Subject:      Return of the Living Dad - review by the Happy Guy.  Honest!
From:         gaffney@iconn.net (Sean Gaffney)
Date:         1996/08/04
Message-Id:   <4u3cgt$n8@news.iconn.net>
Organization: i-Conn
Newsgroups:   rec.arts.drwho

Here's my review of Kate's new book - really.  I promise!

SPOILERS for Return of the Living Dad...

OK, raise your hands if you can't guess my final rank?

My reaction to Kate's book was similar to the one I had after seeing World
Without End II - a general WOW!  all around.

Plot - Intriguing.  The villains of the book are all done in nice shades of grey.
The Witch Mark loose end - which I had completely forgotten about - is done
up in a scary scene that manages to be both touching and disturbing.

The Doctor - Perhaps at his most tragic.  This is an emotional book, and SlyDoc
doesn't deal with emotions very well.  His asking why Chris and Roz kissed
broke my heart.  The kiss he gives Benny at the end made me jump up and
down and say wibble a lot.  :-)

Benny and Jason - Great.  I wanted to be clever and say how Jason reminds me
of Jon, but he doesn't, nor does Benny remind me of Kate.  I liked Roz's comment
that Benny was in love now, so being a companion full-time was not an option.
Her reaction to Isaac is totally wonderful.  Bring on So Vile a Sin.

Chris and Roz - This broke my heart, mainlly because it was so happy.  Seeing
visions of Chris and Roz married depressed the hell out of me.  Still, it was
lovely to see Roz finally acknowledge the love Chris has for her, and the fear
she feels in reciprocating it.

Isaac - He lived!  This truly amazed me!  I thought he would be cannon father!

<pause>

Sorry.  Anyway, the similarities between Isaac and the Doctor are well-drawn,
and for once I didn't see the twist coming here.

Others - Pretty cool.  The Jacqui scene is a tortuous bit of continuity, showing
the Doctor's actions harming the innocents around him.  The Hummer bits fit
right in.  And why didn't Graeme join the TARDIS crew?  Waaah!  I want Graeme!

Style - It's Kate.  There you go.  Still, I didn't see as much of the TV style as
Dave Owen. I did feel that this book was relaxing.  Yeah, yeah, I know.  But it's
true.  it's a bit of a breather for everyone.  I suspect this may be the last humor
we get in the NA's for a long time.  Death of Art and Damaged Goods look grim.

Ending - The final two pages made me kvell.  And right after Steven's story did,
too.  (Since people asked:  KVELL - the warm feeling you get in your tummy when
something strikes you as RIGHT, on so many levels.)

Oh, and in case you wondered:  Tom Truszkowski, R.J. Smith?, Don Gillikin,
E. Larry Lidz, and Eva (as a man?) Jacobus.

10/10.

Next:  The *real* review for Shadow, which is (so far) better than I thought.

--Sean Gaffney
--"You git!  I thought you were dead!  Git git git!" - Benny, No Future