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wayward's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.75
nwhyte's review against another edition
3.0
http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1786238.html
A splendidly creepy story of the Doctor, Amy and Rory (set between the wedding and the opening of Season 6) at a Swiss sanatorium in the late 18th century where almost nothing is as it seems. James Goss varies from entertaining to excellent as a Who writer, and this is a particularly inventive novel, told from the points of view of various narrators, including the Doctor, Amy and Rory, all of whom turn out to be unreliable in one way or the other. As with any Who-related work by Goss, this is strongly recommended.
I started it by listening to the audio version read by Clare Corbett and then realised I had the paper copy of the book, so read the last two thirds in dead tree format, really because I am a quick reader and wanted to find out what happened; Corbett's reading, and in particular her characterisation of the different first-person narrators with their varying accents, is excellent.
A splendidly creepy story of the Doctor, Amy and Rory (set between the wedding and the opening of Season 6) at a Swiss sanatorium in the late 18th century where almost nothing is as it seems. James Goss varies from entertaining to excellent as a Who writer, and this is a particularly inventive novel, told from the points of view of various narrators, including the Doctor, Amy and Rory, all of whom turn out to be unreliable in one way or the other. As with any Who-related work by Goss, this is strongly recommended.
I started it by listening to the audio version read by Clare Corbett and then realised I had the paper copy of the book, so read the last two thirds in dead tree format, really because I am a quick reader and wanted to find out what happened; Corbett's reading, and in particular her characterisation of the different first-person narrators with their varying accents, is excellent.
mj_isasimp's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
meganmargoking's review against another edition
4.0
Another surprisingly good one from James Goss.
Let's start with the cover. It's very blue. Probably trying to go with the beachy/water theme this book entails. The people in the background rising from the sea who look like zombies to me aren't dressed in period clothing. You are probably thinking, Megan, how can you even tell? One man is wearing a top hat. I have a feeling top hats weren't around before the French Revolution. The girl on the cover is most likely either the character Maria, an 11 year old girl or Perdita, Doctor Bloom's wife. Either way I find it funny that either one of them would be holding the Doctor's Sonic Screwdriver (and may I say that it's a horrible photoshop job?). This never occurred in the novel.Amy's very bold lipstick bothers me a lot. Perhaps because she never wore that bold of lipstick in the show. And Rory seems a bit unshaven. The Doctor looks good however; no complaints about him.
Goss writes in 1st person for this novel. But each chapter is from a different person's perspective: Amy, Rory, Maria, Dr. Bloom or Mr. Nevil. So when you read you have to pay attention to whose chapter is coming up.
I was impressed with how Goss wrote Rory. He goes into Rory's character and background quite thoroughly and I loved it. Everyone else is written in character as well but I thought Rory was the best.
There's quite a few twists in this novel. The majority I didn't see coming. I don't want to spoil so that's probably why this is going to be a short review.
I'd recommend this to Doctor Who fans.
Let's start with the cover. It's very blue. Probably trying to go with the beachy/water theme this book entails. The people in the background rising from the sea who look like zombies to me aren't dressed in period clothing. You are probably thinking, Megan, how can you even tell? One man is wearing a top hat. I have a feeling top hats weren't around before the French Revolution. The girl on the cover is most likely either the character Maria, an 11 year old girl or Perdita, Doctor Bloom's wife. Either way I find it funny that either one of them would be holding the Doctor's Sonic Screwdriver (and may I say that it's a horrible photoshop job?). This never occurred in the novel.Amy's very bold lipstick bothers me a lot. Perhaps because she never wore that bold of lipstick in the show. And Rory seems a bit unshaven. The Doctor looks good however; no complaints about him.
Goss writes in 1st person for this novel. But each chapter is from a different person's perspective: Amy, Rory, Maria, Dr. Bloom or Mr. Nevil. So when you read you have to pay attention to whose chapter is coming up.
I was impressed with how Goss wrote Rory. He goes into Rory's character and background quite thoroughly and I loved it. Everyone else is written in character as well but I thought Rory was the best.
There's quite a few twists in this novel. The majority I didn't see coming. I don't want to spoil so that's probably why this is going to be a short review.
I'd recommend this to Doctor Who fans.
ladynerd's review against another edition
2.0
Oh, James Goss. I expected more from you.
The story was good and atmospheric, but the plot twists were predictable and frustrating.
Also, these characters were NOT Amy, Rory and the Doctor. The Doctor is basically a monster to Rory in this one, and Amy is still in love with The Doctor after marrying Rory. And she says she married Rory because he was this second best guy to the Doctor?
No thanks.
truestorydesu's review against another edition
3.0
Read this in honor of the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who, because Doctor Who is the best. This book seemingly combined some of my favorite all-time things - tuberculosis, The Doctor - but, as these books go, it basically reads like a rejected concept for a Who episode. The writing is not that stellar, though I did like the structure at first, it stopped making sense as the story went on - why would a little girl pause during a fog zombie alien invasion to write an extremely detailed letter to her mother? Why would a doctor's journal include dialogue? But my biggest pet peeve was how the author thought tuberculosis worked. Ok. Deep breath -
TUBERCULOSIS DOES NOT WORK THAT WAY.
And exhale.
