Doctor Who: Christmas on a Rational Planet

Doctor Who: Virgin New Adventures #52

by Lawrence Miles

‘An end to history. An end to certainty. Is that too much to ask?’

December, 1799. Europe is recovering from the Age or Reason, the Vatican is learning to live with Napoleon, and America is celebrating a new era of independence. But in New York State, something is spreading its own brand of madness through the streets. Secret societies are crawling from the woodwork, and there’s a Satanic conspiracy around every corner.

Roz Forrester is stranded in a town where festive cheer and random violence go hand-in-hand. Chris Cwej is trapped on board the TARDIS with someone who’s been trained to kill him. And when Reason itself breaks down, even the Doctor can’t be sure who or what he’s fighting for.

Christmas is coming to town, and the end of civilization is following close behind...

Genres: Doctor Who, Science Fiction, Fiction, Christmas

277 pages, Paperback

First published July 18, 1996

Reviews

[Two Envelopes And A Phone · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like this one - especially after digging it out near Christmas, and devouring it all over again. It's a convulsing porridge of strange and delightfully blurry ideas. It's also a Doctor Who novel by Lawrence Miles - so, some of the basics: we get dropped into a mess right away and it's difficult to say, ever, even with later explanations, what caused any and all effects; some things that most seem like they should connect up, out of all the swirling confusion, end up not connecting (or, I didn't wring out the quick sentence or paragraph that mad sense of why this all had to happen in one book); finally, the wrap-up goes beyond even the Doctor's normal routine of metaphorically saving the universe by pulling a funny hat out of a rabbit-punch. Then again, this is the Seventh Doctor, and if there's a Doctor who can pull a bottle out of lightning, thus soothing the lightning's long suffering and persuading the lightning to chase all bad things away, for a while...this is that Doctor.

Of course, any time the universe is disintegrating, or falling to pieces or whatever, there's that much more freedom to write SF that is exceptionally discombobulating or even non-linear. I should say that although the symptoms are the same, the universe isn't technically unraveling - it's more like a suppressed/abandoned human (or even Gallifreyan) delight in Unreason, the supernatural, superstition, or silly imagination has finally led to a conscious but suppressed sentience of pure Unreason to start pulling apart the Logic and Reason of reality, starting in and around New York at Christmas, 1799.

Is the book feminist and male-bashing, or is it actually male chauvinist pig stuff? Logic, Reason, Science, Cold Hard Facts - is that all (mostly?) the domain of males? Meanwhile, do we take females as intuitive, "earthy", less process-oriented or coldly scientific? Do we buy that? If that's a theme underpinning the battle for a tolerable reality on display in this novel, is the offense against women for the suggestion that they are "irrational" compared to men? But then again, that's presented as a good thing; the male "logos" has dominated and suppressed any other way of looking at things for long enough - do we look at it like that? Okay, is the theme of the book insulting to men - cold oppressors, woman-haters due to perceived basic differences, rationality and logic as ruthless and male.

Back up, back up. This is not shoved in anyone's face throughout the book; rather, it's lurking in the background, occasionally lunging forward, as some very intriguing food for thought. It's fascinating to see this background noise fuel the heroes and villains, and victims, lining up against each other or getting caught in the middle, in a battle that will decide how rational the universe will be when the dust maybe turns pink, unsettles, and floats up to a new giant elephant in the sky (depending on who wins).

As far as my fanboy reasons for liking the book: the Seventh Doctor is at his escape-artist best here; I know how to pronounce 'Cwej' this time around; the visuals are a blast to imagine as if it were a TV show; I loved the Interface's origins, and the power of the amaranth gone amok; the Carnival Queen is wonderful, especially her ultimate attitude; it's all even more chaotic than usual, but that's okay.

Oh, and this time I knew who Charles Brockden Brown was - late 18th century American novelist, wrote that cool creepy book, Wieland. All hail re-reads when they pay off (and fuzzy logic as perhaps a cool compromise when it comes to kneading needed foundations of a just reality?).

[Jon Arnold · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chaos vs order at the dawn of the Age of Reason through the lens of Grant Morrison and David Lynch. Or, if you were part of the fandom debates of the time, rad v trad. In some ways it’s aged beautifully as it touches on how easily madness and wild ideas can engulf humanity (particularly the US), and the sprawling chaotic nature of the Carnival Queen prefigures Faction Paradox. Perhaps you can read this as Miles summoning those ideas into being, before refining them but then that’d be a kind of triumph of rationality.

[Nicholas Whyte · Rating 3 out of 5]

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2265864.html[return][return]Miles' first novel, with all the elements that he would later use, but not yet in their mature form. The 1799 in America environment was interesting, but ran slightly off the rails at times, the Tardis/Gallifrey bits fairly incomprehensible, but at least Roz got some good sequences despite a generally dodgy line on gender and race.

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Twisted indeed! A darkly humourous, darkly disturbing, and darkly fascinating mix of (1) colonial American history, (2) sensuous & mystic French agents, (3) enjoyable master-manipulator 7th Doctor shennanigans, and (4) a glorious outing for jaded companion Roz Forrester. It's a pity the sub-plot featuring companion #2 (Chris Cwej) is so tame and unengaging by comparison.

[Kris · Rating 2 out of 5]

This feels to me like a book trying to be too clever for its own good. There are lots of ideas floating around and so many references (mostly snarky) that this could have been a great book but it is underdeveloped and ends up being messy.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good notions and a lot of wtf

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great ideas, some very good writing, but an execution that was badly flawed by reality-twisting hijinks, which tend to bring out the worst in "rad" writers by giving them the opportunity to spew out whatever they can imagine.

