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Amazon.co.uk Review
Doctor Who has generally been about the small stories--individual acts of heroism and courage which make life better for the majority. Only occasionally does the Doctor have to make one of those impossible decisions where he must sacrifice the lives of the few in order to save the lives of many.
Doctor Who has generally been about the small stories--individual acts of heroism and courage which make life better for the majority. Only occasionally does the Doctor have to make one of those impossible decisions where he must sacrifice the lives of the few in order to save the lives of many.
One of the problems with Beltempest is the immense loss of life which is simply glossed over. The Doctor and other characters are simply onlookers as entire planets are torn apart and space craft wrecked, their inhabitants and occupants dying instantly. This story must have the highest death-count in a Doctor Who novel and yet it all seems so cold and unemotional. There are other problems as well: the Doctor seems at odds with previous characterisations and often does not appear to be the 8th Doctor at all. Sam also undergoes some strange developments, even becoming immortal at one point.
The plot is another interplanetary adventure involving suns not behaving quite how they should, and this more overtly science-fiction approach may be part of the problem. If the Doctor is going to get involved in this sort of adventure then the lives of millions of humanoids do become insignificant compared to the events unfolding around them. Do construction workers worry about the lives of ants as they cover their nests with concrete in order to build? Are humans concerned about the death of microscopic bacteria every time they clean the kitchen? This is the dilemma here. Jim Mortimore has painted his canvas too large, and any human interest has been shunted to one side in favour of the incredible science fiction concepts he is describing.
Beltempest could just as easily have been a story told through the eyes of Captain Kirk/Picard/Janeway and crews, or something encountered by the assorted folks on Babylon 5. It lacks that hard-to-define Doctor Who-ness. --David J Howe
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When the people of Bellania II witness a triple eclipse of their sun, Bel -- an impossibility, as they only have one moon -- it is the beginning of the end for an entire solar system. Their sun is shrouded in night for a month -- then returns to them a younger, brighter, hotter star. But how? 100,000 years later, the Doctor and Sam arrive on Belannia IV, where 20,000 people are under threat as a catastrophe threatens -- immense gravitational and dimensional disturbances are rioting through their sector of space. Sam is swept away by desperate crowds trying to get off their world, and becomes involved in daring rescue attempts. The Doctor tries to stabilize the local gravity fields and help halt the devastation, but the TARDIS is lost to him. Meanwhile, a religious suicide-cult leader attempts to destroy himself on the deadly heated surface of Belannia II, but he does not die. He returns stronger, and with a new religion he is determined to spread through Bel's system. His word may prove more dangerous even then the terrible forces brought into being from Bel's sun. Just what has happened to the star Bel -- and will the Doctor hive time to do anything about it?
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