The first book of my 2008 book log (note the shift in icons to designate these posts!) is another Doctor Who novel: The Last Dodo, by Jacqueline Rayner. I'd previously read and enjoyed her The Stone Rose, so I wanted to give her another shot. This one's a Ten-Martha--but I have to halfway wonder whether Rayner just has a preference for Ten-Rose, or perhaps just a better grasp of Rose, because she didn't seem to get Martha quite right at all for me.
Which is a shame, because there's a big chunk of this book that's from Martha's point of view, so there was plenty of opportunity to delve into her as a character. Thing is, much of Martha's sections were actually in first person--and Rayner gives her a voice that comes across as a bit too ditzy and teenager-y for the young woman we see on the show, especially given that Martha's supposed to be a medical student after all. And this is related to the book's other major issue: it really needed another edit pass or two. The Martha sections alternated between first and third person for no apparent reason, and to have a first person Martha section immediately followed by a third person was quite jarring. So was the one occurrence I found where two short paragraphs were repeated one right after the other on a page.
This is not to say it wasn't a fun read, though. The concept was pretty basic; SF/F has certainly seen the concept of a mad collector trying to get the last one of every extinct species into a zoo before. This time around, the collector in question trying to corner the last Time Lord certainly has some potential for interest--though this wasn't explored nearly as deeply as I'd hoped. Still, the Doctor reacting to and sympathizing with all the trapped creatures rings true for him as a character, and even if Rayner's grasp on Martha is kind of shaky, she's good and solid on the Doctor. Two and a half stars.
Which is a shame, because there's a big chunk of this book that's from Martha's point of view, so there was plenty of opportunity to delve into her as a character. Thing is, much of Martha's sections were actually in first person--and Rayner gives her a voice that comes across as a bit too ditzy and teenager-y for the young woman we see on the show, especially given that Martha's supposed to be a medical student after all. And this is related to the book's other major issue: it really needed another edit pass or two. The Martha sections alternated between first and third person for no apparent reason, and to have a first person Martha section immediately followed by a third person was quite jarring. So was the one occurrence I found where two short paragraphs were repeated one right after the other on a page.
This is not to say it wasn't a fun read, though. The concept was pretty basic; SF/F has certainly seen the concept of a mad collector trying to get the last one of every extinct species into a zoo before. This time around, the collector in question trying to corner the last Time Lord certainly has some potential for interest--though this wasn't explored nearly as deeply as I'd hoped. Still, the Doctor reacting to and sympathizing with all the trapped creatures rings true for him as a character, and even if Rayner's grasp on Martha is kind of shaky, she's good and solid on the Doctor. Two and a half stars.
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