Hardcover, 288 pages
English language
Published Dec. 28, 2005 by BBC Books.
I finished this audio book yesterday and I've already forgotten everything.
I finished this audio book yesterday and I've already forgotten everything.
The story was okay. The downside to the audio book version was the narration which did a passable third doctor impression but certainly wasn't a northern ninth. It was a hard listen.
The story was okay. The downside to the audio book version was the narration which did a passable third doctor impression but certainly wasn't a northern ninth. It was a hard listen.
As I've posted about on my journal earlier, the Ninth Doctor, Christopher Eccleston, completely sold me on being a Doctor Who fan at last. And as I have also lamented, Mr. Eccleston held the role for entirely too little time. So I was rather interested when I was browsing at the University Bookstore the other day and found out that the BBC has been releasing hardback Ninth and Tenth Doctor novels. I picked up the first one, The Clockwise Man, by Justin Richards. Disappointing read, unfortunately. The bones of a good plot were there, and it did rather feel like a Doctor Who episode at least in terms of the story, but the writing was very pedestrian--and Richards' fascination with sentence fragments, while not quite as pronounced as Annie Proulx's, was still enough to grate.
Worse yet, the author seemed to have very little grasp of how to write …
As I've posted about on my journal earlier, the Ninth Doctor, Christopher Eccleston, completely sold me on being a Doctor Who fan at last. And as I have also lamented, Mr. Eccleston held the role for entirely too little time. So I was rather interested when I was browsing at the University Bookstore the other day and found out that the BBC has been releasing hardback Ninth and Tenth Doctor novels. I picked up the first one, The Clockwise Man, by Justin Richards. Disappointing read, unfortunately. The bones of a good plot were there, and it did rather feel like a Doctor Who episode at least in terms of the story, but the writing was very pedestrian--and Richards' fascination with sentence fragments, while not quite as pronounced as Annie Proulx's, was still enough to grate.
Worse yet, the author seemed to have very little grasp of how to write either the Doctor or Rose as characters. There were little bits here and there all throughout the book that just made no sense--for example, a bit where the Doctor is talking to Rose and seems unable to remember the word 'syllable', and as if he somehow doesn't have a perfect grasp of English. Which makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.
I may check out other Ninth or Tenth Doctor novels by different authors, but I dunno yet. This one was not exactly encouraging. Two stars.
