The Dresden Files: Side Jobs by: Jim Butcher

 

Changes is the novel that changed The Dresden Files forever with the death of protagonist Harry Dresden, but before moving on to book 13, Ghost Story, the first of two short story anthologies, if readers wish to read them, should be read here.  Side Jobs was published in 2010 and contains 11 short stories, 10 previously published in various anthologies and one new to the collection as the direct follow-up to Changes.  This is a chance for Jim Butcher to play around with style and format, and give the reader a time capsule of the various phases of his writing career and The Dresden Files timeline itself.  Stories span from before Storm Front to after Changes, and are generally themed to whatever the anthology was, though surprisingly in these short stories are several pieces of lore on characters and some of the plot itself which is honestly kind of surprising considering most probably wouldn’t realize would be essential.  Luckily that’s only one or two of the stories, the rest that could be essential are mainly done in character development around the bigger moments of the series.  While the series was becoming global in Small Favor, Turn Coat, and Changes it is also interesting to note that all of the short stories in Side Jobs are set in and around Chicago, making them all small scale.

 

The first story is “A Restoration of Faith” which is the first ever piece of The Dresden Files media.  It’s a very short story about Harry saving a kidnapped little girl and the fact that this was more a writing exercise than anything else, it becomes apparent why this doesn’t fit with the rest of the series, like at all.  There are no outright contradictions with the series, but Butcher clearly doesn’t have any idea as to what the magic system is really going to be and Harry is working for an investigation company that while technically still occurring in the main series, just feels like the intention was to do more with a buddy cop style story.  Harry’s also not quite recognizable as the character we see at the start of Storm Front though some of the wit is almost there.  The story is simple with the little girl being spunky and the villain being a troll.  Also Murphy gets to have a moment at the end with her first meeting with Dresden which almost makes it worth it, but honestly, Butcher is right in his preface to the story that it’s not good.  Not the worst thing ever, but clearly a first attempt.  4/10.

 

“Vignette” is a vignette.  A small conversation between Harry and Bob about the advertising of Harry’s service in the yellow pages.  Luckily, Butcher had five whole books under his belt as this is set after Death Masks so Harry is Harry and Bob is Bob, but this is more a piece of flash fiction than a full short story.  It’s a nice little character moment that’ll get a laugh.  7/10.

 

The first short story from an anthology is “Something Borrowed” from My Big Fat Supernatural Wedding, obviously being a wedding themed story.  This one tells the wedding of Billy and Georgia, and because this is The Dresden Files, something obviously goes wrong.  This is a chance for Butcher to distill his love of fairy tales down into one little short story as Georgia has been kidnapped and her place has been taken by Jenny Greenteeth, events that will become relevant in Proven Guilty.  Butcher uses this as a race against the clock so we can end the short story on the climactic objection to a wedding, but there is this lovely bit of philosophizing on why people get married.  Butcher has this idea of weddings being an expression of love creating a magical bond which links people.  The marriage has power and the whole idea makes this story really stand out, especially with its ending where the wedding is ruined and restaged as an intimate gathering with Billy, Georgia, Harry, and Murphy in the study of Father Forthill.  8/10.

 

“It’s My Birthday, Too” from Many Bloody Returns is the first of two short stories to really focus on Thomas Raith, Harry’s half-brother.  This short story is one told from Harry’s point of view on Thomas’s birthday, and his insistence to give him a present.  He finds his vampiric half-brother pretending to be a vampire with a group of LARPers at Woodfield Mall.  Harry brings Molly along and they all get trapped in the mall with a vampire of the Black Court, the most dangerous and most terrifying vampires.  They are the Dracula style vampires, and while this is a young vampire, only being undead for a few months, the terror is there.  Butcher excels at writing a tense horror thriller of a short story, partially because he doesn’t use these vampires often, only really playing a part in Blood Rites up to this point which while being the weakest book in the series, their inclusion is one of the saving graces of that novel.  There is this great bond between Harry and Thomas which shines in the story and explores what makes them work when they are together.  9/10.

 

Up next is a tribute to Beowulf and drinking with “Heorot” from My Big Fat Supernatural Honey Moon, the spiritual sequel to “Something Borrowed” is more about kidnapping due to alcohol, hence the title.  This one is one of the stories where crucial character information, mainly that Johnny Marcone’s right hand woman Miss Gard is actually a Valkyrie is revealed at the end of this here.  She’s stringing Dresden along at the halfway point of the short story as she is tracing the same monsters Harry is.  It’s a simple one and honestly is serviceable, but Butcher is clearly having fun with the setting and story.  6/10.

 

There are some days when Harry Dresden just wants a day off and “Day Off” is just that.  This is another of the more low stakes short stories, it opens with Harry playing a table top role playing game which is a wonderful image that has recurred throughout The Dresden Files.  Harry as the player with a stickler for how the magic doesn’t work because it is based on fantasy magic and not real in universe magic.  This is a story which is interesting as it becomes essentially about sex.  Two of the werewolves, Andi and Kirby, have got fleas from what is essentially a sexually transmitted infection.  There is an exploration of Molly’s sexual attraction to Harry, something that Butcher seems to wish to explore in how it’s a bad thing and something that Harry isn’t properly addressing.  Harry thinks he’s addressed it, but Molly is pining.  I’m not entirely certain Butcher really has it in him to address this in any fleshed out way, but it feels like he wants to and knows it won’t work in a short story.  The story even ends with Harry and Luccio having their day off.  Butcher also is fairly sex positive, while this is kind of a sex comedy, it never feels like it’s talking down to the reader, but being all about safe sex and safe relationships which is great.  8/10.

