The first thing that
strikes you about Blood Harvest is
just how easy the novel is to read.
While the story is intended for a mature audience Terrance Dicks keeps
the pace so children could follow with shorter chapters. This allows the suspense to rise a lot
quicker and before you know it you’re already halfway through the book and it’s
so late at night you have to stop or else you will miss your alarm the next
morning. Dicks also imbues a lot of
humor in the story as he makes fun of a lot of Doctor Who conventions and
himself as he calls anyone who would describe a “wheezing, groaning sound” an
idiot. The atmosphere is also really
thick in the novel as the opening monologue immediately places you in the mind
of a film noir, with a jazz soundtrack easily playing in the background. Just for this alone makes this novel a real
contender for adaptation by Big Finish.
The shifting of the setting also really works as Dicks works in his
penchant for cliffhangers between chapters that keeps the story moving along at
a great pace.
Dicks also really knows
his characters and makes this story one of the most enjoyable outings for Ace
in this story. Yes she is still hard and
carries a gun around but she can handle herself. She’s still human and refuses to let herself
fall for Dekker, yet even contemplates staying behind in Chicago. Dicks also nails the characterization of the
Doctor as he is being extremely mysterious to everyone around him yet has a
respect for Al Capone, who is portrayed as someone who just wants to keep up
his business yet isn’t afraid to kill people if he has to. Benny and Romana are also great as they spend
most of the novel together and get to have a very good dynamic between the
two. Romana is as aristocratic as always
and has only gotten smarter in her older age, becoming quicker witted than even
the Doctor. The supporting characters
are all slightly clichéd as 1920s gangsters and bootleggers which allows this
novel to get some of its greatest moments.
The amount of bloodshed because of the setting is great and the
characters add to the sense of panic that the novel creates. The villain of the piece is Agonel who is one
of those beings that have been meddling in history making every bloody event
just a little bit bloodier so they can get off.
He is meant to suggest bloodshed and then slip away from your mind as
just a tall man who you may have passed on the streets. It’s a brilliant idea for a villain and the
way Dicks eventually resolves the plot, moving it to Gallifray and the Tomb of
Rassilon is a great way to get things done.
Yes the plot eventually goes to Gallifray which allows for an alright
conclusion with the notable exception of the implication that Borusa has
learned the error of his ways and is content with his punishment.
My biggest complaint with
the novel is that some of the early scenes with Benny while she is
investigating are really boring. Dicks
could have cut them out and opened with her investigating the tower. The scenes on Gallifray also get a touch to
self-referential for my liking as there are callbacks to The Deadly Assassin, Arc of Infinity, The Five Doctors and The Trial of a Time Lord which all feel
really unnecessary in an otherwise great novel.
To summarize, Blood Harvest is another great novel
from Terrance Dicks that brings back the vampires, creates a great period
piece, has brilliant characterization and sees the return of Romana. It sadly fails with its bookends as they both
could have been cut down to a bare minimum, yet the story itself isn’t taken
away from too badly. 92/100
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