A review by infinitespace
Doctor Who: The Menagerie by Martin Day
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Not a bad book, but sadly one I wish were better executed. In a way, it's the epitome of "telling" instead of "showing," and yet it somehow manages to still be mildly confusing at times when it omits details - but only mildly. The setting, the concept, and even the plot were all pretty good & interesting - it was the storytelling itself that was the let down, with lots of "and then this happened" with little explanation as to how or why.
In a way, I wish the book could've been written by someone else using the same ideas. Even the blurb on the back makes it sound more dramatic and exciting than it is - it mentions Jamie "languishing in prison" when in reality It also says that scientists were cursed and turned into horrible monsters that lurk beneath the city, which could've been a chilling twist to uncover in the story, but instead we take that fact for granted from the start, only to find out later that
The character development here is pretty bare-bones, and dialogue in the book is very clearly just a vehicle to deliver plot & backstory, so although we don't get a ton of deep insights into the new characters, there's also not too much to complain about in that area - the new characters are interesting enough, and for the most part the Doctor, Jamie, and Zoe are represented reasonably well and in-character, baring a few smaller exceptions.
Overall, I would still recommend the book to someone who likes the show & these characters - or even just someone interested in the setting (a kind of pre-industrial medieval-ish society that's evolved after the downfall of an earlier, highly-advanced one) since that's one of the better-executed elements - but I would make sure to tell them not to set their expectations too high. There were several points where I thought the book's vagueness was there on purpose, to make me suspicious of something that happened "off-screen" or to question how or when characters acquired conveniently relevant information - and while that might've been the case in another book, in this one it's really just a side-effect of the writing, and never amounts to anything. It can get frustrating, but at least it never really inhibits you from understanding the story, and once you accept that about it, the book is short enough and fast-paced enough to carry you along to the end without becoming tiring, although it definitely would in a longer book.
In a way, I wish the book could've been written by someone else using the same ideas. Even the blurb on the back makes it sound more dramatic and exciting than it is - it mentions Jamie "languishing in prison" when in reality
Spoiler
he gets arrested at the end of one scene and immediately freed in the next, and spends less time locked up than the Doctor or Zoe.Spoiler
it's just a myth the locals started, combining their fear of scientists with the different sentient subterranean species they share a city with.The character development here is pretty bare-bones, and dialogue in the book is very clearly just a vehicle to deliver plot & backstory, so although we don't get a ton of deep insights into the new characters, there's also not too much to complain about in that area - the new characters are interesting enough, and for the most part the Doctor, Jamie, and Zoe are represented reasonably well and in-character, baring a few smaller exceptions.
Overall, I would still recommend the book to someone who likes the show & these characters - or even just someone interested in the setting (a kind of pre-industrial medieval-ish society that's evolved after the downfall of an earlier, highly-advanced one) since that's one of the better-executed elements - but I would make sure to tell them not to set their expectations too high. There were several points where I thought the book's vagueness was there on purpose, to make me suspicious of something that happened "off-screen" or to question how or when characters acquired conveniently relevant information - and while that might've been the case in another book, in this one it's really just a side-effect of the writing, and never amounts to anything. It can get frustrating, but at least it never really inhibits you from understanding the story, and once you accept that about it, the book is short enough and fast-paced enough to carry you along to the end without becoming tiring, although it definitely would in a longer book.