 

Thomas Raith has the distinction of being the point of view character of “Backup”, the second story to focus on him, this time going down the route of exploring the White Court and the Oblivion War.  He is tasked by his sister relating to the War and has to ensure that Harry doesn’t know anything that happens, but the task leads him to acting as Harry’s shadow.  It’s brilliant the way Butcher uses a lot of this to show just how talented he is at point of view characters.  He writes Thomas as tortured, with his hunger being a character in its own right and the star-crossed nature of his love of Justine is this beautiful tragedy.  There’s this sequence in the middle where he has to convince Bob to help him and you can really see that while there is a calm, cool exterior to Thomas, on the inside he really is a lot worse than Dresden when it comes to investigating things.  Butcher doesn’t do flanderization with Thomas, we’re just seeing him without the perspective of Harry which really shows the talent Butcher has as a writer.  It was even published as its own separate novella.  9/10.

 

“The Warrior” is another character piece exploring Michael Carpenter after the end of Small Favor.  This was originally published in Mean Streets and is essentially Butcher’s chance to allow some corruption in the Church with the villains of the short story being priests, something that has always been lacking in The Dresden Files as the priests of the series are very close to paragons, or are at the very least very good people.  This is also an examination of Harry’s own guilt due to feeling responsible for what happened to Michael and the fact that one of the Carpenters’ children is named after him.  This is about the sword Amoracchius being stolen and recovered by Dresden which leads to questions on free will.  While this is a solid story, it’s where the anthology starts to drag a little as it goes into some really heavy places which somehow feels out of place.  It shouldn’t, the final story is one all about grief, but this one for some reason feels out of place.  7/10.

 

Continuing spiritual successors to previous stories is “Last Call” from Strange Brew which goes back to the light-hearted tone of earlier novels despite being chronologically a later story.  This one is a classic mystery all about the ale at McAnally’s being contaminated by a supporting character from “Heorot” before turning into another mythological inspired story, but this one does the mythology slightly better than the previous story.  The villain is a delight going under some femme fatale tropes as well as almost going towards a Neil Gaiman-esque examination of how mythological imagery has changed and faded at the time and what that would have done in the modern age.  It’s a little less cynical than American Gods but it wouldn’t surprise me if that work was part of the inspiration for this short story due to the way the villain is defeated and their motivations for poisoning the beer, with some added megalomania of wanting to take over the world.  7/10.

 

“Love Hurts” is from an anthology edited by George R.R. Martin himself and is another exploration of star-crossed lovers in a double suicide.  Yeah, this one goes really dark which is fitting for something edited by Martin.  Of course, because this is about love, vampires are at the heart of the story which works as this is technically a prologue to Changes, giving the Red Court a chance to shine before their genocide in that novel.  Baroness Leblanc of the Red Court is honestly a really fun villain an dis ruled by her hunger which is a lot of fun, with the threat of the war restarting bubbling under the surface, something that really helps setup the tension in Changes.  6/10.

 

Alright, now it’s time for the pinnacle of the collection, “Aftermath”.  As the title implies this is the immediate aftermath of Changes.  Murphy has found the Water Beetle with Harry missing and his blood splattered, and throughout this novelette it is heartbreaking as she has to come to terms with the fact that Harry Dresden, Wizard, is dead.  She doesn’t actually get time to grieve as Will and Georgia need her help as Dresden isn’t around.  Georgia has been kidnapped, later revealed to also being kidnapped by a faction of mortals who are the first to attempt to fill the hole of magical criminal underground left by the genocide of the Red Court.  Murphy as a narrator is beautiful as this is all about her finding purpose and a small bit of stability so she can process the death of the man she genuinely loved.  It also is done with Will and the rest of the Alphas, bringing together a lot of the people who were in fact Harry’s family, with only Thomas not yet being present as he doesn’t know about the death yet.  The stability is also hints that Johnny Marcone is offering Murphy a job away from the police or a route back into the police, with the hint being that she is going to use this in some way to get back on her feet and continue what Harry has been doing.  This is all about grief and how those we lose are still alive in our hearts and minds which is honestly beautiful.  It’s the perfect epilogue to Changes and what elevates Side Jobs.  10/10.

 

Side Jobs, like every anthology, has its highs and lows, but it shouldn’t be skipped.  It isn’t even in its quality, but it manages to at least be a good The Dresden Files reading experience which for anthologies of this nature is all you can ask for, with only one story being a real clunker, and that was the first thing from this universe Butcher has written.  7.4/10.

Resurrection of the Daleks by: Eric Saward

 

Resurrection of the Daleks was written by Eric Saward from his television story of the same name.  It was the 172^nd story to be novelized by BBC Books.

 

Resurrection of the Daleks is a genuinely good Doctor Who story on television bringing back the Daleks after five years away from the show as well as Davros, writing out long time companion Tegan Jovanka after three years on the show, and bringing in a level of violence that makes for a shocking experience.  What it lacks in plot it makes up for in the fact that the cast is all brilliant and the Daleks are on top form.  Sadly, in the original run it would be one of five stories, along with The Pirate Planet, City of Death, Shada, and Revelation of the Daleks, to not be novelized by Target books.  The three Douglas Adams stories would get expanded novelizations from Gareth Roberts and James Goss, but it wouldn’t be until 2019 when original author Eric Saward would adapt Resurrection of the Daleks and Revelation of the Daleks.  While Revelation of the Daleks will get its day, this review is of Resurrection of the Daleks, which is terrible.  No, seriously.

 

This is the worst book I have read thus far this year and it all comes down to Eric Saward being unable to write an engaging adaptation of an engaging script.  The events of the story are there, but it reads like Saward is going off vague memories of the story instead of going back to actually rewatch it ripping away any sense of character.  The Doctor is bland, which would be fine if this were practically any other Peter Davison story, but Resurrection of the Daleks is one where he is a desperate man and almost driven to kill.  The Doctor is tortured by the Daleks in this story and that is reduced to merely a cutaway almost like a gag.  The confrontation scene between the Doctor and Davros as adapted just feels like this happens now.  That’s it, that is how this story goes.  This causes moments like Tegan’s exit right at the end of the novel loses any impact that Janet Fielding injected, not even mentioning the reasons as there is little time to focus her, less even than was on television.

