Post by 🐍 cahusserole 🐍 on Dec 17, 2014 0:44:13 GMT -5
Doctor: Eighth
Companion: Sam
Previous novel: well, technically the previous novel would be Placebo Effect, but the last one I reviewed was Legacy of the Daleks
Mini-reviews of the novels in between:
Dreamstone Moon: bleh
Seeing I: two-thirds interesting!
Placebo Effect: ugh
The Doctor and Sam hit a time distortion and are forced to materialize by a derelict spacecraft. They are immediately fired upon by a ship attempting to claim squatter's rights. They are able to hope a short distance before getting destroyed to a different ship trying to claim squatter's rights. It is from a different planet/government, although I think everyone involved is basically human. The story basically revolves around the Nimosians (the guys who fired on the TARDIS) and the Emindians (the… good guys, I guess?) arguing over this mysterious space vessels that is swarming with ghosts.
First off, there are too many characters and random storylines. Besides the Doctor and Sam, there's an actor and a photographer, a family, a soldier who had a brother who went crazy or something, a soldier who goes crazy on his own but is not related to the other guy, some sort of commander or politician with a mysterious past, and then each side of the conflict has another three or four higher-up people apiece who don't have any personalities but do have names. And then there are several chapters devoted to this schlubby guy on the Emindian ship and his harridan wife and the young woman he meets that he wants to be friends with but worries his wife's going to think he's cheating. Harridan wife eventually kills young woman, guy attacks harridan wife, then guy runs off in an escape pod which is immediately shot down by the Nimosian ship. Like, thanks? That was worth reading? And then some of the ghosts are important. There are like 20 names to remember and clearly I didn't.
It turns out the derelict is a paradoxical hyperspace tunnel. One-half of the ship is in this time, the other end is about twenty years in the future. When they travel through it, it is discovered that a war between the Emindians and Nimosians has completely destroyed both their planets. The ghosts which populate the derelict and invade the other two ships are time-shifted versions of the current characters. Most of them have gone mad in the twenty years and have lost their human shapes and will attack and kill anything. A few are holding on and try to change their version of history. Actor man's ghost appears to actor man to get him to stop being such a coward and sacrifice himself instead of photographer lady dying. Ghost parents save ghost son. I guess harridan wife's ghost appeared to get harridan wife to kill young woman? That part of the story, as I said, was sort of a waste in general.
The ghost-leaders are trying to change history so that the war never happens. They don't really succeed, but they manage to some of the Emindians and Nimosians, and they come to an agreement and fly off together to start a brand new life on some other planet. Yay. My ebook cut off a few pages before the end, so I'm having to rely on someone else's summary for this, but I guess the leader with a mysterious past gets caught in a time-loop where he appears as a seven-year-old, lives until he tries to save the ghost ship, gets de-aged and sent back in time, and does it over again.
Not particularly recommended. However! Next up is The Scarlet Empress, which Prole Hole tells me IS ACTUALLY GOOD.
Companion: Sam
Previous novel: well, technically the previous novel would be Placebo Effect, but the last one I reviewed was Legacy of the Daleks
Mini-reviews of the novels in between:
Dreamstone Moon: bleh
Seeing I: two-thirds interesting!
Placebo Effect: ugh
The Doctor and Sam hit a time distortion and are forced to materialize by a derelict spacecraft. They are immediately fired upon by a ship attempting to claim squatter's rights. They are able to hope a short distance before getting destroyed to a different ship trying to claim squatter's rights. It is from a different planet/government, although I think everyone involved is basically human. The story basically revolves around the Nimosians (the guys who fired on the TARDIS) and the Emindians (the… good guys, I guess?) arguing over this mysterious space vessels that is swarming with ghosts.
First off, there are too many characters and random storylines. Besides the Doctor and Sam, there's an actor and a photographer, a family, a soldier who had a brother who went crazy or something, a soldier who goes crazy on his own but is not related to the other guy, some sort of commander or politician with a mysterious past, and then each side of the conflict has another three or four higher-up people apiece who don't have any personalities but do have names. And then there are several chapters devoted to this schlubby guy on the Emindian ship and his harridan wife and the young woman he meets that he wants to be friends with but worries his wife's going to think he's cheating. Harridan wife eventually kills young woman, guy attacks harridan wife, then guy runs off in an escape pod which is immediately shot down by the Nimosian ship. Like, thanks? That was worth reading? And then some of the ghosts are important. There are like 20 names to remember and clearly I didn't.
It turns out the derelict is a paradoxical hyperspace tunnel. One-half of the ship is in this time, the other end is about twenty years in the future. When they travel through it, it is discovered that a war between the Emindians and Nimosians has completely destroyed both their planets. The ghosts which populate the derelict and invade the other two ships are time-shifted versions of the current characters. Most of them have gone mad in the twenty years and have lost their human shapes and will attack and kill anything. A few are holding on and try to change their version of history. Actor man's ghost appears to actor man to get him to stop being such a coward and sacrifice himself instead of photographer lady dying. Ghost parents save ghost son. I guess harridan wife's ghost appeared to get harridan wife to kill young woman? That part of the story, as I said, was sort of a waste in general.
The ghost-leaders are trying to change history so that the war never happens. They don't really succeed, but they manage to some of the Emindians and Nimosians, and they come to an agreement and fly off together to start a brand new life on some other planet. Yay. My ebook cut off a few pages before the end, so I'm having to rely on someone else's summary for this, but I guess the leader with a mysterious past gets caught in a time-loop where he appears as a seven-year-old, lives until he tries to save the ghost ship, gets de-aged and sent back in time, and does it over again.
Not particularly recommended. However! Next up is The Scarlet Empress, which Prole Hole tells me IS ACTUALLY GOOD.
