The Timewyrm Series
A Story Arc
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Virgin Books The Timewyrm Series A Story Arc |
| Published | 1991 |
| Covers | Andrew Skilleter |
| Synopsis: The virus-like Timewyrm, who can possess the minds of living beings clashes with the Doctor throughout past, present and future history. |
A Review by Trina Short 22/11/01
I finished Revelation a few days ago. I wrote this in my brain last night, but I'm sure I'll forget all the important bits now.
Genesys: Not a bad start to the whole series. I especially like the use of Mythological characters made real. The characterization of the Doctor was pricklier than I liked and Ace's nude scene just wasn't needed one bit. Still, Ishtar is a memorable villain.
Exodus: I'm still amazed by how much I enjoy this novel. It's Terry's best, IMO (though I've not read Catastrophea or Endgame yet). Now that the entire run in completed, it's still my second favorite of the run. That's pretty impressive for the second novel of a 100+ book series. It's of an epic nature like The War Games, but still something you could visualize the TV series doing. That's not a bad thing, either. I really haven't any complaints about this story - even though the whole "Germans win WWII" thing has been done to death. Oh wait, this is the first occurrence of it in Whodom. ;-)
Apocalypse: I hate that word. I always stumble while typing it. But what of the book? *sigh* Still not very memorable. I did like Raphael and think it would have been a neat twist if he'd've become a companion. Alas, this is the start of the trend where Ace falls in love with any cute bloke in a novel. (Well, I guess it won't be a trend yet as this theme gets put aside for now.) One of the shortest DW books and still one of the lowest rated ones for me. (Nigel makes up for it with Birthright, thankfully.)
Revelation: A real headf*ck this one. This book, although far from being a favorite of mine, was probably crucial to the series. This is the book that showed what the NAs were capable of becoming. The BBC could never have done this novel with DW's budget - not even if they used the whole season. The first three books, I think, could have been filmed.
The trouble I have with it is that the angst, which was very important to this story, kept getting drug back again and again by future authors. But I felt at the end that both the Doc and Ace had exorcised most of their demons. So that's nothing against Paul, but just that future authors decided that should be a theme to address again. And again. (Perhaps upon rereading I won't feel this way - but I'd be surprised. Heck, the Professor and Ace audios picked up on this heavily and ruined a few stories with it.)
The vision of Doc7, the planner, is very strong in this book - especially at the end where he and Ace clear up the loose ends. I wonder if having that was good for the book series? Yeah, he did some of that in the series, but just as often he was flying by the seat of his pants.
There were times I had trouble keeping up with the thought processes in the book, but that wasn't a bad thing. This isn't a book to be rushed through. Whereas the first 3 books were quick romps with the Doc and Ace, this one took more out of the reader. And that was a good precedent to have. Alas, the book that follows is another headf*ck and this is why I've paused in reading the NAs and am rereading Wyrd Sisters instead. I'll get to the Giant Slug and his Bicycle shortly, though.