Scan barcode
faiazalam's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This is what the Missing Adventures should be, a series of extremely well plotted and ambitious stories that cover the absolute breadth of what we can imagine, and the imagination on show here is virtually limitless. The only stretch of the imaginiation here is that there should be two representatives of the Catholic Church in Europe in a span of 30 years who happen to look like The First Doctor, both of which are encountered by The Doctor and Steven.
The Doctor, Steven and Vicki are invited to an interstellar peace conference in Venice, at a time when human civilisation is not advanced enough for them to register the precense of numerous alien interlopers. Earth, considered neutral territory, is the perfect place for this conference. Unfortunately, a lot of key things are occuring in the city, resulting in the TARDIS crew bumping into Gallileo, Shakespeare and Marlowe with the three of them caught up in both alien and human conspiracy.
This plot is fast paced, offerring twists and turns at every level but not in a way that makes you feel as though you'd been cheated. The plot is well thought out and follows a strong formula, with teh tension ratcheted up to a thrilling climax.
The Doctor and Steven have plenty to do here, and are very well served, though Vicki could perhaps have been portrayed a little more strongly, she has her own parts of the book, allowing us to see what Vicki is like when given the chance to go ahead on her own steam.
Gallileo, Shakespeare and Marlowe are all entertaining characters, from Galilleo's constant butting of heads with The Doctor to Marlowe's incessant flirting with Steven, the characters are thoroughly engaging and bring a vitality to the book that props the whole adventure up.
The mere joy of seeing these characters interact makes this story so imminently re-readable. Coupled with a first class tale, this is one I'll definitely be revisiting in the near future.
The scope of this story is limitless, not bounded by the constraints of mid 60s television it goes where no story of its era could have gone, and gives us a rich tale to accompany it
The Doctor, Steven and Vicki are invited to an interstellar peace conference in Venice, at a time when human civilisation is not advanced enough for them to register the precense of numerous alien interlopers. Earth, considered neutral territory, is the perfect place for this conference. Unfortunately, a lot of key things are occuring in the city, resulting in the TARDIS crew bumping into Gallileo, Shakespeare and Marlowe with the three of them caught up in both alien and human conspiracy.
This plot is fast paced, offerring twists and turns at every level but not in a way that makes you feel as though you'd been cheated. The plot is well thought out and follows a strong formula, with teh tension ratcheted up to a thrilling climax.
The Doctor and Steven have plenty to do here, and are very well served, though Vicki could perhaps have been portrayed a little more strongly, she has her own parts of the book, allowing us to see what Vicki is like when given the chance to go ahead on her own steam.
Gallileo, Shakespeare and Marlowe are all entertaining characters, from Galilleo's constant butting of heads with The Doctor to Marlowe's incessant flirting with Steven, the characters are thoroughly engaging and bring a vitality to the book that props the whole adventure up.
The mere joy of seeing these characters interact makes this story so imminently re-readable. Coupled with a first class tale, this is one I'll definitely be revisiting in the near future.
The scope of this story is limitless, not bounded by the constraints of mid 60s television it goes where no story of its era could have gone, and gives us a rich tale to accompany it
ali_enza's review against another edition
4.0
DEfinitely an interesting read. I quite enjoyed reading about the first doctor and his adventure in Venice. It was quite complicated with lots of intertwining plot ines. It's in a series so there was some information missing that I needed to better understand the characters.
I'll just have to read more to find out about them :)
I'll just have to read more to find out about them :)
marcyewebb's review against another edition
4.0
Imagine the Big Finish audio adaptation starring Peter Purves, Maureen O’Brien, Miles Richardson, Dean Lennox Kelly, John Woodvine and Dan Starkey. Someone PLEASE make it happen
hidekisohma's review against another edition
3.0
Welp, another foray into world of the first doctor. People can't seem to normally write for this doctor, but by god i'm going to read all of them. and this is my 7th one. Was this author able to write a good story for him? Well I gave it a 3. What do you think?
This story takes the 1st doc, Steven, and Vicki to 1600's Venice where people are getting killed randomly as per usual and there's a floating island. Believe me it sounds far more interesting than it actually is.
