Originally posted here at Anime Radius.

If there’s one thing the Virgin New Adventures are famous for, it’s taking a Doctor seen as semi-manipulative and forboding in season twenty-six and turning him into a shrewish full-blown manipulative champion of time in the books. Okay, that and Ace seems to be getting laid in every book, thus making the published by Virgin Books thing a kind of hilarious irony. Anyway, the entire dark persona of the Seventh Doctor is pulling all the stops in The Dimension Riders and that’s a good thing, because this story has enough twists and turns that it’s nice to take comfort in the simple fact that sooner or later the Doctor’s gonna drop a bomb that A) changes the whole playing field and B) makes Ace question her once-unflagging loyalty to him. Yes, in these books, Ace is no longer the forever faithful companion once tested by evil from the dawn of time (hell, in the audios, she calls herself ‘McShane’ just to make a point). Which is actually good, because it would have been boring the other way around – and some story elements would have fallen flat.

Readers follow the plot through three relatively related narratives – Benny in Oxford, Ace aboard the Icarus, and the Doctor stuck in the Q4’s past. All of them are investigating the same mystery, although it doesn’t become obvious until a little past halfway through the book, in which the true villain of Benny’s section reveals himself and the identity of the Doctor and Ace’s mysterious enemy is also revealed. Most books usually struggle holding steady three points of view concurrently; it can be a pain to keep all three flowing at the same pace while still advancing the plot in all three. They do eventually meet up near the end, but it does not slow down there – it actually picks up speed toward a mind-bending finale and ends with one character making a very important decision (and no, it’s not Ace, she’ already left the TARDIS twice by this point so there’s no real drama in that path anymore).

The plot itself is pretty topsy-turvy, but in a fascinating way – and the best part? It’s partially non-linear. Doctor’s in the past of the future, and Benny is in the immediate future’s past, and Ace is in the future – but it’s more like the present story-wise. If you’re confused, don’t worry, The Dimension Riders will have you completely bewildered by the time it’s finished (and if you can guess the Seventh Doctor serial I mangled that quote for, gold star of mathematical excellence for you!). It’s not that it’s a complicated story itself, but the way it’s told – in chunks and starts and almost never in order – gives it airs of complexity. Then there is the twist when the identity of which exactly has been crawling through the fabric of time is, and how it came into being, and from then on its a race through an infinite set of rooms and through the minds of everyone involved, with imagery that is evocative of each character and is like a drug trip with how many things are jumbled about on the path to set reality straight. I’d explain it more, but that’s a huge spoiler, so I’ll leave it to you to find out yourself.

Note: if this is your first foray into the New Adventures series featuring Seven, Ace, and new companion Bernice Summerfield (well, she was new in the nineties!), you will find something very surprising in these books: actual continuity. Like, things actually transfer from novel to novel – which means that in order to understand why Benny does half the things she does or why the Doctor’s TARDIS . . . isn’t his TARDIS, you’ll have to actually read some of the books that came before it. Yes, Virginia, a Who series that actually manages to keep track of its own canon does exist. It therefore makes itself less appealing to newbies than the actual TV show, in which most episodes can be jumped into head-first with only a scant knowledge of the Whoniverse. However, there aren’t so much canon trip-ups in The Dimension Riders, so for the most part as long as you know the basics of the current Team TARDIS, it should all flow relatively easy as you read it.

For a New Adventures, it’s a pretty solid read. You’ve got your proto-Oncoming Storm Doctor, the disobedient and doubtful Ace, and the inquisitive archeologist Benny. There’s a mystery afoot involving death and mucking about with time, and as usual the Doctor knows more than anyone else involved. There’s a lot of tension and intrigue and action mixed in with some dark humor and universal oddities. It’s not exactly a banner example of the NA line, but it succeeds as what it sets out to be with much aplomb: a murder mystery meant to shake up the usual order right before the real storm hits in the form of The Left-Handed Hummingbird. So grab a copy from your local second-hand store, make a cuppa and set out some almond slices next to your favorite comfortable chair. It’s definitely worth the fuss. ( )

Awful! ( )

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1744191.html

A Seventh Doctor novel in the New Adventures series, featuring a renegade Time Lord disguised as the head of an Oxford college and equipped with a killer android who he is using to execute the sinister plans of his horrible ally. Not quite as good as that description sounds; there are some very graphic battle sequences in the future space station to which the 1993 Oxford setting has a mysterious link, and some nice nods to Gallifreyan continuity, but it's a bit like trying to rewrite Shada as a slightly more coherent and violent novel. Decent enough but not top of the range. ( )