Customer Reviews

The Year of Intelligent Tigers (Doctor Who)

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

 

 

The TARDIS crew are happily ensconced on Hitchemus - a world with a single island land mass. The human colony is largely based around the production of music, and the dominant native life-form, which closely resembles the terran tiger, seems harmless and friendly. With perfect weather all year round, it seems like the perfect refuge. But then...

When you run through the list of Doctor Who authors, there are a few whose work receives almost universal praise. Kate Orman (with or without her husband, Jon Blum) is one of them.

Yet again Kate has written a book based around a believable alien world, and while it has a strong story-line, the reader is most likely to take away memories of the excellent portrayal of the characters. Kate's take on the current Doctor, still with amnesia for events preceding the novel 'The Burning', is a very strong one, full of an enormous passion for life and a towering humanity. Her interpretation of both Fitz and Anji are great, and each is explored and moved forward in this book. And then there are all the many characters who may very well appear in this book only, who are nevertheless given very effective life.

Beyond that, with this story set on a world where music is held in high regard, it is great to read musical ideas being constantly brought up within the context of the book. A devotion to music is a strong part of the characters, and so it is natural that it should be reflected in the way that many of the characters respond to the events of this book.

And then there are the tigers... About whom I'll say nothing more than their characterisation was also brilliant. Read the book to see what I mean!

I was also pleased to see Kate take one of the oft-used situations from the TV series, where the Doctor is forced to choose between the humans and the non-humans, and firstly give it a serious spin and then bounce it out the door. Things become clichés through overuse, but can be redeemed by turning them on their heads. Kate more than does this.

I could rave on and on for hours about this book, but that's not really the point. All I'll say is this: you'll be doing yourself a favour by reading it.

The TARDIS and crew arrive on the planet Hitchemus, where a human colony that shares a passion for music, share the world with its only other dominant life forms - harmless friendly creatures that closely resemble Earth tigers. Weather conditions and the peaceful tranquility of the world make it a near paradise to live in...but that's all about to change!

I found that the novel starts off with a leisurely pace, but being quite slow and not really catching the reader with much interest and you're left hoping that it will get better. But, once the plot kicks into gear you'll find yourself engrossed and hard-put to put the book down with it's many twists and developments in both the planet's inhabitants, the Doctor's and his companions lives.

Orman's characterisation is superb. Especially with the creation of the 'tiger' society being vastly more interesting than the 'run of the mill' human society it must go up against. The Doctor's actions do come as a surprise, but isn't uncharacteristic - the ending being the best and will leave you thinking "It's about time you done that, Doc" (No pun intended).
Anji's character is tested and is starting to really evolve as she must decide where her loyalties lie with the colonists or the Doctor, who has gone and abandoned them. Fitz is clearly running scared but his rock-hard faith in the Doctor is also great to see. Plus, the fun loving, innocent tiger 'Bounce' is a character you'll easily find yourself enjoying immensely.

I found that the story does seem to resemble a 'mish mash' of different themes from the televised stories of the Doctor, with "The Silurians" being one of the main.

Overall, as with all Kate Orman books, you will find this an enjoyable experience, and a great and refreshing break from the previous 8th Doctor novels preceding it. VERY RECOMMENDED!!!

At first I wasn't sure if I was going to like THE YEAR OF INTELLIGENT TIGERS. It starts off quite slowly, with a lot of leisurely scenes that are interesting and enjoyable, but don't really get the blood pumping. It seems like it's trying to do the Doctor-and-companions-on vacation thing, but not doing it quite as well as Ben Aaronovitch had done in his fabulous THE ALSO PEOPLE. Fortunately, the opening sections are merely setting the stage for what comes later. The result is a book that is easily one of the best of the EDAs.