 

The saving grace of this novel is that it is short.  Unlike Shada, City of Death, and The Pirate Planet, Resurrection of the Daleks is under 200 pages, which while longer than the typical Target novel in page count, due to formatting feels like it is just that length.  This was a book that I was able to get through in a day because the text is quite large and easy to read and the page count is low.  While the experience was not fun, it at least didn’t take long.  There’s also this obsession with referencing Saward’s other stories, mainly The Visitation and I swear there was a reference to Slipback slipped in which hadn’t happened at this point in the Doctor’s life.  Saward also insists on injecting humor into the prose itself with so many asides that somehow compress the events of the novel even more, taking them out I could estimate the page count would reduce by a further twenty pages at least, if not more.  The humor also feels like Saward is “homaging” Douglas Adams, probably because the last three novelizations of classic serials were Douglas Adams serials written in the style of Adams.  Eric Saward is not Douglas Adams.

 

Overall, Resurrection of the Daleks feels like a book written out of obligation without any passion for the story it was trying to tell.  The best thing I can say about it is that it was short and only took me a day to read.  Saward’s prose is a contradiction of overwriting diversions but underwriting the actual events of the story that is being told with several unnecessary references.  The characters have no characterization and it makes a genuinely great Doctor Who story terrible. 2/10.

The Dresden Files: Changes by: Jim Butcher

 

“I answered the phone and Susan Rodriguez said, “They’ve taken our daughter.”” – Changes, p.1.  This is how Changes opens, with Harry Dresdsen, Wizard, answering the phone to the revelation that he has a daughter and she has been kidnapped by vampires, Red Court vampires, after the war is over.  This entire novel is bait to get Harry Dresden involved, and hopefully killed while possibly even starting the war with the White Council once again as a bid for power and the kicker is, they succeed, sort of, the bloodline curse which is set to take the lives of anyone genetically related to him.  This would mainly effect Harry himself, Susan, and his half-brother Thomas, but it is all an elaborate revenge on Harry’s previous actions against the Red Court: killing Bianca and denying them Susan who still has not given into her vampiric desires.  Much of Changes uses this as the main thrust of the novel, while Butcher never lets the reader forget that there is something odd about this situation.  This is incredibly subtle as Harry Dresden is driven only by saving the daughter he has just learned exists.  This drive leads Harry to making several decisions which might just be enough to put him in a dangerous position among the magical world around him, something that leads to one final twist where Harry Dresden is shot and killed on Lake Michigan after succeeding in eliminating the Red Court in its entirety.  He has taken Queen Mab’s offer to become the Winter Knight, making himself her dog, but is killed before he can take up that offer.  It’s symbolic of him finding a family and closing some of the trauma of losing his other family, just before it can be ripped from him.

 

Susan Rodriguez is also a character who has shown growth since her last appearance in Death Masks, she is successfully integrated into the Fellowship of St. Giles and never told Harry about their daughter to keep her safe, something that she will later regret.  She stops herself from falling back in love with Harry physically, even if she still is very much in love with him.  There is also a reflection on how Jim Butcher writes women who are not Karrin Murphy that allows Susan to have matured.  The first three Dresden Files novels were particularly bad with casual sexism and with each book that has diminished until this point where while there are times it never feels like it’s Butcher being sexist, but a character being sexist.  It’s also telling when a majority of the supporting characters in this novel are women, including Molly, Murphy, Mab, and Harry’s fairy godmother.  Lea, the aforementioned fairy godmother, has perhaps her best appearance, for the first time not attempting to make a deal with Harry but being the closest to a human character as she has a soft spot for the fact that this is a family matter.  There is this moment where she outright makes a no strings attached promise to Harry to ensure the safety of his daughter after the big climactic twist involving a traitor in the ranks of the fellowship doing a triple cross ending with the genocide of the Red Court of vampires.  There is indeed a blood sacrifice and it is genuinely a terrifying moment.

 

Overall, Changes is simple, hence the shorter length of this review, but it is perhaps the perfect installment for The Dresden Files.  Jim Butcher has genuinely no way to top this and there are several books left as it leaves the reader in a rush and unable to process the cliffhanger while it seems everything is turning out alright.  While there were spoilers in this review, some of the moments I deliberately left vague as they could easily be their own essay.  10/10.

The Dragon Reborn by: Robert Jordan: Solving the Mat Problem: Part 2 (Chapters 24 to 26)

 

“The quarterstaff flicked past Galad’s sword and in quick succession struck knee, wrist, and ribs and finally thrust into Galad’s stomach like a spear.  With a groan, Galad folded over, fighting not to fall.  The staff quivered in Mat’s hands, on the point of a final crushing thrust to the throat.  Galad sank to the ground.  Mat almost dropped the quarterstaff when he realized what he had been about to do.  Win, not kill.  Light, what was I thinking?  Reflexively he grounded the butt of the staff, as soon as he did he had to clutch at it to hold himself erect.  Hunger hollowed him like a knife reaming marrow from a bone.” – The Dragon Reborn, p. 286.

