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A review by saroz162
Doctor Who: Harvest of Time by Alastair Reynolds
3.0
Over the past few years, the BBC has been complementing its regular series of shorter, viewer-friendly Doctor Who novels with occasional "prestige" releases, generally about twice the length and penned by popular and established authors from outside the Doctor Who world. At first, these focused on the then-current eleventh Doctor as portrayed by Matt Smith, but more recently, authors have been allowed to select their own preferred Doctor from the show's history. (The results, while interesting, have been less diverse than one might expect.) Harvest of Time, published during Doctor Who's 50th anniversary year, sees award-winning hard sci-fi author Alastair Reynolds try his hand at a 1970s-era story, featuring his childhood team of the third Doctor, Jo, UNIT, and of course, the Master.
It is obvious from the very beginning how much affection Reynolds has for this era of the program; his take on both the Doctor and the Master feels remarkably true to the TV performances, and if his Jo is a little more grown-up than usual and his Brigadier a little more cold, they're hardly the greatest deviations of character I've ever read. Reynolds' plot, involving an oil rig, mysterious government affairs, and an invasion by the crab-like Sild, feels exactly like the sort of thing we might have seen in 1972 if Barry Letts had been provided with a limitless budget. The first half of the novel is extremely entertaining, especially if you can turn your fan brain off and keep it from asking questions like, "How did the Master go from this intense high-security prison to the genial environment we saw in 'The Sea Devils'?" As fans, these are the things we wonder about, but of course it won't make a bit of difference to the casual reader.
What affects Harvest of Time a lot more negatively is the second half of the novel, where Reynolds greatly slows down the action. Once the Doctor and the Master join forces (did you ever expect anything else?), there are some very interesting plot developments - and then Reynolds is content to let them spend most of the rest of the book conversing with each other (or with one other character). The Jo/UNIT plotline, while relatively simplistic, at least has a sense of urgency; the Doctor and the Master investigating a derelict ship...well, it just doesn't, especially when it's a foregone conclusion that Reynolds will eventually have to restore status quo, get the Doctor home, return the Master to prison, and so on. The inclusion of a time paradox doesn't make things much better, and I, at least, found myself waiting impatiently through the last fifty pages or so for everything to line up and be resolved.
I'm not sure quite what needs to change for the Doctor Who prestige line. I've read about half a dozen of them now - Dan Abnett's The Silent Stars Go By probably being the most successful - and they all feel a little bit too long, a little bit too much in need of an editor. Perhaps a reduced page count (around 250 instead of 350) would help. I really like the idea behind the line, and I hope they continue to attract interesting and varied authors. There's a lot of potential involved. Right now, though, something is keeping the results from being truly great.
It is obvious from the very beginning how much affection Reynolds has for this era of the program; his take on both the Doctor and the Master feels remarkably true to the TV performances, and if his Jo is a little more grown-up than usual and his Brigadier a little more cold, they're hardly the greatest deviations of character I've ever read. Reynolds' plot, involving an oil rig, mysterious government affairs, and an invasion by the crab-like Sild, feels exactly like the sort of thing we might have seen in 1972 if Barry Letts had been provided with a limitless budget. The first half of the novel is extremely entertaining, especially if you can turn your fan brain off and keep it from asking questions like, "How did the Master go from this intense high-security prison to the genial environment we saw in 'The Sea Devils'?" As fans, these are the things we wonder about, but of course it won't make a bit of difference to the casual reader.
What affects Harvest of Time a lot more negatively is the second half of the novel, where Reynolds greatly slows down the action. Once the Doctor and the Master join forces (did you ever expect anything else?), there are some very interesting plot developments - and then Reynolds is content to let them spend most of the rest of the book conversing with each other (or with one other character). The Jo/UNIT plotline, while relatively simplistic, at least has a sense of urgency; the Doctor and the Master investigating a derelict ship...well, it just doesn't, especially when it's a foregone conclusion that Reynolds will eventually have to restore status quo, get the Doctor home, return the Master to prison, and so on. The inclusion of a time paradox doesn't make things much better, and I, at least, found myself waiting impatiently through the last fifty pages or so for everything to line up and be resolved.
I'm not sure quite what needs to change for the Doctor Who prestige line. I've read about half a dozen of them now - Dan Abnett's The Silent Stars Go By probably being the most successful - and they all feel a little bit too long, a little bit too much in need of an editor. Perhaps a reduced page count (around 250 instead of 350) would help. I really like the idea behind the line, and I hope they continue to attract interesting and varied authors. There's a lot of potential involved. Right now, though, something is keeping the results from being truly great.