Subject: Eye of Heaven: Review by the Happy Guy From: "Sean Gaffney" Date: 1998/05/11 Message-ID: <01bd7d14$6d005c40$a980abcf@default> Newsgroups: rec.arts.drwho [More Headers] [Subscribe to rec.arts.drwho] Ah, Jim Mortimore. An author I have DEFINITE mixed feelings about. Sure he was ordered to break Benny and Jason apart, but did he have to ENJOY it so much? Anyway, Eye of Heaven is his latest...and luckily, it has almost none of the problems that Eternity Weeps did. SPOILERS!!! Well, this book caught me by surprise. Between the author, the stylistic problems, and yet MORE first-person prose, I was pretty sure I wouldn't care for it. For the most part, I was wrong, as Eye manages to leap over its format and paints an excellent story. PLOT: Complex, even without the flashbacks and flashforwards. There is a small bit where the novel stops so that the Doctor can explain the rest of the plot, but hey, Doctor Who did that a lot. More importantly, the moai, Stockwood's guilt and the pirates all come together, and are rather intriguing. A couple of points are left open (Richards and Royston's involvement, the beginning of the sea voyage), but that's a minor quibble. THE DOCTOR: Actually, probably the book's main flaw. He's in the background for most of the book, which is fine. He seems very well done when we see him through other people's eyes, which is fine. The two chapters from his POV, however, are utterly disastrous. They tend to make the Doctor seem incredibly egotistical, which Tom's doc could be, but the first person style makes it out of place. It just...it felt incredibly WRONG. LEELA: And this is the book's big success. Leela was never given a novel of her own by Virgin, so this (not counting Lungbarrow) is her debut. And what a debut it is! Leela is the embodiment of life here, bursting with energy, casually mentioning how she will slay her enemies, killing a giant squid (!) in a scene which might border on 'Oh, come ON now!' if it weren't done with such flair. Furthermore, her philosophy proves to be a great help to Stockwood, who in this book gets to represent death. STOCKWOOD: Chillingly portrayed, I suspect there's a great deal of Jim in him. His guilt and anguish are written as believable without ever becoming mawkish, and his eventual ability to overcome that guilt brings a smile. ROYSTON: A character who is mostly seen through Leela's eyes. She doesn't trust him through 90% of the book, and so we find it difficult to as well. I would have liked more scenes between him and Richards, though. RICHARDS: Like the Doctor, she's a small presence in this book in person, yet makes herself felt throughout. Her hatred, and eventual suicide, are a mirror to Stockwood - as opposed to Leela, his opposite - and we feel for her when she dies. OTHERS: The pirate captian is nicely chilling. I agree with whoever wrote in their review that it was nice to see a Mortimore book with characters who DIDN'T have 'I am doomed' stamped on their foreheads. You CARE about these people. STYLE: Forward, back, first the middle, then the beginning, then the end, then the middle. Despite all this, it works and flows together - I don't know if I'd have liked it as much if it were linear. Jim's prose, as usual, is one of his greatest strengths - it saved Eternity Weeps from the dungeon, and makes this book soar. Jim writes gorgeously. OVERALL: Aside from the 2 chapters from the Doctor's POV, which REALLY grated, and some plot ends that weren't quite tied up, this book is fantastic. And you can quote me on that. ^_^ 9/10. --Sean Gaffney --no next this time...