Demontage (Doctor Who Series)

Rating:
Summary: Monster Oil Paintings? Oh, brother...
Review: Although I feel that this was a well-written book, I must say I was disappointed with the horrendous monsters featured in it. I mean, monsters made from oil paint? Come on!! The idea is just plain rediculous; it may have worked if the author found a plausible way of explaining them, but he failed horribly. This was one of three 8th Doctor books I bought, and after reading the others, I find myself extremely disappointed. The Doctor, throughout his entire history, has been a brilliant excentric. This new Doctor is, well, too normal for my tastes. He doesn't have the bizarre quality of past Doctors which made those personas truly wonderful to watch and read about.

Rating:
Summary: Not bad, but dull
Review: I can't point to any part of DEMONTAGE and declare that this is the moment in which the author made the massive mistake that tainted the book. Neither can I reveal any portion of the story that is unbelievably wonderful and demands that this be named the greatest Doctor Who story of all time. The book ends up being somewhere in the banal center of these two extremes, being more boring than breathtaking.

On the plus side, the addition of Fitz to the TARDIS crew is definitely paying off. Even the Doctor seems to be reacting well to the change in lineup, verbally bouncing off of and teasing Fitz in a way that simply wouldn't work with Sam. And the added bonus is that with two companions, there is less space that can be devoted to Sam. This can only be a good thing.

The high number of secondary characters in the book means that there is a certain diluting effect -- most of them have hardly any depth at all. Instead of two or three characters getting the lion's share of the action, the roles are spread uniformly thin. So rather than getting a small number of well-developed characters, we get a large number of people who have names, short character descriptions and very little else. I kept trying to keep the two antique dealers separated in my mind until about half way through when I just gave up. I'm not sure if the attempt was to make a Robert Holmes type double-team of humourous villains, but the result was to end up with the same character given two names. The same also goes for the art exhibition curator and her financial partner; two characters who for all intents and purposes could have been filled by the role of one.

The plot is undemanding and the comparisons to THE NIGHTMARE OF EDEN are all quite valid and don't need to be repeated here. There are some portions here and there where one can feel the story creeping up to the side of intrigue and interest, but right at the last moment it turns back to the banality. The revelation about how the creatures are manifesting themselves would be icing on the cake of a more engrossing story, but without anything else supporting it, it just seems to fall flat. The details concerning this revelation are also a bit confused towards the end and I don't believe that the connection between the creatures and their manifestation was explained coherently.

In any case, this isn't a terribly bad story and neither is it especially good. There are a few highlights but overall it's fairly forgettable.

Rating:
Summary: Not bad, but dull
Review: I can't point to any part of DEMONTAGE and declare that this is the moment in which the author made the massive mistake that tainted the book. Neither can I reveal any portion of the story that is unbelievably wonderful and demands that this be named the greatest Doctor Who story of all time. The book ends up being somewhere in the banal center of these two extremes, being more boring than breathtaking.

On the plus side, the addition of Fitz to the TARDIS crew is definitely paying off. Even the Doctor seems to be reacting well to the change in lineup, verbally bouncing off of and teasing Fitz in a way that simply wouldn't work with Sam. And the added bonus is that with two companions, there is less space that can be devoted to Sam. This can only be a good thing.

The high number of secondary characters in the book means that there is a certain diluting effect -- most of them have hardly any depth at all. Instead of two or three characters getting the lion's share of the action, the roles are spread uniformly thin. So rather than getting a small number of well-developed characters, we get a large number of people who have names, short character descriptions and very little else. I kept trying to keep the two antique dealers separated in my mind until about half way through when I just gave up. I'm not sure if the attempt was to make a Robert Holmes type double-team of humourous villains, but the result was to end up with the same character given two names. The same also goes for the art exhibition curator and her financial partner; two characters who for all intents and purposes could have been filled by the role of one.

The plot is undemanding and the comparisons to THE NIGHTMARE OF EDEN are all quite valid and don't need to be repeated here. There are some portions here and there where one can feel the story creeping up to the side of intrigue and interest, but right at the last moment it turns back to the banality. The revelation about how the creatures are manifesting themselves would be icing on the cake of a more engrossing story, but without anything else supporting it, it just seems to fall flat. The details concerning this revelation are also a bit confused towards the end and I don't believe that the connection between the creatures and their manifestation was explained coherently.

In any case, this isn't a terribly bad story and neither is it especially good. There are a few highlights but overall it's fairly forgettable.