 

At this point in The Dragon Reborn, Mat Cauthon has begun his rehabilitation both physically within the confines of the novel and in the eyes of the reader as he has been given his own point of view chapters and been healed from the curse of the ruby dagger.  The three chapters we are covering today splits its time between Mat, in an iconic section which is integral to rehabilitating him, and Elayne, Egwene, and Nynaeve doing mostly recap of the ter’angreal stolen by the Black Ajah with an appearance from Else Grinwell in both sequences, the daughter of a farmer Rand and Mat stayed with in The Eye of the World.   This of course isn’t actually Else Grinwell, though only Egwene, Nynaeve, and Elayne have any idea to her true identity as she disappears after sneaking into their room and is replaced by a tall, beautiful woman, clearly Lanfear.  There are also discussions of Egwene’s dreams which might have been excursions into the world of dreams which include some seen in Min’s vision serving as a reminder of things already featured.  Things added here include the Seanchan involving Mat and the White Tower, Mat speaking the Old Tongue, Perrin leading wolves, and dragons on Rand’s arms as well as being trapped when reaching for a sword.  The trap is further confirmed to be in Tear and for all of them on discovery of artifacts from Tear left to tempt the girls away.  This sequence is mainly for a lot of recap and character dynamics, as this further establishes the dynamic between the girls as Elayne is about to become a more major player.  It is telling that we have been away from Perrin and still have several chapters before we get back to Perrin, he will only reappear as we get close to the climax and reunion of the characters, one final time.

 

Mat’s singular chapter is incredibly important as this is the first point where we are allowed to see some of the aftereffects of the healing.  To go along with the prediction about the Old Tongue, there is a hint as he mutters it’s time to roll the dice, but it is implied that he says it in the Old Tongue itself.  He is not allowed to leave the tower, a guard from Illian informs him that the Aes Sedai will be keeping him in the city, something that they believe is for theft and not simple Healing, giving Mat just enough information that the sisters want him there.  This leads to the quarterstaff sequence: Mat needs money and he comes across Galad and Gawyn training in the yard with swords.  He bets them two marks each that he can beat them with a quarterstaff, something that he is able to do with ease, culminating in the fear that he might have killed them.  This is an interesting insight into Mat’s morality as while he does not like the upper classes, be it royalty or Aes Sedai, he doesn’t wish to see them killed.  He also responds that he is from Manetheren and is immediately regretful of mentioning Rand and life in the Two Rivers.  Importantly, he is also now unsure of himself: “He thought that if he parted his coat, he would see a hole where his stomach should have been, a hole growing larger as it pulled the rest of him in.  But he hardly thought of hunger.  He kept hearing voices in his head.  You speak the Old Tongue, lad?  Manetheren.  It made him shiver.  Light help me, I keep digging myself deeper.  I have to get out of here.  But how?  He hobbled back towards the Tower proper like an old, old man.  How?” – The Dragon Reborn, p. 288.  Mat Cauthon has lost his sense of identity and the only way to regain it is to gamble his way out of the White Tower and make a name for himself away from anywhere that Aes Sedai can get to him.

The Pirate Planet by: James Goss

 

The Pirate Planet was written by James Goss, based on the television story of the same name by Douglas Adams.  It was the 167^th story to be novelized by BBC Books.

 

When James Goss adapted City of Death he had the original scripts and television story to base the novelization on, but for The Pirate Planet there was substantially more material.  The Pirate Planet begun life as The Perfect Planet and in the original storyline, several drafts, and notes that Goss had available were also added material on Adams’ thoughts on the Key to Time and the idea of a Time Lord assistant.  This novelization is not really a novelization of the television story, but an amalgamation of as much material as Goss can fit in and while it shouldn’t work, through the sheer charm of Douglas Adams’ style and wit it does.  It also helps that in putting it in a book, there is the opportunity taken to restore some of the elements which had to be cut for simple budgetary reasons.  As The Pirate Planet follows the plot of the television serial with several expansions, the ending in particular gets expanded to include more special effects as well as added torture sequences of the Doctor and Romana early on.  The climax still involves a spanner in the works, but a lot of the explosions after it and the plot with the Captain and Xanxia don’t just fall apart in the end, there is a final confrontation between the Xanxias to actually kill them off, and the Doctor and Romana nearly destroy the TARDIS in the process.  These additions could not have been done on television without going overbudget or just presenting an impossible scenario.

 

There is also a sequence where the Doctor and Romana have to face their fears as a torture, the Doctor having to face a Dalek and Romana having to face the existential concept of failure.  This torture sequence is perhaps the most humorous making it such a shame that it was lost on television, as the Doctor and Romana have the chance to form a bond.  The Doctor and Romana’s bond while established in Doctor Who and the Ribos Operation, is expanded on, partially by Adams, partially as a Goss original, but all of it fits into how Mary Tamm played the role on television.  Romana is young and doesn’t quite know what to make of the Doctor, this being established as their second adventure, and she decides that she should be attempting to do what he would do in a situation.  This makes her slightly more proactive on television and able to predict that the Doctor will get himself to walk the plank, which she uses to pilot the TARDIS (by the book) to save him.

 

There is also an expansion of the Mentiads, here going by the original name and idea of the Mourners.  Making them the Mourners helps bring to the forefront the themes Adams had been writing with The Pirate Planet, it’s all about responsibility, guilt, and their place in society.  Zanak is a planet where those who attempt to address the guilt of the planet killing other planets are made outcasts, forced to mourn the loss of other planets and people they will never know.  Balaton, the elderly man who on television disappears, is expanded here to represent those who put up blinders to the responsibility of their sins while Pralix and the Mourners take on the responsibility of attempting to make things right.  There is also the added element of the problems of society having a tendency to snowball out of control with time as the time dams around Old Queen Xanxia are failing due to increased power as more and more planets are eaten and destroyed.

 

Overall, while the other two Douglas Adams novelizations worked on a level to expand upon their television counterparts, The Pirate Plaent is one which provides an entirely new experience.  There are several added plot points and depths of character to expand the novel into over 400 pages and the subtle themes of the television story are brought to the forefront as the almost anarchist nature of the story bubbles over here.  Goss brings Adams’ style to life and makes it a must read for not only Doctor Who fans, but also fans of Douglas Adams and science fiction in general. 10/10.

The Happiness Patrol by: Graeme Curry

 

The Happiness Patrol was written by Graeme Curry, based on his television story of the same name.  It was the 152^nd story to be novelized by Target Books.

