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Ah, Bliss.
Sep. 22nd, 2006 11:14 pmIn an instance of perfect timing, I ran out of Big Finish to listen to just as the first Kaldor City CD arrived in the post and I found a small pile of Doctor Who paperbacks at the used bookstore.
I grabbed titles fairly indiscriminately - just based on if I wanted to read about that Doctor or not, so I have Bullet Time (7 and Sarah Jane, riddle me that, Bats), Eater of Wasps, The Burning and The Taking of Planet 5 (all Eight). At $3 each, I figured I could indulge. At the other end of the scale, I dropped $18 on a copy of The Ancestor Cell as I want to see what the big deal is about. Mind you, all I know about Faction Paradox, I read on Wikipedia or heard from my friend LW, so I might be thoroughly confused by the book. We'll see. I know it had the fandom up in arms and so I suppose I'll have some sort of reaction to it - which is more than I can say for The Stealers of Dreams (Ten and Rose). The characterization was alright, but the plot's glue fell apart 2/3 of the way through, imho, and the soap opera factor peaked a bit too high here and there. The Deviant Strain (Nine, Rose and Jack) was a better story, although Jack flapped around uselessly for the first 3/4.
I think that, in the case of![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
8th_doctor I'm going to stick by my rough-and-ready rule of books being wedged into the Doctor's continuity before the BF audios - particularly as BF (for various reasons) avoids any mention of Eight and Faction Paradox. Fortunately, I doubt it'll ever become a serious issue.
I know that, twenty years ago - even ten years ago - fans demanded a lot less in the way of internal continuity from their sci-fi. Unfortunately, that's left things in a higgledy-piggledy mess for DW, now. Ah well. I'm glad to have the material, even if it doesn't make sense with itself. Not all fandoms can have someone as obsessive as George Lucas managing the merchandise...
Speaking of "higgledy-piggledy", I just finished listening to The Sevenfold Crown, The Sydenton Experiment, Logic of Empire, The Mark of Kane and Travis: The Final Act.
The Sevenfold Crown - a steaming load of horseshit, but hilarious horseshit that I don't think anyone was taking seriously. At least I hope they weren't, as that's the impression they gave.
The Sydenton Experiment - marginally better, both in terms of story and performance. However, it collapsed into completely silly in the last fifteen minutes, which is a shame as is rather undermined what strengths the story had.
Logic of Empire - Surprisingly entertaining, although the female character with the accent (I forget her name) was an utter waste of space and pretty much only there to suggest that Avon hadn't been spending the intervening five years in a monastery. But the story was alright.
Mark of Kane - Meh. Two one-act stories. Nothing remarkable, imho and a bit of a letdown.
Travis: The Final Act - despite the very erratic sound quality (one of the interview subjects is practically inaudible because of a lousy sound mix) this was extremely interesting, if only from the POV of a ficcer and a wannabe actor. Listening to this led directly to the Blinding Flashes of the Obvious blogged earlier in this journal. Even the corniest characters have a lot of thought put into 'em. Sometimes it pays off, sometimes it doesn't.
I grabbed titles fairly indiscriminately - just based on if I wanted to read about that Doctor or not, so I have Bullet Time (7 and Sarah Jane, riddle me that, Bats), Eater of Wasps, The Burning and The Taking of Planet 5 (all Eight). At $3 each, I figured I could indulge. At the other end of the scale, I dropped $18 on a copy of The Ancestor Cell as I want to see what the big deal is about. Mind you, all I know about Faction Paradox, I read on Wikipedia or heard from my friend LW, so I might be thoroughly confused by the book. We'll see. I know it had the fandom up in arms and so I suppose I'll have some sort of reaction to it - which is more than I can say for The Stealers of Dreams (Ten and Rose). The characterization was alright, but the plot's glue fell apart 2/3 of the way through, imho, and the soap opera factor peaked a bit too high here and there. The Deviant Strain (Nine, Rose and Jack) was a better story, although Jack flapped around uselessly for the first 3/4.
I think that, in the case of
8th_doctor I'm going to stick by my rough-and-ready rule of books being wedged into the Doctor's continuity before the BF audios - particularly as BF (for various reasons) avoids any mention of Eight and Faction Paradox. Fortunately, I doubt it'll ever become a serious issue.I know that, twenty years ago - even ten years ago - fans demanded a lot less in the way of internal continuity from their sci-fi. Unfortunately, that's left things in a higgledy-piggledy mess for DW, now. Ah well. I'm glad to have the material, even if it doesn't make sense with itself. Not all fandoms can have someone as obsessive as George Lucas managing the merchandise...
Speaking of "higgledy-piggledy", I just finished listening to The Sevenfold Crown, The Sydenton Experiment, Logic of Empire, The Mark of Kane and Travis: The Final Act.
The Sevenfold Crown - a steaming load of horseshit, but hilarious horseshit that I don't think anyone was taking seriously. At least I hope they weren't, as that's the impression they gave.
The Sydenton Experiment - marginally better, both in terms of story and performance. However, it collapsed into completely silly in the last fifteen minutes, which is a shame as is rather undermined what strengths the story had.
Logic of Empire - Surprisingly entertaining, although the female character with the accent (I forget her name) was an utter waste of space and pretty much only there to suggest that Avon hadn't been spending the intervening five years in a monastery. But the story was alright.
Mark of Kane - Meh. Two one-act stories. Nothing remarkable, imho and a bit of a letdown.
Travis: The Final Act - despite the very erratic sound quality (one of the interview subjects is practically inaudible because of a lousy sound mix) this was extremely interesting, if only from the POV of a ficcer and a wannabe actor. Listening to this led directly to the Blinding Flashes of the Obvious blogged earlier in this journal. Even the corniest characters have a lot of thought put into 'em. Sometimes it pays off, sometimes it doesn't.
