Rating: 
Summary: Pushing The Envelope
Review: I'll admit to Dr. Who books as being somewhat of a cheap thrill for me. I loved the show growing up and found out a few years ago that, while times have definitely changed, I still do. And the books are great fun. Normally...Unfortunately Mick Lewis chose to use an insane amount of violence and gore in Rags. Not that I object to that kind of thing as long as its appropriate to the story. But in this case it wasn't. I'm used to a Dr. Who with cheesy monsters, maybe a few chills and surprises and certainly, bad things do happen. A few of the Dr. Who books have been quite graphic but this takes the cake. What bothers me most is that the author did this to the Third Doctor and Jo - my favorite combination. If you don't have to read this one, don't. If you absolutely must, don't say no one warned you of possible dissappointment.
Rating: 
Summary: Rags - A Great Novel!
Review: Inventive, imaginative and nightmarish! This is a great book for the Doctor Who fan who has a bit of imagination and likes it when Doctor Who goes off the track into unfamiliar territory. Mick Lewis is a visual writer, and his images are both haunting and disturbing which really draw the reader into his world of moor-ish terror.
Rating:
Summary: Anarchy in the Whoniverse
Review: The punk ethos enters the Doctor Who universe for the first time since Paul Cornell's _No Future_, where its main function was to sweep the reader up with easy slogans and an unironic sense that conformity to the anti-standard is more noble than conformity to the standard. _Rags_ is the antithesis of that type of easy analysis and comes across as one of the strongest Doctor Who books ever because of it. This is an ugly book. There are many extremely uncomfortable moments in the narrative, stemming from both depictions of violence to some wholly unsettling imagery. The magnitude of the threat and the way it seems to effortless sideline the Doctor, Jo, and the Brigadier will give you chills. There are passages where you will have to stop reading and close your eyes against the creeping horror that lurks throughout the book. The heart of the story is raw, brutal anarchy wrapped in every evil foible of the human psyche, and when the final resolution comes you will feel relief but you may not be reassured. Some will argue that the Doctor doesn't have an active enough role in this novel. Personally, I think the Doctor's role was exactly right. I don't think any Doctor whould have a center-stage role in a story like this, but more importantly the final resolution is completely incumbent upon the Doctor's presence. I shudder to think what would have happened had the Doctor not been there at the end. If you like horror novels, you have absolutely no excuse for not reading this book. It's fantastic.
Rating: 
Summary: Not my cup of tea
Review: This is a very difficult review to write. I can see that the book is well written. The idea of an alien feeding on the social rage inside a society is actually rather interesting. The Doctor, while not really doing a lot in the book, is instrumental in the resolution, so there isn't even that complaint to make against it. This book just was not enjoyable to me, and it wasn't interesting enough to overcome that. It's Dr. Who meets Punk Rock on acid. It's a very violent book, and it doesn't pull any punches in the description of said violence. It's almost over the top in that aspect. It certainly didn't offend me, but it did become a bit old-hat and stopped affecting me. I remember in a review of Showgirls, Roger Ebert (or maybe it was Siskel) said that there were so many naked breasts in it that, after a time, you stopped even noticing them. It was much the same way with the violence in this novel. Page after page is filled with it. It gets the point across, but it was just a little too much for me. The Doctor is characterized pretty well, but I had a little problem with Jo. She seemed even more secondary than usual, existing only to be taken over by the entity. She didn't really add much to the plot. I know that happens often in televised Who, but it shouldn't in the books. The book *is* well-written, though. It is certainly a horror novel, and if you're into that sort of thing, you will probably like it. Personally, I didn't like it and found it a real struggle to get through. But I can see the book underneath, and thus have to give it 3 stars. For me, personally, it's a 1 or 2 star book. If you really like horror, or you really like reading about rage and violence, it could easily be a 5 star book. So let's settle for 3.
Rating:
Summary: Not my cup of tea
Review: This is a very difficult review to write. I can see that the book is well written. The idea of an alien feeding on the social rage inside a society is actually rather interesting. The Doctor, while not really doing a lot in the book, is instrumental in the resolution, so there isn't even that complaint to make against it. This book just was not enjoyable to me, and it wasn't interesting enough to overcome that. It's Dr. Who meets Punk Rock on acid. It's a very violent book, and it doesn't pull any punches in the description of said violence. It's almost over the top in that aspect. It certainly didn't offend me, but it did become a bit old-hat and stopped affecting me. I remember in a review of Showgirls, Roger Ebert (or maybe it was Siskel) said that there were so many naked breasts in it that, after a time, you stopped even noticing them. It was much the same way with the violence in this novel. Page after page is filled with it. It gets the point across, but it was just a little too much for me. The Doctor is characterized pretty well, but I had a little problem with Jo. She seemed even more secondary than usual, existing only to be taken over by the entity. She didn't really add much to the plot. I know that happens often in televised Who, but it shouldn't in the books. The book *is* well-written, though. It is certainly a horror novel, and if you're into that sort of thing, you will probably like it. Personally, I didn't like it and found it a real struggle to get through. But I can see the book underneath, and thus have to give it 3 stars. For me, personally, it's a 1 or 2 star book. If you really like horror, or you really like reading about rage and violence, it could easily be a 5 star book. So let's settle for 3.
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