 

Politics in Doctor Who have never been subtle.  It’s not the show to attempt subtlety in its politics and that is honestly for the best.  Andrew Cartmel’s mission statement was wanting to overthrow the government which at the time was the revival of staunch conservatism with Margaret Thatcher.  The Happiness Patrol is a direct opposition to that, based on the 1988 serial whose large criticism has been directed towards the Kandyman (a cyborg made of candy), and the dictator Helen A (a clear Thatcher stand in).  This was Graeme Curry’s only Doctor Who serial and another example of late classic serials novelized by their original authors.  His prose is interesting as despite being in an era where novelizations had a tendency to expand material, The Happiness Patrol stays true to its televised version with some key exceptions.  First and foremost the prose comes across as more melancholic than the television serial ever could by the basis of being prose (though Chris Clough’s direction is indeed melancholic), everything is drab and the city at Terra Alpha is caked in neon and muzak.  This is something which the television serial attempted but couldn’t without causing issues for the main scoring as there was the need to hear the dialogue.

 

The Kandyman himself is altered from the television serial, going back to the original design by Curry of being closer to a human caked in sugar with licorice glasses.  There is a scene where he slices his finger off and reattaches it early in the novelization which isn’t in the television serial and Curry writes it with this almost sexual arousal from the Kandyman.  The relationship between the Kandyman and Gilbert M (and later Gilbert M and Joseph C) don’t get expansion but there is this added subtext that was sort of there on television, but has often been claimed even by Curry himself to not be intentional.  Helen A is given more depth with explanations about the three Terra planets and what exactly Trevor Sigma is doing on the planet to begin with.  There are tensions and Helen A has enemies all around her due to the insane way she runs the planet, the Happiness Patrol is much less of a success in this version of events which helps a lot when expanding on Daisy K, the member who helps Ace.

 

Overall, The Happiness Patrol is one of those novelizations that only manages to improve an already great story in some very small ways, but those small ways go a long way to make it an even more interesting story.  Graeme Curry could have had a career as a novelist as his prose is engaging and the commentary on Thatcher’s Britain is still prescient to today’s rather Conservative world.  It is all a musing about the need for other emotions as well as self-expression.  9/10.

Paradise Towers by: Stephen Wyatt

 

Paradise Towers was written by Stephen Wyatt, based on his television story of the same name.  It was the 138^th story to be novelized by Target Books.

 

Stephen Wyatt contributed two serials to Doctor Who between 1987 and 1988, returning to pen a third audio drama for Big Finish Productions in 2020.  His first, Paradise Towers, has the distinction of being the second serial of Season 24, a season that is often at the bottom of lists when ranking seasons.  Each of the serials are often mocked and ignored as not worth anyone’s time but I say that when regarding Paradise Towers at least, that is nonsense.  At the heart is a brilliant script and nowhere does that come out more than the 1989 novelization done by Wyatt himself.  This is the era where the novels were preparing for the possible jump to full original novels which would eventually become the New Adventures so it benefits from a slightly lengthened page count, with Wyatt taking advantage of every word to expand the script and explore the characters.  This era of the show was one where serials had a tendency to run long so they would be cut down for broadcast, with some of them only receiving extended editions with the Blu-ray releases bringing out new footage.  Many of these scenes have been integrated into the novelization, with worldbuilding to explain just what Paradise Towers is: while there is still the backstory of the elderly and the young being put in the tower during a war, the Great Architect Kroagnon is actually given some more backstory and explanation as to why he was trapped as a spirit of the building and what he wants.  It’s not some deep motivation, but it ties into Wyatt’s general commentary on the failing infrastructure of the late 1980s and Thatcher’s Britain even more.  The themes of class become even more apparent in the novelization while they were already there, giving the characters inner thoughts new life.

 

The Chief Caretaker as well as the Caretakers as an organization also benefit from the expansion.  While the Chief still maintains the over the top mannerisms and camp from the Richard Briers performance on television, there is an added layer of depth as he obsesses over his pet in the basement.  The pet is such a project that he gets this almost sick pleasure from feeding and controlling it.  This is used as a way to keep the Kangs and the Rezzies all in line throughout the Tower and when it eventually spirals out of control as Kroagnon eventually takes over his mind and the tower into its own hands, metaphorically speaking.  The insanity as the Chief realizes just how his fascist takeover is being ripped from under him by an even worse fascist becomes the leader of the tower.  The two factions of Kangs also feel like there is more explanation as to why they exist the way that they are and more of their dialect can be explored.  Their first few scenes have the added bonus of peeking into the perspective of Mel and then later the Doctor.  This also characterizes Mel a lot better, making her screams become a dialogue tag, and her emotions make more sense as Wyatt can include more backstory and motivation.  She feels more explicitly confident in her travels and understanding how to react to a situation, something that will become standard for the character in the Expanded Universe.  The Doctor also has some of his later characterization sneak in in a few scenes, not by changing much, but by establishing just a little bit more.

 

Overall, Paradise Towers was already a great story on television, but giving it the novelization treatment it is allowed to excel in this format by reflecting on what the Seventh Doctor’s era would become without losing sight of the optimism and whimsical nature of Season 24.  Everything has time to be established and the pace is perfected to include things deleted from the television version while Wyatt brings the characters to life splendidly.  10/10.

