Customer Reviews

The Adventuress of Henrietta Street (Doctor Who)

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Lawrence Miles clearly does not understand that licensed fiction, novels based on a TV series, are supposed to be written to fit a mold, to give fans of the series just what they expect. And it's a good thing for Doctor Who that he doesn't. This novel is a major turning point for the series, and to say too much about the plot would give too much away. It's the tale of a year the Doctor and his companions spend on late 18th century Earth, defending it against an incursion from beyond. It's a tale of their allies and enemies. And it's great.

Miles has chosen to write this particular story as if it were an actual history text, rather than a novel. There is very little actual dialogue, and what we do get is ostensibly quoted from other sources. More than simple literary pretention or conceit, this gives the novel an epic feel. The reader has the sense that truly important events are being related, because the narrative places them into a worldwide context. Despite this particular storytelling choice, the reader doesn't feel distanced from the characters or story. In some ways, the suspense is heightened, because of the foreshadowing this "looking back on history" format allows.

Additionally, because this is written as a history text rather than just another Doctor Who novel, it makes a perfect jumping-on point for the series. Unlike Miles's last Doctor Who novel, Interference, readers don't need to know anything about the series history to follow this story. Regular fans will have a deeper understanding of the truth behind the mysteries of the Doctor, but newcomers shouldn't feel left out. (I have to admit, I'm assuming this is the case; as a twenty-plus year fan of the character, I can hardly see these stories as a newcomer would.)

Thrilling, breathtaking, heart-wrenching, this book effectively completes the cycle of change started back in Interference, and sets the Doctor on a new--but not unfamiliar--path, with a new purpose, and possibly a new adversary. And I defy anyone to read the final chapters without a tear coming to their eye.

In the world of Doctor Who novels a new work by Lawrence Miles is an event. His previous works, Alien Bodies and Interference, and his New Adventure Dead Romance, have a scale and a depth that is lacking from most of the long running series predecessors. Miles has ambition for the series, and sadly, many traditional Doctor Who fans, do not realise that it is on the printed page that the future of the series now lies - and it is through playing with form and style that Doctor Who will continue to justify its existence.

With Lawrence Miles new novel, The Adventuress of Henrietta Street, Doctor Who fiction has been delivered the Miles book long promised through the midwife of series editor, Justin Richards. This is a new start for the series, and coming after an impressive series of novels including Loyd Rose's City of the Dead, Kate Orman's The Year of Intelligent Tigers, and Simon Bucher-Jones and Kelly Hale's Grimm Reality, suggests a bright future for the series.

It is difficult to write too much about this novel without giving away key plot elements. However, to attempt. The Doctor is sick, stranded in eighteenth century London in a brothel run by Scarlette, the eponymous heroine. Without his TARDIS, and initially without his companions, the Doctor is sick. Strange demon apes (babewyns) roam London's streets. They kill and devour those in their way. And a bulky character, Sabbath, appears in a metal ship crewed by trained babewyns, pledged to defend time. This novel deals with the loose ends left hanging by the big bang from The Ancestor Cell, and throws up enough plot strands to suggest a bright future for the series.

The novel reintroduces an old friend (although they are never named), and features two controversial elements that will keep the Doctor Who fanbase arguing for years to come.

Aside from the controversy, though, the novel merits the description in the title - the finest Eighth Doctor adventure. Appreciating that Doctor Who lies on the page, Miles (along with Paul Magrs one of the more sophisticated writers of the series), turns in a stylistic tour de force. Reminding this reader of William Boyd's fake biography Nat Tate, Miles writes a history. Freed from the obligation on an author to be omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent, Miles writes a history based on testimonies. Whether or not events occurred are couched with doubts and questions. Referring to many sources - from Scarlette, Sabbath, the Doctor, masonic records, secret service records, and the tesimonies of various prostitutes - strands are pulled together. The plot is never overwhelmed by style. But the halting nature of the historical narrative leaves loose ends, uncertainties. This is what the series needed. This is a novel that bears rereading, but also suggests a new way forward. The Doctor, in assuming the mantle of Earth's champion, and Sabbath, there to protect time, sets fair for a new conflict in the series.

This was a most enjoyable read. And as well as the big picture Miles puts in some jokes (I enjoyed the conflict between the prostitutes in Manchester, where the southerners wear red and black, the locals, blue and white rosettes.) One hopes that Miles returns to the series again very soon; and, also, that his ambition extends beyond Who. Here is a novelist that - in fantasy or science fiction - could play with ideas, and write big important novels.

