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A review by hidekisohma
Doctor Who: Nightshade by Mark Gatiss
3.0
I was actually quite excited to read this one. I like Mark Gatiss a lot as a writer from his book "Last of the Gaderenes" and loved him in "Twice up on a time" as an actor. So i was very excited for this one. Unfortunately...this one wasn't great. It was okay at best.
This one is about a bunch of people in a small British town in 1968 dying weirdly and then turning into mummies and basically disintegrating after seeing visions of long dead people they cared about.
The doctor's kind of tired and wants to retire, but of course, that's not an option because bad crap follows him wherever he goes.
I had two main issues with this book.
1. WAYYYYYYYY too many side characters. like normally a good doctor who book has like 5-7 side characters. this one was INSANE. it had at least 20 characters they introduced either to have them die or not die, but my god. he gave literally every single new person who showed up a backstory and for 230 pages, thats a LOT for so short a book. People would show up, have a two page backstory, and then die and i'm sitting there like "okay, was i supposed to care there? like what the hell was that?"
and of course, the most interesting side character dies, and we're left with the weenies that i don't give a crap about. But ah, such is my life when it comes to stories I read.
2. The violence. Look, i know doctor who can get a bit violent at times, but Jesus huffington christ. This book had a LOT of gross death. Like i thought I was reading a Trevor Baxendale Doctor who novel for a while. Lot of people melting, lot of melting zombie visions, it was just very gross to be honest. Didn't need to have that many people die or be that violent.
Pretty much the only thing i really enjoyed about this one was the fact that the writing style was pretty easy to read and wasn't an incomprehensible MESS like "Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible" or "Man in the Velvet mask". Despite all the people, i could follow the basic story and understand what was going on with the villain of the book. I thought the villain was a bit stock, boring, and underdeveloped, but at least i knew what the villain WAS.
This being the 8th book in the series, it's definitely not the WORST in the series, but it's by no means the best. Being the first book in the series NOT in a trilogy or quadrilogy, and especially being written by Mark Gatiss, I had some hopes for it, but between the violence, the million people, and Ace falling in love IMMEDIATELY with some guy just because....i don't know, he EXISTS it all felt a little too...meh for my taste. That's why i'm giving this book an even 3 out of 5. Because that's exactly what it was. Meh. Serviceable, but Meh.
Even 3 out of 5.
This one is about a bunch of people in a small British town in 1968 dying weirdly and then turning into mummies and basically disintegrating after seeing visions of long dead people they cared about.
The doctor's kind of tired and wants to retire, but of course, that's not an option because bad crap follows him wherever he goes.
I had two main issues with this book.
1. WAYYYYYYYY too many side characters. like normally a good doctor who book has like 5-7 side characters. this one was INSANE. it had at least 20 characters they introduced either to have them die or not die, but my god. he gave literally every single new person who showed up a backstory and for 230 pages, thats a LOT for so short a book. People would show up, have a two page backstory, and then die and i'm sitting there like "okay, was i supposed to care there? like what the hell was that?"
and of course, the most interesting side character dies, and we're left with the weenies that i don't give a crap about. But ah, such is my life when it comes to stories I read.
2. The violence. Look, i know doctor who can get a bit violent at times, but Jesus huffington christ. This book had a LOT of gross death. Like i thought I was reading a Trevor Baxendale Doctor who novel for a while. Lot of people melting, lot of melting zombie visions, it was just very gross to be honest. Didn't need to have that many people die or be that violent.
Pretty much the only thing i really enjoyed about this one was the fact that the writing style was pretty easy to read and wasn't an incomprehensible MESS like "Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible" or "Man in the Velvet mask". Despite all the people, i could follow the basic story and understand what was going on with the villain of the book. I thought the villain was a bit stock, boring, and underdeveloped, but at least i knew what the villain WAS.
This being the 8th book in the series, it's definitely not the WORST in the series, but it's by no means the best. Being the first book in the series NOT in a trilogy or quadrilogy, and especially being written by Mark Gatiss, I had some hopes for it, but between the violence, the million people, and Ace falling in love IMMEDIATELY with some guy just because....i don't know, he EXISTS it all felt a little too...meh for my taste. That's why i'm giving this book an even 3 out of 5. Because that's exactly what it was. Meh. Serviceable, but Meh.
Even 3 out of 5.