The Dragon Reborn by: Robert Jordan: Trauma and Egwene al'Vere, Part 3 (Chapters 21 to 23)

 

“Egwene stepped out of the silver arch cold and stiff with anger.  She wanted the iciness of anger to counter the searing of memory.  Her body remembered burning, but other memories scored and scorched more deeply.  Anger cold as death.  “Is that all there is for me?” she demanded. “To abandon him again and again.  To betray him, fail him, again and again.  Is that what there is for me?”” – The Dragon Reborn, p. 266

 

In The Great Hunt, the sequence for Nynaeve’s Accepted Test was a perfect example of exploring her character and trajectory for where the rest of the series will be taking her.  That was an interesting sequence as it importantly took place before being lured out of the White Tower by Liandrin and sold into slavery.  While Nynaeve was not as traumatized, it becomes apparent that the trauma is reflective on the Accepted test when Egwene is tested.  The Accepted Test is already a traumatic experience, causing the candidates to face their past, the present, and what may be all through potential versions of what has happened or what will happen.  Jordan has threaded seeds in the past novel of the potential way events could be played out, essentially futureproofing the idea that characters have plot armor because all of the choices and events which could lead to ruin or success.  This is an Egwene who is already traumatized, while she is informed of the possibility of being a Dreamer and entering a mysterious world of dreams.  This is something which will be discussed further on when the explanations come in the book as the chapter only introduces the idea of a world of dreams and Egwene getting a ter’angreal of her own to use, meant to assist her in entering the dreaming with dangers if she were injured (Verin has a scar from being hurt in the world of dreams.

 

The Accepted Test for Egwene is perhaps more traumatic than Nynaeve’s, simply because Egwene already has trauma she is attempting to deal with.  Her reaction to being told that she is going to be tested, unexpectedly immediately after leaving Verin’s study is “Tonight?  Already?  But I am half-asleep, Aes Sedai, and dirty, and. . . . I thought I would have days yet.  To get ready.  To prepare.” – The Dragon Reborn, p. 244.  She is not prepared for what the test could be and Nynaeve did not tell her as she was not allowed to know what the tests would be.  She has the option to not attempt the test and have two more chances, but once she begins the test she must see it through to completion or die.  The death aspect is possible, “The way back will come only once” – The Great Hunt/The Dragon Reborn is a mantra repeated by Sheriam before each portion of the test implying that if she doesn’t take the way back she will remain in whatever world, fantasy or reality, she sees.  Sheriam describes the worlds thusly “The answer is, no one knows.  It has been speculated that perhaps some of those who do not come back chose to stay because they found a happier place, and lived out their lives there…If it is real, and they stayed from choice, then I hope the lives they live are far from happy.  I have no sympathy for any who run form their responsibilities.” – The Dragon Reborn, p. 251.  While Sheriam’s harshness serves to inspire Egwene to keep going (this is after she has gone through the first arch and first vision), it is also an important note that she can be tempted, the first vision is tempting and reflects on opportunities past.

 

The first vision, like Nynaeve’s, is a reflection of the past, though in a different way.  It is an alternate future in Emond’s Field where she and Rand are married, have a daughter, and everything seems peaceful.  Of course, this is something which does not, nor could it, last.  Rand has had headaches and mysterious circumstances, clearly being because he is the Dragon Reborn.  Egwene also doesn’t know she can channel and is afraid if someone finds out that she can mysteriously bring people back from the brink of death.  They also have a daughter, all representing things that Egwene wanted at some point, but something that has already come to something she does not want.  While this does not end in violence, it does end with her turning her back on her lover and child, rejecting something that she cannot have.  Rand has already become the Dragon Reborn, and she can no longer have him.  It is not weaved into the pattern of the Wheel of Time.

 

The second is a reflection of the present.  Egwene is Aes Sedai, with a Great Serpent Ring on her finger, and Rand is pinned under the beam of the palace at Caemlyn, going mad.  This Rand is aware of his madness and cries out to Egwene “The dagger…Here.  In the heart.  Kill me.” – The Dragon Reborn, p. 253.  He is also afraid of this: ““They can turn me, Egwene.” His breathing was so tortured she wished she could weep.  “If they take me –the Myrddraal – the Dreadlords – They can turn me to the Shadow.  If madness has me, I cannot fight me.  I won’t know what they are doing till it is too late.  If there is even a spark of life left when they find me they can still do it.  Please, Egwene.  For the love of the Light, kill me.”” – The Dragon Reborn, p. 254.  This is something that is confirmed that could happen, if a Myrddraal and thirteen channelers link they can force someone away from the Light and to the Shadow, something that only frightens Egwene more.  Egwene is forced to leave him, under a beam, given over to the Shadow.

 

The final vision is of what is to come.  What Egwene hopes to achieve as an Aes Sedai and what the Pattern may have in store for her.  She is the Amyrlin Seat, raised from the Green Ajah at a time where the Dragon Reborn has declared himself.  Rand has declared himself and has been captured by the Red Ajah and brought to the Tower to be gentled.  She refuses to give the order and Elaida takes her own faction of Red Ajah to do so while Egwene is then captured by the Black Ajah and the fear is put into her that she will be turned to the Shadow.  Elaida is explicitly Black Ajah in this vision, however, it is important to note that it is not the ‘real’ world.  This is a potential future at least partially brought on by Egwene’s own thoughts and especially biases.  Elaida may be vicious and actively hostile to the idea of the Dragon Reborn, but she has not shown any signs of being a Black Ajah, or even believing the Black Ajah exist.  And of course the vision ends with Egwene abandoning Rand one final time, with the angreal also malfunctioning, something that Alanna apologizes for as she believes it is her fault.

 

Elaida, Alanna, and Sheriam are all potential candidates for Black Ajah in the minds of Egwene, Elayne, and Nynaeve when they discuss the events of the evening after Egwene and Elayne’s Accepted tests.  Jordan includes no details of Elayne’s test, but the way she is written after it becomes clear that she is also traumatized by the experience, almost more so than Nynaeve.  They have all gone through trauma and this trauma brings them further into the Tower and further on the path that the Wheel of Time wishes them to be on.

