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Rating: 
Summary: What a trip! Psychodelic Who...
Review: Another well done Eighth Doctor novel that, for me really captured the spirit of the 60's and the Revolution. This story works well in ways that multiple-companion stories didn't work on the TV: both Sam and Fitz go off on there on and half experiences separate from the Doctor that are both fascinating and advance the plot in move exciting ways than if they were just standing around asking: What's that Doctor? Well written and interesting to the last page. A+
Rating: 
Summary: One of the best eighth Doctor novels yet
Review: At last, someone has written a Doctor Who novel set in the sixties that actually feels like it was set in the sixties! Revolution Man uses the time period as an integral part of the story, rather than just a quaint setting. Full of colorful, globe-trotting locales, intricate plot twists, and exciting characters, Revolution Man may be Paul Leonard's best Doctor Who novel yet. And the emotional hoops he puts the regular characters through are unpredictable and demand to be followed up on in later books.
Rating: 
Summary: Revolution Man
Review: Dr Who meets psychedelia, courtesy of a mind-expanding drug of the 60s that we didn't know about; it's called Om-Tsor (ie. "Ommmmmmmm...", assume the lotus position first, please, and feel happy). But this wonder drug is actually flower petals from another planet, and once the Doctor realizes it has surfaced on Earth in turbulent 1967-69, he knows it could well end up in the wrong hands. In fact, a readout on the TARDIS designates the exact date the world will end, thanks to abuse, by the so-called Revolution Man, of Om-Tsor.The best part: Fitz's sojourn to a lamasery in Nepal, along with Maddie, whom he's considering abandoning the Doctor for. In a sticky situation involving a squad of Chinese soldiers, Fitz must ingest some Om-Tsor and become rather godlike just to stay alive. His transformation to giant-size, along with his cloudhopping and titanic aerial skirmish with a similarly transformed madman, reminded me very much of Monkey King from the great tale called The Journey To The West. Fitz as cloudhopping Monkey King was cool. The whole Tibetan connection was cool. But, alas, this story gets bogged down in repeated sequences of the Doctor scurrying into his TARDIS after being summoned by one of his companions to come save the day. This seemed very odd, and only seemed to highlight the notion that the Doctor never really has a plan in this episode. I mean, Fitz as Monkey King, Doctor as Chicken with his head cut off, basically being yanked about by his companions (hardly what usually occurs!). Also, the plot frequently stops to emphasize how much of an out-of-place time-newbie Fitz is at this stage, and this is further played up by the Doctor and Sam practically speaking in code, and refering to oft-used strategies, which suggests they have boiled their adventures down to some kind of routine that can be carried out without much passion--all of which makes things seem kind of dull and automatic. Then we have the shocking ending, which clears up why there's a picture of a big gun on the cover. Violence as quick solution is not usually where it's at, man, in a Doctor Who adventure, can you grok it. But the tension caused by the violent choices made by Fitz and the Doctor does at least create much guilt, anger, and frustration between the three time-travelers, once the denouement comes round. Not a particularly memorable adventure, with some strange warts that don't usually pop up in this series. Hopefully, The Turing Test, by the same author, will be better.
Rating:
Summary: Somewhat distasteful ending
Review: I liked this book most of the way through it. I enjoyed the setting of the turbulent 60s. I enjoyed the character development throughout the book. Fitz seemed to gain a lot more of a personality in this book, but he still seems as if he doesn't fit in, somehow. He seems to disbelieve in the Doctor one moment, and then try to totally emulate him in the next.
The Doctor and Sam, and to some degree Fitz, spent so much time searching for someone when it was fairly obvious who their real target was. Even when it seemed he couldn't be a suspect anymore. I felt the author had tried to introduce a mystery, but didn't give us enough suspects that there was any work in figuring it out. This made the Doctor seem unusually dense when he didn't figure it out. This in itself did not slow the story down.
But what really left a bad taste in my mouth was the ending. Without spoiling it, I should say that it just seemed so totally uncharacteristic of either the Doctor or Fitz. A disappointing end to an otherwise decent novel.
Rating: 
Summary: A jumbled, uneven period piece.
Review: See the Doctor save the world by dropping some drugs. See Sam wander aimlessly till she's rescued agian and again. See Psyhic giants battle for the planet earth. Go see a good movie instead. (At least Fritz had an interesting story line.)