I have hope for his future books being great if they avoid this element.

[Erin · Rating 2 out of 5]

if jordan peterson could read, he'd love this book

[Genevieve Levin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I want to be fair to this book. Though I’m a huge fan of both New Who and the Classic series, I didn’t start watching Classic until about 2013, and this is the first one of the novels that I’ve read. And I really had a hard time getting into it.

My main issue with it was that it’s one of those books that just throws a *lot* of characters and complex, vague plot elements at the reader with only the tiniest drabbles of explanation. And I can’t be sure whether this is a fair complaint about the writing style or whether the author somewhat reasonably expects you to already have read earlier novels featuring Roz and Chris and certain later-revealed plot elements (not wanting to spoil) and therefore come in with a certain familiarity with them. My experience with TV show tie-in novels is that they’re usually written to be relatively standalone from each other, but that’s not always the case, and since it *is* the first DW one I’ve read, I don’t know if they were usually written with the expectation that they would be read in order.

Anyway. As a new reader picking up this book out of the blue, I struggled to get into it, and felt like I was spending my concentration trying to remember who everyone was and figure out what they were doing and how they were connected to each other versus actually caring about them or being wrapped up in the plot. Every time I put it down even for a day or two, it was hard to remember who everyone was and what they were doing when I picked it back up. I did keep coming back to it and I did finish it, and I did think the climax was pretty cool, though even then I felt like I didn’t 100% have a grasp on everything that was happening.

So if you’re already a fan of the Classic Who novels and you haven’t read this one, please don’t let my review dissuade you from giving it a try. But if you haven’t read many of the novels before, this might not be a great one to start with.

[Mikey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ll just get this out the way and say that Lawrence Miles’s books generally don’t really do it for me. There’s always little parts or concepts that work for me, but for the most part I find a lot of it bloated and a bit... up itself, and early on in this one I was kind of worried that things were going the same way, but thankfully it soon picked up and I found myself really getting immersed and enjoying where things were going.

There’s a fair few threads all going at the same time, and seemingly some picking up from another recent NA, and putting another little interesting spin on that. There’s also some pretty engaging stuff for all three of the mains, with the Doctor, Chris, and Roz all getting a pretty big chunk of the narrative and we get a pretty good exploration of all of them too. It’s nice to have this opportunity to flesh out Chris and Roz, especially Chris considering his (mostly) ‘himbo’ run since joining the Doctor.

Also just while i’m being complimentary of Miles, the sequences in the TARDIS in this novel are exactly what The Doctor’s Wife/Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS should have been. Unsettling, unpredictable, and totally outside of the occupants’ comfort zone.

I think I have two more Miles’ novels - both in the Benny range - to get through, so I’m now actually quite looking forward to getting to them!

[Danny Welch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lawrence Miles is a rather odd writer. He's praised for his contributions to the franchise but criticized for his demeanour towards other creatives. I love his work, since his stories are admittedly incredibly imaginative and well-written, but he can be rather nasty with other writers, unfortunately. He's very much seen as the black sheep of the fandom because of his behavior. 'Alien Bodies' and 'Interference' were phenomenal novels, so I've been really looking forward to reading his debut.

It's Christmas 1799, nearing the beginning of a new era. Roz is stuck in a village where all the inhabitants hold grotesque prejudices against her. The TARDIS slowly destroys itself, and Chris is trapped in it. The Doctor is determined to stop a terrible catastrophe that could change everything. The universe is on the brink of change, and it all starts with a small, insignificant village on Christmas Eve.

Lawrence Miles' debut novel is dark, fiendishly clever and absolutely bonkers. It hasn't aged well in certain respects, but it's a very well-written novel that is once again an incredibly imaginative read with an interesting cast of characters, fascinating ideas and a universe ending threat that is unlike anything the show has tried doing.

Overall: This is an absolutely incredible novel that slyly references the leader of a cult, later known as Faction Paradox. 10/10

[Dominic King · Rating 3 out of 5]

No book needs to have N words this much really, even with the context provided. This is the second Lawrence Miles Dr Who book I've read (Alien Bodies was the first), and it's clear he's dumped as many of his brewing fan ideas he's had. That said, his ideas are the right kind of whacky for my liking, and clearly set up the groundwork for the abstract sci-fi ideas he's going to explore in the Faction Paradox.

This wasn't read as part of an ongoing series read so I don't know how well it continues the storyline for Roz and Chris, but I got a good idea if their voices from it.

Pacingwise, as in Alien Bodies (or rather, Alien Bodies is as in this), we get chapters from many characters perspectives, that build, slightly too slowly for my liking, to a very thrilling and conceptual climax. I'm happy to forgive abstract description for the denizens of hell for the abstract nature of the threat at play here. Always better to be bold and overshoot, than to be familiar but boring.

3.5/5 would probably read again.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

So I have my quibbles with this story - the plot didn't always fully involve me, and the gynoids were some weird gender essentialist sci-fi that I didn't particularly like for acting like 'woman' robots would be inherently less 'rational'. But I also think this story's dealing with some super interesting ideas, especially the way it handles Roz and her relation to her own native empire. Definitely feels like something I'll have to revisit down the road!

[Arthur B · Rating 2 out of 5]

Starts out by asking the reader to accept a really weird sort of cosmic gender essentialism as true. Er, no. Full review: https://fakegeekboy.wordpress.com/202...

[Mae R · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interested in listening to Roz whine? Looking for a story with more holes than a donut shop?? Then read this book. Otherwise, do yourself a favor and pass on by.

[Rachel Redhead · Rating 5 out of 5]

still a great book :)