STORY PLACEMENT THIS STORY TAKES PLACE BETWEEN THE NOVELS "TRADING FUTURES" AND "THE CROOKED WORLD."
WRITTEN BY PAUL EBBS
RECOMMENDED PURCHASE OFFICIAL BBC 'EIGHTH DOCTOR' PAPERBACK (ISBN 0-563-53851-1) RELEASED IN MAY 2002.
BLURB The Unnoticed are a race bound to keep itself isolated from all history, or face a complete collapse
from
existence. is a lifeline for time travellers WHO ARE STRANDED. JUST write your location, sign your name and be instantly rescued.
When the Unnoticed learn that within the book someone has revealed both their whereabouts they are forced into murderous interce-
ssion
to find it. is, but then he's the one who stole it.
Carmodi, addicted to the energies trapped in time travellers, also knows where it is. But THEN she's the one who's stolen Fitz.
Anji, WHO'S alone on a doomed WORLD, trying to find SOME evidence of a race that has never had the decency to exist, doesn't know where
anybody
is. deadly chase, the Doctor is starting to worry about how many people he can keep alive along the way... |
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The Book of the Still MAY 2002
It’s rare to find a new Doctor Who novelist that rolls up with the gumption that Paul Ebbs did in May 2002 with his Book of the Still. The novel’s cover and blurb concisely capture the enthralling eccentricity of its central concept, and once inside the reader is faced with a story that opens with an epilogue and only gets more brazen from there. Most palpably of all though, the distinctive voice of the author really stands out in a range largely dominated by a small clique of contributors. By turns whimsical, incisive and often outright mischievous, the Bernice Summerfield playwright shepherds his readers through an adventure that might not be quite to all their liking, but that they aren’t likely to forget in a hurry.
The Book of the Still is sold on the strength of its captivating premise. The titular tome is a lifeline for stranded time travellers - should you find yourself marooned in a spatio-temporal backwater somwhen, all you need to do is jot down your name and location in the book and you’ll be instantly rescued. It’s a conceit that succesfully fires the imagination, particularly in the Time Lord-free universe of the latter day eighth Doctor novels.
Ebbs’ antagonists are similarly inspiring. As their name suggests, the Unnoticed are a race who exist in a state of perfect iso- lation for fear that, should they reveal themselves to history, they might somehow unravel their existence. And somebody’s only gone and written down precisely where and when to find them in the Book of the Still, prompting a murderous frenzy on their part as they desperately attempt to locate the offending volume.
Unfortunately I found that the narrative didn’t satisfactorily pay off either its enticing premise or its intriguing villains. For all its mythic splendour, the plot languishes on Lebenswelt and the comparatively routine events unfolding there, whilst the potentially provocative evolution of the Unnoticed is passed over in favour of a tidy “closed circuit” resolution. Reading the book, I had expected Ebbs to forge some sort of link between the Unnoticed coming into existence – from the Doctor’s point of view, that is – and the erasure of Gallifrey. Instead, he just mangles a few bodies.
In fairness though, whilst the story didn’t live up to my lofty expectations, I thoroughly enjoyed reading Ebbs’ twisted take on Doctor Who staples. His tale flits between blazing new ideas and almost comically trite clichés, as if he’s trying to use the former to pass comment on the latter. For instance, we have the Doctor imprisoned by the Lebenswelt authorities… but he botches his escape attempt and ends up having to serve a significant amount of hard time; we are introduced to a new potential companion, Rhian… but Anji absolutely loathes her; and, perhaps most blatantly of all, we have a trademark Fitz romance … one that’s literally programmed by numbers.
The story is also littered with some absolutely stunning moments ticking all manner of boxes. The Doctor / Fitz coda is as emotive as their sitting on a book and setting the controls for the heart of the sun is exciting, for instance. The little touches are all there to be appreciated too - everyone on Lebenswelt wears big, baggy shirts, much to Fitz’s delight; previous jewels lie in the street as rubbish; and, rather presciently, the Doctor dances.
In sum then, The Book of the Still is burning with bright ideas and lovely writing, but there is something skewed in the execution that means it doesn’t quite live up to the promise of its billing. It’s an incredibly promising debut nonetheless, and therefore a great pity that Ebbs has never had the opportunity to pen a further Who tale. He’s certainly one scribe that I’d be keen to hear more from in the future.
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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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