Nature of the Beast! by: Simon Furman with art by: John Ridgway and letters by: Annie Halfacree

 

Nature of the Beast! is written by Simon Furman with art by John Ridgway and lettering by Annie Halfacree.  It was released in Doctor Who Magazine issues 111-113 (March-May 1986) and are reprinted in their original form in Doctor Who: The World Shapers by Panini Books.

 

It is at this point in the history of Doctor Who Magazine where the writing team began to shift away from having a singular run to a series of alternating writers.  This is the first Doctor Who story from Simon Furman, a comics writer most well known for his work on Transformers, as well as contributor to one Big Finish audio drama, The Axis of Insanity.  His debut story Nature of the Beast! is a three part story that honestly feels like a good idea dragged across too many issues.  The plot is fairly standard, the Doctor, Peri, and Frobisher arrive on a planet where a hunting party is trying to kill a beast.  Of course, the Doctor steps in to save the defenseless creature and not all is as it seems, there is a galactic war that is the cause of strife on this planet, and finally a lost love is reunited.  It’s a nice little story, but the big issue here is that it’s a story where there isn’t a whole lot for me to actually talk about.  Furman as a writer here is incredibly dialogue heavy which means the pace of the three installments feel not quite like they move along that previous writers on the strip had understood is necessary for the quick pace of the lower page counts.  The twists about the nature of the beast is kind of standard and really what you might expect from a script, and while there is this attempt with an epilogue set in the TARDIS to make it feel like there’s a groundbreaking change in the world, it really doesn’t come together in the end.  John Ridgway is still on art duties and his style is wonderful to look at though the reproduction of these strips in The World Shapers is one that I don’t think works as nicely as it could.  Perhaps more restoration was needed to properly make this strip pop and of course another draft on the idea may have adjusted things to work for the better.

 

Overall, Nature of the Beast! may have been a story with potential and the writer clearly became lauded for other comic works, but the ideas aren’t really fleshed out enough and need something more to really make them pop.  The art is still wonderful, and it’s at least a very quick read due to the low page count and the fact that it is only three issues long.  5/10.

The City of the Dead by: Lloyd Rose

 

The City of the Dead is among the pinnacle of the Eighth Doctor Adventures with Vampire Science, Alien Bodies, Interference, The Shadows of Avalon, and The Year of Intelligent Tigers as some of the best the range has to offer.  And this is the only novel among that list from a first time writer.  Lloyd Rose is an elusive figure, a rare American Doctor Who writer she wrote three novels for BBC Books, one Short Trip, and one audio drama, Caerdroia, for Big Finish Productions, and then promptly disappeared it seems from fan circles and the professional life.  Rose is very possibly one of many pseudonyms (the acknowledgements to this book mention her real name to be Sarah Tonyn, a pun on serotonin).  The City of the Dead is a wholly atmospheric experience, taking place mainly in the early 21^st century, only a year or two after the publication of this novel, but still one where there is this gothic quality that harkens back to days of the past.  While not explicitly a horror novel, it’s more accurately described as a murder mystery, the New Orleans settings explicitly calls to mind the works of Ann Rice with just a hint of Buffy the Vampire Slayer thrown in whenever Fitz or Anji need to have their wits about them.  The core is a simple murder mystery plot, but since this is New Orleans the occult, magic, and sex wrap themselves around this novel at every turn.  This simple murder mystery then turns into this visceral character study for the Doctor, examining just what has happened to him over the course of the Eighth Doctor Adventures in general and exploring who exactly he is.

 

On one level Rose’s novel has the added metatextual commentary of being quite far into a book range which acts as the continuation from essentially one film, a range that has continually struggled with defining its main character, especially in early installments, and a range that hasn’t always been good at exploring its side characters and their inner lives.  The Doctor here is the Eighth Doctor, a man lost in a universe that he no longer understands or remembers being a part of, doing good in the universe because it seems right and surrounding himself with someone like Fitz Kreiner because that was a good idea at the time.  Throughout The City of the Dead he is largely split from Fitz and Anji which Rose uses to explore more of that human side that Kate Orman really set up in The Year of Intelligent Tigers.  There isn’t as much of the anger here as there was in that novel, but the passion is there and there is this odd exploration of the Doctor’s sexuality and oddly enough gender identity.  He becomes this object of desire for this artist which ends up turning down some very dark roads for the Doctor.  The Doctor is afraid of Nothing, that existential threat of being alone and the nihilism that the universe has brought into his life.  The villain of the novel is revealed to be tied up in collecting and attracting artron energy, bringing back the science fiction material as much of the novel had been working through mood and terror, but that is also cloaked in this mysticism that entraps the reader.

