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jegerglad01's review
dark
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Cannibalism, Child death, Colonisation, Death, Addiction, Body horror, Drug use, Gore, Incest, Kidnapping, Torture, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, and War
frakalot's review
2.0
For me this was barely a 2-star and in no real measure was it a Doctor Two story. I give it one star for having words in it and one more star for characterising the Doctor and Jamie pretty well but I'll recommend it only for those completionists who can drag themselves through a mundane story about whoring and killing.
I just read this horrendous thing three times in a row. I don't think I've ever finished a book that I love and immediately started it again but I finished this twice with a sense of not having gotten anything at all from the story and for some foolish reason felt compelled to jump right back in and look for what I was missing. The third time was not the charm and really I still don't know what purpose this story serves.
I did read a few other reviews before getting started with this one and I'm inclined to agree with much of what has been said by both positive and negative reviewers.
This isn't really a Doctor Two story and for me that's the most important feature that a Doctor Two book should have. While I did like some parts of the story, I am reviewing it in whole as a Doctor Two book.
The Doctor and co were occasionally familiar, even if it was hard to grab onto in this setting. Doc had a very familiar attitude to what he was seeing and I thought he was well in character throughout. Jamie was written better than he has been in other books, less antagonistic overall while still maintaining his avid fighting spirit. Unfortunately Vicky got a rough role which wasn't very enjoyable and she was frequently regarded in respect to her upbringing.
I actually didn't think the natives were as flat as other people have mentioned. I can't say I connected with anyone in particular, but they were real people even if we're not familiar with people living an experience like this. I suspected that the author passed either his own obsession or his own naivety into some of the overdone primality.
Maybe there is an important cultural story here. I might have read and enjoyed this story in another setting, but not fitting into the Whoniverse is a pretty big flaw when you're reading Doctor Who.
I just read this horrendous thing three times in a row. I don't think I've ever finished a book that I love and immediately started it again but I finished this twice with a sense of not having gotten anything at all from the story and for some foolish reason felt compelled to jump right back in and look for what I was missing. The third time was not the charm and really I still don't know what purpose this story serves.
I did read a few other reviews before getting started with this one and I'm inclined to agree with much of what has been said by both positive and negative reviewers.
This isn't really a Doctor Two story and for me that's the most important feature that a Doctor Two book should have. While I did like some parts of the story, I am reviewing it in whole as a Doctor Two book.
The Doctor and co were occasionally familiar, even if it was hard to grab onto in this setting. Doc had a very familiar attitude to what he was seeing and I thought he was well in character throughout. Jamie was written better than he has been in other books, less antagonistic overall while still maintaining his avid fighting spirit. Unfortunately Vicky got a rough role which wasn't very enjoyable and she was frequently regarded in respect to her upbringing.
I actually didn't think the natives were as flat as other people have mentioned. I can't say I connected with anyone in particular, but they were real people even if we're not familiar with people living an experience like this. I suspected that the author passed either his own obsession or his own naivety into some of the overdone primality.
Maybe there is an important cultural story here. I might have read and enjoyed this story in another setting, but not fitting into the Whoniverse is a pretty big flaw when you're reading Doctor Who.
nwhyte's review
3.0
http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2016156.html[return][return][return]This is an exceptionally violent Who book, taking the Second Doctor, Jamie and Victoria and dropping them into a vicious colonial conflict which is pretty clearly based on the Indonesian conquest of West Papua. This amount of sex and gore isn't really my thing (and seems wel out of place for a Who novel of the black and white era), but I found it a compelling read none the less - clearly the author is passionate about the setting (one of the more miserably botched decolonisations of the 1960s) and the story is tightly plotted and well told with compelling guest characters. Not yer typical Who novel, and not necessarily in a bad way.
crigby's review
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
1.0
My feelings about this book can best be summed up by @timespace’s post on Tumblr: “instant block for anyone who says they like combat rock.” This book contains gratuitous violence, extreme mistreatment, violence and degradation of sex workers, cannibalism and much more that I have blocked out. It would have been nice to have a bit of warning, but I’m willing to accept some blame for not looking at the cover properly. There’s also a lot of girl-on-girl violence (physical and metaphorical), which really rubs me the wrong way, especially when it’s written by a male author. Combat Rock reads like one of those torture porn horror movies from the early 2000s. I will say, the only thing that makes me feel slightly better about having to give it 1 star is the way it discusses colonisation. It explores, in short bursts, the colonisation of a set of islands and how the different cultures, both the new and the already existing, interact within the new context of a colonised society.
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