The success of Return of the Living Dad revolves around
the characterization of Benny and her father.
Orman paints a portrait of Isaac as a man tired from war and violence,
trying to do what is right. He is
misguided as there are plans to get first contact going so the Earth can be
prepared for the Dalek invasion in the twenty-second century, but he is still a
good man. He cares about his own
daughter and wished to see her ever since Ace ran into him on her own travels. Orman is great at setting up the mystery of
Isaac as the novel opens with the vague possibility that he is alive and doing
well for himself. Benny of course gets
great characterization in the novel as she goes through the joy of finding her
father and trying to catch up with him after all these years. She has to admit to herself that she
travelled with the Doctor as a way to have a father figure and her marriage to
Jason, who is almost a nonentity in this novel, is reinvigorated with passion
as her life is near complete again. The
way Benny and Isaac interact is great as Orman uses Benny’s immediate trust to
throw the reader off when searching for the true villain of the novel. Orman calls into question the story that
Isaac Summerfield is a coward who ran from the battlefield which is what makes
Benny get in contact with the Doctor, she wants to go back as she was given the
exact coordinates of his disappearance.
The theme of not changing history comes up as it takes everything in
Benny not to use the TARDIS to interfere with his father’s disappearance. It takes a human approach to the characters
which may have been Paul Cornell’s inspiration when writing Father’s Day.
Love is another theme
that comes out in this novel. It
reflects the Doctor’s choice to become humans as a way to understand them
better in Paul Cornell’s Human Nature,
and now Return of the Living Dad
explores the Doctor coming to terms with fatherly love as almost everyone in
the main cast gets to fall in love.
Benny has her father and Jason, the Doctor almost falls for a paranormal
investigator which of course ends badly, and Chris and Roz. Well the novel explores Chris and Roz’s
relationship as Chris professes his love for his superior Adjudicator after the
frustration that he has gone through in previous novels. Chris of course has been through a lot in his
time with the Doctor, and Roz’s rejection of his advances are tragic to say the
least as they really could work as a couple.
It brings Chris back into reality and provides closure. That’s really wat the novel is about, closure
for the main characters which is done brilliantly by Orman.
To summarize, Return of the Living Dad is another
great novel by Kate Orman that manages to tie disparate plot threads together
with stunning characters. It is a novel
steeped in the series’ lore which may be a turnoff for some and makes some
things very difficult to follow, but the characters are solid. Old fans will have fun playing spot the
reference and guess the twist if you know anything about some of the creatures,
while still enjoying how the characters are developing as a sense of foreboding
is developed with this sense of closure to the relationships, but for now we
have another happy ending to enjoy.
83/100
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