Rating:
Summary: Monster Oil Paintings? Oh, brother...
Review: I hate to be the voice of doom here, but this could have been better. Not that there's anything wrong as such -- the story is snappy, the characters are well done -- and, unlike the last Eighth Doctor novel I reviewed, the Doctor is actually a prominent character in this one. My only fault is that the first eighty pages could have been tightened up more, moving some of the background material into a later point in the book. The run-up just takes too long. Other than that, largely unimpeachable.

Rating:
Summary: Good, but unneccesarily loose
Review: I hate to be the voice of doom here, but this could have been better. Not that there's anything wrong as such -- the story is snappy, the characters are well done -- and, unlike the last Eighth Doctor novel I reviewed, the Doctor is actually a prominent character in this one. My only fault is that the first eighty pages could have been tightened up more, moving some of the background material into a later point in the book. The run-up just takes too long. Other than that, largely unimpeachable.

Rating:
Summary: a fun read the story is fun!!
Review: The Docotor and his companions go to the casino world of Vega. Fritz is mistaked for a hitman by a spy . Sam is in trouble too. To make things worse there there the opera and a very strange art exhibit. Eventully the Doctor solves evenyones problems. The book starts out a little slow,then gradually the pace picks up . A great first adventure for Fitz outside of his own time!!A fun book for any whovian or a sci-fi reader!!!

Rating:
Summary: Wow. A great book!
Review: The name say it all is it

De-Montage or Demon-tage

A very clever book. Well written with lots of suprises.

All of the characters shine thru.

Thank you Justin Richards

Rating:
Summary: The Whole Mystery
Review: The Vega Station. The 8th Doctor and his 2 companions are in a promped problem. There is a hitman on the loose,meaning a artist who condemmended his own murder! Sam is in trouble. She's been involved with the key witness to a murder,and the witness has vanished completely. She's in her element. Fitz is in trouble. He's been hired by BigDog Carouso.Hired as assisant to a assaination,he is in his element. The Doctor is in trouble. He is the one to sort out Sam and Fitz's problems and the president's saftey. The Doctor is in his element.

Rating:
Summary: Demontage
Review: The war between the Battrulians and the Canvine may be on hiatus--but in the buffer zone, out in space between the two, things are just heating up on Vega Station. Fortunately, the Doctor and friends are slumming on board the station, the TARDIS safely tucked in the Doctor's hotelroom (thankfully...I mean, for once it doesn't get misplaced, held for ransom, coveted by enemies, or sunk at the bottom of a toxic alien sea; let the TARDIS rest this time), with Fitz and the Time Lord placing a friendly wager on who is the better gambler. (Note to Fitz: challenging the Doctor to anything, doesn't matter what, is likely a bad idea).

The antics that crop up on Vega Station turn out to be half-amusing, half-lethal. Fitz accidently gets employed as an assassin, the real assassin takes umbrage, the lupine Canvine, seemingly rather un-neutral all of a sudden, are the prime suspects when it comes to all the sabotage, vandalism, and murder that starts sprouting everywhere. Does it all have more to do with the upcoming visit by the President of Battrul, or the fancy-shmansy art exhibit of paintings by murdered artist Toulour Martinique? Should the Battrulian President, for that matter, fear the Canvine presence on the Station, or, because of her controversial rise to power after pushing aside military power-players, should she be worried about glad-handing traitors in her own camp? Should art-dealers Forster and Rappare be suspected of some kind of complicated art-forgery dupe, when they offer a "longlost" Martinique canvas to the late painter's representatives, or is the art exhibit itself some kind of front for planned mayhem against the Battrulian?

And what's all this about creatures coming to life and stepping out of Toulour Martinque's nightmarish paintings?

I think most of this works, with plenty of emphasis on the Doctor, but there are nits to pick. Two interesting characters, Vermilion and Solarin the assassin, get built up nicely, but end up getting short-shrift at two separate times. And Solarin does threaten to become too much like the Batman villain, Two-Face, with his reliance on complete chance in the form of dice-rolling to make critical decisions. I like his glass gun, though. Meanwhile, there are a lot of characters to follow, one of them sort of foppish, but rather unsurprisingly turning out to be more than he seems, and there is a revelation about Vega Station's real purpose that doesn't really carry a lot of impact (like, DUH!).

But I did like the fact that this book plays on themes already dealt with in Justin Richards's earlier Who book, Theatre of War. In this story and that one, we have the idea of the "unreal", as realized in an art-form, stepping either off the theatrical stage, or possibly out of a painting, and wreaking havoc on "reality". In a way, this is a bizarre alteration of the old Terminator-esque/AI-created-by-us-then-turns-on-us idea...because art-forms, like machines, are created by us, and dark art, like the horrors of Hamlet, or the nightmares in a Fuselli painting, represent the deep frights hiding in the shadows of our minds. Justin Richards has fun, and some success, unleashing them on the Doctor.