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A review by hidekisohma
Doctor Who: Love and War by Paul Cornell
3.0
If there's one thing i can say about these new adventures is that for some reason, normally they're quite complicated and i can't exactly figure out why. Interestingly enough though, this is one of the few out of the first nine that aren't THAT complicated. Yeah there's some weird shenanigans going on, but it's nowhere near "Time Crucible" which was just completely incomprehensible. No, the issue i had with this book was that i just didn't CARE for the majority of it.
On paper it sounds fine. It's the book where the doc picks up a new companion in Bernice, and Ace peaces out for a while. That sounds interesting, and to be perfectly fair, the last 30 pages ARE but the rest of it is a SCHLOG.
Essentially doc ends on this planet called Heaven. It's a very nice planet where people like to live but also pay to have their dead friends and relatives shipped as it's a nice place to be buried. However when they get there, Ace falls in love with random guy mcgee named Jan. she also does a lot of backstory thinking about her past including some guy she visits a funeral for named Julian before she arrives in Heaven.
Jan is part of this group that's kind of like...Matrix hippies? i guess is the best way to put it. they jack into this computer space using holes in their necks and have fun and chill out there. However, in the real world, there's also fungus monsters that bring back dead people as fungus zombies.
This SOUNDS kind of interesting, but the issue is, it's not. The story itself is disjointed and an INORDINATE amount of time is spent on the aforementioned Ace/Jan relationship. and i don't know about you, but i'm not into doctor who to read about random romances that you know aren't going to end well. I mean, if you haven't read this book have you ever heard of the character JAN in doctor who? yeah. didn't think so.
I've read a book of two with Bernice in it (specifically Big Bang Generation with the 12th doctor) and honestly, i'm not the biggest fan of her. She's very muted, but not in a compassion (8th comp) way, more of like a "oh. you have a time machine? cool. sounds good." like, no reaction kinda dull. like, she read ahead in the script and knew what to expect.
She might be tolerable as a comp since she's not the main character, and i know in like 3 books Ace comes back so she'll have to share the spotlight, so i'm okay with that. But MAN, i saw that she apparently has her OWN book series and i'm sitting there like "The hell is reading BERNICE SUMMERFIELD THE SERIES?" and after checking goodreads and seeing that most of her books have sub 100 ratings, my answer is, nobody is.
She's no Compassion or Fitz, that's for sure. She's, in a word, fine.
The doc kinds of acts weird in this one, continually referring to Ace as Dodo by mistake and making depressing statements like "ah we lost" or "there's nothing we can do" and i know it's part of a plan, but it gets disheartening after a while.
There's a lot of side characters in the matrix hippie group, several of which also want in Jan's pants, and they're all so forgettable that i can't even remember their names.
I think the only saving grace of this book was that the ending was kind of neat and it was really short. like ~230 pages short. if this was ~300 it would be intolerable. But it was JUST short enough to keep me focused and wrap it up in a few days.
Overall, this book falls straight into 2.5 territory. it's the epitome of a 2.5/5. problem is, i can't rate it that which is very annoying.
so is it worth a 2 or a 3? i was hemming and hawing over this.... but....i think i'll give it a 3. It was boring at times, but i didn't outwardly HATE anything about it. losing and getting a companion was interesting in a shakeup kinda way, it was short, and it wasn't INCREDIBLY confusing. also the ending was pretty good. So, yeah.
2.5 out of 5 rounded up to a 3.
On paper it sounds fine. It's the book where the doc picks up a new companion in Bernice, and Ace peaces out for a while. That sounds interesting, and to be perfectly fair, the last 30 pages ARE but the rest of it is a SCHLOG.
Essentially doc ends on this planet called Heaven. It's a very nice planet where people like to live but also pay to have their dead friends and relatives shipped as it's a nice place to be buried. However when they get there, Ace falls in love with random guy mcgee named Jan. she also does a lot of backstory thinking about her past including some guy she visits a funeral for named Julian before she arrives in Heaven.
Jan is part of this group that's kind of like...Matrix hippies? i guess is the best way to put it. they jack into this computer space using holes in their necks and have fun and chill out there. However, in the real world, there's also fungus monsters that bring back dead people as fungus zombies.
This SOUNDS kind of interesting, but the issue is, it's not. The story itself is disjointed and an INORDINATE amount of time is spent on the aforementioned Ace/Jan relationship. and i don't know about you, but i'm not into doctor who to read about random romances that you know aren't going to end well. I mean, if you haven't read this book have you ever heard of the character JAN in doctor who? yeah. didn't think so.
I've read a book of two with Bernice in it (specifically Big Bang Generation with the 12th doctor) and honestly, i'm not the biggest fan of her. She's very muted, but not in a compassion (8th comp) way, more of like a "oh. you have a time machine? cool. sounds good." like, no reaction kinda dull. like, she read ahead in the script and knew what to expect.
She might be tolerable as a comp since she's not the main character, and i know in like 3 books Ace comes back so she'll have to share the spotlight, so i'm okay with that. But MAN, i saw that she apparently has her OWN book series and i'm sitting there like "The hell is reading BERNICE SUMMERFIELD THE SERIES?" and after checking goodreads and seeing that most of her books have sub 100 ratings, my answer is, nobody is.
She's no Compassion or Fitz, that's for sure. She's, in a word, fine.
The doc kinds of acts weird in this one, continually referring to Ace as Dodo by mistake and making depressing statements like "ah we lost" or "there's nothing we can do" and i know it's part of a plan, but it gets disheartening after a while.
There's a lot of side characters in the matrix hippie group, several of which also want in Jan's pants, and they're all so forgettable that i can't even remember their names.
I think the only saving grace of this book was that the ending was kind of neat and it was really short. like ~230 pages short. if this was ~300 it would be intolerable. But it was JUST short enough to keep me focused and wrap it up in a few days.
Overall, this book falls straight into 2.5 territory. it's the epitome of a 2.5/5. problem is, i can't rate it that which is very annoying.
so is it worth a 2 or a 3? i was hemming and hawing over this.... but....i think i'll give it a 3. It was boring at times, but i didn't outwardly HATE anything about it. losing and getting a companion was interesting in a shakeup kinda way, it was short, and it wasn't INCREDIBLY confusing. also the ending was pretty good. So, yeah.
2.5 out of 5 rounded up to a 3.