| TEN LITTLE ALIENS by Stephen Cole |
| Story ? Synopsis: The Doctor, Ben and Polly arrive on a mysterious asteroid, in a room containing ten dead bodies. Also newly arrived on the asteroid are a team of 10 elite combat fighters, on a training exercise to defeat two war robots. When they arrive in the room with the corpses, they are unnerved to find the TARDIS travellers, but more surprised by the 10 bodies. These are the Schirr's most notorious terrorists, and the combat leader, Haunt, expresses her distaste for them. The asteroid begins to move, and as it nears its destination, the Morpheian sector, a metamorphosis comes over the remains of Haunt's team, as well as the Doctor, Ben and Polly. Haunt is exposed as a collaborator, and the Schirr are not dead, so much as in a time distortion. By turning the asteroid around away from the effects of the Morpheians, and by killing Haunt and the Schirr, the day is saved. |
| Review:- OK, maybe a curt synopsis, but if there is more, it must have slipped my mind. The TARDIS team here are quite OK. The Doctor convinces, and proves his authority time and again, whether anyone listens to him or not. He is alert to the mystery of the disappearances before anyone else, although doesn't let on. I must say I'm a fan of Ben, and am pleased to see him as authentic and believable a person as he should be. I was reminded of The Murder Game, although this book clings onto dry land and thus survives. Polly is a nauseating waste of space, and I'll be damned if I get my opinion of her changed this late in the day. She must have some fans, but they don't seem to write books that make her seem sympathetic. The combat people are OK, all snide gripes and bickering. Haunt is a typical blinkered racist, and reminded me of Roz' relationship with the Falardi in Original Sin. Strangely, she turns out to be the traitor all along, even when it is more plausible to be someone else. Shade's facial disfigurement reminded me of Butler in (the book version of) Invasion Of The Dinosaurs (OK, maybe I'm kidding, now), but any character whose key traits are facial disfigurement and being from Earth hasn't much to make themselves credible with. I desperately waited to see either Ben or Polly defend him by pointing out that they were from Earth, causing more tension, but no, that was obviously too obvious. And his facial problems get cured by the end. Gosh, how sweet. The Schirr are slightly interesting, and look like interesting monsters, but we hardly get any depth to them. The Morpheians do worse, because they are just this supposed threat which isn't brought home until it's too late. Chapter 14 is quite fun, and full marks for doing it. As soon as I was allowed to get on with the rest of the story, I didn't feel it had made the book. Cole is a good writer, the story is OK, the predicaments are OK, the aliens are OK. Um... |
| Disclaimer: I've read this book. |