The Dresden Files: Turn Coat by: Jim Butcher

 

Despite it taking me over six months to continue The Dresden Files, Jim Butcher’s series almost could have ended with Small Favor.  Sure, there would still have been a lot of loose threads, but it is one of the novels which felt like it could have been an ending, especially in retrospect with Turn Coat is the novel where not so much everything changes, but enough changes that it becomes clear Butcher has somewhere to go.  The twelfth book in the series is literally titled Changes but it’s Turn Coat where there is a preparation for changes that are coming.  There is an establishment of an evil counterpart to the White Council that everybody denies exists, a counter Council created at the very end by Dresden to prepare for the war, and an intentional lull in any of the magical hostilities between the various parties.  Everything in the book feels like an intentional buildup and almost a slight piece of ‘filler’ but filler that still moves the characters forward and makes the actual plot feel like there is meaning.  Turn Coat mainly means to resolve some of the tension between Harry Dresden and Morgan, the Warden who had been watching him like a hawk since the beginning of the series, only increased with Dresden taking on Molly Carpenter as an apprentice.  The inciting incident is Morgan appearing at Harry’s apartment, accused of murder due to being over the body with a knife, being shot, and asking for help.  That is the mystery at the heart of Turn Coat and as a mystery despite the length of the novel this is one of Butcher’s more focused mysteries.

 

The Dresden Files has had an issue with taking the mystery elements post-Dead Beat and letting them meander just a bit to facilitate the bigger world, but with Turn Coat what really helps is that the elements outside of the mystery are directly tied to the mystery.  Directly tying things together brings this focus to proceedings that makes the mystery work, even though this may be one of the weaker mysteries.  The reader can fairly easily tell where things will be going and who the actual perpetrator, the titular Turn Coat, will turn out to be.  There is one very good twist at the climax about how the actual murder took place and that actually takes several characters in different directions.  This is essentially a breather of a novel where we are taking the time to get into who the characters are.  Morgan especially gets time to examine exactly what makes him kick and work more than the rather two-dimensional character of earlier novels who just had a purpose to serve.  Morgan is incredibly human, motivated by a sense of justice and an adherence to laws, but still an understanding of the flaws within the laws of the Council.  He goes to Harry for help, a man who he doesn’t trust and would happily have taken down had this been the past.  His last actions of the novel are keeping a breaking of the laws secret from the Council, taking it to his grave because of the grown respect for Harry.

 

Now some of this doesn’t work perfectly, there are a few characters who don’t quite work as well, mainly due to age.  Mainly these are two of the non-white characters who feel a bit too much like Butcher is drawing on stereotypes, unintentionally, to craft characters.  It isn’t the worst it could be and is better than some of the ways at least one of these characters has been used in the past to move away from the stereotypes.  This is also a novel built around being almost a step back and breather from a lot of the larger supernatural goings on making it almost one that anyone could really be picking up as their first in the series, though I wouldn’t recommend it.  It’s intentional in bringing a lot of disparate plot threads together really well, especially involving the threads of Molly Carpenter and her temptation to use magic on other people, the werewolves who have been working as protectors and have the opportunity to grow into adults in this novel, and some minor appearances of Butters as well as Harry’s pixie army that he is the lord over.  A lot of these make the tone of Turn Coat not be so much as weird, but as having at least a little levity when things get dark.  The big magical threat at the heart of the book is a skinwalker, a creature that comes from certain Native American sources that Butcher at least attempts to make his own instead of just dragging from the spiritual beliefs of a marginalized group.  It’s a terrifying monster and used really effectively, but it still feels like it hasn’t really aged the best.

 

Overall, Turn Coat while having some flaws mainly due to the time it is being written as it’s over a decade old at this point and Butcher still can improve as an author, is yet another novel that continues the high streak of brilliance in The Dresden Files.  Things are moving into place and it immediately put me back on reading the series as I wish to continue almost immediately.  The pace is punchy and the mystery is really well written and Butcher continues to impress with how interesting all of his characters have become, despite some time jumps chronicled in short stories.  9/10.

The Twin Dilemma by: Eric Saward

 

The Twin Dilemma was written by Eric Saward, based on the television story of the same name by Anthony Steven.  It was the 103^rd story to be novelized by Target Books.

 

This is a weird novelization.  The Twin Dilemma is essentially in the fandom the ‘worst’ Doctor Who story according to many of the polls.  It closed the 21^st series which was the last series to be produced without insane production issues and well on the way to the 1989 cancellation (and just a year before the 1985 hiatus).  The budget was running out as it almost always did for the final serial in a given season, The Caves of Androzani immediately before it was hailed as nothing short of brilliant, and Anthony Steven (a television veteran who had never worked on Doctor Who) gave increasingly insane excuses as to why scripting the story was taking so long (he claimed his typewriter literally exploded at one point).  So the chance for a novelization means that there was an opportunity to improve things, especially since it was novelized by script editor Eric Saward.  However, there are a lot of problems, a lot inherent to the original story, and some due to Eric Saward’s writing style and opinions on this particular era find there way into the novelization.  The Twin Dilemma takes so much time to get through the first two episodes of the four part serial it is honestly astonishing that the rest of the plot even makes it to the page.  I can only theorize that Saward had no idea how to improve the stuff after the second episode so he just rushed through it and gave a very weak ending.

 

It’s almost weaker due to certain aspects of the characterization.  Peri especially has the already weak television characterization taken down a notch as the trauma which is dropped immediately after it happens, is only reinforced.  Saward includes several scenes from her perspective, including the scene where she is strangled by the Doctor, and that trauma is lasting.  It is framed as a good thing that she refuses to leave and almost implied the Doctor wouldn’t let her leave even if she asked.  Saward is trying to make the Sixth Doctor an outright villain and upping all of his outbursts and problematic qualities simply because Saward did not like the fact that Colin Baker was cast in the role and he left the show on bad terms, which would have begun at this point (this was published in March 1986).  This distaste permeates the novel as the Doctor’s appearances are also scaled back so his lack of appearances only serve to highlight when he does appear how badly he is written.  The one thing improving The Twin Dilemma outside of not being restricted by poor production values is that the twins themselves are intentionally written as insufferable, to the point that there are whole added sections with their father that how his life is now so much better with the twins being kidnapped, including the first few chapters being devoted to how terrible they make this man’s life.

