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scampr's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
The Hollow Men is my third Seventh Doctor book in the Past Doctor Adventures range, and although it isn't bad, it's certainly the weakest I've read so far. The story has some good ideas, (with flavours of The Wicker Man and Hot Fuzz if that interests you) but there's almost too much going on. I enjoy a good mystery and can appreciate needing time to set up, however the number of different characters and plotlines with no distinct connection or central hook made it confusing and difficult to remain engaged. This was not aided by the length and slower pace of the novel either, which made things drag even more.
The Hollow Men is a sort of spiritual successor to the TV story The Awakening, which could have potential but instead reveals one of the major problems I had with the novel; it feels outclassed by other stories. The Curse of Fenric, The Daemons, and the aforementioned Fifth Doctor serial all occupy similar territory to this book and with better execution, making this a bit forgettable or redundant even - and as expanded media 7th Doctor stories go, it doesn't exactly stand out. Scratchman and Human Nature/Family of Blood also outdoes one of this novel's stronger elements, the scarecrow monsters.
The side characters were all fine but none were particularly memorable either. 7 and Ace are decently characterised, but the latter doesn't get an awful lot to do, and the pair are split up for the vast majority of the book anyway.
The purpose of the PDA range was to offer new stories that emulate the style of each Doctor's TV appearances and fit perfectly within them - as opposed to the the VNAs, which branch off into their own direction and style. Considering this, The Hollow Men has lots of tacked on 'mature elements', and feels anachronistically grim and serious in a way that's lacking the full quirks and energy of the McCoy era.
I could go into more specifics but I unfortunately don't feel like I care enough? Like I say, this book is by no means a poor reading experience, and there were ideas and moments I liked - but something being mediocre or unmemorable almost is a worse fate than being 'bad'.
The Hollow Men is a sort of spiritual successor to the TV story The Awakening, which could have potential but instead reveals one of the major problems I had with the novel; it feels outclassed by other stories. The Curse of Fenric, The Daemons, and the aforementioned Fifth Doctor serial all occupy similar territory to this book and with better execution, making this a bit forgettable or redundant even - and as expanded media 7th Doctor stories go, it doesn't exactly stand out. Scratchman and Human Nature/Family of Blood also outdoes one of this novel's stronger elements, the scarecrow monsters.
The side characters were all fine but none were particularly memorable either. 7 and Ace are decently characterised, but the latter doesn't get an awful lot to do, and the pair are split up for the vast majority of the book anyway.
The purpose of the PDA range was to offer new stories that emulate the style of each Doctor's TV appearances and fit perfectly within them - as opposed to the the VNAs, which branch off into their own direction and style. Considering this, The Hollow Men has lots of tacked on 'mature elements', and feels anachronistically grim and serious in a way that's lacking the full quirks and energy of the McCoy era.
I could go into more specifics but I unfortunately don't feel like I care enough? Like I say, this book is by no means a poor reading experience, and there were ideas and moments I liked - but something being mediocre or unmemorable almost is a worse fate than being 'bad'.
gingerreader99's review against another edition
5.0
This is top notch Dr.Who and some of the best 7 & Ace content I've had the chance to read. I particularly liked that for the majority of the novel The Dr. and Ace were separated and followed the same mystery despite being apart. I found the characters interesting and compelling and the story exciting to the very end. Who would have thought that a rural English town with some scarecrows would prove so interesting.
nwhyte's review against another edition
3.0
http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1590612.html
A Seventh Doctor / Ace novel set before Survival, thus outside the New Adventures continuity which I am used to. Despite the fact that Keith Topping is a co-author, I thought it was rather good, a sort-of sequel to The Awakening and to a lesser extent The Dæmons, with occult practices in a remote English village connecting both to ancient aliens and the highest levels of today's government; lots of good moments for Ace and her Doctor, and managing to engage with the genre of The Wicker Man while still being more or less a Doctor Who story. Two things I didn't like: the scene-setting seventeenth-century dialogue in the opening chapter is terrible (though oddly later chapters do it better) and there seemed to be a geographical delusion that Liverpool is the nearest large city to Wiltshire. But apart from that it worked for me.
A Seventh Doctor / Ace novel set before Survival, thus outside the New Adventures continuity which I am used to. Despite the fact that Keith Topping is a co-author, I thought it was rather good, a sort-of sequel to The Awakening and to a lesser extent The Dæmons, with occult practices in a remote English village connecting both to ancient aliens and the highest levels of today's government; lots of good moments for Ace and her Doctor, and managing to engage with the genre of The Wicker Man while still being more or less a Doctor Who story. Two things I didn't like: the scene-setting seventeenth-century dialogue in the opening chapter is terrible (though oddly later chapters do it better) and there seemed to be a geographical delusion that Liverpool is the nearest large city to Wiltshire. But apart from that it worked for me.
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