Time's Chumpion

I obtained and finally read Time's Champion, the final magnum opus from the pen of Craig Hinton (as finalised by Chris McKeon).

It certainly fits in with his previous works, huge epic events, the universe in danger, higher dimensional beings at war, time and space crashing around us, dark side versus light side, dogs and cats living together...

On reflection, there are two plot threads here, the threat to Gallifrey and the threat in 1908... and although a connection is stated, I'm not really buying it. They really are two different events that are jammed together in the same book to give people stuff to do. (I'm not saying one has been added for padding, 'cos at the moment I'm not sure which that would be.)

Basically, the book is more complex that it needs to be, and does seem to rack up a large page count without entirely justifying the expanse of paper used.

Character-wise, there is plenty of evidence that Craig likes this team (certainly not the least of which is that this isn't the first time he's written this pairing), and he spends a lot of time delving into them and their motivations, and exploring a lot of what has been brought up in other people's books (which is the polite way to say there is a lot of continuity references here, and indeed if you haven't read his other works, you are going to miss out on a lot of what's going on here). I don't accept his Valeyard explanation (although it's better than Matrix), but can't deny that he tries to get in everything he can.

It is a heck of a book to bow out on, and should be gotten if you are getting the books, but not for the faint of heart.

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