Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #21238 in Books
• Published on: 2000-02-07
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 274 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
From the start we know we're in a Paul Cornell novel: the Brigadier is back: angst-ridden and torn over the death of his wife Doris; and Compassion has been left on Earth by the Doctor in order to "experience humanity". We first meet her in a house she shares with five or six blokes--one of them is in love with her and she didn't help matters by snogging him extensively. She also has a cat - which she has somewhat bizarrely named Cheese. All these things are typical Cornell and, unfortunately, given the lack of character development of Compassion in previous books, do not ring true at all. If Compassion had a cat, she'd call it "Cat". No way would she snog a human, and given that she has agonised over the lack of 'input' when away from the TARDIS, it's hard to see her willingly agreeing to an enforced stay, on her own, on Earth.

We then launch into an uneasy plot in which a vortex opens up between Earth and Avalon (the land of Faeries) and the Doctor, Fitz, Compassion and the Brigadier find themselves involved in a war between Humans and those in Avalon (which number include Silurians as regular Doctor Who readers will realise). There's also a sleeping King (whose dream has created Avalon), brutal Gallifreyan Interventionists sent by President Romana to ensure a certain outcome and lots of tactical battles, explosions, and death.

Overall it's a bit of a mess, although it is quite an easy read. Cornell drags the reader along with him through a multitude of confusion until we reach the revelations at the end.

And it's the end which really makes this book. Over the last few titles, those in the know realised that there was a kind of story arc going on but it was hard to detect its presence. With this book it all comes to a head, and results in one of the greatest innovations that the Doctor Who novels have yet delivered which readers will just have to find out for themselves.

What this outcome really proved, however, was how Compassion really needs to be more defined and likeable to the readers beforehand. As it is, some of the power of what happens is muted as you never really knew or liked her in the first place. Peter Angelides--the only author in recent time to have really understood the characters--should have written this book.

All credit to author Lawrence Miles, apparently, for this outcome, which has been in the offing since Compassion joined in Interference. Maybe now knowing what the outcome is, re-reading those books might shed more clues but, ultimately, it really doesn't matter because a series of stand-alone books which are connected by near-invisible threads would work better than a series which you have to read and remember all for any to make sense. --David Howe

Synopsis
A tale in which magic faces down science and dragons duel with jet fighters. But is there some greater power manipulating this war in the other-dimensional world of Avalon?

Customer Reviews

I couldn't put it down thought it was great.
But I do hve a question, Like the Doctor I want to know what is it about the Presidents that they loose their senses once they become prsident? Borusa and now Romana. I think the only president that kept it together was Flavia and that's because she wasn't in the hot seat long. Man they talk about the Master he's nice as pie compared to the whole race. Anyway Love this book answered a few question I had when I read Space race before this one. Being in the US we only ge bits and peices of this seris so I've been playin catch up and so far I'm enjoying it greatly. Would love to see someone write a book of the Doctor's life before he was on the run and what happened to Susan's parents? Maybe even tell the story behind what happened between the Doctor and the Master to make them go from being friends to being sworn enemies. Just a tought.

this book is is great!
I will admitt that this is the first of the BBC's 8th Doctor books I have read and my first contact with the 8th Doctor since the telemovie- now I am rushing out to buy more! Great stuff. If DW ever graces the big screen( with Paul McGann in the lead of course) this is how it should be. It was emotional, exiciting and action packed. For an DW and/or milatry fanatic, this was a dream come true, with a superb plot that brings DW into the 21st century. Paul Cornall rules! One qeustion though. As all of UNIT'S operations( especielly one's on the scale of this one) would be top secret, how would the government explains the deaths of all the British soldiers killed in Avalon?

Very mixed
Great start, awful middle, great ending, some tremendous passages of writing, some sloppy chaotic parts. I am a tremendous fan of the preceding six novels but this one was off beam, I just could't get on with the Doctor riding dragons, all the fairy stuff. Fitz and Compassion virtually disappear into a Tolkienesque saga that is too brittle in its pacing for at least 100 pages. The fantastic really worked in The Blue Angel but here it is just comic strip. And yet the first 30 pages were marvellous, especially the bit with Compassion sitting on the hills in Wiltshire. Do these books have to be written in such a rush?