Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #232629 in Books
• Published on: 1992-10-15
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 240 pages

Synopsis
A story featuring the further adventures of the time traveller Dr Who, as he journeys through time and space with a variety of companions. This work is based on the television series of the same title.

Customer Reviews

Slightly overrated...
Love and War's a weird one. For me, anyway. I adore the New Adventures, but I've never really understood the generally gushing reaction to Paul Cornell.

Reading it for the second time, I can see why people like them - they're neatly constructed little tales, and Human Nature especially benefits from having a really strong Dr Who premise - but, personally, I just don't think Cornell's prose is that strong. Ben Aaronovitch and Andrew Cartmel, for example, blow Cornell out of the water in terms of the quality of their writing, but because their stories don't conform to what people think Dr Who 'should' be like, they don't get the same sort of recognition.

Love and War has a very conventional plot, and aside from some neat twists and the presence of the manipulative Seventh Dr, there isn't anything particularly original going on. People say there's some amazing characterisation here, but, although it's nice to get a bit of insight into the Doctor and Ace's relationship, pretty much everyone else is quite colourless (barely even differentiated by description). There's a bit more to Bernice (and, in retrospect, it's surprising how many of what will become the staples of her character are established here), but I still wouldn't say she's three-dimensional. Everything's a bit flat, really.

To my mind, this novel is a traditional Dr Who plot with some added emotional manipulation. I'm not dissing it, but whilst reading it this time I was very aware of the buttons that were being pushed (although I'm fairly sure it wasn't written this cynically). I did enjoy it, and, while I understand that when it was published the level of emotional involvement would have felt very fresh, now, with so many other excellent Dr Who novels published subsequently, Love and War feels a bit contrived; the emotional additions to its slim plot almost feel too much like a conscious choice now, like, 'I'm doing Dr Who with emotion! Imagine!'. Though well-drawn at times, Ace's doomed love affair mostly gives rise to quite a mawkish sensibility, where I imagine Cornell was attempting something more penetrating and honest.

I guess this novel is good Dr Who - it ticks the right boxes, has some nice ideas (the Hoothi are genuinely repellent, but fascinating) - but the concept of 'good Dr Who' usually comes down to an idealised version of the 70s series, I think, and Love and War has that feel. Personally, the books I'd rate highest are the ones that really push the limits of Dr Who - Transit, the War trilogy, Adventuress, The Man in the Velvet Mask, etc. I think it's the difference between genuinely good authors tackling Dr Who, and okay authors creating by-numbers 'good Dr Who'. (If you get me.)

Where Love and War is a total success, however, is in its Doctor. Ever since I discovered the NAs as a kid, the NA Seventh Doctor has been the ultimate Doctor for me (and continues to be, even in light of the new series). Here, he's recognisably McCoy's Doctor, but maybe slightly expanded upon, with more rage and sadness, I think - and he's spine-chillingly effective. There are some slightly hyperbolic lines in regards to him (of the 'I'm what monsters have nightmares about,' and 'Who will save us now?!' / 'I will!' variety)... but, somehow, they work. He really does seem like a force to be reckoned with, and it's glorious. You're fully behind this funny little man, wanting him to decimate his opponents, but at the same time you're kind of scared of what he'll do next...

As I say, a weird one: it's snappily effective, but there's something quite inorganic about it, for want of a better word; it has a kind of committee-written feel, like there were twelve Cornells in a boardroom adding touches of poetic justice or irony every now and then to strategically tug the heartstrings... Perhaps for a tragic love story it feels a bit too meticulously pieced together?

Uninspired
Paul Cornell deserves some credit as it is he who first introduced Professor Berniece 'Benny' Summerfield to the world of Doctor Who. Benny and Ace sparked well off one another in their adventures together; the former even meriting her own official spin-off series once the 'New Adventures' range petered out. It has to be said though that 'Love and War' does not represent either The Doctor or Ace's finest hour - the latter becomes involved with Jan, a traveller who has arrived with his friends on the planet 'Heaven', an apparent paradise and resting place for weary wanderers and we see a smitten Ace coming almost to blows with The Doctor who is seemingly opposed to the burgeoning romance - I say it is not their finest hour because of the mawkish and insipid tone throughout and the self-referential portrayal of the characters which fails to develop either one of them in any way.
The story's monsters: 'The Hoothi' have the potential to be memorable but are underused, whilst a fleeting and irrelevant mention of The Doctor's old enemy 'The Rani' and a sub-plot that never really gets going, only serve to hinder the narrative further.
Full marks for bringing us the spunky 'Benny' but little else to inspire or intrigue.