This is a much more in-depth and demanding novel than the previous three in the EDA range, and it's all that much more rewarding. Once the plot kicks in, it drives the action in a relaxed, yet steady pace. Several wonderful set pieces space out the more story-driven sequences and provide us with numerous memorable images. The Eighth Doctor works incredibly well as a sort of mad violinist, and it's great to see him putting his passion towards something other than running around quickly. The musical references invade every part of the book, from the structure to the dialogue to the tone. The mentions are plentiful, but never clumsy, and are slipped in with a lot of care.

The society of tigers is quite well realized and there is a genuine sense of mystery and anticipation as more and more of their culture and history is slowly revealed. I won't give away too much, but there are some great surprises contained in these sections. Numerous Doctor Who clichés are borrowed from, but they are all given a new twist. In some ways the basic plot resembles older stories and serials, but every time you think you know how the story will unfold, it cleverly takes a different step, defying expectation at most turns. Such familiarity in the beginning and middle sections helps to emphasize how inventive and unexpected the ending really is. The Doctor's solution is exactly what he has been working towards for the entirety of the book, but the execution of this plan is quite interesting.

The tigers (though the story points out that they merely resemble Earth tigers, and are, in fact, an alien life-form) are characterized quite interestingly, slightly better than the individual humans are. Since we've seen hundreds of Earth colonies over the years, more time is spent building up the tiger society and so they get the lion's share of the attention. The regulars get quite a lot to do as well. Anji is really starting to come into her own as a companion. Here she's organized and resourceful, yet suspicious of the actions of other people. Without Fitz's experience, she's not quite sure where this Doctor fellow's loyalties really lie. It isn't overdone though, and it really helps to drive the action along. There is a great attention to detail present; every character's motivations are understandable and believable. No one acts merely for the sake of convenience.

THE YEAR OF INTELLIGENT TIGERS is a great book, giving the Doctor a lot to solve, Anji a lot to angst over, and Fitz a lot to be frightened of. As someone who isn't terribly familiar with a lot of classical music, I suspect that there were a few references that went over my head, but the musical flavour and tone of the story is maintained quite well. Extra mention should be made of the historical flashbacks to Doctor's one hundred year exile to Earth. These are two of the best portions of the book, and makes one wish that the Ormanblum entity had also written a book during that particular story arc. In any case, TIGERS is one of the better EDAs and is a welcome addition to the current unfolding story.

Year of Intelligent Tigers is a wonderful book. When you pick up a Kate Orman book, you know you're going to get an interesting read, even if you don't necessarily like the book. Kate's last book, Unnatural History (with her husband, Jon Blum), was a book that seemed to be written with a fannish agenda in mind. It really brought down what was an otherwise enjoyable story. This one goes back to the Orman staple of examining characters, especially that of the Doctor.

It's no secret that Kate really likes the Eighth Doctor, and you can always tell that when you read one of her books. He comes alive on the page. It has often been said that the Eighth Doctor doesn't seem to have much character, but that's never true in one of Kate's books. It's so nice that the Doctor actually does something, rather than being a bystander as he has been in many Eighth Doctor books.

This book also continues the storyline of Anji's doubting of the Doctor. Things are going from bad to worse there. For the first time, he appears to side with the aliens against the humans. He's not just being callous anymore, he appears to have gone to the other side. When one of the humans is killed and the Doctor just steps over them without even batting an eyelash, Anji doesn't know what to think. Again, Anji has nothing to compare this to, unlike Fitz. Fitz tries really hard to run interference for the Doctor, knowing that the Doctor couldn't betray them. Could he?

Fitz's dilemma is moving. He's torn between love for the Doctor and uncertainty about what's going to happen. He's just a plain, simple guy trying to do the right thing, even though he sometimes doesn't know what that is. You really have to feel for him sometimes, especially in this book. He's trying to delay the humans because the Doctor must have a plan. He just hasn't told them what it is. He's the only one of the humans that trusts the Doctor anymore, and he feels quite alone.

The tigers also make interesting characters. I found myself really growing attached to Longbody, Bounce, and even Big a little bit. Orman gives them all distinct personalities, motivations, and character. Longbody is distrustful, Bounce is an idealistic child, and Big is a pragmatic leader who has to handle not only the humans, but dissension within his own ranks.