 

This is also the first time perhaps that Anji has really felt like a companion who wishes to be there, she has an inner life and Rose doesn’t just characterize her as being sad over the death of her boyfriend.  Rose, along with Kate Orman and Jacqueline Rayner, give Anji her own life to live and motivations to continue while Fitz’s laid back nature add to this off-putting atmosphere for The City of the Dead.  The rest of the characters featured in the book are also fascinating, as the setting of New Orleans comes alive with characters who feel like there are familial roots in the city and the connections are there, they go deep, and they spread throughout time.  The eventual reveal of the murderer with the added reason feels like this unravelling of any sense of stability meant for the characters which is a stroke of genius, especially as portents of things to come.

 

Overall, The City of the Dead is a book that washes over the reader and puts them into this real state of understanding all of its characters.  It’s one of those books that ascends from its Doctor Who nature and roots, coming from a completely different perspective of other Doctor Who writers while still staying in the genre going towards cosmic horror and the occult of the city in which it is set.  The cover is also one of the few which perfectly encapsulates what the book is meaning to do. 10/10.

The Dragon Reborn by: Robert Jordan: The Shift Ends (Chapters 51 to 56)

 

“Light, I AM the Dragon Reborn!  The breaker of nations, the Breaker of the World.  No, I will END the breaking, end the killing! I will MAKE it end!  He raised Callandor above his head.  Silver lightning crackled from the blade, jagged streaksarching towards the great dome above.  “Stop!” he shouted.  The fighting ceased; men stared at him in wonder, over black veils, from beneath the rims of round helmets.  “I am Rand al’Thor!” he called, so his voice rang through the chamger.  “I am the Dragon Reborn!” Callandor shone in his grasp.  One by one, veiled men and helmeted, the knelt to him, crying.  “The Dragon is Reborn!  The Dragon is Reborn!”” – The Dragon Reborn, p. 666.

 

So here we are.  The end of The Dragon Reborn and the point where The Wheel of Time shifts its focus right there in the last few chapters.  While my original intent was to split it into two discussions but then I realized how well the final six chapters work together to give the Emond’s Field Five the first sequence of closure if taken together.  Each character does not necessarily get an entire chapter to themselves (Mat gets over two whole chapters to his point of view, Nynaeve and Perrin get one each, and Egwene and Rand basically split points of view on a chapter) but they each have a part to play in the climax.  This is really the first time Robert Jordan has excelled at bringing characters together for a climax where everyone really has a part to play.  In The Eye of the World and The Great Hunt there are battles but the focus of those climaxes were focused solely on Rand doing things as primary point of view.  Yes, there are some pieces of The Great Hunt from Nynaeve and Min’s point of view, but the climax itself is so centered on Rand and what Rand is doing and now how the rest of the characters are playing their part.  In The Dragon Reborn it is Rand who is facing Be’lal, and later Ba’alzamon, but he’s not the one to win.  The fight with Be’lal is actually quite brief, as a character while we see some of the things he orders (mainly getting Egwene, Elayne, and Nynaeve captured by Liandrin and her Black Ajah), but it’s actually Moiraine who defeats him.  “There was an instant surprise on the Forsaken’s face, and he had time to scream “No!”  Then a bar of white fire hotter than the sun shot from the Aes Sedai’s hands, a glaring rod that banished all shadows.  Before it, Be’lal became a shape of shimmering motes, specks dancing in the light for less than a heartbeat, flecks consumed before his cries faded.” – The Dragon Reborn, p. 651-652.  That is how one of the Forsaken are defeated, and avoiding whimper and bang comparisons, but it shows just how much power Moiraine has though a power foreshadowed throughout The Dragon Reborn, this is balefire, taking someone directly out of the Pattern.

 

There are some interesting hints about Lews Therin and the relationship he had with the Forsaken, Be’lal betrayed Lews Therin and what is fascinating about this is that we don’t ever get explicit Age of Legends scenes but we get ideas starting here.  “The Forsaken [Be’lal] laughed, amused, swinging his blade with flourishes to either side of him; the black fire roared as if swift passage through the air quickened itt.  “You were a greater swordsman, once, Lews Therin…Do you remember when we took that tame sport called swords and learned to kill with it, as the old volumes said men once held…Of course not.  You remember nothing, do you?  This time you have no learned enough.  This time, Lews Therin, I will kill you.”” – The Dragon Reborn, p. 650.  There are hints presented at the end, as this book ends with Rand wandering the Stone after the battle while the High Lords (and Mat) have a meeting.  This meeting is quite important as it shows a new character, Berelain, coming to pledge fealty and a message “’Lews Therin was and is mine, and he will be mine, forever.  I give him into your care to keep for me until I come.’ It is signed Lanfear.” – The Dragon Reborn, p. 674.  Lanfear is still managing things behind the scenes, despite not technically appearing in this installment.  There are also fascinating musings on the rest of the Forsaken having plans that our heroes will eventually have to come and solve.

