Craig HintonRecensioni
Autore di The Crystal Bucephalus
Recensioni
I must confess that I approached this book with a degree of ambivalence, as the idea of reading a Doctor Who novel that was premised on a minor gimmick adapted from Douglas Adams wasn't appealing to me. Yet while the idea of time traveling diners is one that can seem excessively ridiculous, Craig Hinton uses it to build one of the most breathtakingly ambitious novels in the Virgin Missing Adventures series. Key to this is his integration of time travel into the plot, which instead of being employed simply to transport the Doctor and his companions to some exotic locale is used as the main driver of events. These unfold over the course of the book to reveal a story of impressive complexity, albeit one dependent on hiding key details until late in the book in order to maintain a sense of mystery. This is a minor complaint, though, when weighed against Hinton's success in providing a multilayered adventure that comes together in an exciting conclusion to rank as among the best Doctor Who novels that I have read so far.
A sequel to The Time Monster, featuring the Sixth Doctor, Mel and the Ainley!Master, and a host of other references to other Who stories, the epitome of "fanwank" (a term Hinton himself invented). Actually rather good fun, which is impressive given how awful the original story is, with a high point being the splintering of the narrative into various potential parallel realities where the history of the universe has worked out differently. Hinton also does a good job of capturing the Sixth Doctor. The Home Secretary has the same name as a prominent Doctor Who fan, but when I checked with her she thought it must be coincidence (because she was not yet prominent when this was written). Above average, I would say.
A really enjoyable Seventh Doctor story, as the Doctor, Chris and Ros appear on twenty-second century Mars in the midst of the Dalek Invasion of Earth, with the politics of Ice Warrior appropriation of left-behind Osirian technology putting all at risk. Simply excellent stuff, missing only Bernice Summerfield for whom this is the world of her expertise.
I had been puzzling over the title of this Fifth Doctor novel since I first heard of it; what gadget could conceivably be made of crystal and also named for Alexander the Great's horse? As it transpires there is a double explanation: there is a crystal statue of the horse, which turns out to have extra powers, but also the statue is located in a restaurant named after it. Rather oddly the Doctor turns out to be the owner of both statue and restaurant. Lots of similarly wacky (or wackier) nomenclature in the book, not all of which completely gels, though enough does to keep one going; I loved the idea of the Lazarus Intent, a religion combining a garbled Christianity with the monsters of the Whoniverse, and am impressed that Hilton found something useful to do with Kamelion.
I found this book interesting, but occasionally something of a chore. Personally, I think Doctor Who gets a little tedious when they try to go into more technical/science-y detail about time travel, and Craig Hinton went a little nuts in that area. There was also a lot about how the TARDIS functions, which of course varies from author to author. I think a lot of the book was just overly complex. I think the Missing Adventures were mostly intended for adult hardcore fans, but I do have my limits.
This was the first book I had read by the late Craig Hinton, and I thoroughly enjoyed it: resurrecting Anne Travers from The Web of Fear, references also to The Invasion; also rather intriguingly the action is set around the 1999/2000 New Year's Eve, and the top floor of Canary Wharf plays a prominent role. (This was written a year or two before The TV Movie, let alone Army of Ghosts.) And as an extra bonus the book is a sort-of prequel to All-Consuming Fire, my favourite of the New Adventures. It also follows through on the logic of the Valeyard from the Trial of a Time Lord, which is less exciting for me but it all hangs together rather well. I shall look out for more of Hinton's books.
With so many contributions, and so many breakthrough writers, and with each story accompanied by full-page artwork, it has taken the best part of two years to bring this project to fruition.
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There has always been something about the idea of the Doctor and his companion leaving on uneven terms that has always intrigued me, despite the ugliness of the scenario – doubly so if it is the Doctor who causes the break up. At the beginning of The Quantum Archangel, this very thing is happening between the Doctor and Mel, and it colors the rest of the novel, adding a layer of depth to the Doctor and Mel’s respective scenes. What do you do when you’re a companion who is forced to leave the Doctor’s side and find yourself lost in a world that used to be your home? There are a mess of uncomfortable questions raised not only on the typical Doctor/companion relationship, but on the Doctor’s relationship with himself and what he may become; it seems that the specter of the Valeyard haunts his every action since the incident on Maradnias, maybe even since he left the space station with Mel.
Oh, you don’t know who the Valeyard is? How about the Rutans or the Vervoids or Minyos? Have you seen the episode The Time Monster, or the twenty-third season? If you haven’t, do yourself a favor and put the book down, watch said episodes, then come back. Then you will be well versed enough to get half the references. Once again, Craig Hinton throws a metric ton of Who history into his verse, which will delight hard core fans but possibly scare off those still dipping their toes into the Whoniverse’s intimidating amount of canon.
Despite all that, Craig Hinton’s writing style is one to be praised. It packs a punch with its emotional scenes, and always keeps readers’ attention riveted to the page during scenes of action and drama. I found it hard to put The Quantum Archangel down at times because the story was so gripping I just had to know what would happen next. The voices for the Doctor, the Master, and Mel are spot on, and I love the fact that this is a novel that gives Mel Bush the proper spotlight she deserves, highlighting her keen intellect and heart and not her screaming skills, thank goodness.
The story itself is a complex layered beast, and at one point it goes very wibbley-wobbley timey-wimey with its handling of multiple universes – but it does all this with a deft hand, never making the reader feel lost. Even the technobabble feels genuine amid all the drama and danger going on. In all, I really enjoyed reading this novel and it is certainly an honorable verse sequel to The Time Monster, especially given who makes a surprise cameo near the end of the book.