- Mass Market Paperback: 288 pages
- Publisher: BBC Books (4 Oct 1999)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0563555785
- ISBN-13: 978-0563555780
- Product Dimensions: 17.6 x 11 x 2.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 708,566 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Divided Loyalties, from the series of Doctor Who books to feature the adventures of past Doctors and their companions, showcases the strength of this range perfectly. Were it not for its huge scope and broad canvas, Divided Loyalties would sit quite happily alongside the television stories between which it is meant to nestle. The book features the fifth Doctor (played on television by Peter Davison) and his earliest team of companions--Tegan, Nyssa and Adric, and Russell manages to perfectly capture the interplay between these characters that made this era of the show so distinctive.
This neophyte team of adventurers (they'd barely been together for a couple of months, as the book begins) are thrown into conflict with one of the Doctor's oldest foes, the Celestial Toymaker, who is busily setting up an audacious trap for his nemesis. While each of the TARDIS team has their part to play in his plan, the devilish Toymaker also drags the crew of a remote space station, a handful of innocent victims from Earth and the entire population of the planet Dymok into his cruel games.
If there's a weakness to Divided Loyalties, it lies in the very ambition that also makes it such a gripping read: as the story thunders to its climax, there are so many threads reaching their zenith that the actual conclusion is-- almost by necessity--not given quite the space it deserves. But this gripe is a minor one, as the journey to the end of the book is truly exciting. Helping the action along is Russell's incredible grip on the characters of this era. The fifth Doctor is by turns quiet and unsure, then exasperated and authoritative, just as he should be. Tegan is the right mix of brassiness and capability; Nyssa is the sensitive, intelligent one the series always made her out to be; and Adric? Well, Adric is just as annoying as he was on the small screen. But at least here Russell eventually manages to mellow him into a halfway likeable character. Perhaps the most fascinating part of the book, though, doesn't feature these characters at all. Divided Loyalties features a detour to the very beginning of the Doctor's adventures, as a young Time Lord-to-be. Here, we witness his first meeting with the Toymaker, and ... well, anything more would be spoiling it. Suffice it to say that, for this part of the book alone, Divided Loyalties is well worth a look. --David Bailey
Product Description
To most, the entity known as the Celestial Toymaker is an abstract pan-universal force, whose powers, origins and intentions are unknown. To a select few the Toymaker is a god, a being to be worshipped, without whom there would be no existence. But to others, the Toymaker is the embodiment of evil, a force to be thwarted at every possible juncture. Aeons past, the Time Lords of Gallifrey tried to comprehend the Toymaker, and the role this force played in the cosmos. To one group of young Time Lords centuries later, understanding the Toymaker represented a goal, a mission.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
A waste of trees and your time,
By A Customer
This review is from: Doctor Who: Divided Loyalties (Mass Market Paperback)
Media tie-in novels often get a bad reputation in the science-fiction community; it's books like DIVIDED LOYALTIES that bring that about. Characters are two- and one-dimensional, the plot is less exciting than the opening credits from the television show, and the prose itself would not be deemed publishable anywhere else. I don't know what Amazon.co.uk reviewer David Bailey sees in this novel--except for, perhaps, his name (which has already appeared in three other Gary Russell novels).There are a lot of good media tie-in novels out there. This is not one of them. Try your luck elsewhere.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not heavenly but good to play around with for a while,
By
This review is from: Doctor Who: Divided Loyalties (Mass Market Paperback)
Divided Loyalties is Gary Russell's seventh original Doctor Who novel, and this time the former actor and prolific writer has produced an intriguing story featuring a character from the William Hartnell era of the Doctor Who TV series. The novel involves Peter Davison's Fifth Doctor, and his travelling companions brash Australian air-stewardess Tegan Jovanka, brain box orphan Nyssa of Traken, and obnoxious stowaway and precocious mathematical genius Adric.
With the recent revival of the nefarious Celestial being in the Big Finish audio `The Magic Mousetrap', it seems a good time to look back at how the Toymaker has fared in print, since his 1966 small screen debut. Originally portrayed on TV as an elderly man dressed in the style of a Chinese Mandarin; the Toymaker existed in another dimension and existed by drawing unsuspecting people into his domain and forcing them - on pain of death - to play endless parlour games. He has returned four times since, in various forms, and has naturally been defeated by The Doctor on each occasion. Set somewhere between Fifth Doctor TV stories `Black Orchid' and `The Visitation', Russell's novel takes The Doctor back to his days as a student at the academy on his home planet of Gallifrey via a dream he has mid-flight. This recalls an incident where he and two friends stole a TARDIS and flew to the Toymaker's realm; The Doctor only just escaping but leaving his friends behind. The Celestial villain stole one of their bodies, but it is now wearing out and he draws The Doctor to him once more, in order that he may have his as a replacement. The dream section comes in the second half of the novel; the first deals mainly with the Toymaker attempting to turn The Doctor's companions against him - hence the title. The novel is intriguingly divided into four sections, each of them named after the title of an Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark song. As a big fan of the ground-breaking synth band, I thought this was a great touch, and the writer can surely be forgiven this indulgence, as the story is well-crafted and highly enjoyable.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Not worth the paper it's printed on.,
By A Customer
This review is from: Doctor Who: Divided Loyalties (Mass Market Paperback)
This book, the latest from Gary Russell - leader of the school of recycling the worst ideas of Who - lives up to his previous offerings. It's got old monsters, old characters and a plot so tedious you'll be begging for the book to be over. Still, at least it's not a very long book so you'll not be pained by it for too long.Russell brings the Celstial Toymaker together with the 5th Doctor. This could have been good on its own. Sure, he drops in a reference at the end to lead into the never filmed 6th Doctor Toymaker story. OK, Russell revels in his ability to take loose ends and needlessly tie them together in a convoluted web of continuity. Even then it could have been a good book. But then halfway through Russell seems to run out of story and so the middle third of the books becomes a Gallifrey runaround featuring the 1st Doctor before he left on exile. The sort of thing reserved for the worse excesses of fan faction. Russell decided that every single timelord we've seen in the series who knew the Doctor was at school with him, either as teacher or most likely as student. Is this supposed to be a good idea? So every single Time Lord who's caused the Doctor hassle - The Master, The Rani, Drax, The Monk, etc - were in his class at school? Utterly ridiculous. Gallifrey 90210 is not a good idea. It's a shame to see the Amazon reviewer - David Bailey - giving such a good review to the worst Who book ever published.... Advice: Don't buy this book. Please...
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