| DYING IN THE SUN by Jon de Burgh Miller |
| Story ? Synopsis: Earth, Los Angeles, 1947. The Doctor decides to drop in on an old friend, but is unable to prevent him being murdered. He goes to the police, and finds himself under suspicion. He offers to help trace the culprit. Fingerprints suggest Robert Chate, local small-time drug pusher was at the scene. Chate is found at a restaurant, but the Doctor suspects he is innocent. During a shoot-out, he escapes, and a film star dining there is shot. His producer meets the Doctor in the hospital, and offers him a chance to see his new film, Dying In The Sun, at a special screening. Chate meanwhile fakes his own death, and goes to find Maria Coleman, an idol of his. She offers him a solution, involving a special secret liquid that enhances people. The Doctor takes Ben and Polly to see the film, but whilst they're impressed, he is puzzled by the highly-advanced SFX. Ben manages to steal an early reel of the film, but it's not as good. The Doctor is sure that the film is the centre of some conspiracy, and persuades Fletcher, a detective, to help him. Meanwhile, Polly tracks down Chate and Maria, and they get her to drink the special liquid, too. The Doctor, Ben and Fletcher try to prevent the release of the film, but cannot persuade anyone to help them. They do manage to get tickets to the premiere. There, they have a close encounter with a monster from the film. But Polly shuns them, and they realise she has joined the cause of FOCAL - a pressure group who are using aliens called Selyoids which enhance people, so that they look like stars. A huge effort is made to summon people to a spot in the nearby hills to join the cause. The Doctor desperately tries to find a way to stop it. When De Sande tries to kill Chate, Polly realises she cannot allow the Selyoids to indiscriminately choose who lives and dies, and she helps Chate escape. The Doctor, Ben and Fletcher confront De Sande, the director of Dying In The Sun, and leader of FOCAL. Fletcher kills one of De Sande's associates, a Selyoid who animated a corpse to direct its own thoughts without the confusion of humanity. Without the direction from this Selyoid, the whole chain of consequence breaks, and the invasions fails. Chate takes over FOCAL to turn it to the more charitable cause it was supposed to espouse. Ben, Polly and the Doctor leave him to it. |
| Review:- Bright lights, big city, as the Doctor goes to Hollywood! The setting allows for a total change from the normal scope of Earthbound adventures, and apparently this was deliberate, as the author intended to write a PDA with no continuity references. In this, he succeeds, whilst still keeping the three regular characters true. Hollywood is a cut-throat business now, so that dog-eat-dog aspect is entirely credible. That a new film could cause such a ruckus is also in keeping with film history. So far, so good. What we see of the movie industry is fairly predictable stuff... sleazy would-be moguls trying to bed starlets, maverick maniac directors, and so on. But that's really just stage dressing. The meat of the story is a good old bit of alien incursion. Thankfully, for a story set in America in 1947, we get no mention of Roswell and Area 51. This is to the story's credit, for that is a tired and tiresome genre. Instead, there is the amusing idea that the aliens are harmlessly enhancing people, so that movie stars really do seem a breed apart. The downside of this is their being named Selyoids. Though the reason is stated to be a joke name, it doesn't really help. The characterisation is the key of the book, and mostly, it's good stuff. Faded starlet Maria seems to be genuinely humble, whilst the driven De Sande is cool and calm, except when the game's up. Spurned cop Fletcher proves a useful ally, whilst nasty cop Wallis gives himself away to the right line of inquiry. His relationship with his adopted son Chate provides the emotional pivot to the book. Though Chate seems a decent sort, it's never too clear which side he would want to be on. As for the regulars, the Doctor spends most of the book trying to warn people of impending catastrophe, and getting nowhere. So, no change there. Ben is also pretty standardly written, trusting and loyal, backing the Doctor up. Polly gets slightly more to do, even though she disappears from the narrative for about 60 pages. Her murder of film idol Caleb Rochefort, and subsequent ingestion of the Selyoids suggests a change in her character, and she somehow overcomes the mental control to save Chate. But I'm afraid Polly is a character that never interests me, and her smarmy acceptance of her star status seems more in keeping than her later concern for justice. I wasn't really looking forward to reading this again, but I enjoyed it all the same. Though some of the macabre moments don't really move a reader, and there's little depth or drama to the Selyoid take-over, it's still a decent little read. |
| Disclaimer: I've read the book. |