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Subject:      Toy Soldiers - review by the happy guy
From:         gaffney@pcnet.com (Sean Gaffney)
Date:         1995/10/07
Message-Id:   <454pvk$nva@pcnet2.pcnet.net>
Organization: PCNet -- Public Access Internet in Connecticut!
Newsgroups:   rec.arts.drwho

OK, time for a review of Toy Soldiers.

SPOILERS!!!

You know, it's now been three books in a row that I've been disappointed
in.  ME!  The happy guy, who gave Sanctuary through Sky Pirates!  9s or 10s.
But, well, Toy Soldiers...I had a few problems.  Let me elaborate:

First, the good stuff.

This book reads _fast_.  At 244 pages, it's short, but I still read it in 3 days,
which is quick considering I try to have a life, too.  (No shouting from the
peanut gallery.)  It starts up and just doesn't stop.

The overall style is Leonardy, with good prose and stuff.

Um.

It's not a bad book, it's just.

Look.  Number One.  The Doctor.  Now, I've seen him on the sidelines in
a lot of NAs, but this is ridiculous.  The amount of time the doctor spends
in this book makes Warlock look like The Five Doctors.  I know we're going
with dark and mysterious, and I like this characterization of the doctor.  But this
doesn't mean that you write him out.  At the climax, I felt that I was watching
the Doctor through a fish-eye lens.  Not good.

Number Two.  The characterization of the children.  Well, I started out with
sympathy for Josef, but that's about it.  Gabrielle was sulking and Manda was
just obnoxious.  Thus, when they become sympathetic later, I found it hard to
get worked up. Gabrielle's death was _very_ poorly handled for a major
character!

Number Three.  This book reminded me of criticism I encountered when defending
Time of Your Life, the 6th Doctor MA.  Same sort of feel to the book, of soulless
characters going through the motions.  But Time of Your Life gave you the time
to care, and when Angela died, you did care.  When Gabrielle died, I went, "Oh."
The Sixth Docotr in Time of Your Life is trying to find himself, and the book is
a metaphor for the Doctor's life till then.

Toy Soldiers, on the other hand, is a metaphor for war.  War is bad.  Cool.  I agree.
But...

Look, I'm having trouble with this.  Toy Soldiers disappointed me, but I can't really
find reasons.  I've heard the term "soulless" used to discuss Warhead, Theatre of
War, and especially Time of Your Life.  I liked all three of these.  But Toy Soldiers
left me feeling empty.  Its messages were clear as good old glass, and therefore
it reminded me of propaganda.

Sigh.  Still, it moved along, and the prose is good.  I have trouble giving low
ratings, so...

6/10.  Should have been more, especially after the brilliant Dancing the Code.

Next:  Our happy guy, with his new BA in Drama, reviews Managra.  Drag out
the makeup kits.

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