Overdue book review: Doctor Who: The Stealers of Dreams by Steve Lyons
Print date: 2005 (20s: 1, 50s: 2, 60s: 4, 70s: 9, 80s: 8, 90s: 9, 00s: 26, 10s: 2)
Verdict: Recycle. (41/99)
I collect Doctor Who books. They got me through the long dry years before the new series started. I own a complete set of the Virgin books and I loved them dearly. I have a complete run bar one of the BBC Books 8th Doctor run after the movie. I've read Steve Lyons before, and I like him very much; he's one of my favorite Who authors. But this is my first of the new series books.
It could have been better. The format has changed; page number aside, this book is about 30% shorter than the Who novels I'm used to. It's really a novella, long enough to completely overdescribe an actual episode of the new series but not long enough to actually expand a sufficiently complex plot for a book. I'm sure you could write a story to fit this size, but I'm also sure that the veteran Who authors have had some problems hacking off sufficient bits to get under the appropriate word count.
At least, that's what it felt like here. There were a few reasonably-developed supporting characters but it felt like the cast could have been bigger. The plot had a few twists to it but it wasn't really complex. And the resolution to the whole thing was just rushed, tying everything up in a bow without any real impact. The characterizations of Rose and Jack were a bit off too, because Lyons had to write the book before he'd seen the series.
I get the feeling there was an editorial mandate to "make the books like extra episodes of the series." This is certainly closer than almost anything I've read to feeling like television. But I'm not entirely sure this is a good thing; we have TV for that. The novels should go places the series can't, and vice versa. If the rest of the new line of books are like this, they're just pale imitations.
Page count: 254 (21650 total)
Completed: 61 (27 female authors, 29 male authors, 5 anthology)
Rejected: 38 (23 male authors, 15 female authors)
Next book due: Thursday, October 13th
This entry was originally posted at http://kilroy.dreamwidth.org/378202.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
Verdict: Recycle. (41/99)
I collect Doctor Who books. They got me through the long dry years before the new series started. I own a complete set of the Virgin books and I loved them dearly. I have a complete run bar one of the BBC Books 8th Doctor run after the movie. I've read Steve Lyons before, and I like him very much; he's one of my favorite Who authors. But this is my first of the new series books.
It could have been better. The format has changed; page number aside, this book is about 30% shorter than the Who novels I'm used to. It's really a novella, long enough to completely overdescribe an actual episode of the new series but not long enough to actually expand a sufficiently complex plot for a book. I'm sure you could write a story to fit this size, but I'm also sure that the veteran Who authors have had some problems hacking off sufficient bits to get under the appropriate word count.
At least, that's what it felt like here. There were a few reasonably-developed supporting characters but it felt like the cast could have been bigger. The plot had a few twists to it but it wasn't really complex. And the resolution to the whole thing was just rushed, tying everything up in a bow without any real impact. The characterizations of Rose and Jack were a bit off too, because Lyons had to write the book before he'd seen the series.
I get the feeling there was an editorial mandate to "make the books like extra episodes of the series." This is certainly closer than almost anything I've read to feeling like television. But I'm not entirely sure this is a good thing; we have TV for that. The novels should go places the series can't, and vice versa. If the rest of the new line of books are like this, they're just pale imitations.
Page count: 254 (21650 total)
Completed: 61 (27 female authors, 29 male authors, 5 anthology)
Rejected: 38 (23 male authors, 15 female authors)
Next book due: Thursday, October 13th
This entry was originally posted at http://kilroy.dreamwidth.org/378202.html. Please comment there using OpenID.