|
Drift Author: Simon A. Forward Review Drift is a book featuring the fourth Doctor and Leela as played by Tom Baker and Louise Jameson respectively. There are several aspects to this story, including a military presence that is not UNIT, civilians, and a religious cult. All of this combines in an American setting to give a wintery story roughly in the modern era. The Doctor takes Leela to North America, out in the country where they find a military force trying to recover an alien device from a group of cultists who have disappeared. The device is linked to the snow and blizzard conditions, and is also telepathic. Local citizens and the Police Officer try to work with the military to end an oncoming menace that threatens not just the small hamlet in which they live, but the whole world. They eventually succeed at an unfortunately high human cost and the Doctor takes Leela away to leave the locals to rebuild their town. The story as is conveys a magical scene, sparsely filled with little action. There are numerous sub-plots that are given a great deal of time in the book but only really amount to a very small part of the actual story. What I really feel is that in books, the author should feel that every word is precious, and none should be wasted. In Drift, I feel too many words are wasted by irrellevant detail which detracts from what could be a wonderful story. Throughout most of the book, you know there is something big and exciting coming up round the corner, but it just takes so long to get there that you might be bored by the time the action hits. The characters in this book are relatively well defined and realised. The military personnel are particularly well written as the Human side of Morgan and Lt. 'Wildcat' counterpoint the efficiency of some of the more career minded soldiers. The gem of the piece really is Amber, who has been sensitively written and developed through the book. My one issue with Amber is more that the character wasn't explained properly at the end. With her being central to the Creature using the Stormcore. What was the impact on a little girl of this? The main acid test though as I always say surrounds the 'regular' cast, in this context it is the Doctr as played by TOm Baker and Leela as played by Louise Jameson. In this book I feel that Simon A. Forward has done well with the charcaters, but not spectacularly. One of the main characteristics of Tom Baker on screen is that he grabs your attention from the beginning and doesn't release it until the credits roll. Here, the dialogue is fine, but the character doesn't seem to have the Tom Baker charisma. Forward isn't far off, but he just about misses the mark. I feel the same is also true of Leela here, with the dialogue being good, but the essence of the character as portrayed on screen not being quite there. Overall, Drift is a book that I believe could have been so much better. The premise for the story is a good one and one that under different circumstances would have provided an excellent read. THe downside of Drift though is that it doesn't really engage the reader in the way you want it to, and consequently the book can be a struggle to get through in parts. Rating:  |