies Ghost Ship and Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within decided to come together and have a convoluted, unsatisfying, pseudo sci-fi jargon filled child- that would be this train wreck of a novel; Vanderdeken's Children. We start off with a promising premise; a large, abandoned alien vessel in space that is happened upon by two different civilizations already on the brink of war, and they are trying to figure out who owns the thing for salvage rights. The Doctor and Sam don't do much here, and are rather swept along on the sea of side characters, most of whom serve no purpose to the plot, are set in their own self-sabotaging ways or end up being fodder to the larger story at hand. Please tell me why it's necessary to tell the story of a side character named Lester and his abusive-I-wear-the-pants-for-both-of-us wife, especially when their existence serves zero point to further the plot? The author tries to be so clever, wrapping us up in a spatial-bridge and time loops and future ghosts, that he forgets to actually pull the plot together and make it coherent to the reader. There were several points where I had to reread sections making sure I didn't miss anything- I hadn't, it's just that the text made no sense. The idea was there, but the execution simply wasn't. I hope if a Who author chooses to do a Ghost Ship type story in the future, it's better than this- although, the bar isn't very high.
eightfitz's review
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.25
nwhyte's review
3.0
An intriguing tale of two space-faring civilisations who find themselves contesting possession of a Big Dumb Object, in this case a ship that appears to fade into another universe, with the Eighth Doctor and Sam arriving and getting mixed up in it. There's some good sfnal stuff about time paradoxes, though I was a bit sorry that Sam's character appeared to have lost all the development of the last couple of volumes in the series. Nice Doctory characterisation though, and generally clear writing.
julis's review
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
4.0
This is a fun time travel exploration with some unnecessary subplots and a confusing translation. Despite this, I really enjoyed the act of reading it, which is honestly the only thing that matters here.
coffee_deer's review
2.0
I wish I could give this book more stars because it's not actually bad? But I failed to invest emotionally for the most part and just kept waiting for the end - which, alas, in my copy of the book is tragically missing.
It could be a very solid horror story in Sci-Fi colours, I think. If only the characters, in all their plenitude, were a bit more alive, and the plot - a bit less tangled. I do love a good timey-wimey, and yet this one, although it did amaze me at one point, didn't grip me at all.
It could be a very solid horror story in Sci-Fi colours, I think. If only the characters, in all their plenitude, were a bit more alive, and the plot - a bit less tangled. I do love a good timey-wimey, and yet this one, although it did amaze me at one point, didn't grip me at all.
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