Trading Futures (Doctor Who) [Mass Market Paperback]

Lance Parkin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2002 | Series: Doctor Who

On an Earth of the not-so distant future, Anji is surprised by the way the world has developed. The EU and US have become rivals, and a situation in North Africa, in which they both have interests that they wish to protect, threatens to turn into full-scale war.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 249 pages
• Publisher: BBC Pubns (April 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0563538481
• ISBN-13: 978-0563538486
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.3 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,782,637 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #72 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Series

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Better than usual for the Eighth Doctor ..., March 3, 2004

By 

Cynthia Cooper "Cyn" (Somerville, MA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Trading Futures (Doctor Who) (Mass Market Paperback)

You used to be able to pick up any Doctor Who novel and start right in; at worst, you'd need to adjust to the new companions and that'd be it. Near the end of the New Adventures series, that changed -- the series became almost completely divorced from the original Who, and the books referred more to each other than to the television series. That didn't change when the license went back to the BBC and they started making the Eighth Doctor books -- if anything, it got worse.

"Trading Futures" is a welcome respite from that. It's a fun, fast-moving action adventure, something like the Third Doctor might have gotten up to. It's not so much a spy adventure as it is a Tom Clancy book played for laughs.

More than that, though, it's new Who that *isn't depressing* and *doesn't require you have read the previous eight books in the series to understand it*. For me, that's enough!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Man with the Titanium Time Machine, October 28, 2002

By 

Jason A. Miller (New York, New York USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Trading Futures (Doctor Who) (Mass Market Paperback)

If "Trading Futures" is supposed to be James Bond done "Doctor Who" style, it's obviously a Roger Moore film.

Most of the advance word I heard about "Futures" led me to believe I was going to read a vastly serious book, with straightforward action and a whole smattering of "Doctor Who"'s own brand of left-wing realpolitik. What I got, however, was a knee-slapper, an out-and-out comedy, by my estimation the third one of these the EDAs have put out in the last 12 months or so (along with "Earthworld" and "Mad Dogs and Englishmen", and that's not even counting "The Slow Empire").

The basic plot appears to tie in with the recent Sabbath arc. A mysterious time-traveler comes to the 2130s to auction his machine to the highest bidder, in exchange for the defense secrets that might well spark off war between the United States and the European Union. But the bidders include an ancient Scottish secret agent (and his sidekick "Penny Lik"), a couple of undercover agents from the future, and... time-traveling rhinoceroses, looking to inherit the secrets of Gallifrey, and wearing those silly Time Lord hat-and-collar sets from the 1970s.

The villain here, Baskerville (there are no mention of his hounds) is a charming, over the top gangster reminiscent of Gert Frobe or Robert Davi. His rantings on politics are so surreal that one almost suspects Parkin believes them. There's an awful lot of second-unit photography -- locales include Athens, Toronto, Los Angeles, and Ibiza. The paragraph on page 8 describing the retro-1990s cafe is probably the funniest paragraph ever to appear in "Doctor Who", but I can't reprint it here.

Bottom line, "Trading Futures" is a fast, funny book, with small flashes of sincerity and an awful lot of irony. Three different characters die seconds after proclaiming that bullets can't harm them. If you were expecting a hard espionage thriller right out of Robert Ludlum... be thankful you were wrong.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Would you like a little Bond in your Who?, July 24, 2002

By 

David Roy (Vancouver, BC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Trading Futures (Doctor Who) (Mass Market Paperback)

One thing that Doctor Who, ever since the television series, has been good at is ripping off...ahem, I mean paying homage to other genres. Trading Futures is pretty blatantly a James Bond pastiche, even down to the cover (with silhouetted women posing provocatively and a couple of other exciting scenes, all in a big target image). The question is, is it a good pastiche? Thankfully, yes it is.

This is a book that never stops. It's certainly not introspective at all, moving from action set piece to action set piece. It's kind of surprising coming from Lance Parkin, who usually has more event-driven, monumental books. The scene shifts drastically from a resort on the Mediterranean Sea to Athens to California to Toronto and to Russia, with a few places in between. You almost have to stop and catch your breath at times. There's a lot of gunfire, robotic tanks and other robots, and daring leaps. Personally, I rather enjoyed all of this, but if you don't, you may want to skip this book.

Not to say that characterization is neglected, though it's not as good as most of Parkin's books. The Doctor and Anji have plenty to do (though, in Bond tradition, Anji spends a lot of time dressed in a bikini). Both of them are very well-characterized, with Parkin capturing almost perfectly the Doctor's combination of whimsy and intelligence. Anji actually uses some of her economics background to work out part of what's going on, and she has some marvelous scenes with Baskerville, the man with the time machine to sell. Fitz is pretty good too, with an often hilarious sequence where he's mistaken for the Doctor and has to try and improvise.

The other characters are also fairly good. Cosgrove is a British agent who is trying to get the time machine for the Eurozone. Or is he? He is given some great motivation and it's very interesting as things unfold around him and the reader gets to find out what's really going on. Baskerville is given some great scenes as well. He's very well-rounded and not just a dastardly villain. Malady Chang is a CIA agent that becomes attached to the Doctor. She's a little bit more one-note, but she is given some interesting things to do. The other minor characters don't suffer too badly, but they're not as complete as these.

The plot is also very intriguing. The differing factions can be confusing sometimes, but it's usually pretty easy to figure out what's going on. There's lots of humour to go with the action. Watching Fitz try to talk his way out of trouble is always a treat, and there's some great byplay between the Doctor and Malady as well. The only thing that's a bit too cute for me is the name of the alien race: a race of alien rhinos called Onihrs. C'mon Lance, that's bad.

Personally, I think Parkin can do no wrong, and he hasn't disproved that feeling yet. Trading Futures is probably the weakest of his books, but it's still well above some of the other Who books out there. This book is entertaining to say the least, and also moves along the arc that's been carrying through the 8th Doctor books recently. If you like your Who with a dash of Bond, then definitely pick this one up. It's also a very easy story to get into if you have never read a Who book before.