| WINNER TAKES ALL by Jacqueline Rayner |
| Story ? Synopsis: Rose calls her Mum to see how she is: Jackie says she's won the Lottery, so Rose asks the Doctor if they can go and see her. He accedes. In fact, she's just won a video game, which Mickey is playing. There has been a big local promotion involving scratch cards. The Doctor plays the game, scoring a very high tally, drawing the attention of the game-makers, the Quevvils. Mickey is kidnapped by a Quevvil. The Doctor tries to win with the scratchcards, but with no luck. They head back to Mickey's place to find him gone. The Doctor plays the game again, beating his previous score, and waiting to be kidnapped. He and Rose are transported to the Quevvil base, but Rose hides. The Doctor and Mickey are set to playing the game. Rose realises the base is still on Earth, and creates a diversion, allowing her to rescue her friends. The Doctor realises the game is being played through captured humans used to kill Mantodeans. He uses a teleport to zap Rose and Mickey back to Mickey's flat, whilst he stays to play the game. Mickey in injured, and Rose goes to stop people taking the Quevvil prizes. She thinks her mum has won a holiday (been sent to fight Mantodeans) and creates a diversion, which allows the Doctor to escape. But Jackie is in hospital. She was mugged for her winning ticket. Darren Pye, a local thug and bully, is selling the tickets to people, aware that the free prizes are not that desirable. The Quevvils catch up with him. The Doctor uses a winning ticket to find co-ordinates to Toop, where the Quevvil-Mantodean war is happening, but when they arrive, the Quevvils take Rose away to be in the game, whilst the Doctor has to play using her. He also involves Mickey in a plan to get all the players in the game to escape, and to stop all the people playing the game to stop. The Quevvils realise that delays are happening, and force the Doctor to speed up. At the crucial moment where Rose is about to complete the game, the Quevvils enter their teleportation booths, but are instead wiped out. The Mantodeans turn out to be more civilised than it seemed. The Doctor gets Rose out of the game, and takes all the surviving humans who fought in the game back to Earth. Jackie returns home from hospital, but the Doctor persuades Rose that their work is done, and they should go back into the TARDIS. |
| Review:- The idea of a game that's deadly is hardly original, although the use of a computer game makes it slightly modern. The alien backdrop of the Quevvil-Mantodean conflict also gives this story a reasonable framework to develop. This story is about the world, the culture that Rose grew up in, and escaped from. Jackie is here briefly, and Mickey proves to be resourceful in adversity. But not everyone is as nice as them... This is a strange book. The central idea of an alien race exploiting human skill and strength to obtain an advantage in their conflict is an appreciable one, and often enjoyable to read. But that seems to be all there is. The Quevvils are thinly characterised, and the background to their conflict with the Mantodeans seems missing, somehow. Then there is the Darren Pye subplot. A local thug/bully, his nastiness to Rose is seemingly only so that he can mug Jackie and become the surprise mastermind behind co-ordinating the Quevvils, like some liaison officer. His eventual death is one of a few plot conveniences that serve merely to bore the reader rather than enthrall them. The other is the mother of the boy Robert, who turns up alive at the end. I can understand the idea that having children as developed characters gives a hook for the younger members of the target audience, but here it doesn't really work. Robert is an introvert who seeks refuge in delusions, but matures through the book. Well, thanks for the social comment, could we have some proper plot next time? The Doctor spends too long being distant and dull. His continual angst towards the end about having to manipulate Rose seems just ludicrous. His masterplan is so sudden it baffles the reader wondering about resolution. Rose gets some good moments, notably the salt-based diversion, and the 100 scratchcards. Her frustration at being unable to help the Doctor find the games, or her worry that Jackie might have been sent to her death are strong scenes, too. Sadly, by the end, she isn't just playing a cipher, she has become one. Perhaps this book has a message that computer games are bad. But if that's the case, it could be presented rather less obliquely, really. Even the idea that scratchcards offer a ticket to a prize not worth having is given so smugly that it would repel anyone it should seek to attract. There are many nice moments, and it's nicely written. But overall, it's forgettable and worthless. |
| Disclaimer: I have a copy of the book. |