I have always loved Justin Richards' Doctor Who novels. From the early days of novels such as "Theatre Of War" and "Dreams Of Empire", I've always felt that Richards nailed Doctor Who - understanding that, more than just a science-fiction/fantasy programme, it was actually a horror programme. Richards works are often filled with impressive literay allusions and zombies, which makes for a potent combination I must say.
Martha In The Mirror is no slouch of a novel either. Once again we have an equivalent of zombie hordes - although in this case they are the rather scarier glass reflections of people, amidst, if you take out the warrior crocodiles, could essentially be a Shakespearian world of magic and witches.
Little girls run around, acting disturbingly like their deceased twin sisters, though apparently haunted by their lost ones. People look into the mirror in the main hall, only to be killed by the reflection that they see on the other side. Armies are poised to go to war, with negotiations being halted by the murder of one of the delegates using a glass gun. It's fantastic, it's hyper-real and it's also very scary.
I raced through this novel, curious to see the twists that Richards had at the end, and also enjoying the prose that was easy to take in on a Sunday afternoon. This ranks as one of the better of the recent Doctor Who novelisations, and a huge improvement on the three from Christmas.
"A"
No comments:
Post a Comment