Rating:
Summary: The potential was there
Review: The cover of REVOLUTION MAN is gorgeous, simply marvelous. It's almost worth picking up the book just for the cover-art; digital reproduction just doesn't do justice to the colours. Fortunately, the book itself is also worth owning for the stuff printed on the inside, despite a number of near-fatal flaws that detract from the main feature. The regulars are handled adequately here, with special credit going to Paul Leonard's treatment of Sam. When I read that Sam Jones was going to be spending time hanging out with sixties radicals I experienced a sick feeling in my stomach. A lesser author might have brought the worst of Sam's qualities to the foreground, having her deliver an infinite number of speeches on how backwards and out-of-touch that decade was from her oh-so-enlightened point of view. However, Leonard manages to give us an insight into Sam's thought processes without allowing them to come across as overbearing and arrogant. He did go a little overboard in describing her reaction to the sexism inherent to the sixties, but then anything less would be out of character. Fitz on the other hand seems much weaker than in previous stories. Granted, he hasn't been shown as the most aggressive of companions, but he manages to go from completely normal to utterly brainwashed by a totalitarian government back to being (almost) himself again within forty pages. Within the structure of the book, the brainwashing procedure lasts for about a year (none of which we witness) and appears to be totally successful, yet it takes much less than a day for it to all work out of his system. This could have been handled in a much more interesting way, yet the rushed ending (which I shall discuss in a moment) to the book and to this section are very frustrating. We don't experience any of the reaction to his entire world-view being shattered twice within a relatively short amount of time. It just seems like a quick plot device that should have been either further developed or just dropped completely. Plot-wise this book is a real page-turner for its initial two-thirds. There's a powerful drug that is being used by different military and civilian factions, most attempting to harness its energy for their own irresponsible deeds. The Doctor must attempt to defuse the situation and restore the status quo. Unfortunately this book suffers from the lack of a proper resolution to several fundamental plot-threats. By the end we haven't been told where the mysterious drugs have come from, or what damage has been done to the time-line. It is implied that these events have only been set in motion because of some outside, unseen, time-sensitive force, but apart from the mention at the beginning, these are completely ignored. These may be addressed in future "arc" books, but as I have been avoiding spoilers, I have no way of knowing. It certainly doesn't excuse the lack of acknowledgement of these problems within the narrative of this particular story though. This is a shame, because as I noted, the opening and middle sections of this book are fabulous. The very ending of the book has been surrounded in controversy and I'll attempt to discuss this without the need for any spoiler warnings. In short, the Doctor is quickly forced to do something that seems quite shocking. While it may be bordering on being out of character for the Doctor to do this, I think that the situation he had been placed into required his acting in the manner in which he did. I do not think this would be a big problem if only the book had not ended so abruptly just after this point. Leonard seemed to be deliberately manipulating the situation so that the Doctor is forced to act in the way that he does. In fact, several events occur purely to bring him to that point. And I have to say that the situation that the Doctor is placed into is an interesting one, worthy of more attention. It appears as though Leonard deliberately put the Doctor into the situation that he wanted to, which forced him to act in a certain way, but then forgot to put in the big payoff at the end. As it stands now, the narrative seems incomplete, as if it is relying on the following book to clean up the mess that's been left behind. We only get a few sentences from the Doctor saying he's upset and a few passages from Sam relaying the same information to Fitz. What we don't see is how this has affected the crew. While this may or may not lead to great and wonderful writing in the next part of the series, it does detract from the enjoyment that one takes out of this particular volume. An extra thirty pages at the end that dealt with the reaction would have done a lot to put these concerns to rest. All in all, if more care had been taken to the conclusion of this story, I would probably have a higher opinion of it. It certainly is not a poor book and I quite enjoyed reading it, but the flaws that I have pointed out negatively affected my enjoyment of the novel.