TB does not immediately cause you to cough up massive amounts of blood. At first the most you'd get is a little bit of bloody sputum, which you can get with other illnesses, like pneumonia and shit. It wouldn't be until you really started getting bad as your lung tissue starts to collapse in on itself that you'll see hemorrhaging. Also - the odds that Rory, a young, healthy person, would actually develop TB if infected with it are extremely small. Roughly 10% of people who catch the disease actually get it - most everyone else just have it latent in their systems. I get you can do a "oh, aliens infected him!" handwave, but seriously, man. Seriously? Grr, arg. It's like I did all that weird, obsessive research for nothing.
Anyway, this book was OK - not stellar literature, I know (leave me alone, I'll read what I like!), but still fun.
If you ignore the lack of TB research.
TUBERCULOSIS DOES NOT WORK THAT WAY.
And exhale.
TB does not immediately cause you to cough up massive amounts of blood. At first the most you'd get is a little bit of bloody sputum, which you can get with other illnesses, like pneumonia and shit. It wouldn't be until you really started getting bad as your lung tissue starts to collapse in on itself that you'll see hemorrhaging. Also - the odds that Rory, a young, healthy person, would actually develop TB if infected with it are extremely small. Roughly 10% of people who catch the disease actually get it - most everyone else just have it latent in their systems. I get you can do a "oh, aliens infected him!" handwave, but seriously, man. Seriously? Grr, arg. It's like I did all that weird, obsessive research for nothing.
Anyway, this book was OK - not stellar literature, I know (leave me alone, I'll read what I like!), but still fun.
If you ignore the lack of TB research.
eska's review against another edition
3.0
Ich bin unschlüssig ob es nicht doch eher 3.5 Sterne sein sollen. Ich habe mich auf jeden Fall sehr gut unterhalten gefühlt, auch, wenn der Einstieg ein wenig holprig war und das Ende war einfach sehr stimmig und hat mich überzeugt. Trotzdem ist es kein Buch, das vier Sterne verdient hat.
Mich hat vor alle die Art und Weise wie die Geschichte erzählt wird gestört. In Form von Briefen oder Tagebucheinträgen wird durch andere Personen direkt oder indirekt gezeigt was passiert. Da hab ich mich immer und immer wieder gefragt wann die Leute innerhalb von wenigen Tagen so viel Zeit finden dies nieder zu schreiben? Im weiteren Verlauf wird deutlich, dass diese Erzählform notwendig ist und einen netten Twist erzeugt, den man, wenn man aufmerksam liest kommen sieht.
Ebenso kam erst spät das Feeling einer Doctor Who Folge rüber, die ich mir von dem Buch versprochen habe. Jedoch ist der Charakter einer Folge durchaus zu erkennen, jedoch nicht der Doctor selber. Er wirkt eher etwas blass, schade.
Mich hat vor alle die Art und Weise wie die Geschichte erzählt wird gestört. In Form von Briefen oder Tagebucheinträgen wird durch andere Personen direkt oder indirekt gezeigt was passiert. Da hab ich mich immer und immer wieder gefragt wann die Leute innerhalb von wenigen Tagen so viel Zeit finden dies nieder zu schreiben? Im weiteren Verlauf wird deutlich, dass diese Erzählform notwendig ist und einen netten Twist erzeugt, den man, wenn man aufmerksam liest kommen sieht.
Ebenso kam erst spät das Feeling einer Doctor Who Folge rüber, die ich mir von dem Buch versprochen habe. Jedoch ist der Charakter einer Folge durchaus zu erkennen, jedoch nicht der Doctor selber. Er wirkt eher etwas blass, schade.
williamc's review against another edition
4.0
Honestly, a person doesn't read Doctor Who novels expecting much beyond a day or two of escapism. But Dead of Winter is unexpectedly better than that average, offering a burst of growth for the genre, while capturing the strange meta-consciousness of the Matt Smith-era scripts and translating it -- widely successfully -- into book form. Simply put, this is the kind of Doctor Who novel fans deserve to see more often.
The form here is brilliant: first-person remembrances, epistolary passages, subtle references to the larger historical context, and characterizations that not only feel true, but stretch the cast with emotions and experiences that reach beyond the show and make believable humans of these people. There are also several twists of plot to rival Steven Moffat's.
Viewers already know that Human Nature was rewritten into a successful episode for David Tennant, and fans should hope for the same with Dead of Winter and Matt Smith. The book is easily the best written and best plotted of the Doctor Who books I've read precisely because it treats itself as a novel first and not just an attempt to parrot an already successful show. A less-attentive author might feel fans would be just as happy with less, but James Goss has here accomplished something very special: a novel centered around Doctor Who that finds much more human experiences to talk about.
The form here is brilliant: first-person remembrances, epistolary passages, subtle references to the larger historical context, and characterizations that not only feel true, but stretch the cast with emotions and experiences that reach beyond the show and make believable humans of these people. There are also several twists of plot to rival Steven Moffat's.
Viewers already know that Human Nature was rewritten into a successful episode for David Tennant, and fans should hope for the same with Dead of Winter and Matt Smith. The book is easily the best written and best plotted of the Doctor Who books I've read precisely because it treats itself as a novel first and not just an attempt to parrot an already successful show. A less-attentive author might feel fans would be just as happy with less, but James Goss has here accomplished something very special: a novel centered around Doctor Who that finds much more human experiences to talk about.