| TRADING FUTURES by Lance Parkin |
| Story 55 Synopsis: Earth 2012-ish. A man named Baskerville is in negotiations to sell a time machine. He gives a trial run to Jonah Cosgrove, an elderly superspy, who gets convinced it is true. Elsewhere, the United States is close to the brink of war with the EuroZone. The Doctor, Fitz and Anji investigate, and are soon split up. Anji stays close to Baskerville. The Doctor teams up with CIA agent Malady Chang. Fitz is threatened in Neverland by Cosgrove. The Doctor is imperiled by Jaxa and Roja, time agents working for Sabbath. Also, he is in Athens when a tidal wave hits, though with the timely appropriation of a bank vault, he survives. Fitz gets captured by the Onihrs, a race of rhino-esque aliens, who are seeking the secrets of time travel. They mistake Fitz for the Doctor. Cosgrove is determined to get the secret of time travel, too. Anyway, in confrontation, Jaxa is killed, and Roja teleports home. Later, the Onihrs arrive, Cosgrove gets lucky in killing their leader, and they return to their ship. Fitz tries to persuade them to give up, but they don't. So he destroys their ship. The Doctor prevents a nuclear explosion in Montreal. Then, all the action switches to a factory on the Russian Steppes, where Baskerville runs RealWar, a company which creates robots which fight in battle-zones, whilst being nominally operated by humans. Baskerville, despite claiming to be from the future, is just a Russian crook. His time machine is also untrue, reliant on suggestive hallucinogens in coffee. He wants access to IFEC, so that he can control the world's money supply. Despite having kidnapped the President of the USA, he is foiled by events. The Onihrs take Baskerville away. The Doctor thwarts the taking of IFEC. Cosgrove dies, trying to steal a time machine. The Doctor calms down the President, an old acquaintance, by saying that time travel is impossible anyway. |
| Review:- Here we go! OK, it took me 4 weeks to read this, partly after an initail flurry lulled me into a false sense of security. For this book left me with a curious feeling. It's Escape Velocity 2! Or, Son of Escape Velocity! Yes, a globetrotting tale of human deception and a half-arsed alien invasion! So similar in style, it's frightening. I enjoyed this book, though I get the impression I shouldn't have. The style is readable, for which I am always grateful, and everything makes a pleasing sort of sense. But. Let's start with the Onihrs. Well, 2 books ago, we got the Silverati, though that was more of a set-up, than something to be impressed/scared by. 3D motivated monsters. For the new post-The Burning DWorld. The Onihrs, on the other hand, are aliens a bit like rhinos. Who want to invade/destroy/take the secrets of time travel. What an utter joke. Onihr = rhino backwards. I thought it was an anagram at first, and became most gloomy to see how desperate the truth was. The basicness of this monsters-by-numbers is laughable for a supposed go-getting book series. Then we have Baskerville, the not-from-the-future non-owner-of-a-time-machine. He is motivated, sure, but just too hokey in the long term. His assistant, Dee, often threatens to develop in a way that will enliven the book with a bit of mystery. But she never does. Then we have President Felix Mather. A nice guy, who doesn't offend. Malady Chang is symptomatic of the book's so-called James Bond overtones. Malady seems to have come from a different book altogether, and her frustrations are sadly, one-dimensional. And a stupid name!!! Then we come to Jonah Cosgrove. I read somewhere that JC here is intended to be the Sean Connery Bond, as if he was still OHMSS. This helped me, as I could visualise this all the way through. Certainly Cosgrove is the best incidental character in the book, and his fate is every bit as justifying as his actions merit. Jaxa and Roja feel like one element too many, and their ludicrous despatch feels like their whole effort had been a sideshow. I mentally pronounced Roja like Rioja, until I realised that it was probably Roger. Oops. Fitz has a wonderful subplot aboard the Onihr spaceship. The last time I recall a companion having to pretend they were the Doctor, it was Chris in The Death Of Art. Fitz makes a damn sight better job of it. Anji gets much to do, and plays crucial roles in advancing the plot. It's curious, but why wasn't ther this kind of depth to her characterisation 12 months ago? This is her 14th appearance, for goodness' sake! The Doctor, thankfully, seems wonderfully good all the way through. He earns Cosgrove's half-respect for his ability to come through adversity after adversity unscathed. Dropped out of a building, trapped in the centre of a city threatened by tidal wave, rushing to deactivate a nuclear device... the Doctor succeeds so well, and convinces through his words and his deeds. Nice work. An improvement on the last 2 books tendency to add a second ending, just when it seems that the story is over. Sadly, this time, the story just stops and starts, as setpiece follows setpiece, characters threaten, then disappear. It also wraps up too smoothly, with fitting finishes thrown onto the page with no finesse at all. But my gripe has to be:- How does the TARDIS get to the Steppes? Is it stolen early on, for I find that this isn't dwelt upon at all. When it is seen there, the Doctor seems to have almost expected it. Considering how little is made of it, and that the Doctor gads about with transmat devices all the while, it just jars. I did like this book. No, really... |
| Disclaimer: I own a copy. |