Subject: Beyond The Sun: Review by the Happy Guy From: "Sean Gaffney" Date: 1998/01/04 Message-ID: <01bd191b$90ddac60$8b80abcf@gaffney> Newsgroups: rec.arts.drwho [More Headers] After starting Deadfall, it occured to me that it would be very difficult for me to follow if I didn't get around to finishing Beyond the Sun, which was one of the books that got lost in the shuffle when I took my big time-out. So I went back and finished it. Everyone seems to love this one. And it has some great bits. But... SPOILERS!!! Well, where to begin. Let's just take this in order: PLOT: As someone pointed out in an earlier review, the exact same things would have happened, with a few less deaths, if Jason, Bernice & co. HADN'T been involved. The book started out very slowly (it was not a swift-reading tome), but got more involved as it went on. This was another book where you suspect that the ideas behind it were more important than the plot itself. BERNICE: I've been reading these books in an odd order, as you know, and therefore coming across Benny portrayed like this seems very odd. She seems very passive throughout, much like the Sunless around her. Certainly she gets very little chance to exhibit the charm that has endeared us to Bernice. Of course, that's because the plot doesn't allow her to. JASON: I really like Jason, and was a bit disappointed that he didn't have more of the book. He came across as a bit of a git, really, in the Mortimore style rather than the Stone style. TAMEKA and EMILE: Perhaps the book's biggest success. These were two very different and VERY interesting characters, bonding in ways they never would have otherwise. I am very glad that we'll see more of them. VILLAINS: Um...well, lessee. The Sunless are too dull to be really evil, and Nikolas and Iranda were more sort of pathetic. So sort of a n/a here, except for the general feeling of despair. STYLE: This is where the book falls apart for me. Now, I know that the Benny Books have a house style, and that's great. I don't mind serious Benny stories. But this was so bleak. Bleak and PASSIVE. You really didn't seem to care what happened to these people, because they didn't. It wasn't passionate. That may have been the point trying to be made about the Ursulans, but it's at the sacrifice of the reader's caring. OTHER: The final paragraph, it must be said, is WONDERFUL. And, for reasons which most radwers except the old timers won't remember, I loved the "Git. Git. Git." Nice to know my .sig proved useful... ^_^ OVERALL: Another book where it's well-written, but I personally didn't care for it as much as others seem to have. Still, there are some good bits, and if you prefer your Bernice more mellow, than this might be for you. 6.5/10. NEXT: I go back and read Deadfall properly this time, while growing Brainiac fingers...lemme put on Bongo Fury again... --Sean Gaffney --I coulda swore her hair was made of rayon...