| THE KING OF TERROR by Keith Topping |
| Story ? Synopsis: The Brigadier sends two UNIT operatives to check out InterCom, based in Los Angeles, whose head, Paolo Sanger, seems to be accumulating plutonium. He also asks the Doctor to check it out, and with Tegan and Turlough, he heads over there. LA has been suffering bomb attacks by a terrorist group, the Sons of Nostradamus. Turlough is kidnapped. The Doctor suspects Sanger is up to something very serious. Whilst Tegan tries to find information, the Doctor learns that Sanger is of the Jex race, who have been on the run from the Canavitchi for a long time. Though attempting to take over Earth, the Jex are also trying to set up a base from which to stop the Canavitchi attacking them. With time short, the Doctor and the Brigadier visit the CIA, whose operator, Control, gives them access to a network of satellites from which the Doctor constructs a grid which will keep the Jex and Canavitchi ships out during their attack. It lasts for a few days, but eventually, the defeated Jex leave, and the battered Canavitchi pursue, leaving Earth safe again. Until the next time... |
| Review:- Topping's first solo novel is a tense thriller of alien incursion and utter name-dropping waffle. It would be crude to ignore the blatant pages of nonsense which mercilessly pad this book out, with characters divesting themselves of chit-chat which serves no purpose to the book, except to bore and irritate the reader, and take up space. Whilst both the Jex-Canavitchi intrigue, and even the Tegan-Paynter romance sub-plot are worthy of interest, their complete drowning in this morass of drivel acts to their detriment. For instance, Ryman's tragic past as a double agent forced to live as one of his enemies since youth is merely a footnote amidst the ongoing saga of which race is the less pleasant. The whole Nostradamus angle is fairly nebulous, and the fact that the fearsome terrorists play no real part in the last 1/3 of the book is pretty damning. As for Turlough, and his humiliating torture at the hands of the Jex, this also seems to be present merely for a bit of sadistic titillation. As its his sole contribution to the book, it does little to dispense the idea that his character is badly-served by writers. Tegan does slightly better, although is perhaps more unlucky in being lumbered with tiresome dinosaur Paynter. Having sat through their repulsive exploits in the first half of the book, the sudden death of one of them causes a temporary moment of joy. But then the other survives to fall in love with Tegan, something she doesn't really deserve to be inflicted with. It's possible that Barrington and Paynter exist to paint a little colour to the humdrum world of UNIT, but they seem to be tedious sexist bores who witter on constantly and spend their entire waking time remembering past events or relating every last small experience to items of culture, or their past. Perhaps it does make a change from the norm in these books, but it doesn't work for me. As for the Doctor, he rarely sounds like himself, and the Brigadier is little better. The smug references to other adventures is presumably either a continuity nut's wet dream or worst nightmare, or maybe both. It does little to sustain interest in the book. Indeed, it says it all that the conclusion to the book involves the human race just keeping its head down, whilst the bad guys kick each other in. This may be a metaphor apt to the New Series, but it's not really edifying from any moral standpoint. King of Terror? Possibly, but the wrong kind of terror. |
| Disclaimer: I've read the book. |