As per usual novel fashion, the three of them get split up. They try split the narrative between the three different stories, and i honestly see what they were trying to do, but really, it gets too muddled as they're not only switching between these 3, but also Gallileo, Shakespeare, and Irving Braxiatel (another time lord who's trying to do good). Apparently Irving is a reoccurring character in the Doctor who universe but this is the first time i've come across him myself.
The issue i have with this book is that the general IDEA is good. have a floating city in ancient Venice that has a bunch of aliens having a peace talk. it's a cool idea. but the execution just wasn't very good. This is also one of those books where they kinda stop in the middle to talk about being atheist for a few pages and it just really grinds the book to a halt. Like, if you have those views fine, but it doesn't belong stopping the plot of my floating city crab monster people book.
There's an issue with this book that i want to discuss but i will have to have a bit of a spoiler so
*Spoiler Warning*
Early in the book we see a random lady from the lost Roanoke colony randomly show up back in Europe. Her leg gets crushed but she gets up and runs away. we find out this is because those in roanoake were kidnapped by aliens and implanted with stuff including the ability to regenerate from fatal injuries. We learn that one of the characters Christopher Marlowe was at Roanoake but then ran away. So, it leads to believe that when Marlowe gets fatally wounded later, that magical healing is going to save him. But it doesn't. They literally never bring up the magical healing that they spent a chapter setting up with him. I'm like "then...then why'd you INVENT a magical healing system, tell us that he was in the place where the people GOT the magical healing system, but then just abandoned that and he dies? I was SO confused with this. it's like Andy forgot what he wrote in the first two chapters by the end. It was a REALLY weird forgotten plot element that turned into a red herring and felt like Chekhov's gun just sat there for the whole play and did nothing.
*End Spoiler Warning*
The doctor, by far and large was in character. He was in a fair amount, although i do wish he had been in more. Vicki was fine, although of course she got kidnapped because.....you know it's a female companion in doctor who, and Steven was a bit grumpy, but he kind of was in this early part of the series so that's pretty accurate.
This book already had Galileo so i don't know why all of a sudden it felt like it had to throw Shakespeare at us too. Seemed a tad overkill if you ask me.
This book definitely overstayed its welcome as i found myself starting to zone out by about page 160. they tried to squeeze in WAY too much. But it wasn't too much in a fun way like Paul Magrs, it was more just confusing too much.
When i first picked up this book, i thought it started all right and i really wanted to give it like a 4. then it became a 3.5, and now finally it's a solid 3. I just lost interest after a while.
Still searching for that perfect 1st doctor book, but i gotta say, in terms of that, the future isn't looking the brightest.
So, that said, it's an even 3 out of 5.
This story takes the 1st doc, Steven, and Vicki to 1600's Venice where people are getting killed randomly as per usual and there's a floating island. Believe me it sounds far more interesting than it actually is.
As per usual novel fashion, the three of them get split up. They try split the narrative between the three different stories, and i honestly see what they were trying to do, but really, it gets too muddled as they're not only switching between these 3, but also Gallileo, Shakespeare, and Irving Braxiatel (another time lord who's trying to do good). Apparently Irving is a reoccurring character in the Doctor who universe but this is the first time i've come across him myself.
The issue i have with this book is that the general IDEA is good. have a floating city in ancient Venice that has a bunch of aliens having a peace talk. it's a cool idea. but the execution just wasn't very good. This is also one of those books where they kinda stop in the middle to talk about being atheist for a few pages and it just really grinds the book to a halt. Like, if you have those views fine, but it doesn't belong stopping the plot of my floating city crab monster people book.
There's an issue with this book that i want to discuss but i will have to have a bit of a spoiler so
*Spoiler Warning*
Early in the book we see a random lady from the lost Roanoke colony randomly show up back in Europe. Her leg gets crushed but she gets up and runs away. we find out this is because those in roanoake were kidnapped by aliens and implanted with stuff including the ability to regenerate from fatal injuries. We learn that one of the characters Christopher Marlowe was at Roanoake but then ran away. So, it leads to believe that when Marlowe gets fatally wounded later, that magical healing is going to save him. But it doesn't. They literally never bring up the magical healing that they spent a chapter setting up with him. I'm like "then...then why'd you INVENT a magical healing system, tell us that he was in the place where the people GOT the magical healing system, but then just abandoned that and he dies? I was SO confused with this. it's like Andy forgot what he wrote in the first two chapters by the end. It was a REALLY weird forgotten plot element that turned into a red herring and felt like Chekhov's gun just sat there for the whole play and did nothing.