 

Mat being put in situations that he isn’t necessarily equipped for is a continual theme.  He discovers the capture of Egwene, Nynaeve, and Elayne and devises a route into the Stone of Tear where he first gets to interact with the Aiel.  Yes, the Aiel who have been travelling with Moiraine, Lan, and Perrin allowing for another perspective on interacting with Aiel culture in a humorous sequence as Mat is increasingly confused as to how many people are on the rooftops of Tear.  There are typical cultural misunderstandings, Mat not understanding what it means to dance in the context of an Aiel, as well as Juilin Sandar being repentant for giving the girls up, under compulsion.  This is also a sequence where it is quite sad as Egwene, Nynaeve, and Elayne, while getting some focus, Egwene having an excellent opportunity to discover what the Black Ajah are planning by entering their dreams, are mainly terrified at the prospect of being turned to the Shadow by force.  They all converge for the final battle, reflective of each group’s growth throughout this novel in particular.  Egwene has begun to understand just how to work as an Aes Sedai despite only being Accepted, Nynaeve has continued her quest of protection of the rest of the Emond’s Field Five, and Elayne has gotten more establishment as a character.  Mat has had his complete overhaul and putting the final sequence from his perspective, after the battle is over, continues the separation of the Emond’s Field Five above being simple farmfolk taken away on a journey and towards heroes.  Mat, himself, has continuously gone against his better judgment and followed when his friends are in danger, and while he affirms he’s going back home at the end of the book, it is clear that he won’t actually do this in The Shadow Rising.

 

Jordan also continues his parallelism between Rand and Perrin, adding in some parallels for Egwene as well.  Ba’alzamon, revealed in the end to be the Forsaken Ishamael, is defeated in the World of Dreams which Rand follows and physically breaks the Stone of Tear by calling lightning in the quote from the top of this essay.  Egwene is able to learn what the Black Ajah are planning by entering the World of Dreams, and dreaming that both Mat and Perrin are coming before this discovery to be assured that she, Nynaeve, and Elayne will be rescued shortly.  Egwene also keeps herself shielded, knowing in the dream she is still in danger, compared to the two men (Rand especially) who are rash and rush through the dreaming.  On Perrin’s side of things, the Black Ajah leave a trap for Moiraine that Faile springs by picking up a carved hedgehog ter’angreal which sends her into a slumber which sends Perrin into a rage.  The emotions here show the calm man break into terror, this woman whom he didn’t even realize he was attracted to is in danger and he must save her.  Perrin enters the Wolf Dream to rescue Faile, to whom he refers to for the first time as Faile proper, using his hammer to violently smash through to the woman he has started to care about.  Hopper is there to guide him and calm the Young Bull, but we get hints that his fierce protection of Faile as well as the rest of his friends will cause issues for him.  Their love is also genuinely sweet here: ““My poor Perrin,” she said softly, “My poor blacksmith.  You are hurt so badly.”  With an effort that cost more pain, he turned his head.  This was the private dining room in the Star, and near one leg of the table lay a wooden carving of a hedgehog, broken in half.  “Faile,” he whispered to her, “My falcon.”” – The Dragon Reborn, p. 662.

 

The Dragon Reborn began with a shift: Rand ran away recklessly towards his perceived responsibility, Perrin had to follow until he could take matters in his own hands, Mat had a complete rejuvenation, Nynaeve explored herself, her block, and her ability to channel, and Egwene found herself cutting mental ties with Rand realizing she is meant for so much more than that.  We have shifted from humble beginnings to characters each taking burgeoning political power and their place as the Last Battle approaches.  And this will only grow from here.

Bullet Time by: David A. McIntee

 

The Past Doctor Adventures as a book range have done an interesting job of taking untraditional Doctor Who Doctor/companion pairs and explored what they could be.  David A. McIntee pioneered this idea by pairing the Third Doctor’s UNIT family and the Master with Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright in The Face of the Enemy while Peter Darvill-Evans, taking the idea from McIntee, went one step further and included Nyssa with the Fourth Doctor long before they would actually meet in Asylum.  Bullet Time feels like David A. McIntee is almost writing in response to Darvil-Evans’ poor handling of Nyssa by taking the opportunity to pair Sarah Jane Smith with the Seventh Doctor.  McIntee uses this to similarly compare the 1970s vision of Doctor Who to the late-1980s/1990s vision of the show, much like The Face of the Enemy comparing the 1960s to the 1970s while being a stealth sequel to First Frontier.  As such the plot is straight out of a VNA, with Sarah Jane investigating corruption in Hong Kong where the Seventh Doctor has found himself at the head of a Chinese Tao, echoing his dealings with Al Capone in Blood Harvest.  There are alien dealings while UNIT is continually investigating the situation which becomes more and more dire as shadows from the past are revealed to be occurring.

