Customer Reviews

Doctor Who: The King's Dragon

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

 

 

This is a story with moments of 'wow' interspersed with segments of 'huh?' Uneven, I believe is the word.

The plot is a bit swiss cheese and the world setting doesn't make logical sense. As many times as I see the trope, I still get annoyed when the Doctor arrives on a "medieval planet" where there has been no advance of technology for eons. It feels narrow and claustrophobic. For cryin' out loud, why not just set it in medieval Europe?

The supporting cast was a mixed bag. Their motivations and demeanor seemed to shift wildly without much justification. Yes I know they were under the influence of, well, stuff. Even taking that into account, the behavior of the original characters didn't make sense half the time, and after a while, I stopped caring.

McCormack gets some points back when she deals with Amy, Rory and the Doctor. In fact, I could happily read an entire novel expanding on the scenes with the Doctor and Rory stuck in one another's company.

"The King's Dragon" also suffers from poor title syndrome. Don't throw the word 'dragon' around like that - it's a bait and switch. I wanted a dragon, but all I got was a (inanimate) statue. Also, sadly, it took about halfway through the book for me to confirm that indeed, the dragon was an inanimate statue - so poorly was it described.

All in all it's a decent first draft that needed the services of a strong and honest editor before it hit our bookshelves.

This novel presents some interesting commentary on greed and media. The Doctor is compassionate, Amy is bold, and Rory is befuddled. Par for the course.

Notably the story takes some digs at the popular scifi concept of the Prime Directive - how an advanced culture should or should not interact with a far less advanced one.

It prickles (and sometimes confuses) in its Old English/Beowulf roots and influences. Sometimes the connection is more baffling as to why it is the best backdrop for the story than it is captivating or evocative.

The use and distribution of technology is diffuse and rather willy-nilly. I'd like to explain further but I loathe spoilers. Suffice it to say that sometimes it just seems thrown together (literally) rather than cohesive and integral. The TARDIS is practically non-existent and the sonic is basically a prop. Psychic paper plays the biggest role of any of the Doctor's usual tools. None of these are employed in any surprising fashion.

I have to say that I had a hard time caring for a lot of the non-marquee characters here. They were a bit flat and predictable. And the Doctor didn't have any particularly exciting moments of brilliance - and admits as much, literally, during the course of one of the heightened action sequences.

*****************************
This is another Doctor novel ("Autonomy" comes immediately to mind) replete with the awkward and nondescript British phrase "pulled a face." Can we please put a stop to this? Every other page a character is "pulling a face." Are they confused? Angry? Sad? You don't know. They're just "pulling a face." Stop it. Please.
*****************************

I'm giving it four stars because it was entertaining, though compared with some of its fine Doctor brethren novels, it probably deserves a three.

I read this over the course of two days, the story seemed to flow from chapter to chapter and it just seemed to work. Some parts did seem as if they were drawn out to meet the page limit, but when it was good, it was good.

It captures Rory very well. I've seen Amy done better before. The Doctor... lets just say we see a side of the Doctor in this book which either we don't see on TV, or the author made up. I found it quite hard to picture the Doctor saying certain things and acting in certain ways, but there were other times we the author captured the essence of the Doctor to a tee.

If you enjoy the series, go for it. If you're new to the series, still go for it.

putting me being a whovian aside, not everything dr who is the best. The alien world didn't seem alien at all so I got zero culture shock and that really bugged me. The world just seemed like earth in the 17th century. The plot was ok though with a metal that induces greed and addiction like drugs. sadly only a couple of concepts and a couple funny doctor moments were the better parts. If you are a hard core fan by all means buy it but it wouldn't be a good book to introduce dr who.

IT is hard to pinpoint where the story goes wrong. Maybe it was never on track? The Doctor, Amy, and Rory visit the city of Geath. A city-state that was a democracy that now has a King. A city on a planet without industry that now has wealth beyond your wildest dreams from a statue of a dragon. A statue of metal that oozes gold. you would think somebody in one of the other cities would notice that.
The danger feels weak. The villains do not feel like villains. Even the Doctor seems off - true, this is set during Matt Smith's first season as the Doctor and I believe his version was meant to be a tad confusing. Still, the danger of Enamour is not made very clear. Was it a weapon or a form of slave collar or slave suit? Also the idea of an ancient civil war seems to be a tad over-used and made me just shrug. How many ancient wars, slave revolts, dark empires are there in Doctor Who? Or in science fiction in general? They really do not impress me and I was looking for something more interesting. Frankly, real dragons or magic may have been to way to go - you know, give the Doctor something he REALLY never confronted before.