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scampr's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
When it comes to the 4th Doctor's tenure, historical stories are a bit of a rarity. As such, the audios, novels and other expanded media have been a great means of exploring that genre some more - and in this instance, the location of Easter Island (Rapa Nui) adds an extra level of intrigue.
Considerable chunks of the story take place in England, and at sea on the journey to said destination, making for a sustainable balance in setting that is more interesting than if the majority focused on Rapa Nui. The driving force of the journey to the island and mystery at play comes from the Doctor and Leela's new acquaintance, Stockwood, an archaeologist plagued with regrets.
This alone would make for a serviceable historical adventure, but I was glad to find this novel was more unique than that - specifically due to the writer's choices of perspective and structure.
The entire book is written in first person, and predominantly Leela's POV. This was a nice choice in my opinion, as Leela is such a distinguished character, which lends a lot of style to the prose written in her viewpoint. It also allows for a greater level of character introspection, which is something I'll always welcome.
This story takes place between season 14 and season 15, meaning Leela is still quite early in her journey of learning and self discovery since leaving her tribe and befriending the Doctor. We explore her past and how she's evolving quite directly with several references and memories regarding The Face of Evil, the Sevateem, and her childhood.
There are of course a handful of chapters/instances where we follow the Doctor, Stockwood, and one or two other characters' perspectives, which makes sense as Leela can't be present for every important scene (but also shakes things up from having the same voice throughout).
The other major way Eye of Heaven stands out is out of sequence structure it implements. Flashbacks and non-chronological storytelling are far from ground-breaking, but this novel really commits to its mismatched order to construct a deeper, unwinding mystery and complexity to the plot.
The combination of chapters jumping back and forth between events at different stages in the journey with the use of numerous first person perspectives is ultimately quite the engaging hook. It means we sometimes get explanations, backstory and introductions after the thing in question has first appeared/occurred.
While this goes a little too far and gets confusing in a couple of instances, the vast majority of this structural decision really works, clicking together like puzzle pieces to reveal the bigger picture.
Beyond that, everything else is executed satisfyingly enough. Good moments of action across the different locations, interesting bonds and conflict between characters, a solid mystery with an appropriate payoff and a nice sprinkling of humour. As is often the case, despite being an adventure into the past there are some sci-fi elements to this novel - but they thankfully don't overshadow the historical flavour of the overall story, and remain somewhat vague/mystical.
Considerable chunks of the story take place in England, and at sea on the journey to said destination, making for a sustainable balance in setting that is more interesting than if the majority focused on Rapa Nui. The driving force of the journey to the island and mystery at play comes from the Doctor and Leela's new acquaintance, Stockwood, an archaeologist plagued with regrets.
This alone would make for a serviceable historical adventure, but I was glad to find this novel was more unique than that - specifically due to the writer's choices of perspective and structure.
The entire book is written in first person, and predominantly Leela's POV. This was a nice choice in my opinion, as Leela is such a distinguished character, which lends a lot of style to the prose written in her viewpoint. It also allows for a greater level of character introspection, which is something I'll always welcome.
This story takes place between season 14 and season 15, meaning Leela is still quite early in her journey of learning and self discovery since leaving her tribe and befriending the Doctor. We explore her past and how she's evolving quite directly with several references and memories regarding The Face of Evil, the Sevateem, and her childhood.
There are of course a handful of chapters/instances where we follow the Doctor, Stockwood, and one or two other characters' perspectives, which makes sense as Leela can't be present for every important scene (but also shakes things up from having the same voice throughout).
The other major way Eye of Heaven stands out is out of sequence structure it implements. Flashbacks and non-chronological storytelling are far from ground-breaking, but this novel really commits to its mismatched order to construct a deeper, unwinding mystery and complexity to the plot.
The combination of chapters jumping back and forth between events at different stages in the journey with the use of numerous first person perspectives is ultimately quite the engaging hook. It means we sometimes get explanations, backstory and introductions after the thing in question has first appeared/occurred.
While this goes a little too far and gets confusing in a couple of instances, the vast majority of this structural decision really works, clicking together like puzzle pieces to reveal the bigger picture.
Beyond that, everything else is executed satisfyingly enough. Good moments of action across the different locations, interesting bonds and conflict between characters, a solid mystery with an appropriate payoff and a nice sprinkling of humour. As is often the case, despite being an adventure into the past there are some sci-fi elements to this novel - but they thankfully don't overshadow the historical flavour of the overall story, and remain somewhat vague/mystical.
nwhyte's review against another edition
http://nhw.livejournal.com/1014841.html#cutid7[return][return]Eye of Heaven, by Jim Mortimore, is a tale of Victorian adventure set in the South Pacific, specifically on and around Rapa Nui/Easter Island. The entire book is told in the first person, but by different narrators, Leela getting I guess about half of the chapters and most of the rest going to the English members of their expedition, though two are told from the Doctor's point of view - not hugely successfully, but I've seen worse. Leela's on-screen encounters with the England of bygone days were a delight, and the clash of cultures is equally fun here. The book's narrative structure, interweaving chapters from different sequences of the narrative, is a successful experiment. There are a couple of wobbly plot concepts - the Doctor's decision to sponsor the expedition, Leela's actual arrival on the island, the bit with the, er, aliens - but the ride is great value. It's a bit surprising that this was the very first Fourth Doctor / Leela novel to be published - the Virgin Missing Adventures never went to this time period - and a bit sad that none of the subsequent five is as good.
chicafrom3's review
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
4.0
amygalloway0725's review
2.0
Great characterization, especially for Leela. Unfortunately, I don't know what was going on with the plot because it's told entirely out of sequence with multiple first person POVs and I just couldn't follow it. Statues, aliens, a whale, who knows? I made it to 95% and never found out. Would have quit at 5% but the Leela stuff was sooooo good it got me through.
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