The novel itself has an interesting feel to it. There is action in it, and violence. Yet it doesn't feel like there's a lot in there. The pace is a lot more leisurely than Eater of Wasps (the previous Eighth Doctor book). For the first time, the TARDIS crew is taking a holiday, and the book takes on that feel. Even when the Tigers plan is revealed, the pace is leisurely, almost like a sociological study of two societies than an adventure book. Yet it's still good.

Orman makes both societies interesting and worthy of the time spent on them. Even when the action starts, it's a lot slower than most Who books. The ending came as a surprise as well. I won't spoil it here, but let's just say that the Doctor comes up with an un-Doctorly solution, but yet it doesn't seem out of character. Everything that's happened in this book leads up to it, and it works.

If you're a Who fan, give yourself a treat and read this book. Let a non-Who fan borrow it, it may just draw them in. It's not a non-stop roller-coaster ride, but actually requires a little thought and paying attention. But that's ok. It's worth it.

It probably goes without saying by this point that when you need someone who knows what they're doing with actual characters, you go and call Kate Orman. A veteran of the novels by this point, if there was some kind of lever in the BBC offices you could pull when a story was getting too rote or the characters becoming too cliche that would result in Kate Orman dropping out of the ceiling to help fix your story, I would be the first to donate to its inception. Her name on the cover is one of the few absolute guarantees of quality on a Doctor Who novel as you can get. Presumably she doesn't write for television or someone intelligent would have snagged her for the new show already.

As an interesting aside, her name is solely credited on the cover but in the acknowledgements she notes that husband Jonathan Blum did a not-indecent amount of work on the book and the inside "About the Author" blurbs credit him as well. It doesn't really matter except for those out there keeping score for who did what, but I thought it was curious. Maybe his contributions came after the cover was printed.

This novel takes the merry TARDIS crew over to Hitchemus, where people live content and create music all day while romping around with the friendly and cuddly "tigers" that roam the planet. A native species, they seem at first to be docile and a bit dense, although that quickly proves to be otherwise, hence the title. And very quickly what started out as an idyllic vacation becomes a matter of the Doctor trying to keep the two sides apart until he can figure out some way of bringing them together without killing each other. Ideally through the healing power of song.

As it was probably somewhat clear earlier, I'm a fan of Orman's "Who" work and this novel has plenty to recommend it. For one, we get to see the crew relaxing in a more natural setting, with Anji finally settling in to randomly exploring time and space and striking up more of a friendship with Fitz. It's rare that we get to see the characters exploring their own hobbies and interests instead of being chased or trying to figure out how to stay alive, acting as some kind of weird family brought together by grudging affection and enforced hardship. The idea of the tigers is intriguing and even if I don't totally buy into their biology, it never entirely comes across as being contrived. The whole novel in fact has a very relaxed feel to it, even when people are in the midst of danger.

And that may be a problem with the book . . . events never feel urgent. The characterizations are consistently brilliant but given that we're in a world that is beginning to enter a state of weather crisis (storms and hurricanes are kicking up more often) and there's all these giant cats running around alternating between going about their business and acting belligerent, things never feel all that breathless. Part of it may be that Orman does her job too well . . . the tigers all do exist as fully fledged characters but at the same time never feel as utterly alien as perhaps they should. We're reminded time and time that they're only called tigers because of the resemblance to Earth tigers, yet they often act like talking tigers that you'd find in "The Jungle Book". It also doesn't help that both sides are at times completely reasonable. That may be part of the point (indeed the biggest conflict is what side the Doctor will back) but it makes for poor conflict because you want both sides to win since they seem perfectly nice. But since both sides are so reasonable, any conflicts that do come down feel somewhat contrived, a chance just to get a fight scene in or create some drama. Everyone just sits around discussing how they're going to overcome the problem at hand and then generally go out to do what they just discussed. It's really quite genteel.

