The Art of Destruction
May. 15th, 2007 06:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
purplecatI read the Art of Destruction by Stephen Cole on the plane between Chicago and Los Angeles. It was a four hour journey and, given I'm not the fastest of readers, I was quite surprised to find that I finished the book with time to spare. It just goes to show, I suppose, how much slighter the Books written to go with the new Doctor Who series are compared to the full length novels we had become used to.
The Art of Destruction is a 10th Doctor/Rose novel, since I'm rather behind with my Who reading, and captures both of its main charaters well enough. Rose in particular comes across very much as played on screen. Its tenth Doctor is more reminiscent of the one we saw in his first outing, the Christmas Special, than that of season 2, but this is probably more a reflection of the material available to Cole at the time of writing than any inability to capture the character. The writing itself is readable and pleasant and the plot is pacy and mostly pretty coherent although I had my doubts about the climax (which seemed to solve the problem only if a few rather unlikely assumptions were made). The supporting cast were also well-drawn (albeit with fairly broad strokes) with characters clearly distinguishable and thankfully devoid of any child or young-adult identification point. So, all in all, this book probably succeeds very well by its own lights in delivering a well constructed and well written novel, aimed at young adults and that remains true to its parent series.
... but I couldn't help finding it a little insubstantial. This is probably again a result of the change from the full length adult-targetted novels to the new "kidult" tie-in style. The concerns of third-world poverty and bio-piracy that pre-occupy the supporting human cast did not seem to mesh well with the warring aliens and hidden art treasures of the main plot. I thought for a while that a parallel was being drawn between the nazi plundering of jewish art and modern day exploitation of the third world but this did not seem to be supported by the plot (see * for minor spoilers). Futhermore if the "theme" of second season new Who was "love and loss" then there isn't much sign of it in this book (although I've also heard it suggested that the theme was "the steps we take to survive" which would be more relevant).
Having said that it is interesting that the book chooses to engage with the issue of third-world poverty at all and that it does so far more directly than old style Who, which generally liked to peddle its societal comment in the form of allegory. The four main supporting cast are all Africans with very different reactions to the problem and as such they present a dialogue on how Africa might best help itself. But, while they tell us of their experiences, we are never shown the realities of where they come from making the problem appear rather abstract and the absence of a first-world perspective perhaps has the unfortunate side-effect of suggesting this is an African problem which Africans alone need to solve.
The book, ultimately, is happy to exist as a well-written runaround. It is possibly even thought-provoking in its way (I'm not clear how aware the modern "kidult" is of the issues surrounding third-world debt - I learned nothing new here but that doesn't mean that raising them in this context was without its merits) but I can't help thinking that both Who novels and kidult novels can be more than this.
* The Wurms do not want to steal the Valnaxi art treasures for themselves and/or exploit the Valnaxi artistic talent they only want to destroy the Valnaxi culture entirely.
The Art of Destruction is a 10th Doctor/Rose novel, since I'm rather behind with my Who reading, and captures both of its main charaters well enough. Rose in particular comes across very much as played on screen. Its tenth Doctor is more reminiscent of the one we saw in his first outing, the Christmas Special, than that of season 2, but this is probably more a reflection of the material available to Cole at the time of writing than any inability to capture the character. The writing itself is readable and pleasant and the plot is pacy and mostly pretty coherent although I had my doubts about the climax (which seemed to solve the problem only if a few rather unlikely assumptions were made). The supporting cast were also well-drawn (albeit with fairly broad strokes) with characters clearly distinguishable and thankfully devoid of any child or young-adult identification point. So, all in all, this book probably succeeds very well by its own lights in delivering a well constructed and well written novel, aimed at young adults and that remains true to its parent series.
... but I couldn't help finding it a little insubstantial. This is probably again a result of the change from the full length adult-targetted novels to the new "kidult" tie-in style. The concerns of third-world poverty and bio-piracy that pre-occupy the supporting human cast did not seem to mesh well with the warring aliens and hidden art treasures of the main plot. I thought for a while that a parallel was being drawn between the nazi plundering of jewish art and modern day exploitation of the third world but this did not seem to be supported by the plot (see * for minor spoilers). Futhermore if the "theme" of second season new Who was "love and loss" then there isn't much sign of it in this book (although I've also heard it suggested that the theme was "the steps we take to survive" which would be more relevant).
Having said that it is interesting that the book chooses to engage with the issue of third-world poverty at all and that it does so far more directly than old style Who, which generally liked to peddle its societal comment in the form of allegory. The four main supporting cast are all Africans with very different reactions to the problem and as such they present a dialogue on how Africa might best help itself. But, while they tell us of their experiences, we are never shown the realities of where they come from making the problem appear rather abstract and the absence of a first-world perspective perhaps has the unfortunate side-effect of suggesting this is an African problem which Africans alone need to solve.
The book, ultimately, is happy to exist as a well-written runaround. It is possibly even thought-provoking in its way (I'm not clear how aware the modern "kidult" is of the issues surrounding third-world debt - I learned nothing new here but that doesn't mean that raising them in this context was without its merits) but I can't help thinking that both Who novels and kidult novels can be more than this.
* The Wurms do not want to steal the Valnaxi art treasures for themselves and/or exploit the Valnaxi artistic talent they only want to destroy the Valnaxi culture entirely.
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(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-15 09:43 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-15 05:38 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-15 08:49 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-16 08:59 am (UTC)If I recall correctly, the three books you mention are all written by someone other than Terrance Dicks. (David Whitaker, Malcolm Hulke and smotherguy respectively?) That's probably significant.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-16 10:55 am (UTC)'Smotherguy' in the case you mention was Ben Aaronovitch.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-16 06:40 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-17 06:23 pm (UTC)