 

The Doctor doesn’t actually appear until about the halfway point of the novel, but like with some of the absolute best New Adventures novels, his presence is felt.  McIntee is incredibly intelligent in executing the Doctor’s involvement, using it as a mystery as to where the Doctor could be with the most obvious misdirect being where he actually is.  This is done incredibly well since the book puts the reader in the mind of Sarah Jane who at this point would be expecting the Fourth Doctor, or maybe the Fifth Doctor at a stretch.  Having her meet the Seventh Doctor, implied to be at a point very near the end of his life.  There is this horror when Sarah Jane finally realizes who the Doctor is, as here he’s doing something morally ambiguous to say the least, only because there are aliens that need to be fought.  It’s something that works for the Doctor, but Sarah Jane cannot really approve, McIntee bringing into question just how deep the Doctor/companion friendships of the classic series (and especially the mid to late 1970s) actually went.

 

The Doctor suggests that Sarah Jane never really knew him, certainly not after he left her in Aberdeen, which is only exacerbated by the fact that Bullet Time ends with the implication that Sarah Jane dies.  As far as I am aware, this is one of multiple companion deaths in the Past Doctor Adventures that gets an explanation in the Eighth Doctor Adventures, but if that wasn’t the case it would be a genuinely interesting version of Sarah Jane’s potential death.  It recalls echoes of Eternity Weeps where Liz Shaw dies trying to save the world from a plague, though here there isn’t a plague.  This is also a book that being a sequel to First Frontier does everything but confirm that the aliens being dealt with here are the Tzun who have developed their plans and Confederacy since that novel.  McIntee makes it a shame that the Tzun haven’t really been utilized since as here they are excellent.

 

Overall, Bullet Time is a book who’s cover implying fractures in the world is something that thematically works for the idea.  It’s a dark tale reflecting gangster films and the grit of the 1990s imposed on a character from the 1970s.  The big issues really only come in a lot of the supporting cast not standing out outside of the two major characters, which is an issue with the first half focusing so much on Sarah Jane without the Doctor.  Still, it’s a wonderful book that shouldn’t be overlooked.  8/10.

The Dragon Reborn by: Robert Jordan: Tear (Chapters 48 to 50)

““This time,” Moiraine said, “we do not run.  We dare not run.  Worlds and time rest on Rand, on the Dragon Reborn.  This time we fight…I do not speak of a Myrddraal, Perrin.  No one knows the strength of the Forsaken, except that Ishamael and Lanfear were the strongest, but the weakest of them could sense any warding I might set from a mile or more away.  And rip all of us o shreds in seconds.  Possibly without stirring from where he stood.”” – The Dragon Reborn, p. 599.

 

The Forsaken as a threat have been essentially the big bad meant for the end of each of the installments of The Wheel of Time to this point and while that will continue to be the case for the foreseeable installments, at least until the endgame of the series is entered, but here it feels special.  This is the first time that one of the Forsaken has found their way into political power, being the high lord in Tear; this Forsaken being Be’lal, a clear play on the devil Belial from Christian mythology.  That isn’t the important part, at least for now, as he is currently an off-page threat, though in the final essay we will be discussing his motivation and actions in the minor appearance, but what is important here is that Be’lal is not the only Forsaken roaming around and appearing.  We already discussed last time that Morgase is under the influence of a Forsaken, but there is also the explicit involvement of Sammael in Illian, building the ranks of the Forsaken as a formidable if off-page threat.  Tear being the setting for the climax means this sequence takes its time to bring all three plot strands into one place.  The Stone of Tear has been mentioned before in regards to the Dragon Reborn declaring himself, something that it is clear Rand intends to do at this point, meaning that it must fall between now and the end of the book so we are dealing with the buildup to that eventuality but in Tear, Jordan takes the time to reflect on where everyone has come from since The Eye of the World.