But if you're like me you're probably not reading this book to give yourself sweaty palms but for the depictions of the characters. And boy, she succeeds. Not only do we get the best Fitz we've seen in a long while (one who finally acts like the experienced time traveller that he is, and not just bumbling around waiting for the Doctor to correct his course) but we get to explore Anji's latent mistrust of the Doctor. The tigers are all nuanced, maybe not alien enough for my tastes but a darn sight better than what we've got in the past.

And the Doctor. Oh boy. Since he lost his memory the writers seem to be having some disagreement on how exactly to portray him, with most of them settling on making him just like he was before, without all those references to Gallifrey or past adventures. Here she gets to the heart of it, as he forges ahead in his personality, not entirely sure who he is but learning how he wants to be from the remnants of what was left behind in his mind. We see a Doctor finally with a strong moral viewpoint that can be actually articulated, someone who is acutely aware that he stands apart but still wants to meddle so that everyone gets along. The climax of the novel is a thing of beauty, just a series of perfectly constructed moments culminating in what a moment that not only feels like a "Doctor" moment but an "Eighth Doctor" moment, something that only this incarnation could give us. Most anyone can write a generic Doctor but each Doctor when done properly has a moment where it could have only happened with that particular Doctor . . . we get one of those here and that's one of the highest compliments I can pay a "Who" author.

What this novel lacks in breakneck pacing it makes up for in sheer life-affirming zeal and a moral core that that never wavers. This Doctor might have forgotten who he is, but he hasn't forgotten what he's about and that comes across in a portrayal that is both funny and scary, thrilling and saddening, rousing and pensive. There are more than a few moments in here that probably only Orman could have pulled off in tone and subtlety and it's a testament to her skill that she can take the concept of alien big cats and musicians and not only make it work but make it matter, not just to the series, but to us as well.

In the endless run of just-okay Eighth Doctor novels, "The Year of Intelligent Tigers" shines as one of the most energetic, positive books in the series to date. It's the first "Doctor Who" book I've read in months that turned me on the nuances of writing -- the plotting, the asides and observations, the scene structure. This is the kind of book that inspires people *to* write ... to write something more than negative reviews, at any rate.

Maybe the book's success owes to its author, longtime DW standout Kate Orman, who's been doing this for nearly a decade now, and without a misstep (only her previous "Unnatural History", written with husband Jon Blum, failed to energize). The book rings with Kate's hallmarks -- in the first scene, a character suffers a panic attack while doing research in a library, and it's all set on an Earth colony world populated by humans (here, musicians) representing a specific ethnicity (here, Germans and Middle Easterners, although nothing is done with this premise).

During a delightful 50-page extended intro, we learn more about the Doctor and company than we did in the previous four or five noisy runarounds. Then, in a great visual montage, the Tigers come to town. It's an uneasy battle between man and big cat for dominance of Hitchemus's lone, tiny, land-mass. Kate chooses to focus on just a few characters on each side, and this works to the book's advantage. The tiger names (Bounce, Big, etc) may be a bit too anthropomorphized for your taste.

I love the pace at which the mystery of the tigers' ancient artifacts is solved, and I enjoy the way the Eighth Doctor does not fit well into either side of the war -- both sides impose their own values on him, while all he really wants to do is study, in peace and quiet. The ending is, obviously, a deus ex machina, which could have been a disaster, but since it concludes the story logically (with, I think, heavy references to 1960s "Star Trek" throughout), I mark it down as a success.

Jon Blum is given story credit. He wrote the historical interludes (set during the Doctor's 100-year amnesiac period on Earth), and is credited with portions of the dialogue. It seems fairly obvious which scenes are his -- Jon's view of the Eighth Doctor is wildly sturm und drang, full of shouted declarations of principle. However, both authors' handiwork is visible in the closing scene -- a reflective moment, summed with a quietly haunting line of dialogue. Also great is an extended lecture on Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. The styles complement quite nicely.

The worst part about "Intelligent Tigers" is the knowledge that it will probably be many, many months before another quiet, reflective gem is published.