Wolfsbane (Doctor Who)

Rating:
Summary: Decent effort, but...
Review: Being a huge fan of the Tom Baker era of Doctor Who, I was really looking forward to this book. I've always enjoyed Baker, Sarah Jane Smith and Harry Sullivan, and experiencing a new adventure with these characters was, at first, a treat. The idea of Harry running into the Eighth Doctor was a fun idea as well, but I'll get to McGann's Doctor momentarily.

The premise of the story is a fun one, setting the Doctor(s) and his companions into a dark gothic story filled with magic and werewolves. The mood is very familiar to anyone knowledgable of the Tom Baker era and, with no rational explanation provided for either the werewolves OR the magic, the series takes one of its rare steps out of science-fiction and into science-fantasy.

The set-up is well done and raises the right kinds of questions as to the characters' fates and how they've apparently arrived at them. Once we get past the set-up, however, the book begins to lose its charm. Many of the story's best secrets and surprises are revealed much too early, and their effectiveness is lost as a result. One can, in fact, sense for him/herself while reading this where the better places would have been to reveal such secrets, and scenes that could have been shocking and powerful (without being illogical) wind up merely marginally exciting. Rayner's inconsistent writing style (which is mired by grade-school level second-person descriptions and haphazard scene transitions) distracted me quite a bit and brought the mood of the story down somewhat, and it didn't help that both Doctors were largely shoved aside in favor of the supporting characters.

Speaking of the characters, the story reveals some faults in the various characters' portrayals, for while Emmauline, Sarah and Haryr are very well-established (Sarah and Harry especially, which really makes it feel like we're reading the characters Lis Sladen and Ian Marter breathed so much life into), the others are not and I found myeslf consistently wondering why some of those strange characters were acting the way they were (and I don't accept "because they were strange" as an answer). Yes, one of them was clearly a psychotic and thus his actions were not so hard to understand (relatively speaking), but with the others there wasn't much to go on and they felt too much like plot pieces than real characters. The story's villain suffers from this problem also and I didn't come to feel as though said villain was really all that interesting or threatening.

Both the Fourth Doctor and the Eighth Doctor have portrayal problems here too. For the most part Rayner manages to capture the spirit of of Tom Baker's Doctor, but he occasionally says things very out of character (even for a piece of work like Baker's Doctor) and doesn't seem as wild and observant as he should. McGann's Doctor is hardly recognizable -- yes, I know when this story is SUPPOSED to be taking place, and I'm not going to ruin it for those who haven't found out -- but his Doctor was still entirely too out-of-character to really be regarded as The Doctor (and had the back of the book not mentioned he was the Eighth Doctor, I honestly wouldn't have guessed). It simply isn't acceptable to present the series' title character in such a manner because he is the reason the story turns out as it does, and while both Doctors manage to do their good, it all seems rather unsatisfying with both of them acting so strangely, and with no good reason for doing so, no less.

Without giving away what the ending actually is, let me just simply say that the ending really did the story in. It was vague, it was confusing and too many questions were left unanswered. The story doesn't even give the clearest idea about Harry himself (though what it implies is ludicrous for reasons I can't reveal without blowing the ending) or the Eighth Doctor. After reading the final page I was extremely disappointed. It feels almost as if Rayner couldn't really think of a great ending and just tacked the final pages on. The story's real climax, in fact, happens so early that everything that follows feels like picking up stray pieces to make things fit together, and even then not everything does.

The story is constructed, more or less, around the idea of an infinite time loop, with things that haven't happened yet already in place to happen because of the involvement of the Doctor and his companions, but Jonathan Morris, in his Doctor Who novel "Festival Of Death," managed to tackle this idea flawlessly while Rayner ignores certain important details that left me wondering why things happened as they did. Certain loose ends don't feel properly tied up and some events seem to defy explanation, which is not what Doctor Who as a whole is about. (One of the Doctor's most famous quotes from the TV series is, "Nothing is inexplicable; merely unexplained.") The Doctor is, more often than not, able to provide us with the missing information himself because he manages to figure everything out, but in this story he fails on that front. We don't know what we need to know by the time the story ends, and that's very dissatisfying.

On the whole "Wolfsbane" is a decent effort but ultimately a disappointment for the series.

