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A review by kmccubbin
Doctor Who: Lucifer Rising by Andy Lane, Jim Mortimore
4.0
Given this book's reputation, I was surprised by how sharp and assured it was. To be fair, early on in the Virgin New Adventures, Ace is difficult, but Lane and Mortimere took to the challenge well and, instead of trying to bring her gingerly into the "Bitter Ace" era, just stopped pussyfooting around and threw her there. And, voila!, it works!
The book is a little more ambitious than the author's seemed ready for - tieing in a hodge-podge of religious iconography falls pretty flat, for example - but what they get right far outweighs any missteps.
I love the strange planetary/joined-moon phenomenon, the gentle lifts from Banks "Culture" series, the truly clever murder mystery tips, the Doctor and his companions' reverse look at events that they not only know will deteriorate, but the idea that all three of them have UNIQUE knowledge of the situation and, most of all, I love the actually disintegrating relationship of one of the show's greatest teams, The Seventh Doctor and Ace. It's the kind of revelatory character development that the NAs had been promising for a long time and this book finally got us there.
It feels like the series is hitting its stride here.
The book is a little more ambitious than the author's seemed ready for - tieing in a hodge-podge of religious iconography falls pretty flat, for example - but what they get right far outweighs any missteps.
I love the strange planetary/joined-moon phenomenon, the gentle lifts from Banks "Culture" series, the truly clever murder mystery tips, the Doctor and his companions' reverse look at events that they not only know will deteriorate, but the idea that all three of them have UNIQUE knowledge of the situation and, most of all, I love the actually disintegrating relationship of one of the show's greatest teams, The Seventh Doctor and Ace. It's the kind of revelatory character development that the NAs had been promising for a long time and this book finally got us there.
It feels like the series is hitting its stride here.