Doctor Who, Sons of Thestian
Sep. 30th, 2015 12:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
schneefinkDoctor Who 9.02: The Witch's Apprentice
I liked the solution to how Missy and Clara didn't die, and I liked how it was revealed. Missy is so much fun, and her and Clara together too. I was a bit disappointed by Missy's game at the end because it depended on Clara not being smart enough to try to open the Dalek, or say something else: she knew what would not work, but she could have worked around it somehow, there are enough things Daleks can say and it wasn't like Missy controlled her speech directly. I'm even more disappointed that it almost worked.
The Doctor said that he knew what Davros was planning all along, but I don't buy that, otherwise why the Confession Dial and the wake party? I wonder when he figured it out. Or he was just being overly dramatic for no reason – no, that seems a bit much even for him. I like the sonic sunglasses, the Doctor in the chair (one of the two chairs on Skaro), and the Doctor and Davros laughing together.
All in all, entertaining, but with too many holes to be among my favorites.
The Sons of Thestian, by M.E. Vaughan
I read this because of a Tumblr rec & good goodreads reviews. That was a mistake. 90% of the book is boring and then it has a great ending, which is wasted because the buildup didn't work. Shame. Through most of the book I was bored because the story didn't know what the plot was – like the rescue of the princess from the Korrigan right at the beginning, it just seemed so random. (Did we ever even find out why they wanted Rufus' blood? I might have missed it, some chapters I only skimmed.) Sure there were always hints of mysterious bad things going on in the background, but that's not enough. I didn't care. The writing wasn't above average either.
All the characters were bland, with the possible exceptions of Rufus and Zachary, and Rufus seemed more like a collection of bullet points the author wanted to collect than like an actual character. Rufus and Jionat's relationship, which should have been central to the whole book, never really worked for me, it never developed organically and I never even understood where they started from. I was never interested in Fae at all (and I didn't like her name.) The evil stepmother was such a sad cliché.
The worldbuilding was at the same time way too complicated - I couldn't be bothered to remember all the politics and family drama from decades ago - and seemed very generic. Not even the development of Jionat's abilities was done in a very interesting way, and Rufus' past dramas were mostly annoying because overdone.
The ending was a nice twist: Jionat sacrificing himself (/being forced to) to resurrect his brother, mmm I like sacrifices. Poor Rufus, but I like that he has Joshua. A scene was missing with Sverrin after his resurrection where he asks after Jionat (and Zachary would be there.) The author probably saved that for the sequel, but "we'll resurrect a guy to be king by sacrificing his little brother and we'll just hope he'll be okay with that" seems a bit optimistic. Sverrin's reign actually sounds like a possible cool storyline, but I don't trust the author to write it well.
I liked the solution to how Missy and Clara didn't die, and I liked how it was revealed. Missy is so much fun, and her and Clara together too. I was a bit disappointed by Missy's game at the end because it depended on Clara not being smart enough to try to open the Dalek, or say something else: she knew what would not work, but she could have worked around it somehow, there are enough things Daleks can say and it wasn't like Missy controlled her speech directly. I'm even more disappointed that it almost worked.
The Doctor said that he knew what Davros was planning all along, but I don't buy that, otherwise why the Confession Dial and the wake party? I wonder when he figured it out. Or he was just being overly dramatic for no reason – no, that seems a bit much even for him. I like the sonic sunglasses, the Doctor in the chair (one of the two chairs on Skaro), and the Doctor and Davros laughing together.
All in all, entertaining, but with too many holes to be among my favorites.
The Sons of Thestian, by M.E. Vaughan
I read this because of a Tumblr rec & good goodreads reviews. That was a mistake. 90% of the book is boring and then it has a great ending, which is wasted because the buildup didn't work. Shame. Through most of the book I was bored because the story didn't know what the plot was – like the rescue of the princess from the Korrigan right at the beginning, it just seemed so random. (Did we ever even find out why they wanted Rufus' blood? I might have missed it, some chapters I only skimmed.) Sure there were always hints of mysterious bad things going on in the background, but that's not enough. I didn't care. The writing wasn't above average either.
All the characters were bland, with the possible exceptions of Rufus and Zachary, and Rufus seemed more like a collection of bullet points the author wanted to collect than like an actual character. Rufus and Jionat's relationship, which should have been central to the whole book, never really worked for me, it never developed organically and I never even understood where they started from. I was never interested in Fae at all (and I didn't like her name.) The evil stepmother was such a sad cliché.
The worldbuilding was at the same time way too complicated - I couldn't be bothered to remember all the politics and family drama from decades ago - and seemed very generic. Not even the development of Jionat's abilities was done in a very interesting way, and Rufus' past dramas were mostly annoying because overdone.
The ending was a nice twist: Jionat sacrificing himself (/being forced to) to resurrect his brother, mmm I like sacrifices. Poor Rufus, but I like that he has Joshua. A scene was missing with Sverrin after his resurrection where he asks after Jionat (and Zachary would be there.) The author probably saved that for the sequel, but "we'll resurrect a guy to be king by sacrificing his little brother and we'll just hope he'll be okay with that" seems a bit optimistic. Sverrin's reign actually sounds like a possible cool storyline, but I don't trust the author to write it well.
