- Paperback: 256 pages
- Publisher: BBC Books; paperback / softback edition (1 May 2000)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0563538007
- ISBN-13: 978-0563538004
- Product Dimensions: 17.8 x 11.2 x 1.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 718,493 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Steve Lyons is an author who usually delivers a chuckle or two, but there is little to smile about in his new Doctor Who novel The Space Age.
The Doctor, Compassion and Fitz arrive on Earth in the future and, as Compassion is being strangely uncommunicative and unreactive, the Doctor and Fitz head off to explore a fantastic space-city they can see in the distance. There they become involved in the ongoing battles of two rival groups: mods and rockers, snatched from a 1950s Brighton and relocated to this futuristic city for reasons unknown.
This then is the sum of the novel: two opposing gangs, grim and meaningless rivalry, relationships and family conflict, all played out against the backdrop of a space-age city in Earth's future. Compassion hardly appears and does nothing to advance the plot, Fitz tries hard but becomes lost in the plot, and the Doctor is left to try and figure out what the plot really is.
It's an undemanding read and introduces another powerful time-aware alien race, but ultimately it's perhaps a little simplistic. It ends with some thought-provoking decisions for the protagonists, but it's all too late. The book marks time rather than revelling in it. --David J Howe
Product Description
It is England, Earth, in the year 2019. The Doctor, Fitz, and Compassion land on a bleak plain, near a derelict city where mods and rockers are converging to fight out their differences. While the Doctor is taken prisoner by the rockers, Fitz is whisked away by the mods. In the midst of the gang wars, can the Doctor find out what transported the mods and rockers to the derelict city and why?
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Steve Lyons' latest original BBC Doctor Who novel features The Eighth Doctor, Fitz and Compassion. One of the simpler and more accessible of the range, the story revolves around the displacement of two groups - mods and rockers - from 1960s England to a future city.
On the whole though, this is a distinctly pedestrian original Doctor Who novel. It starts off well with a decent premise but sags in the middle and becomes tedious by the end. The TARDIS crew doesn't really have all that much to do and the novel just didn't grip me in the same way as say `The Hollow Men', or `Mad Dogs and Englishmen'. I'm working my way through the series, but unless you are too then I recommend giving this a miss.
On the whole though, this is a distinctly pedestrian original Doctor Who novel. It starts off well with a decent premise but sags in the middle and becomes tedious by the end. The TARDIS crew doesn't really have all that much to do and the novel just didn't grip me in the same way as say `The Hollow Men', or `Mad Dogs and Englishmen'. I'm working my way through the series, but unless you are too then I recommend giving this a miss.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
A nice idea for a doctor who story - mods and rockers taken out of time and put into a strange future city - but there's not much more to it than that. The book quickly becomes a traditional who runaround story. The characters are not that appealing. The writer is good at crafting this kind of material, but this is one of his lesser efforts. It's not a bad book, it just won't stay long in the memory once you've finished it.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
At the first time, I was bit confused about what the back cover said and what I had read some few first chapters.. Just tell any would-be reader to ignore the back cover plot at the first. The major story can be surmarized into the British-Doctor Who Style "West Side Story".. I guess most of would-be readers may can predict the major plot.
However, the story itself is well written. I kept reading it to the end. Lyon created the excellent charcterizatsion of each non-regular characters of mods and rockers. The real West Side Story the movie has a real sad ending based on a Shakespean Tradgety. On the other hand, Lyon has created the story of two young lovers, Alec and Sandra as the West Side Story Lovers.. if they may have survived in the future and transported into the futuristic city which the Time-Alien, Maker had offered to them as a gift..
I do not want to disclose any storyline no more though... I believe that Lyon has represented his own psycho-social interplay of each mods and rockers.. The story is waven with their psycho-social interactions of two groups. Their 19-year war between them showed the major tradgic human drama when they kept maintaining their human aggressive patterns. I feel so sad that they have had some chances to evolve into the better. They brew them so big, and so humanly.
At the backgrond of the futuristic City, their so-human aggressive emotions and so-humane stupidity have caused ironically thier own distruction of the City which had taken a care of them very duitefully.
Three regular characters, Doctor, Fitz and Compassion, were wonderful ones. The Silent Presence of Compassion was really the impressive one through the novel.
If any reader wants to read this Lyon's West Side Story in the Doctor Who Style, I recommend this book as a great study of character social-cultural interplay and interplot of those who have failed for their better social evolution and choices.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Nowhere near as much fun as the back cover
I bought this book because of the excellent back-cover blurb. It sounded like a fascinating chance to explore the radical difference between the way the year 2000 is and the way we... Read more
Published on 25 Jun 2000
Not what you're expecting, but an excellent read.
My first piece of advice about The Space Age is to pay absolutely no attention to the back cover blurb, it doesn't hold any relevant meaning as to the plot of the book. Read more
Published on 28 April 2000
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