![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
annathepiperI have to admit, if there's anything more challenging than writing a Fifth Doctor novel and bringing out his subtler finer qualities, it's writing a Sixth Doctor novel and doing your level best to keep him from being annoying. Craig Hinton's SynthespiansTM makes a valiant effort at this: there was only one time I found the Doctor acting in a way that seemed actively irritating, and it was done in a way that was mercifully brief. At other points in the book, he had more of an air of just being loud and impulsive and brash--as well as being slow on the uptake to figure out what was going on and kind of random in what he chose to do about it. All of which seems in keeping with what I know of Six.
I've been advised by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
solarbird and spazzkat that one of the biggest points of annoyance for his Companion Peri is her acutely irritating "American" accent--which, thankfully, isn't a problem in the slightest when you're reading her in a book. She was a perfectly acceptable Companion in this storyline, proactive both on her own and with the Doctor, and with a side helping of facing some of her personal issues.
As for the story itself... not half-bad, though it occasionally got a little too cutesily self-referential for my tastes: there's a lot of in-jokes about twentieth-century television, including some about a show that's clearly standing in for Doctor Who. (On the other hand, I was also quite amused by the reference to Tomorrow People, which has been getting watched around the Murk too.) There's also a tie-in to Lovecraftian mythos, which was kind of weird and amusing, as I think I'd seen in other contexts that some of the Cthululoid mythology is considered canon in the Whoverse. I found the writing a little clunky, but only occasionally, and overall a fun read. Two and a half stars.
I've been advised by
solarbird and spazzkat that one of the biggest points of annoyance for his Companion Peri is her acutely irritating "American" accent--which, thankfully, isn't a problem in the slightest when you're reading her in a book. She was a perfectly acceptable Companion in this storyline, proactive both on her own and with the Doctor, and with a side helping of facing some of her personal issues.As for the story itself... not half-bad, though it occasionally got a little too cutesily self-referential for my tastes: there's a lot of in-jokes about twentieth-century television, including some about a show that's clearly standing in for Doctor Who. (On the other hand, I was also quite amused by the reference to Tomorrow People, which has been getting watched around the Murk too.) There's also a tie-in to Lovecraftian mythos, which was kind of weird and amusing, as I think I'd seen in other contexts that some of the Cthululoid mythology is considered canon in the Whoverse. I found the writing a little clunky, but only occasionally, and overall a fun read. Two and a half stars.