Hidekisohma's Reviews > Doctor Who: Father Time

So having been reading these 8th doctor books for five years, I was quite looking forward to this one as it was listed as the highest rated of all 73 8th doctor books here on goodreads. Now that i've read it, is it worth that praise? ..No, i don't think so.

The first third of this book was quite good. the doc meets a woman named Debbie, they protect a girl from basically aliens and a transformer, and there's some fun shenanigans. But after that... oof.

Okay, I should probably describe the breakdown of this book. It's broken into 3 parts. Each a different chunk of years in the 1980's. the first third is the early 80's where there's a girl named Miranda and there's an interstellar assassin after her because she's the last born of this evil empress and they want to wipe out her bloodline.

This part of the book is kinda fun. The doc is witty, there's excitement, and throughout the book, Lance's writing style is very easy to read. If the whole book was like this third, easy 4 out of 5. However, then the rest of the book happened.

Part 2 is just..it's awful. Part 2 is the middle of the decade and the predominant amount of the story is just Miranda and teenage troubles. Her friend, the guy who wants to date her, etc. It's literally like an episode of a teen drama for most of the second third. If this weren't a doctor who book that would be fine, but i'm here for doctor who, not Melrose Place.

The final third, you could tell Lance was TRYING to make it interesting again, but the ending was rushed, characters were added and killed for no reason, and the doctor added so out of character at times being SOLELY focused on this girl Miranda to the point of insanity that he almost became unrecognizable.

I could forgive MOST of this, if Miranda was interesting. But unfortunately, she's an AWFUL character. she's boring, She changes her core fundamental beliefs at the drop of a hat, and the author had a weird amount of letting us know how attractive she was.

The villain in the book is, objectively, one of the derpiest, worst villains you can ever come across. He's supposedly an interstellar assassin, but is ABSOLUTELY AWFUL at his job. Fails multiple times, gives up if there's ANY witnesses (including a gym teacher once), and falls in love with Miranda nearly instantly just...because i guess?

I hope i never see either this guy or Miranda again because they're just...they're awful.

All in all, this was my first Lance Parkin book and i have to say, this is not a good start. His writing style is good. It's very dense, but easy to read, and dense in the way that it's filled with stuff happening and not just description like purple prose.

This, at least to me, is by far NOT the best of the ~40 8th doctor books i've read so far. not even close.
That being said, this would not be a re-read if i ever went back to read some of my favorites.

2.5 out of 5 rounded down to a 2. Ah well. At least the "Doctor by himself" arc is finally over and next book i can get back to Fitz and also meet Anji! Here's hoping Anji's a good companion.