McIntee isn’t very good
at writing for the Fifth Doctor as he actually comes across as possibly the
Fourth Doctor or maybe the Third Doctor, but not the Fifth Doctor. He really doesn’t do much in the story except
try and stop the Sontarans and doesn’t make an impact on the plot for the
story. Turlough at least feels closer to
the idea of what he was supposed to be on television as the Artful Dodger type
character. He has to lead large sections
of the novel and works pretty well as an unreliable narrator which is really
how Turlough should be portrayed. I can
easily imagine this being adapted and improved in a Companion Chronicle style
with Mark Strickson and Dan Starkey doing a reading together. The supporting characters for this story are
really bland in most sections, so much so that I don’t remember who they were
as people or what distinguished them from each other. There is a really good idea present however
of translating an ancient Indian caste system which is a system I have studied
and forcing it into a society in the far future. It could be a good commentary on how old
ideas can change as while the caste system is rigid it is no longer motivated
by religion or reincarnation. You could
hypothetically change caste as things are changed differently in ways here
which is a really good idea present.
This is really one of the ways that the novel is easy to read as the
culture for the planet is very deep and makes a very good point.
To summarize, Lords of the Storm is not a very good
novel. There are good ideas present for
exactly what is going to go on with the Doctor and Turlough which I really like
and a deep culture for the planet. The
problem is that most of the conflict has been done before and done much better
in Shakedown with a really good twist
having quite a lot of ramifications for the Sontaran clone batch. There are scenes of the Rutans which are also
good, but nothing else really stands out.
35/100
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