 

Overall, The Twin Dilemma may improve things slightly from the television story, but it is still telling a story that is fundamentally weak.  There doesn’t actually seem to be any attempt to make the characters any more interesting, and Eric Saward clearly dislikes writing for these characters and this era.  It goes against what he thinks Doctor Who is.  3/10.

City of Death by: James Goss

 

City of Death was written by James Goss, based on the television story of the same name by Douglas Adams from an idea by David Fisher.  It was the 166^th story to be novelized by BBC Books.

 

In adapting a television story to a full-length novel for BBC Books, authors have a variety of options.  James Goss took the time to do more than just transcribing the dialogue and actions of the television story City of Death which would have left the novelization quite short, especially as the story builds on the location footage of Paris being used without much dialogue as there is an extended chase sequence back to the TARDIS.  The way this is adapted is the pinnacle of Goss’s style and flair for making something visual translate to prose, by adding in several interludes with the characters who appear for only one scene: the artist who paints Romana, the tour guide at the Louvre, and the patrons played by John Cleese and Eleanor Bron all get to have small interludes which weave their way throughout the novel.  This even begins in the added prologue where Goss adds backstory between the opening scenes of the story on Hermann, Duggan, and the Countess with a small lead in for the Doctor in the TARDIS which are all things that didn’t need to be there yet they add so much character and flair to separate itself from the television story.  The advantage is being taken of making Paris feel like the City of Death as it’s essentially a character on its own, the city is alive and has a life of its own with active areas at night next to areas that are dead.

 

The one element of the plot added to increase the comic absurdity inherent in Adams’ script was the fact that Scaroth didn’t realize he was an alien until the end of episode one cliffhanger, something on television that only is there because that’s what Doctor Who does.  This isn’t a bad thing, but when writing it Goss had already committed to getting inside the character’s head, so he couldn’t just have the Count rip his face off for no reason.  He is explored by Goss as someone who has been attempting to act human but never realizing that he is not human so the uncanny valley of the character.  The idea is that he is an art collector who is doing the whole Mona Lisa heist to ensure that the funding for his time travel experiments can continue, something that gets the Doctor and Romana involved.  While they succeed as they do on television, a minor change is making it explicit that Romana being brought in to help on the time travel experiments so the plans can be brought forward.  There is also a lot more explicit disconnect between the Count and Kerensky, who here is shown to die from his perspective where the book takes a turn into black comedy for three pages before going back to the normal tone.  There’s also this weird moment added where the Doctor implies that Kerensky’s work will actually be remembered, but that might be another Kerensky which is just another aspect of humor injected into the story.

 

Goss should also be praised for not attempting to make City of Death the same length as Gareth Roberts’ novelization of Shada.  As this is an adaptation of a four part story, it doesn’t need to be over four hundred pages, yet still clocks in at around three hundred pages.  This doesn’t actually bring the story down at all as Goss’s prose grabs the reader from the first page and doesn’t let go.  There isn’t an attempt to imitate Douglas Adams’ style as Roberts’ homaging tendencies.  The famous lines are all there, but Goss allows City of Death to have his own mark on the story without changing any of the events.  Goss isn’t trying to improve anything as the story is already thought of as one of Doctor Who’s best stories anyway, indeed it is the story with the most viewers on broadcast (partially due to other channels being off air at the time). It makes the novelization work and perhaps be the perfect tribute to the story and the original author even if it had more time to be written than the original televised story.  10/10.

Doctor Who and the Creature from the Pit by: David Fisher

 

Doctor Who and the Creature from the Pit was written by David Fisher, based on his television story The Creature from the Pit.  It was the 63^rd story to be novelized by Target Books.

 

The Creature from the Pit is not a good story on television.  The first produced for Season 17 there were several production problems, enough to stop Christopher Barry from ever working on the show again.  Lalla Ward famously hated her costume and the fact she was written for Mary Tamm’s Romana and the creature itself is phallic.  David Fisher is an author who has a hand at improving his scripts when novelizing them as evident in Doctor Who and the Leisure Hive, so there was a chance Doctor Who and the Creature from the Pit could have fared well, and in some aspects it does.  The novelization is very much a punchy adventure where a lot of the televised story ends up dragging as Fisher’s style of writing is very comedic which fits the types of stories he wrote and this era of the show.  It’s also very short, the paperback only coming in at 121 pages, so there isn’t much time to be wasted.  There is tightening of the adaptation of Part Four which is where the televised story ran out of any real steam into just two chapters, though one of those chapters feels quite long.  There’s also some inner life of characters revealed that we’re missing on television allowing for more humor to be added into proceedings.

 

So, if there are a lot of improvements, why doesn’t Doctor Who and the Creature from the Pit manage to stick the landing and turn a bad story good?  Well, mainly because the premise behind the story doesn’t actually have a whole lot going for it.  The plot is all about an ambassador being captured for years and eventually being saved by the Doctor while a planet’s evil ruler is overturned.  While this is a story which has been done before in other stories, here the setting and characters could have made everything work, but it feels like Fisher’s plot just goes through the motions of a Doctor Who story.  It’s also apparent that even in the novelization Romana’s part is meant for Mary Tamm and K9 somehow has even less to do with the plot here despite having quite a large part on television.  The creature doesn’t feel like its own character and there’s even a loss of the camp appeal of some of the performances which helped.

 

Overall, Doctor Who and the Creature from the Pit manages to improve on some things while other things get lost in translation from screen to page.  While David Fisher has a fun writing style, the story at the heart of the novel isn’t one with a whole lot of merit and ends up leaving the reader feeling kind of empty with how ‘meh’ it turns out to be.  The audiobook has the advantage of being read by Tom Baker, but even that doesn’t help matters too much.  5/10.