Bless me father, for I have sinned.  It's been 2 years since my last Eighth Doctor
book review.  Well, you know how it is.  It started with the books being late, way
back with Eight Doctors.  So I didn't read them for 6 months.  It's hard to catch up
with a lag like that.  But I tried.  Kursaal arrived, and I enjoyed it, and then I read
Option Lock and Longest Day.
 
Then came Legacy, which I didn't want to read till I'd read War, then I had to wait
for War.  And then I started War 8 times.  And couldn't get past page 30. It's
that kind of book.  So I thought about skipping Legacy and moving on to Dreamstone
Moon, but by then I was reading Benny books, and I had a fanfic to finish, and...
 
As I said, you know how it is.
 
But this isn't just any 8th Doctor book.  This is Interference.  The one everyone's
been discussing for months.  The one that made Lawrence Miles quit writing Who
fiction.  The one that writes out Sam.  This is it, the big one. 
 
So I decided, damn the torpedoes, I'd get a copy.  Review it in a vacuum, see if
it stands up if you haven't read the previous... (counts on fingers and toes)... 18
books.  I figured, being a two-book series, it'd take me a few weeks to finish.
 
5 days later...
 
SPOILERS!!!
 
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As it happens, I enjoyed Interference a lot.  It's not a 10, surprisingly, but it's
still a very solid epic.  It's one of those books that earns extra points for doing
important things.
 
PLOT:  Really, really well-done.  Someone suggested that the book was originally
8th and 3rd separately, but when the Dust chapters came in short, it was reedited.
I'm not sure I agree.  Lots of twists, not so much in the Richards 'Wow, I didn't
expect THAT to happen' tradition as much as the Miles 'Jeezus FUCK!' tradition.
Amazingly, the whole plot seems rather Whoish, if a more modern, TV-movie 
oriented Who.
 
EIGHTH DOCTOR:  Admittedly the weak part of the book.  Well, both Doctors are.  
Our boy spends a great deal of both books trapped in a Saudi prison cell
feeling sorry for himself and having philosophical discussions.  I'm not as up on
this Doctor as I should be, but the whole experience felt a) out of character, and
b) a bit gratuitous.  Once freed, however, his springing into action and screwing
up a lot is far more McGann-ish, and I really enjoyed him here.
 
THIRD DOCTOR:  Deliberately written as out of his depth and in an adventure not 
his own, he nevertheless comes across as out-of-character.  His dialogue seems 
very GenericDoc at times.  Meant to be tragic, but...
 
SAM:  In the first book, she was really annoying me, much the same way she's been 
annoying everyone in this series.  But she gets a lot better when she stops
trying to be caring and starts doing things, and gets to save the day, too. The
scene with 8Doc and young Sam in the attic is quite chilling in its own way. I
really must get Unnatural History now to see what I missed.
 
FITZ:  Hoo boy.  This was my first experience of Fitz.  He really gets put through 
the wringer, too, trying to hold on to his identity, being cloned and
cartoonized by the Remote, living 2000 years as a Faction Father, then finally
being shunted off to the Benny Books to act as a minor villain in Dead Romance.
Quite impressive.
 
SARAH:  Even if you hate everything else about this book, you must admit that
Sarah Jane is written beautifully.  Action heroine, intelligent planner, friend to
Ogrons, and even having the odd bout of sex (offscreen, of course).  She's the
star of the books, and deservedly so.  (Oh, her past self is in character. Asks
questions, clutches Doctor, stands around.  Thank God she got to be the Sarah
we see in 1996. ^_^)
 
COMPASSION:  I like her.  But then, I like Seven of Nine too.  She does tend to 
be a tad annoying, but she was designed that way, and we get to see how she'll
grow over the next few books.  Do I think she'll make a good companion? 
Obviously.
 
OTHERS:  Guest was a fairly faceless villain, though describing the Remote as
faceless seems akin to kicking a puppy.  Llewis was the usual whiney, scared Who
loser until the end of book two (boy, that took me by surprise).  And how can you
not like the two Saudi teenagers trapped in the TARDIS?
 
VILLAIN:  Faction Paradox make wonderful villains.  They can do anything to you.
And you'd barely notice.  Provided we don't get a reset button end to this arc (and
I really can't see Cornell doing that), this is going to be one fun ride. 
 
STYLE:  Lawrence has managed, despite all, to make this a very reasonable, easy
to read two-book series.  I imagine anyone stopping after Book One will be quite
disappointed, but hey, it is a SERIES.  It also ties in nicely with Dead Romance, and
does not totally divorce itself from the Benny books, no matter how hard it tries. :-D
 
OVERALL:  It is ambitious, yes, and it doesn't quite become the ultimate Who 
mindfuck it wants to be.  But it throws out a lot of wonderful ideas, it has a
beautiful characterization of Sarah Jane, and it makes you think.  It also made me
order The Blue Angel, The Taking of Planet Five, The Scarlet Empress, and 
Unnatural History to read.  Which for a media tie-in is quite an achievement.
 
8/10 (for both books).
 
--Sean Gaffney
--who really must review Fractured Planet soon...