The Burning (Doctor Who)

Richards, I can state with relief, knows his craft. His prose is modestly assured and succeeds in projecting the new Doctor's mysterious charm with effortless poise. Also, the casual reader is not seriously disadvantaged by not knowing story-arc details; Everything one needs to know is contained within this volume.

The story brought back for me the delight of watching Doctor Who on television. The tragically misguided villain reminded me of many other similarly afflicted baddies from the show, and his monster henchmen conjured images of BBC actors in garish fibreglass suits, without allowing the narrative to descend into parody for even a moment.

A well-deserved four stars. It's not without its flaws, but science-fiction fans can do much much worse than to read this.


Doctor's Ruthlessness and Mysteriousness is back!!   August 28, 2003
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

I have found new characters of the 8th Doctor have been intriguing me throughout Richard Justin's "Burning". Unfortunately the end of his stroy was weak, though. I have found that it has the writer's certain charms and skills which kept me going on till finished reading it at the end. I was more intrigued about ruthlessness and mysterousness. These are main characters of the 1st and the 7th Doctors. I have felt the 8th Doctor has lost some mysterious parts of his origin for a while since he regenerated from the 7th one. Since the end of Ancestor cell, his ruthless, mysterious and even cold murderous acts in Burnings has really reminded me of ones of the 1st and 7th ones. I have felt he was bit more happier Doctor from the rest of somehow neurotic and nervous Doctors before Ancestoral Cells. I am an avid fan of the 7th Doctor. I have been intrigued with his mysterious and ruthless moods. I welcome New Doctor's charcterization in "Burning".


Insubstantial as fire.   November 3, 2002
bonsai chicken (United States)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

THE BURNING takes place entirely in and outside a nineteenth century English village fast on its way to economic decline. It is winter, yet this is tempered by unexplained cracks in the earth that deliver unnatural heat. Enter one Roger Nepath, a mysterious entrepreneur with a plan to revitalize the town and an unhealthy fixation on a dead sibling. What's his connection with the strange geological activity, and what does he really want?

This is an eighth Doctor adventure, and my first exposure to the character since the unjustly maligned TV movie some years back. I was disappointed to find his appearance here distinctly lacking in personality. I found as I read on that the Doctor had lost his memory in a previous adventure, but this doesn't really excuse the weak characterization. He says and does very little for most of the novel, and except for a few brief heated dialogues, is almost a nonentity. Perhaps if I'd read previous novels I'd see this development more clearly as far as the big picture goes, but the book gives no indication that knowledge of prior adventures is necessary (or at least helpful.) I know that some of the novels state where a story takes place in the larger mythos, but that is lacking here -- an unfortunate oversight. It's fine if they want to carry ongoing subplots, but I'd like to know about it beforehand. I felt like I was in the dark as much as the Doctor was. If, like me, you do not intend to read every Doctor Who novel that is published, and prefer to pick and choose, you may want to pass on this one as it doesn't stand on its own very well.

The story itself is weak. I can't mention many details without spoiling it, but the whole thing simply does not come together as well as it should. There is much time given to the supposed importance of a strange new mineral, yet it proves to be completely irrelevant to the latter half of the story. The villain's plan is also not explained adequately. In the end, everything conspired to make THE BURNING an unsatisfying read.


Review of The Burning (Spoilers)   November 9, 2001
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

Richards's The Burning officially kicks off the "Stranded on Earth" story arc. The Burning takes place immediately right after the catastrophic events that took place in Anghelides/Cole's Ancestor Cell.
The Burning begins in the late 19th cent. with the Doctor having very little memory of who he is (no pun intended) and that the small cube he holds in his pocket is his TARDIS in a regenerative cycle. The Doctor is given shelter by the Rev. Matthew Stobbold who takes pity upon the homeless stranger who calls himself the Doctor. Later, the Doctor and Stobbold meet the mysterious Roger Nepath who is in possession of sentient, shape-shifting, entity that he claims will revolutionize mechanization. Soon, the Doctor finds that not only the entity can bring the dead "back to life" but it is using Nepath to take over the world. In short, all the lifeform knows how to do is eat and it does this in the form of Burning.
Richards's plot is very simplistic and the reader never finds out what the entity really was. Unlike Demontage and Option Lock, the ending is not very good and seems too drawn out. However, Richards's imagery of the 19th century I.E. Mines, Mansions, Small Towns, is very good and done with much detail. I did throughly enjoy the Doctor's and Nepath's debate over free will vs. predestination and the part later in the book where the Doctor argues the case of the Zebra to Nepath to demonstrate that individuality and conformity can live together.