Rating:
Summary: The potential was there
Review: The cover of REVOLUTION MAN is gorgeous, simply marvelous. It's almost worth picking up the book just for the cover-art; digital reproduction just doesn't do justice to the colours. Fortunately, the book itself is also worth owning for the stuff printed on the inside, despite a number of near-fatal flaws that detract from the main feature. The regulars are handled adequately here, with special credit going to Paul Leonard's treatment of Sam. When I read that Sam Jones was going to be spending time hanging out with sixties radicals I experienced a sick feeling in my stomach. A lesser author might have brought the worst of Sam's qualities to the foreground, having her deliver an infinite number of speeches on how backwards and out-of-touch that decade was from her oh-so-enlightened point of view. However, Leonard manages to give us an insight into Sam's thought processes without allowing them to come across as overbearing and arrogant. He did go a little overboard in describing her reaction to the sexism inherent to the sixties, but then anything less would be out of character. Fitz on the other hand seems much weaker than in previous stories. Granted, he hasn't been shown as the most aggressive of companions, but he manages to go from completely normal to utterly brainwashed by a totalitarian government back to being (almost) himself again within forty pages. Within the structure of the book, the brainwashing procedure lasts for about a year (none of which we witness) and appears to be totally successful, yet it takes much less than a day for it to all work out of his system. This could have been handled in a much more interesting way, yet the rushed ending (which I shall discuss in a moment) to the book and to this section are very frustrating. We don't experience any of the reaction to his entire world-view being shattered twice within a relatively short amount of time. It just seems like a quick plot device that should have been either further developed or just dropped completely. Plot-wise this book is a real page-turner for its initial two-thirds. There's a powerful drug that is being used by different military and civilian factions, most attempting to harness its energy for their own irresponsible deeds. The Doctor must attempt to defuse the situation and restore the status quo. Unfortunately this book suffers from the lack of a proper resolution to several fundamental plot-threats. By the end we haven't been told where the mysterious drugs have come from, or what damage has been done to the time-line. It is implied that these events have only been set in motion because of some outside, unseen, time-sensitive force, but apart from the mention at the beginning, these are completely ignored. These may be addressed in future "arc" books, but as I have been avoiding spoilers, I have no way of knowing. It certainly doesn't excuse the lack of acknowledgement of these problems within the narrative of this particular story though. This is a shame, because as I noted, the opening and middle sections of this book are fabulous. The very ending of the book has been surrounded in controversy and I'll attempt to discuss this without the need for any spoiler warnings. In short, the Doctor is quickly forced to do something that seems quite shocking. While it may be bordering on being out of character for the Doctor to do this, I think that the situation he had been placed into required his acting in the manner in which he did. I do not think this would be a big problem if only the book had not ended so abruptly just after this point. Leonard seemed to be deliberately manipulating the situation so that the Doctor is forced to act in the way that he does. In fact, several events occur purely to bring him to that point. And I have to say that the situation that the Doctor is placed into is an interesting one, worthy of more attention. It appears as though Leonard deliberately put the Doctor into the situation that he wanted to, which forced him to act in a certain way, but then forgot to put in the big payoff at the end. As it stands now, the narrative seems incomplete, as if it is relying on the following book to clean up the mess that's been left behind. We only get a few sentences from the Doctor saying he's upset and a few passages from Sam relaying the same information to Fitz. What we don't see is how this has affected the crew. While this may or may not lead to great and wonderful writing in the next part of the series, it does detract from the enjoyment that one takes out of this particular volume. An extra thirty pages at the end that dealt with the reaction would have done a lot to put these concerns to rest. All in all, if more care had been taken to the conclusion of this story, I would probably have a higher opinion of it. It certainly is not a poor book and I quite enjoyed reading it, but the flaws that I have pointed out negatively affected my enjoyment of the novel.
Rating: 
Summary: Hardly revolutionary
Review: This novel is spread out over three years in the late '60s. The Doctor's foe is this novel is the 'Revolution man', an international graffiti artist (whose most threatening act is to leave his mark in public places). He is enabled to do this by abusing Om-Tsor, a drug with the capability of really distorting reality. Paul Leonard does some nice philosophising about the TARDIS' telepathic circuit, but then everyone in this book seems to be a philosopher. While this may be true of the age, it actually makes for a truly dull book. Paul Leonard should have called it 'Doctor Who in an exciting adventure with the Dialectics!', since he uses the latter word a little bit too often. Now, I'm all for using high theory in contemporary fiction, as long as it's done in an entertaining way. Paul Leonard could learn a lot from Lawrence Miles here. The characterisation is also flat and colourless. New companion Fitz goes through the Himalayas and back, but it's hard to feel anything for him. Uncle Sam is shown to be absurdly trigger happy. The resolution is quite silly, never mind the new excuse for a guilt trip. All in all, 'Revolution Man' is competently written, but lacks both excitement and stimulation.
Rating:
Summary: The 60's and The Doctor collide head-on!
Review: This story is not your parents Dr. Who, but it's still is very good. This story creates some very interesting scenarios that our "friends" have never experienced. It was so unusual that I couldn't put it down.
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