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Rating: 
Summary: System Shock
Review: System Shock is very simple in concept, linear in execution, not terribly challenging as Who books go--and the Doctor plants his Time Lord behind in front of a computer for a lot of the book--but nevertheless, it's quite exciting.In 1999, humans are about to lose Earth to the nefarious Voracians--part serpent, part machine, all business--who figure they can steal Earth away by infiltrating and controlling our computers. On disk, they have Voractyll, a digitally-encoded, sentient being of pure reason--or rather, they did have this beastie on disk, until the Doctor gets it handed to him by a man in a pub who's got a few death-dealing snake-people on his heels. Thus is the Doctor forced to pinch hit for humanity in a suddenly-erupting War against the Machines. It all centers on Hubway, an enclosed manor turned fortress where Sarah Jane is held hostage, Harry Sullivan is left on the outside looking in, and the Doctor must avoid getting hunted down and killed while trying to shut down Voractyll before it, or one of its duplicates on disk (mo'Voractylls, mo'problems), takes over the world using our own globe-spanning technology. Subplots are slim and tend to stall: some infighting among the Voracians is not very enthralling, Harry Sullivan's problems with a Voracian spy disguised as a human amount to a fairly predictable unmasking, and Sarah Jane does a lot of sitting around, not realizing she's been bugged (lady, would you throw that thing away, for goodness sakes!). But the Doctor's determination to outwit the Voracians, beat them at their own game with a desperate attempt to make Voractyll rebel against logic, creates a rousing adventure overall. The whole thing is too narrow and simple to be a classic, but I can't say I didn't have fun reading it.
Rating: 
Summary: The Internet welcomes alien invaders
Review: [Not sure what is happening here - like 'Managra', the earlier reviews, including one by me for 'Sorcerer's Apprentice' are not for this book!] Something that Doctor Who is usually bad at is the return of regular characters in such a way as to show the passage of time. With 'System Shock', Justin Richards gives this a go by reintroducing Harry Sullivan some twenty years after his travels in the TARDIS. The Doctor and Sarah arrive on Earth in 1998, where they are drawn into an MI5 investigation of I2, a software company. They meet up with Harry, now an Assistant Chief of Staff of MI5, who assists them in this story of alien takeover via the Internet. I found the returning Harry to be an excellent addition to the story. At the time of his travels with the Doctor, Harry was an often bumbling do-gooder who seemed more capable of getting in people's way than assisting. His time post-UNIT has made him a much more competent character without destroying his essential Harryness. Also pleasing are the different reactions of the Doctor and Sarah to this older Harry. It's normal for the Doctor, but Sarah is shocked. It brings home the reality of time travel to her. The story is pretty stock-standard, not different enough to warrant that close an examination, but it does provide a background on which the interaction of these characters can be watched. 'System Shock' has generated a sequel, 'Millennium Shock' which should please those who enjoy this book.
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