Who in the John Woo vein
Written: Feb 22 '02
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great fun!Takes you along on a good adventure
Cons: 2-dimensional characters for the most part
The Bottom Line: Buy it if you like Doctor Who and you like a good action novel. It's a thrill ride.
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| hist's Full Review: David McIntee - Bullet Time: A Seventh Doctor and ... |
Bullet Time marks the return of the "good" Past Doctor Adventure. It's not the best book ever written, and it certainly won't win any prose awards, but it's a cracking good adventure told in the style of John Woo and James Bond. Sometimes you could even see the slow motion choreography of the action scenes.
Sarah Jane Smith, a companion of the Third and Fourth Doctor, is enlisted unwittingly by the Seventh Doctor in a secret plan that I won't reveal. Suffice it to say that, as always in a McIntee novel, things aren't necessarily what they seem to be at the outset. The Doctor seems to Sarah to be acting severely out of character, and she wants to get to the bottom of why. She finds out, though, that sometimes you don't really want to know the answer to your questions. Throw in some Hong Kong triads, secret government agencies (lots of them!), and stir, and you get a pot-boiling action flick masquerading as a book.
The prose is very workmanlike, with many descriptions given in pop culture references. Luckily, if you're interested at all in Doctor Who (and thus, reading this book), you won't have any trouble understanding them. It still would be nice to have these lessened a bit, though. The rest of the story is told in rapid succession, with rapid scene changes that make it seem even more like a movie. There is rarely a 2-page spread that doesn't have at least one scene change. This makes for quick reading, and also makes the book ideal for reading in small chunks if all you have is a couple of minutes at a time. While the prose is simple, it fits the style of the book, which is a plus.
The characters are rather two-dimensional, but that's not the point in this book, so that's not as much of a problem as it would be otherwise. If you want wonderful characterization, deep thoughts and discussions, or things like that, then you'll have to look elsewhere. The characters service the plot, rarely breaking out of their strait-jackets, but doing their job as well as they're able to.
For fans of the Virgin New Adventures, there are some things thrown in there for you. The book is actually a sequel to one of McIntee's earlier books, but only subtly. There's no need to have read it in order to read this one. Instead, what this does is make a reader of the previous book say "oh cool!" and move on. People who have read the previous one will know exactly what I'm talking about.
This book is fun. Nothing more, nothing less. It's not literature, it's not trying to be. It does its job, and it does it well. If you like an adventure yarn, you'll probably like this one. Go ahead and pick it up.
Recommended:
Yes
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Member: David Roy
Location: Vancouver, BC
Reviews written: 721
Trusted by: 218 members
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