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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
DUTCH TREAT, November 3, 2001
This review is from: Vanderdeken's Children (Doctor Who Series) (Paperback)
With VANDERDEKEN'S CHILDREN, the 14th Eighth Doctor and Sam adventure, I'll be going against the rest here in saying that, while it had an interesting plot (if not overly repeated - this story is a cross between two Third Doctor adventures, DEATH TO THE DALEKS and part of CARNIVAL OF MONSTERS where the Doctor is caught in a time loop on a passanger ship, plus a dash of SPHERE by Crichton thrown into the mix), much of the book is listless, dull and adrift - much like the ship the Doctor and Sam encounter in this adventure. Everyone has their part to play and they never stray from it, leaving much of the mystery and suspense to be generated by the ship itself - which it does, but only to a point. The Doctor (again) knows more than he saying, and his ability to operate the ship is annoying (and a cop out for the writer who can't seem to get around paradoxes, time warps and hyper space without the Doctor being utterly brilliant at every moment). Plus, the Doctor's foil, Rexton, also knows more than he's saying, leaving the reader caught between the knowing and suspicious glances between the two. While action packed, it's merely sound and fury to cover the holes in the plot and in that the book excels. Good for a first time reader, but slow for established fans.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great plot makes up for the shallow characters, June 4, 2001
This review is from: Vanderdeken's Children (Doctor Who Series) (Paperback)
VANDERDEKEN'S CHILDREN comes as a refreshing breath of air after the last few books that have been sacrificing plot for characterization (or just plain sacrificing both for nothing). Don't get me wrong now, I'd prefer to have both in a story, but if we're only going to get one at a time in this series, it is nice to mix them up every now and then. This is the hardest Science-Fiction story that the Doctor Who series has had in a while. Derelict spacecrafts, time paradoxes, hyperspace tunnels, and echoes from the future all feature heavily. The Doctor and Sam get to play Sherlock Holmes and Watson while helping two different human factions uncover the mystery of an abandoned alien ship that's apparently home to some familiar ghosts. The plot is genuinely interesting and I was kept on the edge of my seat waiting to see how it would unfold. The characterization is uniformly shallow with one or two sections where it descends into tedium. I couldn't see how the subplot concerning the husband, wife and the other woman made any difference to the story. I realize that they were also experiencing the same sort of future echoes that the rest of the passengers were and I thought it was a good idea to show some of the other effects of the time loop. But while it made for a diversion from the main action, it was not an interesting one, and in my opinion it should have either been strengthened or cut from the book entirely. Every time that section came up, I inwardly groaned at the clichéd dialogue and the stereotypical "tough wife and passive husband" relationship. But as this was mainly a plot driven story, the characterization didn't distract from it all that much. There are a few places at the end where the explanation about the future time lines seemed to fall apart. I was especially annoyed at the eventual explanation for what the origin of the ship was. However, overall this was a very good book and I highly recommend it for fans of the book series or for people who are unfamiliar to the Doctor Who format. The book seems specially designed for beginners to the line and starts off with a short and unobtrusive introduction to the main characters, the TARDIS and the series particulars.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Enjoyable, Thrilling Ride, January 12, 2000
This review is from: Vanderdeken's Children (Doctor Who Series) (Paperback)
I don't know why it is that people on Dr Who fan sites bash certain Dr Who books, while the same books get great reviews on Amazon.com. This is one of them, and let me tell you (as a hardcore Eighth Doctor Fan) I loved this book! It was an erie, sci-fi horror feel to it. This book is complex and you may need to slow down the pace of reading this to grasp all the neat plot twists and temporal loops, but it's great. I was hooked from page 1 to the last. The action starts off right away, and I liked little things in this book (like the Doctor using his real name when creating a fake id on the ship, which really confuses people because it's practically unpronounceable by humans), and the characters are mostly well created. I would definitely recommend this book to any dr who fan!
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