lyssie: (No Future bitches!)
lyssie ([personal profile] lyssie) wrote2006-07-29 01:59 pm

Book review: Evolution, by John Peel

It says a lot, I suspect, that though it had a slow start, I just spent the last couple hours reading this straight through from about page 40 on. (Yes, I'm a fairly slow reader)

The book is completely Sarah Jane and the Fourth Doctor, right down to me hearing Lis Sladen's voice with practically every word. This is good.

As with most crossovers, the author appears to have gone, "Wouldn't it be cool if...?" and run with it, rather forgetting the need for a plot, then having to go back and put one in and getting caught in the middle and in the end... well, it all works, actually. But it's very much a crack!tastic crossover.

Sarah wants to meet Kipling, in India. Unfortunately, they're a little early. That's ok, however, as they end up running into Conan Doyle during his days as a ship's doctor.

There's mutant children and gene-splicing going on (I was rather hoping for the Rani, actually, but I couldn't decide what she'd have to gain by changing children into mermaids), and a wedding in the future. And Sarah being very proactive, rather than reactive and pointless.

There's also a vague bit of social commentary and outrage about class, and some discussion on child welfare that made me growl. Er, mostly because Breckinridge was a twat, and needed a bitch-slapping.

And there's also hints of Fourth and Leela, here and there. And the Doctor tried hard not to be from Scotland Yard, but people will make these assumptions.

Plus, there's a bit where Sarah and Alice (the daughter of the house) basically go, "Men are stupid." "Yeah. Let's go have tea." "Good plan." because the men are doing the "OMG WE ARE MEN AND TERRITORIAL AND YOU ARE MOCKING ME ARGH ARGH ARGH" thing.

Not to mention, Sarah broke a man's hand/wrist, cracked his ribs and then stabbed his other hand with a scalpel.

Have I mentioned that I love violent women?

[identity profile] redstarrobot.livejournal.com 2006-07-29 08:28 pm (UTC)(link)
Have I mentioned that I love violent women?

They are pretty awesome. And Sarah Jane is so the "women's self-defense course" type.

[identity profile] kali921.livejournal.com 2006-07-29 08:36 pm (UTC)(link)
...which made me immediately think of John Peel, the great DJ from the UK, and think "he wrote a book from beyond the grave?!"

Since he's dead.

I cried when he died. He was one of the all time great musical figures of the 20th adn 21st century.

[identity profile] gordon-r-d.livejournal.com 2006-07-30 02:38 am (UTC)(link)
We used to joke about that all the time. I think I would have really enjoyed a New Adventure written by our John Peel.

(I also always imagined him as the voice of God in The Also People...)

I cried too, I'd listened to his show for over fifteen years. Nothing else can come close.

[identity profile] kali921.livejournal.com 2006-07-30 02:57 am (UTC)(link)
Wait, you mean that John Peel isn't the Pancreator? The First Cause of All Things, or at least the First Cause of the Manic Street Preachers?!

John broke more of my favorite bands then I can possibly list here. He seemed to have an unerring ear for what was good, and for what was drivel. It was a black day for modern music when he died. Talk about the Ultimate Fan Boy, but of the best kind. I think of it that way: he was fandom done the right way.