| WOLFSBANE by Jacqueline Rayner |
| Story ? Synopsis: During an unscheduled stop-off, Harry manages to get left off the TARDIS. When the Doctor and Sarah catch up, they find a gravestone with his name on. As they start to piece together what happened, they find Harry met someone known as the Doctor. Harry is nearly killed after being accused of murder, but he is saved by the Doctor. They investigate mysterious goings-on, including tree sprites, Godric, a lad from the realsm of King Arthur, and Emmeline Neuberger, a natural werewolf. Sarah finds Harry's grave is empty. Her Doctor rescues Emmeline, who saves Sarah from being buried alive. Godric is carrying a chalice that hurts Emmeline. The Doctor thinks it could be the Holy Grail. They discern that Hester Stanton is causing the trouble, and her son George thinks he is going to become King of England. Hester believes herself the reincarnation of Morgan Le Fay, and plots a massacre to reassert her power over the land. Harry is charged with protecting Emmeline, but he is attacked by George. The Doctor and Godric go to face Hester alone. When George forces Emmeline to change into a wolf, Godric goes to rescue her, and is shot. The Doctor is stunned by the Grail, leaving Harry to try and stop Hester alone. He defies her, and she is swallowed by the ground, as is the Grail. Emmeline bites Harry, and he is swiftly rescued by the Doctor and Sarah. The Doctor realises he must find a permanent cure for Harry. |
| Review:- This is quite a daring story. Sold on the premise of being another "companion dies" book, in a year where this has happened quite often, it also has the distinction of featuring a multi-Doctor story, akin to Heart Of TARDIS (sort of). That the Doctors are the 4th (with Sarah and Harry, between Revenge Of The Cybermen and Terror Of The Zygons) and the 8th (between Casualties Of War and The Turing Test) make for a right-old mix. It's November/December 1936. With the Doctor and Sarah arriving 2 weeks after dropping Harry off, we get a story told in two threads, with Harry and the 8th Doctor in one, and the Doctor and Sarah trying to piece together what happened in the second thread. Mostly we learn what happens along with Harry, except occasionally when we get scenes of the 4th Doctor rescuing Emmeline, and Sarah digging up Harry's grave. Harry gets the lion's share of the book, and to all intents and purposes, it's a Harry adventure. As Harry hasn't been used very often since these adventures started back in 1991 (one thinks of A Device Of Death and Millennium Shock), this is a nice surprise. He is well written, and gets a lot of action and characterisation, plays the romantic lead, as well as saving the day at the end. Sarah reaches her zenith during her attempts to dig Harry up, and when she is then subsequently buried alive, it does at least heighten the drama. But she is not a main player here. Even the 4th Doctor doesn't get a lot to do (although stabbing Emmeline justifies it being a PDA). His rescue of Emmeline and later rescue of Harry make him a useful plot device. The 8th Doctor struggles through, as a shadow of the man he was. This at least fits in with the 'Earth Arc' he belongs to. Emmeline is the other main lead, and she is very well characterised. It's a bit of a shame that she later finds she was duped by Hester all along. The fact that the 4th Doctor suggests her ultimate fate is death makes for an astoundingly downbeat end to her story. George and Hester make a very strange pair of baddies. George does the footwork, and is credible, whilst Hester, almost a James Bond villainess, does almost nothing directly, and comes to a deserving and abrupt end. Oh, Godric is well written, and reminds me now of Asylum. The dryad is another of the more interesting characters. On the whole, it's an average read, which makes a change. |
| Disclaimer: I own a copy. |