If you enjoyed this read Alien Bodies or Interference, Miles' last two series defining volumes.

WARNING: Reading this book may induce flashbacks to the worst history books your teacher ever forced you to read in high school!

This "novel" is written as one of those dull, dry, historical texts and as such keeps the reader detached from the characters. There's little dialogue and the prose is written in complete exposition--that is, it tells but doesn't show. Add in the extremely small print, and you've got a book that begs "Don't read me!" Unless you're a die-hard DOCTOR WHO fan AND a devoted follower of the book series, you'll probably answer it by shrugging your shoulders and saying, "Okay, I won't."

Things happen in the book that will directly effect the storylines of subsequent Eighth Doctor novels, and that is the ONLY reason anyone should even ATTEMPT to read this book. And even at that, you might want to first try searching the web for any blogs that sum up those events so that you can pass on this dreadful, dreadful book.

Even though it's dense, even though it's long, if you follow the series book by book, you have to read it or else later you'll be sayng "What the...". I learned the hard way.

This particular Eighth Doctor adventure is very important if you are following the series in order, as many big things happen in it. When Lawrence Miles writes a Doctor Who book, you have to stand up and take notice. While "cosmic" may not be a good word for the events in this novel, "trans-dimensional" might be.

How is it as a story? For me, it wasn't that great. First, to summarize. The Doctor has come to Earth to help protect it against yet another dire threat: babewyns (yes, that is the proper spelling). These apes are creatures from the edge of human understanding of the cosmos. As human understanding starts to approach this edge, the babewyns are attracted to Earth and start wreaking havoc, killing people very violently. Why hasn't this happened before? Because the Doctor's people, the Time Lords, have been guardians of the cosmos, preventing stuff like this from happening. Due to events in previous books (that I won't spoil here), they no longer serve that purpose. The Doctor's link with his people is gone, and he needs to link himself with Earth instead in order to prevent stuff like this from happening.

Thus, he comes to London in 1782, where he meets up with a group of humans who also have a basic understanding of the way time works, as well as other "occult" things. The Doctor's going to marry a virgin woman to link himself with the planet. It's all very metaphysical in scope, and is a bit hard to describe. This group of humans he allies himself with are prostitutes in a bordello run by Scarlette, who is one of the experts on this sort of occult stuff. The rest of the prostitutes have some ability in this as well. The book details the year that takes place from February 1782 to February 1783, which includes the events leading up to the wedding, and the events that take place immediately afterward. It also introduces another character who will feature in future Eighth Doctor books, Sabbath. He is a bit of a nemesis for the Doctor, though he's not above helping if it serves his own ends as well.

So why isn't the book that great? The main reason for me is that the book is written as a "history" book instead of a novel, as if some historian in the 20th century is looking back at the events in the book and trying to cobble them together from writings produced at the time. Thus, there are a lot of passages similar to "no one knows exactly what the Doctor said to Scarlette, but it would seem likely to go something like this:" This creates a barrier between the reader and the characters, making it almost impossible to say whether or not the people in the novel are in character. The reader is almost removed from the action. There is virtually no dialogue.

This isn't necessarily a bad way to do a novel, as long as it's not repeated often. It's an interesting technique. Unfortunately, what Miles goes on and does is make this "history book" one of those pop-history books, not really written by a historian, but more by somebody with an interest in the topic but no training in how to write a book about it. The text goes all over the place, jumping back and forth in the action like a novel would, but it just doesn't work in the pseudo-historical format. It has faux-cliffhangers similar to "...which Scarlette would find out later, to her regret. But getting back to the Doctor...." That's not an exact quote out of the book, but it's the type of "cliffhanger" I'm talking about.

One thing I really did like about the book, though, were the "babewyns." These apes, while not exactly terrifying, were quite disturbing, especially in their home dimension. Considering the TV series has been known in the past for "forcing kids behind the couch while they're watching," it was nice to finally get a creepy enemy in the book series. The wasted "city" that their dimension consists of is very well-drawn, too. Miles has always been an impressive wordsmith, and the prose shows that. While I don't like the style it was written in, I like how it was written (does that make sense? )

Ultimately, I found "Adventuress" a frustrating book. It has big events, and I follow the book series so I want to read each one. But it was hard-going through this one. The text is quite small. Thus, it's very dense. The style works against the book as far as I'm concerned. Because of the style, the characters aren't really that three dimensional. They can't be, because you're never sure whether or not the narrator is being accurate or not.

