| SALVATION by Steve Lyons |
| Story ? Synopsis: In London, Dodo comes on board the TARDIS, and the Doctor and Steven are soon off to New York, 1965. Mysterious beings have also arrived, claiming to be gods. Dodo has had a run-in with one who is a bit confused. Steven is stabbed whilst out for a stroll, and is saved by another of the gods, and starts to help them. The Doctor allies with the military, who are sceptical. The gods leader, the Kithriarch, has some New Yorkers build a huge arch, and makes an offer of salvation. The Doctor proves that the gods are merely powerful aliens, and thwarts them. Steven realigns himself with the Doctor, and Dodo learns a lesson. |
| Review:- This novel was released in January 1999, and marks the second Lyons book on the 1st Doctor, after the critically acclaimed The Witch Hunters. One interesting aspect of this book is that it rather integrates with the brief scene of Dodo's arrival from the very end of The Massacre. By developing that, Steve helps with the motivation for some of his characters. Who are real stereotypes, oh yes. As New York in 1965 is well before my time, accuracy is not something I can pull Steve up for. But. The Doctor befriends a female reporter who is estranged from her father, who is in the military, and would you believe it! They cross swords, find they are united in opposition to the gods, and sort-of patch up their differences. Then we have Dodo's doomed romance (it is The Completely Useless Encyclopaedia which makes fun of Dodo's treatment in the books, and they've yet to really be proved wrong). Which is tedious, and asks the readers to care, which is too hard. Steven's stabbing is quite emotional, but the presence of maguffin characters with amazing powers does rather diminish the moment. It is a sad trait in the books to put characters through treadmills that would be the end of them, but to have special ways to save the day. Stabbing Steven would be dramatic, if it wasn't painfully obvious that he must be cured before the next screen story. The Doctor gets a nasty run-in with a medical machine, and gets friendly with the military with no hint of the UNITary shenanigans to come. He also manages to thwart the gods quite cleverly, really earning his stripes. The cover's quite good, too. The gods are a bit disappointing. The Kithriarch is clearly not going to improve on having such a fancy name, and to be quite honest, I was just dismayed that we didn't see more (or indeed almost anything) of Jennifer, the Goddess of Love. Ah well... Stylistically, we get chapters introduced by quotes from other books/films/any old rubbish. This works quite well, especially with the poor guy who gets to take all the credit for stopping the invasion, because neither the Doctor nor the military are allowed to. I did enjoy this book. |
| Disclaimer: I own a copy. |