Customer Reviews

Dancing the Code

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book was really, quite strange. The Virgin books usually fit in nicely with surrounding stories from the book's slotted era, but this particular one does no such thing. There are no third Doctor stories with warring Arabs, aliens who brutally kill people, and as much terror and suspence as this book. I must say, the plot moves quick, and for Doctor Who, is pretty darn creepy. It starts with The Doctor witnessing himself and Jo being shot by the Brigadier via one of The Doctor's time stream gadgets. They agree to split up and Jo gets sent to Kebiria, a middle-eastern country riddled with warring factions who all lay claim to being the rightful owners of the country and it's land. It is also where a UNIT officer has recently suffered a horrific death, and the nations military has disappeared in the desert. Upon arrival Jo and the rest of the UNIT guys are arrested and sent to various prisons. In prison Jo meets a reporter who has some ideas of what may be going on. Along with a couple of arab freedom fighters and the reporter, Jo escapes to a town near the border of the country. The town is inhabited by a different sect than the people of national Kebiria, and the town is attacked upon Jo's arrival. After the human attack the settlement is attacked by aliens. During the attack Jo is captured by the aliens and taken back to their hidden camp in the desert. Once there she discovers what happened to the lost army and finds the Doctor. Now with The Doctor on the scene, they start getting to the bottom of things, but some of the answers provided shake The Doctor and Jo to their core's The aliens turn out to be Xarax, a race of flying, monstrous insects. Their queen can make an imitation of anything out of the honey from their hive, so any weapons the humans use against the invaders end being used by the aliens themselves. And on top of that the Xarax have a murderous master behind them.
In the end, their is a whole lot of violient deaths and horrific moments in this book. The Xarax are no cheesy, man-in-rubber-suit, hoaxes, instead they seam like a very surreal and dangerous alien race. Like I said previously, it's not like any Doctor Who story I have ever seen but this book is well worth reading. The realizations of Pertwee's Doctor and Jo Grant were appropriate and all of UNIT's stars get a lot to do. Overall this book holds the mystery and suspense as well as any Doctor Who book I have ever read, but all the violence is a bit of a turnoff. Even still, I would recommend this book to anyone who is die-hard enough to be reading this, it will be enjoyed.