If you're a regular reader of the series, then you should probably read this book (though if you are, you probably don't need a recommendation anyway). If you're not, then you may just want somebody to point out the "big events" in the novel and move on to the next one.

These books are were not manufactured very well -- the entire line. They're close to a decade old, and even if you shell out the extra bucks for an "Unread, Like New" copy, more than likely the thing will fall apart in your hands, when you open it. It's a shame that the glue on these books has such a poor shelf life. Yes, pulp paperbacks are often considered disposable in this industry, yet all my Virgin New Adventures from the preceding decade still hold together quite well. Books shouldn't have an expiration date, like a bottle of milk ...

Here's a loaded statement: if you're a "Doctor Who" fan, you will love "The Adventuress of Henrietta Street".

Or, more specifically, you'll love it if you're a fan of the "Doctor Who" books. And I suspect that subset of fans is increasingly shrinking, siphoned off by the lack of availability of the books in the USA, and by the burgeoning audio series.

"The Adventuress of Henrietta Street" is a twisting, gory work of non-fiction. A lot has happened to the Doctor's universe in the books over the past couple of years -- most notably the erasal of Gallifrey and the Time Lords from all of history. "Henrietta" is the first book to try and pick up the pieces and sort out what the books' universe looks like now. It's done in the style of a Z-grade history book (hundreds of passages read similar to: "As the Doctor looked out over the ridge that day, he must have thought about...") and concerns the Doctor's one unsuccessful year as the proprietor of a London bordello. Obviously there's not a huge market for this sort of thing. Of the reported 20,000 people who initially set out to buy original DW fiction, how many of them will find this concept worthy? 900?

That said, once you buy into the central premise, "Henrietta" is truly awesome. A lot of significant events happen within the book's mythology. The name Lawrence Miles on the spine helps: whenever a massive arc shift occurs in the DW universe, it's done most interestingly when Miles is the author (see "Alien Bodies" and "Interference"). Miles weaves his mentally tortured ideas into a coherent whole, and leaves you wanting a lot more. One fun game is to count all the phony historical events that the book's anonymous narrator records so faithfully: Earth history as we know it has been radically altered since "The Ancestor Cell" and when you read here just how some of those events changed, you'll be quite amused (George Washington a ranting warlock, indeed!).

But there's another problem with any Miles-led story arc: the DW books come out monthly, but are written six months in advance. It takes a long time for the concepts Miles works with so deftly, to permeate the other novels -- witness the 18-month vacation of Faction Paradox after "Alien Bodies" was published. I fear a whole lot of confusion in the books ahead, until the other writers figure out just who Sabbath is -- that is, if he makes a return appearance at all!

As the "Doctor Who" books universe becomes a smaller and more confusing place, "The Adventuress of Henrietta Street" is one of its brighter corners. This book is well worth the effort.

This book is very ambitious, unfortunately the author does not demonstrate the skill to pull it off. The fundamental flaw is quite basic, in fact violates the first guideline of modern fiction writing that anyone should learn: show, don't tell. This novel is mostly exposition, keeping the reader at a distance from the story and somewhat disallowing real characterization or clarity of action. Doubly frustrating, many important events in the story are deliberately clouded by the author. Interestingly, neophyte authors of science fiction and horror frequently attempt this type of story, pieced together through journals and records, because they like DRACULA so much (which doesn't, however, stand as an example of modern fiction).

The second error in this book, again frequently made by neophyte writers, is the use of symbolism. The story is driven by symbolism, which is something that rarely works. The author explicitly tells us that the beasts in the story are symbols, and the actions taken to fight them are symbolic. The Doctor's illness (and the resolution of it), the TARDIS, the city of the beasts, etc. are all physical manifestations of symbolism. This is not good fiction. Symbolism should serve to enhance the story, not to serve as the premise. What we are left with is a bit mess that doesn't make any sense.

This was my first pick of this series, recently discovering that the BBC was publishing these Doctor Who novels. At first I was taken aback at how things had changed, but now I am intrigued at the overall story, and consider that it is in line with the Doctor Who tradition. Unfortunately, it appears that many of the books preceding this story are either out of print or hard to find in the U.S. I'll be looking for them, though - somewhat in line with the overall experience of Doctor Who as an American: catch it when you can and work to keep up. Anyway, kudos to the BBC and author to keeping it up and taking some risks with the storyline.

