Reading, Listening, Watching
Feb. 23rd, 2022 07:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
purplecatReading: Dalek - the novelisation of the story of the same name by its writer Rob Shearman. I'm only at the start. So far there has been a very Shearman-esque chapter which I'm guessing is Dalek POV, and then something more straightforward as we got into the story.
Listening: I recently discovered that there is a Target Book Club podcast that is reading its way through the Target Novelisations. I'm currently listening to their thoughts on Planet of Giants which they recorded back in 2017. It's interesting, though also irritating in places, partly because they are American and sometimes I just want to tell them stuff, and sometimes because, I don't know, a lot of the discussion seems to buy into accepted wisdom about what parts of the show are good and what bad and so on that's rooted in conversations people had in the 1990s, not conversations people have now, and sometimes because of, I suppose, confusions around what is in the original story and what is in the novel. I feel it is a little harsh to criticise someone novelising a TV story for poor plotting in the source material. I do quite like it though, I just wish it felt a bit more as though it was coming from a place of love.
Watching: I have a vague plan to continue watching through Hawkeye, now himself is away. For some, unaccountable, reason himself is less interested in Jeremy Renner in leathers, shooting arrows, than I am. However, so far, I've mostly been playing catch-up with various chores. Perhaps at the weekend, though there are two big work things I need to get done and dusted before then, otherwise I'll be doing them at the weekend.
Listening: I recently discovered that there is a Target Book Club podcast that is reading its way through the Target Novelisations. I'm currently listening to their thoughts on Planet of Giants which they recorded back in 2017. It's interesting, though also irritating in places, partly because they are American and sometimes I just want to tell them stuff, and sometimes because, I don't know, a lot of the discussion seems to buy into accepted wisdom about what parts of the show are good and what bad and so on that's rooted in conversations people had in the 1990s, not conversations people have now, and sometimes because of, I suppose, confusions around what is in the original story and what is in the novel. I feel it is a little harsh to criticise someone novelising a TV story for poor plotting in the source material. I do quite like it though, I just wish it felt a bit more as though it was coming from a place of love.
Watching: I have a vague plan to continue watching through Hawkeye, now himself is away. For some, unaccountable, reason himself is less interested in Jeremy Renner in leathers, shooting arrows, than I am. However, so far, I've mostly been playing catch-up with various chores. Perhaps at the weekend, though there are two big work things I need to get done and dusted before then, otherwise I'll be doing them at the weekend.
(no subject)
Date: 2022-02-23 07:46 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2022-02-24 03:46 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2022-02-24 06:11 pm (UTC)===
Afraid I was somewhat disappointed by this book too, or at least it wasn't as good as I think it should have been.
On plus the underlying story is still superb. Always will be. However for much of the book it felt very much like a too minimal conversion of the script. You'd frequently get long sequences of speech/dialogue, without any added emotion/insight into the speakers' delivery, or internal thoughts. Or the other description would often be minimal, as in the Doctor and Rose's first arrival in the museum, which wowed visually by its variety of artefacts, but was far less impressive in this print form, lacking the substitute for the visuals.
To be fair Target books are often written in a form of shorthand, e.g. repeated use of expressions such as "pleasant, open face", "wheezing, groaning sound". But this one shouldn't have read as _flat_ as it did for me in many places. I think things improved in this as the book went on, and then it really shone, with added insight and description. But it needed more of that earlier.
The interval backstories were of mixed success for me. For example the Henry Van Statten childhood one really filled things out for me. But I was less taken by the torturer or the others, which felt more like distractions than good additions to the story. I just wish those words had been used more to expand the story we had already, to enrich its description to replace the lost visuals, and make the characters deliver words dynamically.
Because when it was best it was utterly brilliant. I just wish it had been more consistently brilliant.
So I rated it 8/10. I really expected to give this 10 though.
===
In particular I’d forgotten that “flat” feeling I had, especially in the alien artefact collection early on. It wasn’t a problem in some other recent Targets, like RTD’s Rose or Moffat’s DotD.
(no subject)
Date: 2022-02-26 09:52 am (UTC)