 

Perrin has a sequence where he takes up blacksmithing due to having some time while Moiraine is gathering information on the Stone of Tear and where Rand would be at this time.  “Perrin shook his head.  “I do not know how long I will be in Tear.  I’d like to work a little longer, if you do not mind.  It has been a long time, and I miss it.  Maybe I could do some of the work your apprentices would have done.”  The smith snorted loudly.  “You’re a deal better than any of those louts, moping around and staring, muttering about their nightmares.  As if everyone doesn’t have nightmares, sometimes.  Yes, you can do work here, as long as you want.  Light, I’ve orders for a dozen drawknives and three cooper’s adzes, and a carpenter down the street needs a mortise hammer, and. . . . Too much to list it.  Start with the drawknives, and we will see how far we get before night.”” – The Dragon Reborn, p. 595.  There is something beautifully simple to see what Perrin actually wants.  There’s the internal conflict of Perrin having to continue to fight in a war when really all he wants to do is create is something that continues here.  It is a hammer he takes away from this blacksmith for his own, not a sword that he makes, a tool for creation, not destruction.  This is also the first time where Perrin and Faile begin to show any real affection to one another, it’s subtle but it’s there.  After Moiraine’s declarations of Forsaken being in Tear and the need to fight and upon arrival in Tear there are moments where they actually end up hitting it off.  The struggle between creation and destruction is something that Perrin will struggle with, especially going forward with his plotline in The Shadow Rising, but he is also clearly missing home, as is the rest of the Emond’s Field Five.

 

Wishing to be back home and in their familiar territory is something that Tear brings out in Nynaeve as well.  Egwene, Nynaeve, and Elayne find shelter in Tear with a wise woman, Mother Guenna, whom they ask for help with an upset stomach.  Nynaeve begins trading cures with this woman which is described from Egwene’s perspective as such: “They settled down as if testing each other, tossing questions and answers back and forth faster and faster.  Sometimes the questioning lagged a moment when one spoke of a plant the other knew only by another name, but they picked up speed again, arguing the merits of tinctures against teas, salves against poultices, and when one was better than another.  Slowly, all the quick questions began shifting toward the herbs and roots one knew that the other did not, digging for knowledge.  Egwene began to grow irritable listening.” – The Dragon Reborn, p. 561.  This isn’t so much a wistful longing from Nynaeve, at least on the outside, sadly we do not get anything from her perspective, but the sequence ends once Egwene butts in asking what one would do for two women who are arguing, which only causes another tangent.  It’s this nice moment of two people bonding over a shared interest, but as they are here on a mission Jordan takes the time to show how manipulative Nynaeve has become.  They employ the services of a thief catcher, Juilin Sandar, telling Guenna they need someone to find Darkfriends in reference to the thirteen Black Ajah.  What becomes even more humorous is the fact that Mat and Thom arrive in Tear, passing Mother Guenna’s home without even knowing it.  Sadly there isn’t the similar reflection for Mat as there is for Perrin and Nynaeve, focusing more on how Thom slowly acquires a cough and bad dreams continue to be a theme, implied to be from Rand who will finally enter the picture next time as The Dragon Reborn ends. 

Elantris by: Brandon Sanderson

 

The Cosmere began to rise in popularity once Brandon Sanderson was chosen to finish the late, great Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time, skyrocketing his popularity with sales of The Mistborn Trilogy and allowing the first installment of The Stormlight Archive to success.  But before that, Sanderson as an author debuted in 2005 with a standalone Cosmere entry that introduced the world to his style and storytelling, Elantris.  Elantris, at least according to the extra material of the Tenth Anniversary Edition, was the seventh novel that Brandon Sanderson had written, and (even admitted by Sanderson himself) is an atypical book.  It’s still firmly in the realm of fantasy, though not quite reaching the epic heights of the genre.  As a story it’s standalone, taking plots of three characters and weaving them in a city just outside of Elantris, a historic walled city now overrun with the walking dead as an infection has indiscriminately targeted known as the Shaod.  To be completely transparent, this was the Sanderson novel I knew the least about, really only knowing that Elantris was a city so imagine my surprise when reading the book for the first time to find it was inspired by zombie fiction and its opening leans quite heavily into nihilistic ideals before gradually transitioning to a story about hope and bringing a community together and lifting up the dispossessed and forgotten.

 

As a story it is also almost completely out of place in terms of tone and ideas that the rest of the Cosmere would become, though not in a necessarily bad way.  It’s a book that doesn’t quite scream the evolution of who Brandon Sanderson would become as an author, as a standalone there aren’t many obvious connections to the larger Cosmere outside of a small cameo from Hoid who appears in essentially every Cosmere novel and most of the novellas and short stories.  It's a story with a beginning, middle, and end, and three main point of view characters which will become a standard style for Sanderson but here the chapters are divided in a three character cycle that is adhered to every single chapter.  This is a bit of a problem for the pacing of Elantris as a story as not all three of the plotlines feel nearly as in depth or as interesting as the other three to warrant the time spent on all of them.  There is an argument to be made that they are of equal importance, but in writing a novel that does not necessarily mean they deserve equal attention.  The character of Hrathen, a priest with his complex inner turmoil, is the plotline that suffers the most from the most from the cycle.  It’s a plotline of a man attempting to spread his faith and religious views through propaganda and sadly its one that starts out slow and never really builds any speed throughout the novel until the very end where the climax hits.  Sanderson hasn’t quite mastered using the slow pace either and that really makes these portions of the novel drag.

