Buy Used
Used - Very Good See details
Price: £2.08

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
   
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
Sorry, this item is not available in
Image not available for
Colour:
Image not available

 
Tell the Publisher!
I’d like to read this book on Kindle

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

Doctor Who: Instruments of Darkness [Mass Market Paperback]

Gary Russell
3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

Available from these sellers.


Formats

Amazon Price New from Used from
Mass Market Paperback --  
Amazon.co.uk Trade-In Store
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. Learn more.

Book Description

5 Nov 2001 0563538287 978-0563538288
A tall, thin Albino man, in various guises, appears in different parts of the world where he holds secret meetings with an array of agents. These agents believe that they are working for the French Secret Service, but are in fact on the payroll of a sinister crime organization known as the Magnate. They come from all walks of life -- the one thing they have in common is that they are all psychometrically linked to one another.

The Doctor is on Earth and alerted to a cult that attracts an array of young, vulnerable people. When the leader of the cult is held responsible for the abduction of a Magnate agent, the Doctor must work out what the connection is -- and find out exactly what plans the Magnate have for planet Earth.


Special Offers and Product Promotions

  • Join Amazon Family before 26 May 2013 and you'll be automatically entered into a prize draw to win one of 10 Motorola Blink Baby Monitors. Find out more.



Product details

  • Mass Market Paperback: 288 pages
  • Publisher: BBC Books (5 Nov 2001)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0563538287
  • ISBN-13: 978-0563538288
  • Product Dimensions: 17.2 x 11 x 2.6 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 662,099 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store

If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store. Learn more

What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?


Customer Reviews

5 star
0
2 star
0
1 star
0
3.5 out of 5 stars
3.5 out of 5 stars
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Mass Market Paperback
I think that 'workmanlike' is the best adjective to describe this original Sixth Doctor and Melanie Bush novel by the prolific Gary Russell. Like many in the BBC post-TV series range, IofD lacks any real depth, instead it is content to create admittedly intriguing (for the most part) characters, and an alien menace that is neither wholly original nor wholly fascinating. Indeed, it is hard to decide which is the actual threat until late in the novel, such are the many nebulous plot strands. I won't be reading this again.
Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
4.0 out of 5 stars Satisfyingly complex plot and characters. 9 Feb 2002
By A Customer
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Instruments of Darkness is another of Gary Russell's workmanlike additions to the Who collection. Its plot is complex, with lots of surprises, well-drawn and developed characters, and with nothing revealed or resolved too early in the piece, holds the readers interest to the last page.
The sixth Doctor's character is explored in more depth, than in some recent novels. He's as obstreporous as ever, but inclined to occasional reflection.
Likewise the author's treatment of Mel gives the reader some insight into the Doctor's friendship with her - she has more depth than the health-nazi often portrayed in the TV series, and makes a great foil for the Doctor.
Well-developed secondary chracters are essential to the credibility of a series with the Who staying power, and they work for this book.
Evelyn Smythe is feisty, on the wrong side of fifty and has a great backstory, so it's unfortunate that she has little more to do than bicker with the Doctor and go off on a research mission.

But its great to see female present and past travelling companions capable of more than running, screaming and spraining ankles.
Retired Air vice-Marshall Dickinson is likewise welldrawn, complex, and the reader can believe the old boy could walk out of the old folks' home and into the action. And there are lots more like him _ this book is richly peopled with credible people both for and against the Doctor.
Best of all is the complex plot.
It covers a lot of ground: from prehistoric California, to Auckland, New Zealand, 1990s UK and points between.
The villain(s) of the piece are a mysterious organisation called the Magnate, with ESP-gifted-or cursed humans - as well drawn as the Doctor and his friends - working for and against them. Watch out for Captain Gavalle and the amazonian Ms de Meanour.
But nothing is as it seems, especially in this complicated book, and everyone's initial assumptions are likely to be wrong, or at best half right.
At first sight, the alien plot is the well-worn "mind invasion to take over the world" story, but the true nature of the aliens behind all the trouble, and of Magnate, helps provide a great twist ending.
Buy this book, read it, then read it again.

Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com: 3.2 out of 5 stars  4 reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars Unfortunately typical of Russell recently 26 Dec 2001
By David Roy - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Instruments of Darkness is the third (last?) book in Gary Russell's "trilogy" of books which also includes Scales of Injustice and Business Unusual. This is a good thing, because Instruments is a tremendous step down from Business (I haven't read Scales). While Business Unusual was an enjoyable, if not deep, romp, Instruments goes from place to place to place, without much happening at all. Then, the ending wraps everything up in a 20-page rush to conclusion.

Gary spends a lot of time setting up all of the characters (there are a lot of them in this one). He also spends a lot of time telling what happened to these characters in the first two books, which got a bit annoying. I haven't read Business in awhile and like I said, I haven't read Scales. It was nice to get a little context on the characters, but unfortunately this comes in huge infodumps that just grated. Then, when you add Evelyn, it just makes it worse. Evelyn is a character from the Big Finish audios that Gary is the producer of. Now her character needs to be explained for the reader who doesn't listen to the audios.

What it all amounts to is a huge number of pages where nothing much happens. There's a lot of setting, and not much action. By "action," I don't mean explosions and chases and such, I mean that nothing happens at all. I'm all for characterization, but sometimes authors can take that too far. This is one of those times. It was almost page 200 (out of 284) before the Doctor really got involved in anything. That has been BBC Books' problem for quite awhile now, the ineffective Doctor. In this one, he is instrumental in the resolution, but it takes forever for him to get to that point.

I will say that the characterization of Mel and Evelyn is really good. I have heard one of the audios with her in it, and the character certainly matched. I could hear Maggie Stables playing this Evelyn. The Doctor isn't quite so good, but he is passable. This is a much more restrained Sixth Doctor then we got in the series, but that's a good thing. He has received a much better characterization in books and audios then he ever got on TV due to BBC politics.

Sadly, the rest of the characters don't get that benefit. Most of them are fairly one-note. There is one setting and two characters that are presented, and then they disappear until the end of the novel, coming out of nowhere. The European characters get a bit better, but they still suffer from being flat.

The ending brings this waste to an unsatisfying conclusion. It comes from nowhere, being hurriedly wrapped up after pages and pages of characterization. After so long being uninvolved, the Doctor suddenly has a good idea of what's happening without much to lead him there. Mel and Evelyn are sent off on an unbelievable mission that just is there to put them in danger. The setting and characters I referred to earlier all of a sudden appear, and a character makes the ultimate sacrifice. Unfortunately, we don't have anything invested in this sacrifice or the character, because we have so little exposure to it. It just happens this way to prevent the Doctor from having to make that sacrifice.

Unless you're a completist, I would recommend you avoid this book. It's a shame that Russell has fallen so much, because I used to really like his stuff (Business Unusual was fun, Legacy was really good). Now, he's 0 for his last 3 (Placebo Effect, the horrendous Divided Loyalties and now Instruments of Darkness).

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars A Few More Ghosts for N-Space 11 Nov 2003
By Jason A. Miller - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Mass Market Paperback
On the whole, I can't think of too many things wrong with Gary Russell's "Instruments of Darkness". Especially if your expectations have been dulled by, say, "Divided Loyalties" or "Invasion of the Cat-People", you might be happy to find that not all that much in this book is risible.

On the other hand, I can't think of too many things I liked about it, either. I don't know what I would say, for example, if I were asked to recommend it to others. I'm not a 6th Doctor fan by any means -- not on TV, not in print -- so this less over-the-top print version of the Colin Baker Doctor does not get me excited. I liked Mel as a companion, but this book's contribution to the post-TV companion canon -- Dr. Evelyn Smythe from the Big Finish audios -- was a letdown.

Evelyn takes up large portions of the text, without really adding much. She's introduced as a character not through her actions, but by long-winded speeches -- by speeches by the Doctor; by her duelling monologues with Mel (I hesitate to call them "conversations"); and, worst of all, through her own speeches. We keep hearing about how great she is. Fine. Go out and prove it. Do something heroic. Be less annoying.

