Autumn Mist (Dr. Who Series)

Rating:
Summary: Bad execution
Review: AUTUMN MIST is a bit of a mess with an overly simple storyline being let down by some truly atrocious prose. Any attempt to wrap the reader in its narrative, ends jarringly when one comes across a sentence or fragment that would make the English students in the readership cringe.

The story itself isn't all that bad. There is nothing really the matter with it, but there is also nothing much positive to say about it either. Some books with a weak storyline can turn this perceived limitation into a strength by adding character conflict, angst or introspection (with varying degrees of success). Here the lack of plot is made up for with long war scenes that pay more attention to the tanks and equipment than it does to the people that are operating them. This contributes to the uncaring feel that the book has, as though nothing that one is reading matters in any tangible way. By the time one reaches the end, one does not really notice that the conclusion has been rushed through. Although this sort of sloppy writing at the finale is a problem that plagues many an EDA, it seems strangely appropriate here.

The prose and the sentence structure are really where this novel collapses. Strange sentence fragments joined together by random punctuation marks become distracting at times and very detrimental to the reading experience. This is a book that would have been enormously helped by an extra stage of proofreading and/or editing. It's a shame that this did not occur.

The characterization of the regulars was, for much of the time, fairly acceptable. However, there were a few points where the Eighth Doctor seemed more like the Seventh Doctor than we've ever seen him before. Fitz seemed to waver a lot between two extremes: one of total cowardice and the other of tremendous heroics. This seemed almost like a caricature at times, though it did work well in some places. Sam is much less annoying than she usually is (which is a pleasant surprise) though her decision at the very end seems to come from absolutely nowhere.

In the end, reading this failed to generate any excitement in me whatsoever. Events happened and some people were killed, but I couldn't make myself care about any of this. The "third side" referred to on the back cover tries to dance between magical and hard, scientific technobabble, and ultimately fails at being either. Not recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Bad execution
Review: AUTUMN MIST is a bit of a mess with an overly simple storyline being let down by some truly atrocious prose. Any attempt to wrap the reader in its narrative, ends jarringly when one comes across a sentence or fragment that would make the English students in the readership cringe.

The story itself isn't all that bad. There is nothing really the matter with it, but there is also nothing much positive to say about it either. Some books with a weak storyline can turn this perceived limitation into a strength by adding character conflict, angst or introspection (with varying degrees of success). Here the lack of plot is made up for with long war scenes that pay more attention to the tanks and equipment than it does to the people that are operating them. This contributes to the uncaring feel that the book has, as though nothing that one is reading matters in any tangible way. By the time one reaches the end, one does not really notice that the conclusion has been rushed through. Although this sort of sloppy writing at the finale is a problem that plagues many an EDA, it seems strangely appropriate here.

The prose and the sentence structure are really where this novel collapses. Strange sentence fragments joined together by random punctuation marks become distracting at times and very detrimental to the reading experience. This is a book that would have been enormously helped by an extra stage of proofreading and/or editing. It's a shame that this did not occur.

The characterization of the regulars was, for much of the time, fairly acceptable. However, there were a few points where the Eighth Doctor seemed more like the Seventh Doctor than we've ever seen him before. Fitz seemed to waver a lot between two extremes: one of total cowardice and the other of tremendous heroics. This seemed almost like a caricature at times, though it did work well in some places. Sam is much less annoying than she usually is (which is a pleasant surprise) though her decision at the very end seems to come from absolutely nowhere.

In the end, reading this failed to generate any excitement in me whatsoever. Events happened and some people were killed, but I couldn't make myself care about any of this. The "third side" referred to on the back cover tries to dance between magical and hard, scientific technobabble, and ultimately fails at being either. Not recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Review of Autumn Mist
Review: Autumn Mist is another novel chronicling the adventures of the Doctor and his two companions; Sam Jones and Fitz Kreiner. The novel is set during WWII around a battlefield. A mysterious force is abducting wounded soldiers from both sides and soon the Doctor discovers that the force at work is not human nor related to either the Americans or the Germans. McIntee utilizes Fitz slightly better than Blum and Orman did in Unnatural History. Fitz's sense of humor and clumsiness come out a lot in this novel. Sam is used in a different way but one the reader will find a refreshing change of pace. McIntee also used great imagery and backs it up with historical fact. McIntee seems to capture the carnage and brutality that this war was really producing. Bearclaw, Garcia, and the Sidhe were very interesting characters and can keep the reader's attention. However, McIntee fails to tie up the plots and subplots in one unifying storyline. There are so many plots and subplots that it is the equivalent of a writer's mental hurricane. McIntee can't seem to decide which plot will dominate the novel. While McIntee utilizes great imagery he does become redundant and that overshadows the great dialogue between the Doctor, Fitz, and the soldiers. Autumn Mist could have utilized more dialogue and less narration.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting storyline that never really pans out.
Review: I'll keep this short. I like all of David A. McIntee other Dr. Who books, but this was just plain boring. Part of the problem is that the preceding book in the series, Unnatural History, was fabulous. The "surprise ending" came out of nowhere with no real reason why. It's one of those books that you "must" buy but wish you hadn't. Sorry, David.

Rating:
Summary: A good book but only for part of it.
Review: Let's just be straight forward. This book was confusing through the first half and was just not good. Through out the second half it got a little better and seemed to be not that bad. The real shocker though was the ending. I mean, if you don't know what is going to happen in the series it's a shocker, but otherwise it still was a little surprising.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting storyline that never really pans out.
Review: This story could have been excellent, but fell into the category of mediocore. The plot is never truly developed and the characters are but a scetch of the true people in the story. Definitely not my favorite, but I still enjoyed reading it.