Theatre of War

THEATRE OF WAR is a solid, entertaining adventure in the Virgin New Adventures series. The Doctor is typically manipulative and dangerous, a bit closer to his TV roots than some of the other books in the line; Ace makes for a tough companion; and Bernice Summerfield actually gets to be an archaeologist. Secondary or "guest" characters are well-developed, as is usual in "Doctor Who". Justin Richards focuses more on the plot than on the characters, which pushes our heroes a little further into the background. It also makes the book read more like a fleshed-out version of the TV show, which was always plot-driven anyway. Richards, like many other New Adventures writers, makes good use of non-fiction devices, such as quoting from imaginary books at the start of each chapter. In this case it works especially well, since the plot revolves around a revered play, and the non-fiction excerpts give the reader a hint of what that play is really all about. We start off at an archaeological excavation on the planet of Menaxos, where a long-lost theatre has been discovered. As an archaeologist myself, this is quite fun, until the archaeologists and soldiers start being hideously slaughtered by some unseen enemy. The Doctor and Ace arrive, while Benny is sent off to a library planet to do some research. Impending war threatens our heroes, and the unknown monsters accompany them when they finally escape the planet. It's an exciting book, and extremely well-written. The New Adventures set very high standards for tie-in books, and THEATRE OF WAR lives up to those standards. Can some of these authors transfer their talents to the Star Trek line, please?

THEATRE OF WAR was a book that presented me with a dilemma. I wanted to read it slowly, to absorb all of the rich detail that Justin Richards provided me with. But I had a real hard time doing this, because I had an equal and opposite desire to race through the book quickly, so I could see exactly how the plot unfolded.The outline for this story must have been very detailed indeed. The book is very much driven by its plot, and the twists and turns are all quite welcome. Some of the directions I anticipated, but many of them took me completely by surprise. I love plot twists that are surprising but logical, and THEATRE OF WAR definitely delivers those. Not only is the plot exciting and captivating, but there are loads of small little things that combine to make this a special book. I loved all of the extracts from made-up references books. I adored the clever play within a play passages with their meta-textual jokes about various Doctor Who stories, existent and missing. And seeing Benny in archeology mode was fantastic and something that had been lacking in previous books. It seems strange to think that it took this long to get a book that made such perfect use of Benny's diary, her background in archeology and her past in general.The story makes good use of its many characters and settings. The archeological dig was a great place for Benny to develop and yet again she has the ability to drive a story forward all by herself. The secondary characters aren't terribly deep, but they all have a quality of believability. It's only near the end that one or two of them turn stereotypical, and by that point it's a forgivable sin. There was only one real problem that I had with the plot. While the majority of the hints to the central mystery are carefully hidden, there is a huge clue in the introduction that is so massive that it reveals the way the plot is going to unfold over the next two hundred pages. Now, to be fair to the book, given some of themes that had been running through the story, this was no doubt done on purpose with the hope that the reader wouldn't really pick up on the clue. And even with the mystery somewhat deflated, I was still enthralled watching Benny and the Doctor work their way to the "how" and "why", even if I had already figured out the "what".THEATRE OF WAR introduces several things that would later play larger roles in the NA universe, Irving Braxiatel and his collection included. However, this also works as a carefully written and enjoyable standalone novel. Its action-adventure status is enhanced by both its close attention to detail and Justin Richards' ability to keep a book filled with surprises. If you want to know why the New Adventures were so popular and why they attracted such a loyal and devoted following, then you merely have to read this book to discover what thousands of other Doctor Who fans were enjoying every month.(On the subject of the cover. If the DECEIT cover featured giant rocks ab