Customer Reviews

Faction Paradox: The Book of the War

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

 

 

Much like Milorad Pavic's _Dictionary of the Khazars_, this is a Dictionary-Novel incredible in it's complexity and execution. The novel is about groups of time-traveling cultures engaged in a War to rewrite history to their own ends. Although this may sound silly, the intelligent prose of the authors and the rich structure of the plot make this book a great reading, not only to sci-fi fans, but for all good-literature lovers.
It is also a deep reflextion on our own culture, values and conceptions. I would recommend this book to anyone who's looking to try for something different.

Social commentary and insight disguised as a science fiction dictionary of a timeline that may exist. Ignore the fact that this timeline is an offshoot of the Doctor Who world and you will see insight that delves into ones own perspectives on time, war, and life in general. Embrace the fact that this is a timeline offshoot of Doctor Who, and you will find yourself manically attempting to figure out the many, many ways this links the novels to the current television series (I estimate this war has yet to end, but the destruction of Gallifrey caused by this war has already occurred). Fun read for fans of Who and general science fiction readers alike.

A science fiction novel set in a TV-show-derived universe, got to get past that. Written as a dictionary, individual entries leading you in many possible directions, with omissions, edits, and entries from multiple perspectives, now that's interesting.

Within the Doctor Who fandom world, I think Faction Paradox (and other works of the era) went massively wrong with magic, symbolic rituals, and Lovecraftian influences. On the other hand, this is such an interesting piece of work, telling the tale of the first fifty years of a time war without beginnings or ends precisely, that such arguments can be set aside.

I'd like to think it could be enjoyed out of its context, but the couple of people who I've loaned the book to disagreed and were left completely confused. Maybe I loaned to the wrong folks...

I love lawrence miles writings but, this book is like a comic strip encyclopedia and i dont like comic strips and if i wanted to read an encyclopedia i would go to the library to pick one up. I thought this book would be a novel about the war in heaven not an encyclopedia of random events with cartoon pictures thats for children or people with mediocre intelligence. i wanted a doctor who novel about the war in heaven which by the way is much more interesting and engrossing than the so called last great time war of the current doctor who series which russel t davies god bless him revised but seriously screwed up. Lawrence miles could have done better than this and the only reason iam giving this book three stars is becuase i like the concepts discussed in the book even though i dont like the way it was done. The other faction pardox works were novels that had depth and stories without the aid of cartoon pictures i wish this book had been a straight foward novel.

Almost everything you ever wanted to know about the Time War that destroyed Gallifrey, edited and co-written by the man who conceived of the idea. An essential peice in the puzzel of connecting Classic Doctor Who to 2005 Doctor Who.