Palace of the Red Sun
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The Sixth Doctor and Peri are characterised well and the planet is a nice idea but this book is SO slooooooooowwwwww, that by the time the answers to the mystery arrive, you've lost interest. I think this would have worked better as a novella, but as a full-length novel the pace kills it.
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Great!
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This is another good book from Chris Bulis, one of the most prolific authors of the Doctor Who range. Being the worst represented on television, it's always good to see the Sixth Doctor making an appearance, and he's characterised very well here, as is his companion Peri. The regulars are separated quite early on, and so both get plenty to do. As with most of Bulis' books, the plot centres around a strong mystery - at the start, there are lots of strange events occuring, the explanations for which are revealed in a very clever series of plot twists at the end. Characterisation is also strong: Judd is far from the typical cardboard tyrant, and Oralissa also comes across as a strong character struggling to work out the mysteries of a world she fails to understand. The setting of a never-ending series of gardens has never been done before in Doctor Who, and it's brought to life with magnificent realism and imagery. The book is hardly earth-shattering, and there's never a huge sense of threat, but it's a good, strong novel and that's all that really matters.
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