Would you like a little Bond in your Who?
Written: Jul 25 '02 (Updated Oct 23 '02)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Lots of action, good humour, good characters
Cons: The aliens' name is too cute, not as good as Parkin's other books
The Bottom Line: Great book to spend a summer day reading. Don't expect any big ideas or monumental events, but it's fun. It's a good place to start your Who experience
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| hist's Full Review: Lance Parkin - Doctor Who Trading Futures |
One thing that Doctor Who, ever since the television series, has been good at is ripping off...ahem, I mean paying homage to other genres. Trading Futures is pretty blatantly a James Bond pastiche, even down to the cover (with silhouetted women posing provocatively and a couple of other exciting scenes, all in a big target image). The question is, is it a good pastiche? Thankfully, yes it is.
A Brief Description of Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a science fiction adventure series about the Doctor and one (or more) of his companions. They travel around in the TARDIS, which looks like an English police box, but is really a time travel machine. It's bigger on the inside then on the outside. The Doctor is a Time Lord, a race of beings who can regenerate when their current body is dying. So far, the Doctor has regenerated seven times, which means he's on his eighth incarnation.
The book series consists of two lines: a line about the Eighth Doctor and his companions, and a line that consists of "past Doctors" (Numbers 1-7). The past Doctors are from the TV series that ended in 1989, while the Eighth has only been seen on television in a movie on the Fox network in 1996.
The Story
Trading Futures is a Doctor Who novel starring the Eighth Doctor, Fitz, and Anji.
The Doctor and companions have arrived on Earth in one of the early decades of the 21st Century (it's not made clear exactly what year). The world has been divided into two zones: Eurozone and America. Other areas aren't really mentioned, except that Russia has suffered a great deal of hardship since the fall of the Soviet Union, and is a haven for gangsters, spies, and other seedy characters. Almost the entire world is under electronic surveillance from one party or the other. There are no more rogue states. There's nobody left to fight. Except each other.
The TARDIS has detected a time machine operating in the vicinity and has brought them here to investigate. Somebody is offering this time machine for sale and secret agents from both sides are trying to get it. Unfortunately, two more sides enter the equation: a race of aliens that want time travel for themselves, and two agents from another party who want to stop the proliferation of any time travel devices.
As usual, the Doctor and his friends are caught in the middle when all hell breaks loose.
What did I think?
This is a book that never stops. It's certainly not introspective at all, moving from action set piece to action set piece with no real stopping. It's kind of surprising coming from Lance Parkin, who usually has more event-driven, monumental books. His books are usually a lot deeper than this. Here, the scene shifts drastically from a resort on the Mediterranean Sea to Athens to California to Toronto and to Russia, with a few places in between. You almost have to stop and catch your breath at times. There's a lot of gunfire, robotic tanks and other robots, and daring leaps. Personally, I rather enjoyed all this, but if you don't, you may want to skip this book.
Not to say that characterization is neglected, though it's not as good as most of Parkin's books. The Doctor and Anji have plenty to do (though, in Bond tradition, Anji spends a lot of time dressed in a bikini). Both of them are very well-characterized, with Parkin capturing almost perfectly the Doctor's combination of whimsy and intelligence. Anji actually uses some of her economics background to work out part of what's going on and she has some marvelous scenes with Baskerville, the man with the time machine to sell. Fitz is pretty good too, with an often hilarious sequence where he's mistaken for the Doctor and has to try and improvise.
The other characters are also fairly good. Cosgrove is a British agent who is trying to get the time machine for Eurozone. Or is he? He is given some great motivation and it's very interesting as things unfold around him and the reader gets to find out what's really going on. Baskerville is given some great scenes as well. He's very well-rounded and not just a dastardly villain. Malady Chang is a CIA agent that becomes attached to the Doctor. She's a little bit more one-note, but she is given some interesting things to do. The other minor characters don't suffer too badly, but they're not as complete as these. The aliens aren't as well-characterized as they could be, almost seeming like a clumsy, but monolithic force. There's really not a lot of individuality there.
The plot is very intriguing. The differing factions can be confusing at times, but it's usually pretty easy to figure out what's going on. There's lots of humour to go with the action. Watching Fitz try to talk his way out of trouble is always a treat, and there's some great byplay between the Doctor and Malady as well. The only thing that's a bit too cute for me is the name of the alien race: a race of alien rhinos called Onihrs. C'mon, Lance, that's just bad.
Personally, I think Parkin can do no wrong, and he hasn't disproved that feeling yet. Trading Futures is probably the weakest of his books, but it's still well above some of the other Who books out there. This book is entertaining to say the least, and also moves along the arc that's been carrying through the 8th Doctor books recently. If you like your Who with a dash of Bond, then definitely pick this one up. It's also a very easy story to get into if you have never read a Who book before.
Recommended:
Yes
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Member: David Roy
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