Reviews

Doctor Who: Genocide by Paul Leonard

Only show reviews with written explanations

cecesloth's review

4.0

The beautiful explorations of Paratractis and Tractite culture and the gripping moral quandary for 8 and Sam are let down only by the presence of Jo Grant who feels like a generic extra and doesn't get a proper resolution. Sam is characterised so well here!

decembera's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This is a hell of a book, and easily my favorite of the series so far. Eight and Sam absolutely shine in all of their flawed, upsetting realness.

nenya_kanadka's review

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2.0

I enjoyed the aliens and the alternate history, but I'm giving it two stars for its treatment of Jo Grant. I vastly prefer the Sarah Jane Adventures version of Jo, where she continues to travel and becomes involved in a dozen good causes all over the globe, to the Jo here who is sad and wrung out and angry at the Doctor for leaving. Although I did love her still having a direct line to UNIT! Liked the scenes with unearthing the TARDIS from its burial millions of years ago, too.

qualiareedauthor's review

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4.0

This Doctor Who story goes a bit beyond who, to become some great Sci-Fi

hidekisohma's review

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2.0

After reading a doctor who novel about the first doctor i wanted to try out the eighth doctor and see his adventures since i obviously can't watch a season about him. This was also the earliest eighth doctor book i could find. Was it good?.... eh.

The big draw of this book seemed to be that Jo (from the 3rd doctor's era) was in it. But honestly, this adventure didn't really need to have her specifically in it. She didn't meet the doctor until about 170 pages into the book and when she did meet up with him again, their reunion was kinda muted and not very exciting.

Long story short, horse people went back in time to kill humans when they're cavemen so they can't kill them later. but it's causing the universe to mess up and will implode if the doctor doesn't fix it. it sounds more interesting than it actually is.

There's 3-4 viewpoints in the book. 1 of them was pointless, Sam's was boring, Jo's could have been anybody, and the doctor didn't do nearly as much as he should have.

One of the biggest issues i had with the story of the side character in the wheelchair. they make a big deal of her being in this wheelchair and give her a backstory about how it happened and a bunch of other stuff. They lead you to believe this is going to be a big deal but they kind of just forget about it and kill her off. It just left me scratching my head going...what was the point of even bringing her or her friend along in this adventure? They didn't do anything other than getting bitten by wolves and die.

I understand what this book was trying to do. the whole "should we sacrifice another world to save ours?" moral dilemma. the problem is, there WAS no moral dilemma because it was a moot point. the universe would explode if they didn't revert it back.

The doctor was fine, and i could definitely feel the kind characterization from him, but Sam was a bit annoying with her constant terrible decision making to the point where i found myself sighing several times. I definitely want to read more 8th doctor books as i DO like him and his mannerisms, i just feel like the plot and the writing wasn't really interesting enough to really make him shine.

2.5/5 rounded down to a 2.

rebelbelle13's review

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2.0

This was fine, but it really wasn't great. After coming off of the high that was Bodysnatchers (the previous book in this series), Genocide is a real let-down. It's convoluted and confusing for no good reason, involves side characters just to swiftly kill them, and felt the need to pull in Jo Grant, her only purpose to ensure that Sam survived the adventure. This entire book is a 'what-if' scenario; what if another species populated and evolved on Earth instead of humans. It's an unstable future, one which the Doctor has to rectify before the whole universe implodes. The Doctor doesn't play much of a part in this installment at all. He feels vulnerable and not in control of the situation in the least, and things are happening to him instead of him actively attempting to rectify the problem. His companions do much more than he does, and that doesn't sit right with me. The only good this novel services is showing Sam's evolution as a companion. Vampire Science showed her wrestling with her feelings about the Doctor, Bodysnatchers showed her how to run and think and survive as a companion, and this installment taught Sam that she can't always fix everything or keep her hands clean. Other than that, it's not that great of a Doctor Who story. Here's hoping the next is better.