Rating:
Summary: Jac Rips Into Continuity
Review: I was initially very excited when I heard about 'Wolfsbane', which was going to combine both the Eighth and Fourth Doctors. I wasn't disappointed with Ms. Rayner's offering, although as with all good Doctor Who books, it leaves more questions unanswered than it answers.

The first thing I noticed about this book was it's very Target-ish tone. This could very easily have been a Target novelization written by Uncle Terry--although Rayner will throw that assumption on its head with sudden scenes of brutal violence. Although people do tend to end up dead in 'Who', some of the deaths inin 'Wolfsbane'are unnerving, especially in light of the tone. This isn't a child's book, although it often reads like one. I found this clever and disturbing, which I enjoy.

Another odd thing here is the use of magic. Usually in 'Who', the supernatural has a scientific explantion. Not so here. Like in 'Scarlet Empress', magic is magic, and werewolves are werewolves. No long winded rationalizations by the Doctor, no reassurances that all is logically explainable. The darkness here does hold monsters.

The only problem a Who fan may have with this book is if said fan doesn't adore Harry Sullivan, because it's clear Rayner does. Never minded Harry myself, and here he's in full Sullivan force: bumbling, being a gentleman, the epitome of the dignified British military man.

For those not up to date with the current Eighth Doctor adventures, 'Wolfsbane' may blow a few things, but I don't think it's anything earth shattering. Just be aware of that. Television continuity also takes a bit of a beating, but we Who fans tend to like that. At least I do, especially when it's done well. Like here.

A good read, guaranteed to pass a few cold winter nights.

Rating:
Summary: It's all about ...
Review: It's hard to input more than my fellow readers have but I feel I must. For a Fourth Doctor devote, I was a bit disappointed by the disjointedness of the story. Of course Tom Baker is disjointedness personified and so perhaps I sought too much. Werewolf (?), there wolf, there one heck of a story. Take some time and a cup o' and you'll get through this but don't expect to come out of it the same person you were before.

Rating:
Summary: Werewolves and Sullivan
Review: Now this is more like it. WOLFSBANE is one half whimsical fun and one half gothic horror. It's a great action-adventure, paced strongly enough that it never becomes dull or tedious. It's a straightforward story told with a lot of wit. It's not the perfect Doctor Who novel, but it's one I wouldn't hesitate to recommend.

WOLFSBANE is told in two parts simultaneously. In the beginning, the Fourth Doctor and Sarah accidentally become separated from everyone's favorite bumbler, Harry Sullivan. Harry wanders off into adventures of his own, quickly teaming up with the amnesiac Eighth Doctor in the middle of his Earth Arc. Meanwhile, the Fourth Doctor and Sarah land a few weeks into the future trying to find a clue as to the whereabouts of their friend. Generally speaking, Harry is the star of the first subplot, while Sarah gets the spotlight in the second. Both strands concentrate on the same plot, as apparent werewolves terrorize the obligatory sleepy English village and its obligatory sleepy English sheep.

The two companions get the lion's share of the attention and they're both extremely well portrayed. Sarah seemed much more alive than she did in the last PDA/MA I read that featured her (okay, that was EVOLUTION, but still...), appearing both capable, human, and certainly recognizable as her television counterpart. But (and I'm not the first to point this out) the real revelation is Harry Sullivan. I always liked this character and here, with virtually an entire half a book told from his point of view, he absolutely shines. This is great! His reactions are fun without being over the top and his thought patterns are magnificently entertaining. This book deserves praise simply for Harry Sullivan's contribution alone.

Few of the other characters come alive quite like the companions do, although I found Emmeline's story touching. The eventual villains just barely manage to avoid falling over the cliff of cliché, but even at their worst, they're still endearing.

This sort of narrative structure where the story takes place in two coupled time zones is not wholly original to this book. But it's a fun gimmick as well as rare in Doctor Who novels and therefore a welcome addition. Rayner plays with her narrative; for instance, at the beginning of Sarah's subplot we're given some giant clues as to what will happen at the end of Harry's story. The result is a success. My only real quibble with this is that the changeovers tend to jar. She has a habit of jumping from scene to scene quite haphazardly, and it can be difficult at first to figure out which time zone a given sequence is taking place in.