 

The other two point of view characters fair far better, Raoden being a prince thrown off his throne at the beginning of the novel due to contracting the Shaod and thrown into Elantris, and Sarene, a princess betrothed to Raoden without ever meeting him thrown into the politics of Arelon to fend for herself.  Their journeys parallel each other through the first half of the novel before they eventually meet, though don’t necessarily know they have met each other, just after the halfway point and Elantris has started to grow as a society.  Raoden’s plotline gets off to a bit of a rocky start with a lack of any real establishment of normalcy for the prince before he is thrown into Elantris, though his discovery of what it means to be Elantrian and have the Shaod thrust upon him is fascinating and brilliant.  Sanderson describes the hopelessness and pain they all suffer due to their undead condition before eventually building up his first magic system with the Aons.  There isn’t as much time to flesh out this magic system as others, but it is integral for the second half of the novel to really work.  There are also side characters throughout his portions that really show the culture of zombies.   Sarene’s plotline is the closest to simple political drama as she is proving to the city that she has what it takes to be the queen, despite her fiancé being presumed dead, his actual fate being kept from everyone including the princess as to not cause panic that the illness is still spreading even among the nobility.  Her uncle is in the city and allows her one ally as well as some genuinely humorous sequences that show some of the charm Sanderson will be known for.  The two plots eventually intertwine nicely though with Hrathen’s plot there are some issues with pacing just feeling uneven at points.

 

Overall, Elantris is a great first novel, or at least a first novel to be published.  When initially picking it up I was quite worried that it would be closer to The Way of Kings Prime in terms of quality, but it is a mainly polished piece of fiction.  While still an outlier it is a book where two thirds of the leads are incredibly compelling and there is some interesting ideas for the genre.  The magic system is great and honestly it’s perfectly good as a standalone, even if Sanderson intends a sequel to be written at some point.  7/10.

The Dragon Reborn by: Robert Jordan: A Royal Conspiracy (Chapters 45 to 47)

 

““No, Great Master.  He has vanished.  But, Great Master, one of the girls is Morgase’s nit.”  Mat half turned, then caught himself.  The soldiers were coming closer; they did not appear to have seen his start through the thick woven rose stems.  Move, you fools! Get by so I can see who this man bloody is!  He had lost some of the conversatiton. “—has been far too impatient since regaining his freedom…See that she dies quickly, Comar.  Let her death attract no notice at all…Those slatterns in their Towerwill have a difficult time producing her aftetr this disappearance.  This may all be just as well.  Let it be done quickly.  Quickly before he has time to take her himself.”” – The Dragon Reborn, p. 534-535.

 

I think it’s here where Mat became one of my favorite characters.  To this point his plotline in The Dragon Reborn has gone a long way to rehabilitate him due to giving him an actual motivation and a definitive decision is made by Mat for who he is.  Throughout The Dragon Reborn he has gone on about how he will be free of Aes Sedai, the White Tower, and the machinations of the pattern.  But in attempting to deliver Elayne’s letter to her mother he comes across Lord Gaebril, Morgase’s newest advisor and confidant, and the above quote happens.  Okay in the book it’s quite a bit longer, but paired down it reveals that this Gaebril is conspiring to have Elayne killed, placing distrust in the White Tower, and push Morgase towards a political marriage to grab power for himself.  It’s clear at this point that Gaebril is a Darkfriend and one of the Forsaken, though which one remains to be seen.  In terms of Mat’s character development once he is back at the Queen’s Blessing Inn, the same inn from The Eye of the World in a case of conservation of characters and locations that I honestly forgot about as Basal Gill is one of those Wheel of Time side characters who really leave an impression but only when the text mentions them, Mat declares this “I mean to be as far toward tear as I can before nightfall.” – The Dragon Reborn, p. 550.  Mat Cauthon may be many things.  He is a gambler, a rogue, and a man who just wants to get back to his life before leaving his village, but he isn’t going to stand by and let his friends die.

