After I
struggled to remember what happened in the end of Timewyrm: Apocalypse, Paul
Cornell’s debut novel, Timewyrm: Revelation, proves to be quite the opposite of
Apocalypse living up to expectations set in the other Timewyrm novels. What first strikes the reader is the cover
seeing the Doctor dance with Death on the Moon while an astronaut looks on and
a church is in the background. An odd
image to be sure, but not nearly as surreal as the novel gets. The novel is first and foremost an
introspection of the mind of the Doctor and we get to see much of the way that
the other Doctors are seen except for the Second Doctor, who got his time to
shine in Timewyrm: Apocalpyse, and the Sixth Doctor who I theorize actually
scares the Seventh Doctor. The way the
Doctor sees his other selves fit perfectly with the First Doctor as the
Librarian searching for a daisy, the Third Doctor the owner of a fortress and
almost a mistake, and the Fourth Doctor as a ferryman who knows more than he
lets on. The most interesting aspect of
this is how the Fifth Doctor is seen, as the conscience who has been trapped in
the Pit. He is the most integral to the
plot as to escape his mind Ace must free the conscience after facing every
death the Doctor caused. Each death is
given gravity even when Katarina appears as Cornell could easily have made her
death desensitized.
The plot
itself is also very engaging with the Doctor and Ace arriving in the village of
Cheldon Bonniface to confront the Timewyrm for the last time. Before long they are whisked off to the moon
along with a sentient church, an aged vicar, a married couple and their child,
and a child that in a divergent timeline killed Ace as a child. This is where everything gets surreal as
before the exploration of the Doctor’s mind, Ace must overcome her own problems
and we get to see a lot of her childhood.
We see how she could have become incredibly vapid and not nearly as
strong a person as she was. We see her relationship
with Manisha, her friend mentioned in Ghost Light who died when her house was
firebombed by Neo-Nazis. We see Ace’s
mother and some of her other friends last seen in Survival and we also see Ace
go to The Curse of Fenric length emotions over the Doctor. While she isn’t completely upset with him,
here she is angry for his failed master plan.
We get to see Chad Boyle, the astronaut on the cover who nearly killed
Ace with a brick as a child.
Chad is a
really sympathetic villain as we eventually learn what this timeline’s version
did turn out to be. He turned into
someone who had an ordinary life unlike this Chad who had been enticed by his “Angel”
aka the Timewyrm since a young age. He
is every petulant child and even the Timewyrm can’t always put up with
him. The other characters are a bit of a
negative as the married couple, Peter and Emily Hutchings, are a bit
bland. Peter suffers the most as at
least Emily is a strong independent woman.
They are only there to conclude the plot. The vicar is a bit bland as well, but Saul is
extremely interesting. Saul is the
sentient church who is pretty much a less depressed and churchier version of
Marvin the Paranoid Android from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The Timewyrm is also brilliantly written here
as the intimidating villain and although the ending is a touch of a cop out,
she has a great presence. All in all I
give Timewyrm: Revelation a 95/100 and recommend it to anyone.
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