DW: The Coming of the Terraphiles

So this is Michael Moorcock, is it? If this is typical of his style (and why would he not write typically), I can't say I'll be adding a new author to my reading list. Am I saying I didn't enjoy this book? I enjoyed... some parts of this book, but on the whole, no, it won't be an experience I'll be hurrying to repeat. (Looks up Wiki entry.) Ah, that explains something, see below.

The plot is, essentially, straightforward enough, a travelogue across different planets and spaceships, with pirates, it is confounded by the setting. Although it's 51,007, everyone's wacky about Earth history and of course gets it wrong in oh-so-hilarious ways. And by "hilarious", I mean "confusing". Earth World did this and that didn't cause me to have no idea about various things MM is on about here. The corruption of the language doesn't help, and he's mixing up a fair few things... and aside from 'whackit' being something like cricket with bows and arrows, I'm not sure what's going on there. And was the "arrer" different to the "arrow"? Not to mention the "Roogaluator"/"Regulator" nonsense. MM seemed to be enjoying himself writing all this, more than I had reading it.

And the characters are all very... here, I'll jump to the point of "Wodehouse"ian, of people faffing about trying obliquely not to express their feelings while going "rather" and "old thing" and the like. Admission time: I haven't read any P. G. Wodehouse. People keep saying he's someone to read, and yet I have completely failed to. To be honest, I don't see that as an achievement I'll obtain any time soon. Then mix it up with the mixed up setting described above, and it's more annoying than amusing.

One thing I'm not sure about is: did MM ask for the Doctor/Amy pair, or was it part of the contract that he write for them? I wouldn't be surprised by the latter, as the mannerisms, etc., aren't very Eleventh Doctor-ish, and although we get a lot of Bingo flirting with Amy, Rory's name isn't mentioned once, not even in Amy's internal monologue. Eh? Was he only passed a couple of scripts, or early concept ideas, or something? He does a passable job of writing the Doctor/Companion story, but I'm thinking he might have had other pairings in mind...

I got this 'cos I'm a completist. While I didn't enjoy it, I dare say some aspects of above (from author to style) will appeal to others more.

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