 

There’s also the sequence inside the castle itself, something Mat only manages to do by climbing over the wall into the garden Rand fell into and the way he carries himself in the court is fascinating.  He’s a character who has false bravado, finding the right words to say to the right people to get an audience with the queen herself.  Gaebril clearly has some power over Morgase that certain members of court are not taken with.  Tallanvor, the lieutenant of the guard, in particular is not taken with him and is perhaps the kindest to Mat in his own stern way which is very important for what is to come.  Morgase, however, is not some damsel needing to be rescued.  She tells Mat, who calls himself Thom Grinwell here to keep his actual identity a secret as Gaebril’s master is after either him or Rand, “A young man who has left his small village often finds it difficult to return to it.  I think you will travel far before you see Comefry again.  Perhaps you will even return to Tar Valon.  If you do, and you see my daughter, tell her that what is said in anger is often repented.  I will not remove her from the White Tower before time.  Tell her that I often think of my own time there, and mis the quiet talks with Sheriam in her study.  Tell her that I said that, Thom Grinwell.” – The Dragon Reborn, p. 541.  This is especially puzzling for a number of reasons.  First, it implies that Morgase sees through Mat’s ruse, possibly understanding more about who he is than anyone else.  This is not impossible as both names of the pseudonym used refer to Else Grinwell, who was sent to the Tower and it is possible Morgase has heard of her through Aes Sedai messages, and Thom Merrilin, who has a clear connection with House Trakand and Caemlyn itself.  This as a theory is one that doesn’t entirely hold water and relies on coincidences and happenstance we never get an answer to.  There is the message she has for Elayne, Sheriam being the Mistress of Novices would be in charge of punishing Elayne for leaving, but the wording is odd.  As Morgase spent time in the Tower what message she is trying to convey here is odd, possibly coded towards something that we don’t really get an answer to.  Finally, it is another example of the political shift in The Wheel of Time as our main characters are becoming embroiled in conspiracies of various natures, this one dealing with royalty.  Where this goes is for another time, as next time we head to Tear and one piece of calm before The Dragon Reborn ends.

The Dragon Reborn by: Robert Jordan: Breaking Free (Chapters 41 to 44)

 

“She threw back her head and laughed.  “I am Faile, farmboy, a Hunter of the Horn.  Who do you think I am, the woman of your dreams?  Why did you jump that way?  You would think I had goosed you.”  Before he could find words, the door crashed back against the wall, and Moiraine stood in the doorway, her face as pale and grim as death.  “Your wolf dreams tetll as truly as a Dreamer’s, Perrin.  The Forsaken are loose, and one of them rules Illian.”” – The Dragon Reborn, p. 506-507.

 

There might be a misunderstanding due to the lower frequency of the updates regarding The Dragon Reborn that it is not an enjoyable book, that’s far from the truth.  The Dragon Reborn has been perhaps my favorite installment of The Wheel of Time so far to analyze and think about since it’s the point where Robert Jordan begins to really expand outward to make this a world affair, but because of this there are sections of the book where the plot isn’t entirely advancing.  These last few essays have been very much focused on the final pieces of character work before the novel reaches its climax, and they are essential, but they do mean that the plot progression begins to slow.  Take for instance Perrin’s entire plotline this book, it’s all chasing after Rand which is honestly something that could have become an issue if it wasn’t for Jordan’s genuinely good writing style but this is where it feels like portent of things to come in terms of slowing down the plot.  There’s a clear reason that Perrin, Moiraine, and Lan as a plotline has only appeared twice before once the plotlines split and can be analyzed as one while Mat’s and Egwene, Nynaeve, and Elayne’s plotlines have taken up the bulk of the book.  This is a simple plotline and this section in particular is used to build exposition and create character dynamics.  The quote topping this essay is our first indication that yes, all of the Forsaken have escaped their prison, not just the four we have seen before.  The Forsaken in Illian is Sammael and while he does try to have them killed, they are not his main concern, giving the reader the first idea that the Forsaken have their own agendas and the first connection between Perrin and Mat’s plots, as the sequence ends with a brief point of view from Mat which will be picked up upon later.  Mat is heading towards Caemlyn still but ta group of men and one woman accosts them.  Mat and Thom end up killing them all and they ride on through the night, more to follow on this plotline next time.

