Timewyrm: Apocalypse

This was an apocalypse? I want my money back.

Don't get me wrong, this is a perfectly serviceable book. To me, though, it's like cotton candy. It tastes OK, but it melts away and leaves you feeling unsatisfied.

For all we're hearing about how scary the Timewyrm is, she doesn't seem to be able to really do anything except possess people and - sometimes - make them act weird. I didn't feel any sense of real threat to the Doctor or Ace here, or even to the side characters. It was obvious which ones would live and which die from the moment they were introduced. There's no real bonding with any of them. They're just there, pawns to move a story along.

The "romance" between Raphael and Ace is ridiculous and shallow. The cattiness between Raphael's "girlfriend" (whose name I've already forgotten) and Ace is about the same. The Kindly Old Man who bonds with the Doctor is so clearly doomed there's no point in even liking him. The Resident Baddie among the Putative Goodies is clearly wearing a black hat from the start, and equally clearly one of those who fall into the Sycophant Doomed To Die categories of DW villains.

Even the naming conventions hamstring this book. Calling the canine-ish servants of the baddies "Companions" was a bad and confusing idea.

Finding something good to say: it was a quick read. I was honestly confused about the radiation area with no radiation. I actually liked the first character introduced, and wished we could have seen more with him.

This book wasn't any worse than several of the television episodes, but I'm having a hard time coming up with things to say about it. It's already melting away, and if I reread it I think I'd get a stomachache.