From: Sean Gaffney Subject: Heart of TARDIS: Review by the Happy Guy Date: 14 Jun 2000 00:00:00 GMT Message-ID: <8i92p8$lvb$1@nnrp1.deja.com> X-Http-Proxy: 1.1 x62.deja.com:80 (Squid/1.1.22) for client 207.171.147.73 Organization: Deja.com - Before you buy. X-Article-Creation-Date: Wed Jun 14 23:00:01 2000 GMT X-MyDeja-Info: XMYDJUIDhotaru_chan Newsgroups: rec.arts.drwho X-Http-User-Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.0; Windows 95; DigExt) Dave Stone is a wonderful author, and I have always loved his books, but at times the stylistic tone has always seemed a little like the guy in the party who falls on top of you and asks if you want to see his elephant impression. So when I heard about Heart of TARDIS, a book with two Doctors, three companions, and the fate of a Universe in mortal peril... well, I wasn't quite sure what to expect. SPOILERS!!! This book is definitely a Dave Stone book. It's wacky. It's hilarious. Parts will have you giggling like a 6-year-old. And yet it's also his most mature book, fitting in wonderfully within the old past Doc canon. This is a book that Second and Fourth Doctor fans will enjoy, as well as those of us who simply must read anything with Dave's name on it. PLOT: Wow! There are two completely and totally dissimilar plots here that dovetail wonderfully in the end. I admit to being more taken with the conspiracy/UNIT one, but Lychburg was well-realized, and the creepiest parts of the book were there. The last 50 pages of the book are total page-turners. SECOND DOCTOR: Not entirely perfect (kicking against the pricks?!?!), but prolly one of the better Troughton Docs we've seen on the printed page. He has some wonderful 2nd Doc moments, such as explaining how he rented the car, and in the comic book store. Nice job considering how insanely difficult he is to write. FOURTH DOCTOR: Probably works best when he's being flip and Tom Baker- ish... his later anger doesn't come off as well. Still, this is the sort of part I can see Tom accepting for a BF audio, and that's a good thing. JAMIE: Has the least to do, but what he does do is in character. Love his dealing with the woprat. VICTORIA: Whee! Possibly the best part of the book, Victoria is exquisitely in character, gets a great deal of the narrative, and manages to do a lot more than scream. I would LOVE to read more of this Victoria's world views and general life outlook in general. Read the book just for this. ROMANA: Another nice job, this Romana is cold, aloof, smug, does lots of cool Time Lady things without batting an eye... it's wonderful. Why humanize Romana when she isn't? Especially Mary Tamm's Romana. Romana also has the benefit of getting a lot of the best lines. OTHERS: The UNIT crew are present, but really only serve a minor function, even the Brig. Delbane is far more interesting (gee, another -ane name in a Stone book...), and there's hope that we may see more of her (have we already? My memory is hopelessly confused...). Oh, and Slater and McCrae were wonderful. Being American, I kept picturing them as Starsky and Hutch... VILLAINS: That'd be Crowley and his collection of conspirators. Works much better as a suave villain than as a menacing evil being, but fulfills a nice function. The villain category isn't really as necessary in the book as the stupidness they cause is. STYLE: As I said above, it's a mature Dave Stone at work here. The humor is wonderful, yet manages to work with a Who plot that's mostly normal and can be imagined in the context of TV or radio. My second favorite thing about the book after Victoria. OVERALL: OK, the appendix was rather superfluous. But other than that, Heart of TARDIS was both a hoot and an exciting, jam-packed Who story. Fun is to be had here, you have been given notice. 9/10. --SG --who just got in Perfect Timing today (copy 14 of 150), and isn't sure --whether that or Banquo Legacy will be next... Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ Before you buy.