From: Sean Gaffney Subject: Tomb of Valdemar: Review by the Happy Guy Date: 07 Mar 2000 00:00:00 GMT Message-ID: <8a1jgh$l3r$1@nnrp1.deja.com> X-Http-Proxy: 1.1 x35.deja.com:80 (Squid/1.1.22) for client 207.171.147.31 Organization: Deja.com - Before you buy. X-Article-Creation-Date: Tue Mar 07 00:46:10 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) Lately I've been more of an Eighth Doctor guy. Picked up a few Past Doc stories, but was never really able to finish the, either because they were too dull, too annoying, or I just wasn't in the mood. I hadn't planned to pick up Tomb of Valdemar either. But then Finn Clark's review proclaimed it the greatest thing since sliced Fitz, and so I decided to pick up a copy. What the hey, Romana I's one of my favorites. So, how did it measure up? SPOILERS!!! Well, it's not *quite* as good as Finn says, in my opinion. But it's still damn good. Head and shoulders above most previous Past Doc books, with a fascinating present-tense style that kept my brain spinning, and it even manages to get away with getting inside the Fourth Doctor's thoughts (the one fault of the *other* fabulous Past Doc book, Eye of Heaven). PLOT: Well, the actual plot is a fairly standard Lovecraftian take the Cthulhu and run type thing, with plenty of running, getting captured, escaping, learning vital bits of plot, etc, all in the best Graham Williams tradition. The OTHER plot, though, the story being told and its wraparound effects, is very well handled, dropping little bits of mystery in and saving the big finish for the end. THE DOCTOR: An excellent job by Simon of balancing Tom Baker's portrayal. In fact, I'd wager this is very much like what it would have looked like on TV - plenty of serious dialogue, and lots of shouting, but with the actor adding lots of one-liners when confronting the villain to reassure the youngsters. Fun. ROMANA: Probably the best part of the book; this is a really good novel for her. Having just joined the Doctor, she's still not ready to trust him yet - and yet by the end of the novel, she's done just that innumerable times. Her reaction to Huvan is also very much in keeping with the Ice Queen's demeanor, and she even shows quite a bit of mettle in standing up to him. Lovely stuff. K-9: N/A, as he spends the novel in the TARDIS. Prolly wouldn't have worked very well in this book anyway. HUVAN: Boy, is he easily visualized. Adric at his most repulsive couldn't equal the incredibly vivid description of Huvan, a Dcotor Who fan caricature waiting to happen. It doesn't happen, though, as instead he tries to find love in Romana. He doesn't, but learns to grow up instead, and by the end of the novel can manage to accomplish a bit of what he was unable to before. VILLAINS: One of the two weaknesses of the book, these deliberately cardboard wackadoos are exactly that: too cardboard to really invest anything in. Neville makes Soldeed look like Sir Humphrey Appleby, and Hopkins is just a sadistic loser. Their fate was mildly amusing, but rather vague. Speaking of which... STYLE: No, I'm not complaining about the present tense. That worked fine for me. And it wasn't the story withing story self-referential Magrs-ish stuff, either. Loved that. It was the book's diffuse and confusing ending. Yes, I know it made sense if you REALLY paid attention, but to those of us reading the books on the fly, one is left with a big sense of "Huh?". OVERALL: A really gripping read, managing to make up for its few faults with a well-paced style and brilliantly played regulars. Very nice. 8/10... no, 8.5/10 for the sheer balls of making a Scooby-Doo reference that obvious in the text. :-D --SG --next: another attempt at a Short Story collection with ST&SS... Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ Before you buy.