STORY PLACEMENT THIS STORY TAKES PLACE BETWEEN THE
NOVELS "PLACEBO
WRITTEN BY CHRISTOPHER BULIS
RECOMMENDED PURCHASE OFFICIAL BBC 'EIGHTH DOCTOR' PAPERBACK (ISBN 0-563-40590-2) RELEASED IN AUGUST 1998.
BLURB A disturbance in the vortex causes the Doctor and Sam to materialise the TARDIS in deep space. Here they find that a huge derelict alien craft has become the subject of a confron- tation between star ships from the rival systems of Nimos and Emindar.
While the Doctor and Sam find themselves accompanying an expedition into the heart of the alien vessel, strange and frightening incidents spread terror. But exploring deeper into the derelict disturbs a sinister presence and takes the DOOMED expedition TOWARDS ITS FATE AND PERHAPS EVEN beyond THE EDGE OF life itself... |
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Vanderdeken's Children AUGUST 1998
Vanderdeken’s Children is a novel that starts ever so beautifully. In all the sto-ries that I’ve read featuring Paul McGann’s Doctor, I have never encountered such vivid and dramatic descriptions of either the TARDIS interior or of the Doctor himself. I think it’s fair to say that by page three of this book, I was suitably engrossed within Christopher Bulis’ world. Unfortunately, from there things went downhill in a very big way.
The author’s space liner setting is evocative of television serials like Nightmare of Eden and Terror of the Vervoids, which is hardly desirable. And his two antagonistic races - the Nimosians and the Emindians – came across as being so impenitently generic that already I can’t recall a single feature of either species.
Only the science-fiction driving the plot forward promised any sort of redemption for this novel but, at least in my case, I just wound up getting utterly lost. The Doctor does explain it all to Sam right at the end of the book, but by then I had lost the will. That said, other readers might ‘get’ the plot and thus enjoy Vanderdeken’s Children far more than I did, but I think that Bulis might lose even those readers with some of the stunts that he pulls here.
Indeed, what really gets me about this novel is that at times it feels like Bulis is deliberately trying to provoke the reader. There’s even one inexcusable sequence where the Doctor uses his real name to try and make himself sound more officious. Obviously the name is not cited in the dialogue (unpronounceable, thankfully), but even so it destroys the aura surrounding it. Worse still is the implication that Sam actually knew the Doctor’s name before he starting flashing it about!
To be fair to Bulis though, Vanderdeken’s Children is not without its good points. Sam has her moments, including regressing in age (and memory) a decade or so, yet still being able to put her trust in the Doctor. There is also an interesting (albeit soapy) subplot involving a submissive husband who enjoys a mild flirtation with a woman named Ingrid, who his wife then murders, prompting him to beat the crap out of her. Eventually they’re both put paid to by the alien menace, naturally, which is where this bizarre little thread links back in with the larger story.
Ultimately though, Vanderdeken’s Children is without a doubt one of Bulis’ poorest offerings, and so my firm advice would be to avoid this one.
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Copyright © E.G. Wolverson 2010
E.G. Wolverson has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 to be identified as the author of this work. |
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