DW: The Eyeless

Last of the books... until April! This time long term writer Lance Parkin steps up with: The Eyeless.


Eh... I'm not sure what went wrong. Lance Parkin is a great writer, with a lot of high caliber books, but this... The main thrust of the book is "Doctor must shut down bad weapon", and most of the first half of the book is just sticking obstacles in his way, coming across as jerks, and reading like a whole lot of forced padding. The second half reads a lot better, and on reflection the first half isn't so bad, and fits with context of building the background up, but it was still painful to read through.

Character-wise, the focus is on two characters (aside from the Doctor), Alsa and Dela. Alsa is, however, annoying and I don't care about whatever happens to her. And Dela's focus was hidden by another character, so it took a while for me to realise that I was supposed to connect with her. Hmm.

And then there's the Eyeless themselves... frankly, they are presented in a dark light to begin with, whereas they could have been passed off as good guys, at least for a while. When the mass fighting starts, I'm not seeing any sympathy, even from the author, for them. Not sure what the point about that was.

A fumble for Lance, then. The smaller page/word count a hamper? Wouldn't have thought so. But something here leaves a disappointing taste in the mouth.


Order: Unsure if before or after The Next Doctor.

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