frakalot's review
1.0
This was a big old NOPE from only a few pages in and it just got worse from there on. I don't have many nice things to say about this one. The period and the general "Doc and friends find trouble in a historic setting" theme would fit perfectly with what we have previously seen of the First Doctor's adventures but that's where the familiarity ends.
The characterisations were immediately off and never felt correct. The characters weren't even consistent within the story itself.
The plot felt like a weak attempt at boundary stretching as it focused largely on Roman era smut. It isn't that any of the sex and gore was historically inaccurate, just that it was an uninteresting subject matter. It didn't fit well as a first Doctor story at all and it didn't make a very engaging reader experience.
I rarely one star but I just didn't bite on this one at all.
The characterisations were immediately off and never felt correct. The characters weren't even consistent within the story itself.
The plot felt like a weak attempt at boundary stretching as it focused largely on Roman era smut. It isn't that any of the sex and gore was historically inaccurate, just that it was an uninteresting subject matter. It didn't fit well as a first Doctor story at all and it didn't make a very engaging reader experience.
I rarely one star but I just didn't bite on this one at all.
nwhyte's review
1.0
"http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1252990.html[return][return]There are some aspects of this book that are so awful that I almost wanted to claw my eyes out. It is set in the city of Byzantium (the future Constantinople / Istanbul) in the first century AD. The city's population appears to be mainly Jewish (divided between Zealots, Christians and those in between), with a Greek minority and a settled Roman ruling class. It has minarets. Huge thudding mistakes and discrepancies abound in the Latin phrases (one recurring example - the senior Roman government official in the city lives in the villa praefectus). And the first century city has minarets. The presentation of characters' names is horrendously inconsistent - some are Latinised, some Grecianised, some Hebrew (or possibly Yiddish), and one who is called 'Fabulous' (sic). And he seems to think that there were minarets in the city before the Turkish conquest of 1453, and six centuries before the foundation of Islam. Even the transcription of the opening of St Mark's Gospel in Greek is incorrect, which is pretty astonishing as all you have to do is find a copy of Nestl
kateofmind's review
2.0
This one felt as much like a religious tract or historical novel celebrating the early Christians (and, by contrast, booing everybody else, or at least the Romans and Jews; the Greeks come off as kind of okay. Mostly. They redeem themselves a bit in the end) as like a Doctor Who novel, especially since, as others have observed, Byzantium has next to no plot beyond "TARDIS crew gets separated; TARDIS crew has trouble reuniting; crew members get involved in contemporary lives maybe more than they should." It even has Bible verses quoted at the beginning of every chapter!
It also has Ian engaging in some rather hearty misogyny (though in his defense *I GUESS* all the women he encounters are pretty horrible, or at least annoying. But mostly horrible). The Doctor helping to write the Bible. Vicki whining all over the place. But Barbara, Barbara actually frees herself from her situation and tries to find the others. Barbara rules. Ian and Vicki drool. And the Doctor, well, meh the Doctor. I've never been that great a fan of the First Doctor, except in that dutiful "well without him we'd have none of the others" way.
I was pretty psyched when this was over, but I didn't hate enough to rage-quit it. Barbara saved it. Hail, Barbara.
It also has Ian engaging in some rather hearty misogyny (though in his defense *I GUESS* all the women he encounters are pretty horrible, or at least annoying. But mostly horrible). The Doctor helping to write the Bible. Vicki whining all over the place. But Barbara, Barbara actually frees herself from her situation and tries to find the others. Barbara rules. Ian and Vicki drool. And the Doctor, well, meh the Doctor. I've never been that great a fan of the First Doctor, except in that dutiful "well without him we'd have none of the others" way.
I was pretty psyched when this was over, but I didn't hate enough to rage-quit it. Barbara saved it. Hail, Barbara.
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