May 15

DW: Shadows of Avalon

Hey Guys,

welcome to ‘The Shadows of Avalon’ Volume 31 of the book series ‘Eighth Doctor Adventures‘. Quite obviously it has the eighth Doctor in it and his to Companions Compassion and Fitz. The reason I bought this book is that they meet in the adventure the Brigadier. You all know I love the Brig. I doesn’t know much about Compassion which would maybe helped with understanding this book. For people how doesn’t know what is going on I don’t want to spoil it but the story also a story about Compassion. So it is helpful to actually know her.

Compassion – short look at her

Compassion was first seen in the book ‘Interference – Book One’, which is the 25 volume of the ‘Eighth Doctor Adventures‘. All the information given know are just what I read about her. So it could be that there are mistakes in here. She was at some point Laura Tobin. She was one of the survivors of her home planet that was destroyed. Faction Paradox transported her to earth. But the ship need a few years more than human lifespan has. So the passengers were remembered by using biomass in remembrance tanks. It seems that Compassion is the result. Earth signals changed her so much that she started traveling with the Doctor.
When we met Compassion in this book, she waits for the Doctor to arrive. The Doctor send her to live on earth to become more human. So this is where the story starts.

Gateway

Avalon is a dream world dreamt from King Constantine. But something bad is going on in this world. A gateway opens between this world and earth. The military stumbled upon it and the Brig is investigating. The Brig is in a very bad place in this adventure. He lost his life Doris and is searching for death. As much as I hate seen the Brig in such a state, the travel he goes through in this book is kinda amazing. I am just not happy with the end of the book about this problem.
So back to the problem at hand. The humans and Fair Folk are at war and two mysterious people are meddling with the two folks.

A construct of Magic, War and Politics

This whole book is just a big conspiracy. You try to find out what these two ‘people’ are up too. The Doctor is trying to find out what is going on and leaves the Brig. The Brig totally lost in his grief is bringing the military to help the Humans and send all of them into war – into death. I don’t like the whole parts of the war. I am not a fan of war stories. Compassion and Fitz are away from the Doctor and also think that he is dead. So they got involved with the Fair Folk and send on a mission to close the gateway. A big part of the story are politics and religion stuff. And around that construct of War, Politics, Religion they spun a magical world with Dragons and other magic.

Live in the Dark

The book is rather dark. It is war and the Brig is grieving. Compassion and Fitz are grieving the Doctor and feel not secure. So there is really nothing positive going on in this story. There is little hope in the people. The whole story is set in dark palace. There is no laughter or happy moments. When we get a really small moment of happiness than the grief of the Brig is making this moment painful again. So it is light lecture.

The longest I read on a book

I think I read this whole book over a whole year… a year! For my liking it was too much war and politics and the whole atmosphere to depressing. Since I didn’t know much about Compassion and Fitz is also kinda difficult to relate to, when you know so little about him. In the epilogue I actually really gets him. Maybe a little late. The only thing I really found interesting was the journey of my Brig.
So if you like politics and war and Avalon. If you like to read books with a depressing atmosphere than you are here right. Maybe when you know the characters better the story would be better. I don’t know.

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February 8

Doctor Who: EarthWorld

Hey Guys,
it gets complicated in EarthWorld, if you haven’t read the adventures before. So this book is issue 43 from the ‘Eight Doctor Adventures’ and was reprint for the 50th anniversary Collection. What for my thinking was a bad decision. The book is really good but to that later. But it plays with the memories of Fitz Fortune (also know as Fitzgerald Michael Kreiner) and a memory loss of the Doctor. We you don’t know what happend it is a little irritating. This time i will start with a little get too know the companions:

Fitz Fortune and Anji Kapoor

Fitz Story is really complicated when you just read a summery of it. When he first met the Doctor, the doctor travels with Samantha Jones. His travels with the Doctor are like a hop on and off bus. What i definitly know is that Fitz had take is memories and placed them in a Remembrance Tank what rebuilt him. In EarthWorld they say that is not just a copy, that he has the essance of Fitz in him. This re-remembering Fitz lifes a long time away from the Doctor. When the Doctor found him in the end he let the TARDIS re-remember the Fitz he was when they met. So they began to travel again. Than their cames the part i don’t understand, because they are taking about Gallifrey being destroyed by the Doctor – that is why the Doctor forget everything. Again Fitz and the Doctor lost each other but remet in 2001 without memories of who he is.
Anjis Story is quite simple, this book is just he second adventure with the Doctor. She is twenty-eight and had a boyfriend, actor and science fiction fan Dave Young. But he died during a Kulan invasion of Earth. She met Fitz when her boyfriend get into it and he said that the Doctor can help her. But the Doctor isn’t quite himself without memories. When her boyfriend died, she just wants back to work and grieve. But the Doctor can quite find the right time. It is a little like Tegan.

EarthWorld

So the Story plays in the year 2800 on a planet New Jupiter, with people from earth. Most people or the king is an earth fan. They try everything to be like the earth and so on. But their are also the people against it. This terror group is called ANJI.
I like the idea of the book. The new jupiter built a theme park ‘Earthworld’ and the didn’t get the history quite right. So we have a few nice thinks on that. Like the king of Rock, becomes the king of the earth. It is funny to read what they think about the earth.

Everyone against everyone

We have a lot of different interesst groups. There is the king, that just want to be the best king he could be – and so like the earth as they could be. Than there are his 3 daugthers that have totally different plans and are a little crazy. Than there is ANJI that wants to sapotage the theme park, and two other person with different interesst, that i don’t want reveal here. Because the plot is not really surprising but it would take a lot of fun out of the story if you know everything. And between all that we have our heros.

The grief

Anji has the mean part in this book and it is nice to see what she thinks. She as really nice thought like get a T-Shirt with ‘i am the main character, don’t kill me’. She doesn’t want to travel with the Doctor. She just wanted back in her life. That is what makes her really sympatic. Also i like how the book handle her grief. So we can read little messages she wants to send to her dead boyfriend.

The parts with Fitz

These parts are quite confussing. Like told you above, we get much memories of Fitz and that deficult story. They are talking about people i don’t know, Sam, Fillpa, the Compassion… it sound all really interessting, but with out any background knowledge it is just like: ‘cool, i don’t get it.

So yes i can only recommand the book, but i would advise everyone to read the 42 books before that. Because the Fitz part is really confussing.

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