The other slight distraction I found is that the two halves of the story are told in different styles, although the more I think about them in this way, the more I'm seeing how the two parts informed each other. For the most part, the Harry Sullivan subplot is a fun action-adventure thriller, where well-meaning Harry plays Nigel Bruce to the Eighth Doctor's Basil Rathbone. The werewolf portions are mostly the stuff of horror films and pulp novels. On the other hand, the Sarah Jane Smith subplot deals more with the psychological aspects of the werewolf menace as well as getting a little deeper into Sarah's head. One feels lightweight and fluffy, while the other goes for a more gritty approach, which can be a little disconcerting when alternating in rapid succession. (For an example of what I'm talking about, look at the opposing ways in which the book approaches food and physical distresses. There's a descriptive passage where Sarah, who hasn't eaten for a while, hungrily longs for any sustenance. And in a later scene she almost freezes to death. But on the other hand, the only similar scene in Harry Sullivan's adventure is where the sideburned one encounters a situation where he must think hard to remember which fork to use at a formal dinner.)

I started off the previous paragraph as a complaint, but the more I think about it, the more appealing I'm finding Rayner's delivery. She's really played up the strengths of both characters and gave each an aspect of the story most suited for them. She approaches the basic werewolf tale from two angles and gets the most out of each. It's something that I didn't appreciate while I was actually reading the book, but it's something I've now been dwelling on afterwards. The styles may have clashed somewhat, but now that I think about it, I feel it was worth it. The pieces that the two subplots have in common do go some way towards smoothing out the rough patches.

Apart from that, I found this a really fun adventure. The descriptions are quite good, and Rayner's prose is certainly compelling. It isn't the greatest writing ever seen in a Who novel, but I'd place it above the average. The ending I found a bit confusing (and I'm not sure I quite understood one aspect of it), but it was nothing that marred my overall enjoyment.

Rating:
Summary: Where's the Doctor?
Review: Wolfsbane: A fantastic premise for a book, marred by the fact that it was essentially and Eighth Doctor book, featuring Fourth Doctor companions. And the Eighth Doctor isn't even himself in the book, he's just an important character in this novel.

Which brings us to the question, where is the Doctor?

The book starts with Harry Sullivan being left behind a few days time in England, while a werewolf is tearing people apart. A few days later, The 4th Doctor (who seems to disappear after a few chapters) and Sarah Jane Smith arrive, finding Harry's tombstone. Sounds good, but alas, it was not meant to be.

The rest of the novel jumps from Harry to Sarah Jane, while the Eighth Doctor pops up and renders Harry aid (although the only reason you realize that he's the Eighth Doctor is because it says so on the back of the book). Sarah Jane goes on a maddening search, trying to discover what happened to Harry. Once in a while, Tom Baker's Doctor will show up and say something, but he never acts like that particular incarnation. Swap the clothes and hair out, and it could be any number of Doctors. Heck, quit calling his character the Doctor and suddenly he's just another guy in the town. His role is that small.

The only things saving this book from being a 1-star book was the fantastic description, and a pretty clever ending. If you like Sarah Jane and Harry enough to read a book just about them, grab "Wolfbane". If you want to actually read about Doctor Who, stick to your trusty copy of "Festival of Death".

Rating:
Summary: Where's the Doctor?
Review: Wolfsbane: A fantastic premise for a book, marred by the fact that it was essentially and Eighth Doctor book, featuring Fourth Doctor companions. And the Eighth Doctor isn't even himself in the book, he's just an important character in this novel.

Which brings us to the question, where is the Doctor?

The book starts with Harry Sullivan being left behind a few days time in England, while a werewolf is tearing people apart. A few days later, The 4th Doctor (who seems to disappear after a few chapters) and Sarah Jane Smith arrive, finding Harry's tombstone. Sounds good, but alas, it was not meant to be.

The rest of the novel jumps from Harry to Sarah Jane, while the Eighth Doctor pops up and renders Harry aid (although the only reason you realize that he's the Eighth Doctor is because it says so on the back of the book). Sarah Jane goes on a maddening search, trying to discover what happened to Harry. Once in a while, Tom Baker's Doctor will show up and say something, but he never acts like that particular incarnation. Swap the clothes and hair out, and it could be any number of Doctors. Heck, quit calling his character the Doctor and suddenly he's just another guy in the town. His role is that small.

The only things saving this book from being a 1-star book was the fantastic description, and a pretty clever ending. If you like Sarah Jane and Harry enough to read a book just about them, grab "Wolfbane". If you want to actually read about Doctor Who, stick to your trusty copy of "Festival of Death".