THE ADVENTURESS OF HENRIETTA STREET is bloody huge. It's a massive and epic work that is squeezed into the BBC book (less than 300 page) limit by having virtually no margins and a typeface small enough that even ants armed with stupidly powerful magnifying glasses may have trouble with fully deciphering the text. Having recently completed reading this book, I fully expect to be squinting my way through life for the next six months and I can only hope that laser-corrective surgery will not be a necessity. But despite the physical limitations (my eyes, my poor suffering eyes!) I found this to be quite an intriguing story and one worthy of a lot more attention than mere nitpicking over individual continuity points.

The book is written in the style of a pseudo-historical novel. It's a collection of accounts, descriptions and stories of events that the narrator has pieced together from numerous, varying and (occasionally) outright conflicting historical records. There's very little dialogue and a lot of uncertainty. While this may seem to distance the reader from the action, it does allow Lawrence Miles to add several elements of foreshadowing and symbolism that ordinarily would have been very difficult to seamlessly add to the narrative. It took me about thirty or forty pages to really get a feel for this style (and thirty or forty pages of this dense and, at times, difficult material is nothing to sneeze at), but once I got a handle on it, the technique really worked for me. It made the events being discussed feel quite epic and grand. The settings were extremely well evoked, and despite the fantastical nature of the majority of the events, a feeling of realism was brought across to the reader. The historical "age" of the story is made much more concrete by creating the story in this manner. The book is able to play with the concepts of ambiguity and the unreliable narrator, but it doesn't allow itself become overshadowed by them.

After the book has been completed, I really didn't get the feeling that I'd come to know these characters particularly well. They certainly act in an internally consistent manner, but one doesn't quite get close enough to be able to predict their actions or to understand the subtleties of all their motivations. This should not be terribly surprising given the style in which the book is written. But even this shrouding of the people manages to add something to the overall work. We're given bits and pieces of the characters. Not enough to discover fully formed persons, but enough to tantalize the imagination. Despite the obvious barriers between characters and audience, one wishes to learn more about these people. Almost paradoxically, I felt as though there actually were real historical people being discussed, despite the artificial obstruction of time keeping me far away from them. A lot of this is down to Miles' sheer writing skills that make shadowy, partially hidden figures seem somehow vivid. Instead of appearing formless or indistinct, they came across as genuine.

Speaking of good writing, many passages are extremely chilling and frightening. Indeed, this is one of the only Doctor Who books to have actually given me nightmares (okay, one nightmare), based solely on the descriptions and manifestations of the main "villain(s)" of the story. These sections achieve a very spooky feel; the atmosphere is shockingly effective at times. Apart from the physical descriptions, the frequent historical asides and passages excellently provide a feeling of uncertainty. Some of the narrator's observations of the symbolism come across as heavy-handed, but for the most part they are handled well.

The actual content of the book is simply astonishing. It manages to be primal and raw while also encompassing the strange, the unbelievable and the extraordinary. Gritty descriptions of death, blood and sex are side by side with tales of the supernatural. This is a story of Gods, elementals and forces of nature. In the dawn before the Industrial Revolution, the armies of knowledge and intellect must battle with the strange and terrible beasts of ignorance. It's an epic battle, and one that's absolutely spellbinding.

The events that take place in THE ADVENTURESS OF HENRIETTA STREET may have long lasting effects on the Doctor Who line. Or, possibly, they may not. Whatever the follow-up is to the proceedings of this book, the main thing to know is that this is a smart and clever story that will have you thinking about its symbolism and metaphors long after the last page has been read. It may also have you reaching for the soothing and healing powers of friendly eye-drops so remember to keep some liquid handy.

OH MY GOD what a tiring piece of work that fails on so many levels. I've just finished it and still have know idea what the point was and the only reason I even finished it was hoping there would be an actual point to it and actually I am a follower of the series and figured what happened may have later (im)pertinence to the series. As one other reviewer said not since the new adventures was there a more "dense" book. Pretentious more like. I usually can't wait to finish the Doctor Who BBS series novels however this one simply dragged on and on and on and had to force myself to finish. Unless you're a Doctor Who completist DO NOT WASTE A MINUTE ON THIS BOOK.