tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8800091210753201638.post6319851124893617149..comments2023-06-04T17:53:06.332+01:00Comments on Neil Is The Best Dalek: Doctor Who: The Virgin Novels #5 – Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible by Marc PlattUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8800091210753201638.post-2138984101741171862016-10-07T00:20:48.735+01:002016-10-07T00:20:48.735+01:00Small but comforting spoiler: Lungbarrow is actual...Small but comforting spoiler: Lungbarrow is actually very good and entertaining as well.Talliferhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08541684895097153972noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8800091210753201638.post-48437729240863952592016-10-06T18:06:50.056+01:002016-10-06T18:06:50.056+01:00Incidentally, didn't he put this forward as a ...Incidentally, didn't he put this forward as a TV script initially? How the blithery hell would THAT have worked?!Neil Is The Best Dalekhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12049901367710121384noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8800091210753201638.post-14710980907600581052016-10-06T18:06:20.992+01:002016-10-06T18:06:20.992+01:00I agree with all the above. I'd almost be tem...I agree with all the above. I'd almost be tempted to read Time's Crucible again, with context, if I hadn't been desperate to save space during a house move and got shot of it. It's made me nervous about Lungbarrow, I can tell you.<br /><br />It's weird that I didn't notice reading two bizarrely expressionistic books in a row here. I guess because Revelation is so anchored in character, so that even when it gets a bit too full of itself you still care about it. Time's Crucible doesn't have an anchor that I could find. Even trying to view it as a story that goes from A to B, it's about a dull bunch stuck in a (weird) dump being chased by an, at worst, mildly bemused lamprey. I've had more exciting lunches.Neil Is The Best Dalekhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12049901367710121384noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8800091210753201638.post-51287488214274516402016-10-06T13:05:12.395+01:002016-10-06T13:05:12.395+01:00(I found this comment I had posted years ago on Ga...(I found this comment I had posted years ago on Gallifrey Base) That was well weird as Ace would say. Part of me enjoyed figuring out what was going on in this surreal book, and some of the answers were good: ancient Gallifrey, datavores, the Tardis's survival strategy.<br /><br />However, this book is definitely too long. There are far too many repetitious passages describing how time-addled and dizzying the Process's world is, how many earthquakes and lightning strikes portend immanent doom, how hopeless and useless the stranded Gallifreyan Chronauts are. The editor should have trimmed some of the repetition.<br /><br />Also a clear explanation at the end would have helped. I still had no clear idea about the Process. Throughout the book it was described as mindless and primitive, but it spoke clearly and intelligently: for many pages I assumed that the Pythia was merely controlling it and speaking through it. But that was never made clear, and indeed the ending seems to indicate otherwise: the Process was just a random monster that invaded the Tardis and created a complication for everyone. (I read someone suggest that it was a biological sample which traveled in the Scathe.)<br />If I ever finish reading all the other Doctor Who novels, I really want to go back and re-read Crucible. The prehistory of Gallifrey and the strange world created by the Process fascinated me.Talliferhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08541684895097153972noreply@blogger.com