 

This would be where I end things but this is also a time where we can actually do some further discussion on Faile as building her character and relationship with Perrin is really what a lot of this sequence does so well (well that and including Darkhounds, Shadowspawn in the form of dogs which bring in a nice horrific sequence in the middle of the sequence).  Faile comes from a culture where people in general have more arguments and stubbornness to them while Perrin as a character can be plenty stubborn but not so much as outwardly aggressive.  Perrin’s inner thoughts on Faile are thus at the beginning of this segment: “Moiraine had been neither pleased or displeased to discover that Zarine – I’ll not call her Faile, whatever she wants to name herself! She is no falcon! – knew she was Aes Sedai, though she had been perhaps a little upset with him not telling her.” – The Dragon Reborn, p. 477.  Perrin has this internal conflict of not wanting Min’s vision of a falcon and eagle at each other’s throats over him to come true and he is convinced if he can convince himself Faile is not the falcon it will not happen.  This is not true but he still will be trying this for the rest of the book and well into the next one.  Faile, on the other hand, as a character we haven’t gotten a sequence from her point of view, we can only understand through her interactions with others.  An exchange she has with Moiraine, who makes her swear an oath, goes thusly: “Moiraine’s glance silenced him and the Warder both.  “You believe you know what an Aes Sedai will not do, do you?” she said more softly than before.  Her smile was not pleasant.  “If you wish to go with us, this is what you must do.”   Lan’s eyelids flickered in surprise; the two women stared at each other like falcon and mouse, but Zarine was not the falcon, now.  “You will swear by your Hunter’s oath to do as I say, to heed me, and not to leave us.  Once you know more thtan you should of what we do, I will not allow you to fall into the wrong hands.  Know that for truth, girl.  You will swear to act as one of us, and do nothing that will endanger our purpose.  You will ask no question of where we go or why: you will be satisfied with what I choose to tell you.  All of this you will swear, or you will remain herein Illian.  And you will not leave this marsh until I return to release you, if it takes the rest of your life.  That I swear.” Zarine turned her head uneasily, watching Moiraine out of one eye.  “I may accompany you if I swear?...I will be one of you, the same as Loial or stone-face.\, but I can ask no questions.  Are they allowed to ask questions?…Very well, then. I swear, by the oath I totok as a Hunter. If I break one, I will have broken both.  I swear it.”” – The Dragon Reborn, p. 481-482.  Moiraine is a formidable woman and Faile does crack under her gaze, but still agrees to travel because she wants adventure and despite calling Perrin “stone-face” she wants to go with this group because she likes the group.  Moiraine can see this, she makes Faile Perrin’s responsibility and immediately after Perrin and Faile begin to get along.  This is the seed from which the romance will grow, though that cannot happen until Perrin accepts her name as Faile.

Dark Progeny by: Steve Emmerson

 

Doctor Who famously had three seasons of television between 1975 and 1977 where script editor Robert Holmes and producer Philip Hinchcliffe would almost exclusively pastiche and homage classic gothic horror stories and films from King Kong to Frankenstein to The Thing from Another World.  It’s interesting then that a lot of the original novels, even those set in that period of the early Tom Baker years, rarely take cues from classic gothic horror.  Dark Progeny is the second and final novel from Steve Emmerson and for its primary ideas outside of doing some tropes that are standard to Doctor Who, a human colony in the future, evil corporations, and mad scientists, it has some of its more interesting ideas out of literature.  John Wyndham was a science fiction writer who is most remembered for The Day of the Triffids and The Midwich Cuckoos (more well known for its film adaptation Village of the Damned), the later being where Steve Emmerson seems to have drawn inspiration from for Dark Progeny.  Dark Progeny is a book that for the most part doesn’t really do anything in homaging The Midwich Cuckoos outside of a group of superintelligent children who may or may not be aliens with their own goal that the government of the planet takes into custody for their own experimentation.

 

Emmerson taking cues from Wyndham is perhaps the most interesting part about Dark Progeny with the Doctor being able to rage about the injustices of the scientific system that would allow experimentation on children.  The big issue of the novel comes in the fact that the story moves at a glacially slow pace.  This isn’t necessarily a bad thing for a book, some of the best books and indeed the best Doctor Who stories take their time in building up a mystery or a threat.  It’s a book that can be compared to Lucifer Rising in a bad way as Lucifer Rising opens with quite a few sequences outside of the TARDIS team to establish a mystery and even when the Doctor and company appear there are sequences outside of their perspective.  This is something Emmerson did so well in Casualties of War but it doesn’t really work here, especially as the Doctor isn’t an amnesiac and needs to establish what he, Fitz, and Anji actually have to do in the plot.  The character work of the supporting cast is interesting and Emmerson makes individual scenes especially tense, but this really is a book that lacks cohesive direction.  The ideas aren’t really consistent throughout the entire novel and there is genuinely a need for an editor to tighten this book up.  It’s not a particularly long novel but it does manage to reach the general length of the BBC Books novels.

 

Overall, Dark Progeny is a book with a lot of potential for a great story.  It takes its best cues from a classic piece of gothic horror and has genuinely interesting secondary characters, but doesn’t manage to find its feet by the time it’s over.  4/10.