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Rating: 
Summary: Weakest of the lot
Review: I have stated elsewhere that is a brave task to start a nwe media tie-in line with a series of books built around one theme, as Virgin did with the Timewyrm story. Thankfully, this is the third book and not the first or else this series might not have survived. The story reads much like many of the Pertwee era six part stories in which the the plot is thin and padded with constant returns to scenes already visited. If you're a completest, get the book, but otherwise you can skip this one.
Rating:
Summary: Weakest of the lot
Review: I have stated elsewhere that is a brave task to start a nwe media tie-in line with a series of books built around one theme, as Virgin did with the Timewyrm story. Thankfully, this is the third book and not the first or else this series might not have survived. The story reads much like many of the Pertwee era six part stories in which the the plot is thin and padded with constant returns to scenes already visited. If you're a completest, get the book, but otherwise you can skip this one.
Rating: 
Summary: Apocalypse Then
Review: The Doctor and Ace follow the Timewyrm's trail to the far future, where she is now on the planet Kirith. The world houses an utopian society, but with a dark secret. A secret the Timewyrm will exploit...The third part of the Timewyrm quartet rings a little hollow, with the planet Kirith effectively interchangeable with many other semi-nondescript planets visited by the Doctor. It certainly doesn't impress me as the utopia it is supposed to be! This book continues to develop the Doctor as a major manipulator storyline, spun-out from some of his activities in the last season of TV stories. This facet is probably the most interesting of those on display in this book. One of the features of Doctor Who as a TV serial is that forgettable stories come along from time to time. This book sadly continues that tradition.
Rating:
Summary: Apocalypse Then
Review: The Doctor and Ace follow the Timewyrm's trail to the far future, where she is now on the planet Kirith. The world houses an utopian society, but with a dark secret. A secret the Timewyrm will exploit... The third part of the Timewyrm quartet rings a little hollow, with the planet Kirith effectively interchangeable with many other semi-nondescript planets visited by the Doctor. It certainly doesn't impress me as the utopia it is supposed to be! This book continues to develop the Doctor as a major manipulator storyline, spun-out from some of his activities in the last season of TV stories. This facet is probably the most interesting of those on display in this book. One of the features of Doctor Who as a TV serial is that forgettable stories come along from time to time. This book sadly continues that tradition.
Rating:
Summary: Paralyzingly dull, boring and tedious
Review: When I first read TIMEWYRM: APOCALYPSE back in 1993 or 1994, it was only a matter of weeks later that I was unable to recall more than a handful of details about the book. Rereading this in 2001, I recognized only the barest trivialities. I don't expect to retain anything more from my reread than I did from my initial perusal of the text. The prologue of the book begins with several one and two word sentences which are supposed to represent the primitive thoughts of the awakening adversary. One and two word sentences never inspire the reader to have much confidence in the rest of the book, and sadly this assumption proves to be correct. One thing that any future authors can take away from this experience is that if one is going to base the first fifty pages of one's book off of a previous Doctor Who serial, do not redo The Krotons. The major problem with this book is that it is hopelessly padded and, worse, it's extremely dull padding. The page count is just one over two hundred, yet strangely APOCALYPSE could easily lose about fifty pages without breaking a sweat. There are far too many scenes of people being captured, escaping, running away from monsters, etc. The style of prose does little to help move the plot along. Sequences are broken up with numerous pages of random information about the way of life on Kirith. These passages don't help to build up a picture of alien life, rather they just seem like irrelevant details. It seems heavily influenced by the very worst of the Target novelisations. When those books were at their poorest, they were nothing but lines of dialogue with random "extra" paragraphs of exposition. This is exactly what many sections of this book feel like. It isn't pretty. Not to say that there aren't a few moments where the book is entertaining. There's a sequence in which the Doctor is being chased through a forest that's realized quite effectively. The passages involving the villagers awaking from their long conditioning are also noteworthy. Unfortunately for every one of these, we have something like the part where a seagull poos on the Doctor or one of the many useless facts about Kirithian culture. One step forward, three steps back. All in all the ending of the book is enjoyable enough, it's just a pity one has to read through all the other dull stuff in order to get to it. This would make a much better novella if one, in addition to removing much of the padding, remembered that good writing involves more showing than telling.
Rating:
Summary: Paralyzingly dull, boring and tedious
Review: When I first read TIMEWYRM: APOCALYPSE back in 1993 or 1994, it was only a matter of weeks later that I was unable to recall more than a handful of details about the book. Rereading this in 2001, I recognized only the barest trivialities. I don't expect to retain anything more from my reread than I did from my initial perusal of the text. The prologue of the book begins with several one and two word sentences which are supposed to represent the primitive thoughts of the awakening adversary. One and two word sentences never inspire the reader to have much confidence in the rest of the book, and sadly this assumption proves to be correct. One thing that any future authors can take away from this experience is that if one is going to base the first fifty pages of one's book off of a previous Doctor Who serial, do not redo The Krotons. The major problem with this book is that it is hopelessly padded and, worse, it's extremely dull padding. The page count is just one over two hundred, yet strangely APOCALYPSE could easily lose about fifty pages without breaking a sweat. There are far too many scenes of people being captured, escaping, running away from monsters, etc. The style of prose does little to help move the plot along. Sequences are broken up with numerous pages of random information about the way of life on Kirith. These passages don't help to build up a picture of alien life, rather they just seem like irrelevant details. It seems heavily influenced by the very worst of the Target novelisations. When those books were at their poorest, they were nothing but lines of dialogue with random "extra" paragraphs of exposition. This is exactly what many sections of this book feel like. It isn't pretty. Not to say that there aren't a few moments where the book is entertaining. There's a sequence in which the Doctor is being chased through a forest that's realized quite effectively. The passages involving the villagers awaking from their long conditioning are also noteworthy. Unfortunately for every one of these, we have something like the part where a seagull poos on the Doctor or one of the many useless facts about Kirithian culture. One step forward, three steps back. All in all the ending of the book is enjoyable enough, it's just a pity one has to read through all the other dull stuff in order to get to it. This would make a much better novella if one, in addition to removing much of the padding, remembered that good writing involves more showing than telling.
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