A review by scampr
The Crawling Terror by Mike Tucker
adventurous
dark
hopeful
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
With what little indication of the story I had beyond just 'giant spiders/insects', I went into The Crawling Terror expecting a serviceable but pretty unremarkable Dr Who adventure to tide me over. Admittedly, this novel did exceed my expectations in a couple of ways, but not enough to propel it much more than being enjoyably average.
The gist of this story is the Doctor and Clara stumble upon a rural town with that is trapped and overrun with giant arthropods, and all signs pointing to the new and slightly shady laboratory. The pair have to uncover how and why this is happening in order to resolve the crisis and save the local people. This alone isn't the most exciting or original sci-fi story, both within Dr Who and the wider genre - but a couple of additions do help to elevate the novel into something less redundant.
The first quarter of the book plays things fairly straight and as expected - however the mystery of the mutated bugs is made more interesting than just 'scientists going too far' by introducing a connection to ley lines and secret WWII experiments. Giving the situation a deeper backstory and more fantastical elements helped to engage me better than if the story was purely human responsibility.
Clara doesn't have a whole lot to do in this novel, and felt a little generic (not entirely the authors fault as this was probably written while s8 was in production). By comparison the Doctor feels well characterised, with a distinguished voice and quirks, as well as strong interactions/banter with others. The guest characters are not all that interesting but serve their purpose, save for Charlie Bevan, a policeman who befriends the protagonists. Similarly, the villains were fine but ultimately pretty one-note. Given it isn't very thematically or character driven, the quick pace is of benefit to this story - the focus is very much on the plot and it commits to that efficiently.
Overall, there's a fair amount running away from the monstrous insects, and some action beats when the military get involved, but here and there are some pretty cool moments of sci-fi exploration and delving into the past.
A stereotypical premise like this needs perfect execution or a lot of extra ideas and development to work for me personally, so while I didn't love this novel, I wasn't necessarily bored or irritated by it either - the end experience was just a satisfyingly typical but slightly forgettable Dr Who book.
The gist of this story is the Doctor and Clara stumble upon a rural town with that is trapped and overrun with giant arthropods, and all signs pointing to the new and slightly shady laboratory. The pair have to uncover how and why this is happening in order to resolve the crisis and save the local people. This alone isn't the most exciting or original sci-fi story, both within Dr Who and the wider genre - but a couple of additions do help to elevate the novel into something less redundant.
The first quarter of the book plays things fairly straight and as expected - however the mystery of the mutated bugs is made more interesting than just 'scientists going too far' by introducing a connection to ley lines and secret WWII experiments. Giving the situation a deeper backstory and more fantastical elements helped to engage me better than if the story was purely human responsibility.
Clara doesn't have a whole lot to do in this novel, and felt a little generic (not entirely the authors fault as this was probably written while s8 was in production). By comparison the Doctor feels well characterised, with a distinguished voice and quirks, as well as strong interactions/banter with others. The guest characters are not all that interesting but serve their purpose, save for Charlie Bevan, a policeman who befriends the protagonists. Similarly, the villains were fine but ultimately pretty one-note. Given it isn't very thematically or character driven, the quick pace is of benefit to this story - the focus is very much on the plot and it commits to that efficiently.
Overall, there's a fair amount running away from the monstrous insects, and some action beats when the military get involved, but here and there are some pretty cool moments of sci-fi exploration and delving into the past.
A stereotypical premise like this needs perfect execution or a lot of extra ideas and development to work for me personally, so while I didn't love this novel, I wasn't necessarily bored or irritated by it either - the end experience was just a satisfyingly typical but slightly forgettable Dr Who book.