- Paperback: 279 pages
- Publisher: BBC Books; paperback / softback edition (4 Jan 1999)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0563555696
- ISBN-13: 978-0563555698
- Product Dimensions: 17.5 x 10.9 x 2.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 393,294 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Horror has always been an important part of the Doctor Who mix. The show was never purely a science fiction series, which was its great strength. When writers remember this the novels are all the richer. In The Face-Eater the Doctor encounters three races: humans who have colonised an apparently "available" planet; the Proximans, rodent-like natives of said planet who are mysteriously dying out; and another, more powerful resident, the nameless "face-eater" whose description is disconcertingly the same in both Proximan and English. This latter being is the cause of all the fuss and is a classic monster straight from the pages of a Ramsey Campbell novel. Horrible, powerful, ruthless and devious, it lurks in the background and is only revealed at the appropriate moments. Simon Messingham makes the most of this, and the book contains some excellent moments of tension and excitement which helps to keep the whole thing rolling along.
The Face-Eater is a great read and takes the Doctor back into the territory of body-horror which made TV stories like "The Ark in Space" so effective. When you can never be sure who is human and who is simply masquerading as human, then the tension can be wound as tight as you like.
Two words about the cover: absolutely excellent. The BBC range keeps going from strength to strength and manages to maintain a series of connected-and-yet-discrete titles which do not alienate a casual reader by being too insular and ham-strung by internal continuity and yet contain enough to keep those who have read all of them entertained. --David J Howe
Product Description
When the Doctor and Sam arrive on Proxima II they find a settlement rife with superstition and unrest. The native Proximans are inexplicably dying out, and humans too are being killed in horrific ways, with each corpse's face being stripped bare.
Posing as investigators from Earth, the Doctor and Sam must track down the force moving through the dark catacombs beneath Proxima City.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
This is a marvellous Doctor Who adventure owing more to TV horror than pure sci-fi. The tension steadily builds as the plot develops with a few surprise twists along the way. This will certainly grip your interest until you turn the final page.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
What begins with a sense of mystery and wonder, not to mention a creepy atmosphere, falls apart half way through, as Messingham's narrative becomes slugish and messy. The 50's style monster (ala THE BLOB) becomes tiresome and somewhat out of place in the world of the Doctor, and the creepy atmosphere almost totally disappears under a tide of action scenes that fail to grip. Not terrible then, but if it's horror Doctor Who you want, try the excellent KURSAL or the impressive THE JANUS CONJUCTION
0 of 2 people found the following review helpful
This was a really slow read and didn't begin to pick up until more than halfway through. There simply weren't enough suspenseful scenes to keep me interested and when the action did finally start to kick in the book proved itself to be pretty unexceptional. The way it was written was rather unattractive and confusing also. Not really much to get excited about, despite the promising cover and blurb
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