A review by philippurserhallard
Doctor Who: The Bog Warrior by Cecelia Ahern
3.0
I quite enjoyed The Bog Warrior, actually. It reminded me strongly of the Telos Doctor Who novella [b:Nightdreamers|882266|Nightdreamers (Doctor Who Novellas)|Tom Arden|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388789429s/882266.jpg|867550] -- a very nominally SF-tinged reimagining of a familiar fairy story, all glitter and sparkliness and bonkers ideas, kind of terrible in parts and even conceptually, but with a likeable bounce that pulls you along with the story and means you forgive it a lot. I don't think it does any harm for the Doctor to be more of an observer once in a while -- he doesn't have to have the same story function every time.
I have to admit I kind of loved the Doctor's trick of making deductions about the plot based on the symbolism of the characters' names, as if he was aware he was in a story by a not-very-subtle writer. As a kind of outsider art version of Doctor Who, where you put aside your preconceptions about the artist and judge it on how fun it is to read, it's not bad at all.
I have to admit I kind of loved the Doctor's trick of making deductions about the plot based on the symbolism of the characters' names, as if he was aware he was in a story by a not-very-subtle writer. As a kind of outsider art version of Doctor Who, where you put aside your preconceptions about the artist and judge it on how fun it is to read, it's not bad at all.