Hinton excels at creating
a sense of despair from the opening where the description of the Dalek invasion
which is extremely creepy. Chris and Roz
who both know history both contribute to this sense of dread as they go through
the motions of people who are trying to get things under wraps while everything
is falling apart around them. The
darkness doesn’t really keep up throughout the novel while things do fall apart
in several ways. Chris however is the
highlight of the novel as he has adopted the Doctor’s technique of name dropping
to get by as his great to the something grandfather was an Adjudicator during
the time of The Dalek Invasion of Earth.
There is also a plot with
an Adjudicator Santacosta which really highlights the history of the guild and
how they have improved over time as things really change. It’s a good character arc if a bit shallow
overall. The same can be said of most of
the villains of the story as Hinton is itching to use invaded Daleks which
would of course have worked very well if they could be included. We get the son of Lord Slaar from The Seeds of Death which is the main
villain, but it really doesn’t work well in the context of the story as it’s a
character forced in for nostalgia and in place of more suitable villains for
the story. That is not to say that the
Daleks don’t have a presence in the novel.
The novel does well at lending itself to the idea that the Daleks could
appear in any sort of way and the darkness of extermination coming around the
corner. It shows Hinton’s strength as a
writer as he makes a villain offstage feel very threatening to the reader.
Hinton also writes the
main trio well as the TARDIS is at the start pulled off course and breaks up
because of the Osiran influence on Mars.
Yes this story is connected to The
Sands of Time in several little ways.
The goal of the pilgrimage to the Cauldron of Sutekh where the GodEngine
is constructed. The connections are the few ones that don’t
get in the way of the overall story which is good. Hinton also does one more thing to keep the
story moving, he creates a great society for the Ice Warriors. It’s comedic irony as Benny has left, because
she was an expert on Martian history which really does work well and we even
get to see an Ice Warrior wedding.
To summarize, GodEngine is a novel that is an easy
read, however because Craig Hinton didn’t have creative freedom everything
falls apart quickly. It isn’t in levels
of a bad story as the characters are great and there are a lot of things that
are intriguing for the novel especially with the Ice Warriors appearing in the
novel with great culture, but it doesn’t really rise in any sense above average
for the story. 50/100
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