When "Instruments of Darkness" isn't about Evelyn, or about Evelyn's relationship with the Doctor (she's introduced as a jilted former companion), or about what Mel thinks of Evelyn... there's a convoluted plot about alien beings (think Trelayne, if the Squire of Gothos had a less self-aware younger brother) perverting the course of human history. There are telepaths in France and Auton telepaths in England. There are a couple of well-drawn American reporters, but they're limited to about 12 pages of text (set in Micronesia, would you believe) and could be eliminated from the story without a hiccup. The end of the book is meant to be tragic, but it ends with the self-sacrifice of a zero-dimensional quaternary character, so... if you can figure it out, you can enjoy it. At least you'll be able to say, "I never saw that one coming!", and mean it.

"Instruments of Darkness" takes 70 Doctor-free pages to get going. The first original "Doctor Who" novels published in the early 1990s did well with this approach. Here, however, the space is used to introduce about 20 characters in short, violent, action/tragedy sequences. Coming at the end of the novel, such a montage could have provided kick. Coming at the beginning, however, it's a drag. Who are these people? Why do they then vanish for the next 150 pages?

So, let's recap. I've complained about the plot, I've complained about the characters. Now, let me switch gears and kvell about the villain. Remember that annoying habit the New Adventures had, of bringing back old TV companions, ruining their lives, turning them against the Doctor, and killing them off? Well, one of the human villains of this piece is a familiar figure. Not from the TV show, but, for once, it's a pleasure to bring back someone else just to ruin their lives. That's why I give the book extra points and that's why I owe Gary Russell a beer.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars Another reliable Gary Russell novel 13 Dec 2001
By A. KAPLAN - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Earth, 1993: A mysterious group known as the Network is drafting ESP-powered individuals to assist with their mysterious plans. In a small British village, the local squire has allied himself with a pair of enigmatic Irish twins (familiar to regular readers of this series) for equally mysterious reasons. The sixth Doctor and Mel, along with former companion Evelyn Smythe, find themselves caught up in these events, and, as usual, end up facing godlike beings with dubious goals.

Gary Russell's novels clearly show his love for Doctor Who, the television series. Unlike authors like Lawrence Miles or Paul Cornell, he isn't trying to push the envelope so much as recreate the feel of the show on the printed page. What makes his novels particularly enjoyable for me are his characters. He always seems to strive to make everyone an individual, with a distinctive past and personality. In many ways, this particular novel is a step forward in that area, with the characters much more prominent than the plot.

Like many of the televised sixth Doctor stories, the Doctor's involvement in the plot is pretty minimal for the first half or so. In this case, though, the fast-paced story development, cutting from scene to scene without becoming confusing, kept my interest up. Gary Russell has a fairly straightforward style compared to other Doctor Who authors, which makes for a refreshing change. He seems less interested in literary tricks and more interested in just telling his story.

His story, in this case, is a semi-sequel to two previous adventures, Scales of Injustice and Business Unusual, two of Russell's better books. Instruments of Darkness is less connected to the previous two in terms of plot, but almost all of the characters appeared in the earlier stories. Russell does explain who is who, and what their relationships are to one another, but reading the earlier stories is recommended, if possible.

Most interesting is his use of Evelyn Smythe, a character currently appearing in a series of original-to-CD Doctor Who audio plays produced by Gary Russell and Big Finish Productions. This is her first appearance in prose, and Russell takes the opportunity to flesh out her character's background quite a bit. He also develops her unique relationship with the Doctor without pinning things down to the point of controversy. She and the much-maligned Mel make a great team in this book, and I hope Russell has the opportunity to pen more novels with this particular cast.

The book's biggest drawback, unfortunately, is the conclusion. I didn't find the resolution particularly clear, and that always irritates me. On the other hand, the post-climax chapters seemed to set up yet another potential sequel without being too annoying, so I guess it all balances out.

I find Gary Russell's books to be comforting and relaxing, and this one was no different. Fans looking for groundbreaking Who fiction will be better off with this month's eighth Doctor release, The Adventuress of Henrietta Street. Those looking for the comfort of the familiar should find a great deal to enjoy in Instruments of Darkness.

Were these reviews helpful?   Let us know
Search Customer Reviews
Only search this product's reviews

Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
Search all Amazon discussions
   
Related forums


Listmania!


Look for similar items by category


Feedback