Rec & Review
Apr. 20th, 2008 05:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
neadodsSorry about the spam, but there were a bunch of things I wanted to pass on:
I echo the latest![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
calufrax recommendation: Dating in the Workplace, an all-era video/Big Finish crackfic about the ins and outs of romantic relationships in the TARDIS - the companions', the Doctor's, and more. The last bit is probably funnier if you're familiar with the comic/Big Finish companions, but it's not a dealbreaker if you aren't.
Book Review for The Many Hands:
The Many Hands by Dale Smith starts off beautifully. The Doctor is suitably Doctorish, and Martha is everything I'd hoped in her portrayal: smitten, yes, but also competent, brave, and medically minded. As she ran, she kept her mind busy by listing the organization of the human lung... She counted off the diseases that affected the lungs, alphabetically. She kept getting stuck after oedema. THIS is the woman who told Joan Redfern to talk to the hand and all the bones in it!
As a Martha fan, I also appreciate that the Doctor is shown appreciating her, even if he doesn't say anything directly to her. Suits both canon and what I'd like to think he was thinking.
This grasp of characterization continues with the original characters, including a soldier and a minister who, in lesser hands, would be a martinet and either a hypocrite or a fundie loony, but in Smith's are men of principle and intelligence. Characterization is fabulous!
Smith also has an amusing way of not so much breaking the fourth wall as putting the occasional dent in it, with side references to David's real life worked cleverly into the circumstances so that they don't seem wedged in or throw you out of the book - they just provide a bit of a giggle.
And the plot is suitably gothic - the dead walk, and there's an anatomist who seems to be breeding Addams-family-style Things in his basement. Doctor Who! Zombies! Even a Gelth reference!
Cool! The setup is so fabulous that the rave review was written in my mind by the halfway point, and I told![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
persiflage_1 "he's going to have to fumble really badly to put me off it at this point."
...Aaaand then Smith fumbled. REALLY badly.
Audiences will put up with anything in the hopes that in the end it will all make sense (see: Twin Peaks, X-Files, Lost.) And they get really pissed off when it doesn't. (see: Twin Peaks, X-Files, Lost). Because there is a difference between scientific explanations, skientific handwaving, and asking the audience to suspend their disbelief by the neck until dead.
Scientific explanations are ones in which the world really works that way, following observable and testable rules, like the Second Law of Thermodynamics or the path of genetic mutations.
Skientific explanations are ones that look scientific if you squint, or you aren't familiar with the real scientific principles. Like Intelligent Designers calling the Earth a closed system or insisting that all mutations are harmful. (To steal a song lyric, don't it make my brown eyes blue.)
And then there's just mounds of fresh fertilizer that make no friggin' sense whatsoever but conveniently round off the plot points. And that, alas, is the route Smith takes to explain what's going on.
And then there's the hystory. Hystory is the historical version of skience: it sounds right, but it's dead wrong. (Classic example: Paul Cornell's Big Finish "Seasons of Fear," where Charley and the Doctor discuss American President Ben Franklin. Uh, no, but thanks for playing.) Ben's a character here, for no particular reason and to no purpose; his presence wasn't required for one plot point and the other plot point involving him made no sense.
Such a fantastic setup, and Smith doesn't just fumble the dismount, he positively face-plants. On the other hand, odds are good that in future I'll be rereading the first half for the sheer joy of it, and bailing before the skientific, hystorical wreck.
I echo the latest
calufrax recommendation: Dating in the Workplace, an all-era video/Big Finish crackfic about the ins and outs of romantic relationships in the TARDIS - the companions', the Doctor's, and more. The last bit is probably funnier if you're familiar with the comic/Big Finish companions, but it's not a dealbreaker if you aren't.Book Review for The Many Hands:
The Many Hands by Dale Smith starts off beautifully. The Doctor is suitably Doctorish, and Martha is everything I'd hoped in her portrayal: smitten, yes, but also competent, brave, and medically minded. As she ran, she kept her mind busy by listing the organization of the human lung... She counted off the diseases that affected the lungs, alphabetically. She kept getting stuck after oedema. THIS is the woman who told Joan Redfern to talk to the hand and all the bones in it!
As a Martha fan, I also appreciate that the Doctor is shown appreciating her, even if he doesn't say anything directly to her. Suits both canon and what I'd like to think he was thinking.
This grasp of characterization continues with the original characters, including a soldier and a minister who, in lesser hands, would be a martinet and either a hypocrite or a fundie loony, but in Smith's are men of principle and intelligence. Characterization is fabulous!
Smith also has an amusing way of not so much breaking the fourth wall as putting the occasional dent in it, with side references to David's real life worked cleverly into the circumstances so that they don't seem wedged in or throw you out of the book - they just provide a bit of a giggle.
And the plot is suitably gothic - the dead walk, and there's an anatomist who seems to be breeding Addams-family-style Things in his basement. Doctor Who! Zombies! Even a Gelth reference!
Cool! The setup is so fabulous that the rave review was written in my mind by the halfway point, and I told
persiflage_1 "he's going to have to fumble really badly to put me off it at this point."...Aaaand then Smith fumbled. REALLY badly.
Audiences will put up with anything in the hopes that in the end it will all make sense (see: Twin Peaks, X-Files, Lost.) And they get really pissed off when it doesn't. (see: Twin Peaks, X-Files, Lost). Because there is a difference between scientific explanations, skientific handwaving, and asking the audience to suspend their disbelief by the neck until dead.
Scientific explanations are ones in which the world really works that way, following observable and testable rules, like the Second Law of Thermodynamics or the path of genetic mutations.
Skientific explanations are ones that look scientific if you squint, or you aren't familiar with the real scientific principles. Like Intelligent Designers calling the Earth a closed system or insisting that all mutations are harmful. (To steal a song lyric, don't it make my brown eyes blue.)
And then there's just mounds of fresh fertilizer that make no friggin' sense whatsoever but conveniently round off the plot points. And that, alas, is the route Smith takes to explain what's going on.
And then there's the hystory. Hystory is the historical version of skience: it sounds right, but it's dead wrong. (Classic example: Paul Cornell's Big Finish "Seasons of Fear," where Charley and the Doctor discuss American President Ben Franklin. Uh, no, but thanks for playing.) Ben's a character here, for no particular reason and to no purpose; his presence wasn't required for one plot point and the other plot point involving him made no sense.
Such a fantastic setup, and Smith doesn't just fumble the dismount, he positively face-plants. On the other hand, odds are good that in future I'll be rereading the first half for the sheer joy of it, and bailing before the skientific, hystorical wreck.
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no subject
Date: 2008-04-21 01:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-21 01:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-21 06:31 am (UTC)Bah humbug !
no subject
Date: 2008-04-21 11:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-22 05:31 am (UTC)I saw an "official" review yesterday (linked via W-D) of "Martha in the Mirror" and saw that the reviewer thought it didn't do Martha any favours, and I wondered what the reviewer had made (or would make) of "The Many Hands".
no subject
Date: 2008-04-22 10:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-22 10:31 am (UTC)I definitely prefer Peacemaker, Wetworld and The Pirate Loop to any of this set of books...
no subject
Date: 2008-04-23 12:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-23 05:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-23 10:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-23 10:36 am (UTC)But I must finish this meta-ish piece I'm writing first, or my head may explode ! O_O (Thought it was bad enough when fic eats my brain - it's even worse when the meta-ish stuff does it !)