GodEngine by: Craig Hinton: Not Another Wedding!

Craig Hinton wanted to write a novel featuring the Daleks as the villains in the backdrop of The Dalek Invasion of Earth.  The rights to use the Daleks in any work however has always been in the hands of the Terry Nation estate and they refused to give the license to Virgin Books.  Hinton however is already known for inserting references to other stories didn’t let that stop him from setting the time period as backdrop for the story and depicting the early days of the Martian invasion.  He cannot use the Daleks in any more than a cameo at the beginning of the novel, but instead uses the Ice Warriors who are under duress from the Daleks to deliver the GodEngine the titular destroyer of worlds for this novel, GodEngine.  The Doctor, Chris, and Roz of course are there to help the Ice Warriors stop the completion of the device and get history along the right path so he can come along and save the Earth in 2164 with Ian, Barbara, and Susan.  It’s a simple plot, but of course Hinton overloads the novel with references to other stories which really make the story confusing as you are going through the plot.

 

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