*End Spoiler Warning*
The doctor, by far and large was in character. He was in a fair amount, although i do wish he had been in more. Vicki was fine, although of course she got kidnapped because.....you know it's a female companion in doctor who, and Steven was a bit grumpy, but he kind of was in this early part of the series so that's pretty accurate.
This book already had Galileo so i don't know why all of a sudden it felt like it had to throw Shakespeare at us too. Seemed a tad overkill if you ask me.
This book definitely overstayed its welcome as i found myself starting to zone out by about page 160. they tried to squeeze in WAY too much. But it wasn't too much in a fun way like Paul Magrs, it was more just confusing too much.
When i first picked up this book, i thought it started all right and i really wanted to give it like a 4. then it became a 3.5, and now finally it's a solid 3. I just lost interest after a while.
Still searching for that perfect 1st doctor book, but i gotta say, in terms of that, the future isn't looking the brightest.
So, that said, it's an even 3 out of 5.
saoki's review against another edition
5.0
This one is a treat. A good story which manages to be outside the boundaries of what was possible in the TV serials without losing sight of the essence of the 1st Doctor stories. It's historical and the author pulls that Tim Powers thing with writing historical characters in such a way that you just accept the strangest things because of course Galileo would do that. It's beautiful. Okay, I do wonder how the hell anyone manages to quaff a bottle of wine, but it's generally just fun.
And there is just so much to love in this novel. The plot isn't an invasion! Marlowe and Steven! The resolution is non-violent! Braxiatel! The poor captain of the guard!
Yeah, I like this book.
And there is just so much to love in this novel. The plot isn't an invasion! Marlowe and Steven! The resolution is non-violent! Braxiatel! The poor captain of the guard!
Yeah, I like this book.
gingerreader99's review against another edition
4.0
My friend was spot on with a 4 star rating. This was a great and adventurous tale, I owe much of that to the competent writing of Andy Lane, though I much prefer him writing about the first Doctor as opposed to the 7th. The highlight of this novel is Stevens arc and his relationship with Marlowe by far. I wish it could have been more for the two of them.
frakalot's review against another edition
4.0
I really liked this First Doctor adventure. It's a bit bolder in scope than the original episodes while still maintaining the essence of those classic shows. A trip into Earth's history with alien forces pursuing nefarious activities is a familiar theme but this story excels with a variety of interesting aliens, something more easily achieved in literature and especially many years after those early episodes.
The characters were pretty spot on. I was especially impressed by the author's treatment of Vicki, who susses out a lot of what's going on without any assistance. The historical characters in this are also great, there's a fair bit of wit and humour which keeps the dialogue alive.
The ending is a bit of a fix-all reset but it's still interesting and the very last moment should surprise most of us.
The characters were pretty spot on. I was especially impressed by the author's treatment of Vicki, who susses out a lot of what's going on without any assistance. The historical characters in this are also great, there's a fair bit of wit and humour which keeps the dialogue alive.
The ending is a bit of a fix-all reset but it's still interesting and the very last moment should surprise most of us.
nwhyte's review against another edition
http://nhw.livejournal.com/705222.html[return][return]This is one of the Virgin Missing Adventures of Doctor Who which is downloadable from the BBC website. Set in Venice and London in 1609, it gives the author a chance to bring together Galileo, Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe (not dead after all, it turns out) and the First Doctor, Steven and Vicki. The BBC presentation makes it easy to cut between chapters of the book and the author's notes, which makes reading the book rather like watching a DVD for the first time with the production team's commentary turned on. It's rather good fun, with decent treatment of Steven and several rather satisfying nods to continuity, though I don't think we find out exactly what happens to Cardinal Bellarmine.
More...