The difficulties with ongoing series is that sometimes you get two books with 
clashing styles right next to each other. Sometimes the segue between tones is 
light and easy, like a fun rollercoaster ride. And then there's The Blue Angel 
and The Taking of Planet Five, where moving from one to the other made my head 
snap off and roll into a corner. Which is odd, as they're both good books. I 
did have a few problems with Planet Five, though...

SPOILERS!!!






















Let me confess right off thebat that I am not a big reader of hard SF novels. 
The very mention of Greg Benford or Jerry Pournelle sends me whimpering off 
with my tail between my legs. So when I noted that ToP5 has a 3-page thesis as 
its epilogue, I began to get that cold feeling in the pit of my stomach. After 
finishing it, I admit that I wasn't *completely* lost... but most of the tech 
talk just went WHOOOSH! over my head. Ah well.

PLOT: Well, we have 5 or 6 plots, but you can't really separate them into 
separate subplots, as they're all interconnected very well. So that's a plus. 
When the book gets into the nitty gritty of hunting monsters one by one a la 
Hinchcliffe Era, it's very good indeed. 

THE DOCTOR: Still seems to be a tad unbalanced to me. I am at a disadvantage 
here, having never read about 20 or so 8th Doctor novels before this. And much 
of my niggles have to do with STYLE, about which see below. But he was 
certainly energetic and fun to read.

FITZ: I'm starting to like Fitz, even if he turns into a stand-up comic at 
times. He's the Everyman in the TARDIS now, and it's enjoyable to see him get 
angry at being the only one not going on. And the rescue of the Doctor at the 
end was just magical, probably my favorite writing of the book.

COMPASSION: It's becoming clearer as this arc goes on that Compassion is not 
going to be a long-term companion, which is a shame, as I haven't enjoyed 
reading about one so much since Bernice Summerfield. I applaud the authors for 
avoiding the tendency to make Compassion characterless because she follows the 
signals, and giving her a genuine personality. Sarcastic, selfish, and yet 
still likeable. And I'm not sure if even Compassion knows who she is yet. 
Ladies and gentleman, we have our arc.

VILLAIN: I suppose the villain would be One. For a while, he and Two reminded 
me a lot of Mulder and Scully. Then he went a bit Zaroff-ish on us, complete 
with explaining the entire evil plan. Of course, the evil plan had already 
been accomplished, so that was a nice change. 

OTHERS: Nice to see Hume again, and he's gotten a lot less annoying since 
Alien Bodies. I wish we'd seen more Marie, though. The others tended towards 
the cannon-fodderish, especially McCarthy, who was such an annoying drip I 
wanted to see her eaten, and was disappointed when it happened off camera.

STYLE: My major problem with the book. I suspect it's Simon I'm leveling this 
criticism at, as I had the same difficulties with Ghost Devices when I reread 
it recently. I have nothing against humor in serious books. But this humor was 
really, *really* jarring. For example, the line about 'Does my aura look big 
in this body?'. It removes you from the story, and reminds you that you're 
reading a book by an author who wants to be witty. Now, much of the book is 
witty, don't get me wrong. But it's inappropriately witty, and no amount of 
finding 'Resolutions in Simple Drama' in fictional globes is going to 
rationalise that for me.

OVERALL: Apart from that, Planet Five is a gripping read. Nice balance between 
the incredibly huge war plot and the small scientists get picked off one by 
one plot. I also appreciated the NA refs, especially the Doctor having an 
'Adventures of the New Frontier' book with him. Good stuff.

7/10.

--SG
--on to Frontier Worlds...