REVIEW: DOCTOR WHO: SALT OF THE EARTH

DOCTOR WHO:

SALT OF THE EARTH

TIME TRIPS BOOK 4

BY

TRUDI CANAVAN

ISBN: 978-144814-188-3

Pages: 39

Publisher: BBC Books/Ebury Publishing

Published: 6 March 2014

On the cover:

(From the publisher's website.)

The Third Doctor and Jo Grant arrive for a well-deserved holiday of sun and ‘blokarting’ on a salt lake in Australia in 2028. Weird sculptures adorn the landscape – statues carved from the salt. People have been leaving them in the salt lakes for years – but these look different. Grotesque, distorted figures twisted in pain. They don’t last long in the rain and the wind, but they’re just made of salt... Aren’t they?

   Canavan does not waste her time, you are given a very powerful opening. It's chilling, and it gets to you. It also introduces us to a non-human supporting character that is perhaps the best thing about this story. It's definitely a bit of a strange story, it has both a very limited cast, and a very limited setting. I am not really familiar with the Third Doctor, but have gathered that this is somewhat of a signature for this regeneration. Or at least that the limitation to an Earth setting is. 

   As an introduction to an incarnation I have only read about, this worked very well though. Canavan fleshes out what I have previously just read about, and makes it come to life. It is also interesting to see how the companion, Jo, definitely belongs to the time she originally comes from. Sure, there are updates to the technology based on what has come since then and it is set in our future, but this still feels like somewhat of a period piece. It gives off the vibe of the period when he third Doctor was on the TV screens.

   I said it was a bit of a strange story, and it is. It's actually quite hard to place this story in any conventional storytype, but it will be somewhat familiar to Doctor Who fans. This isn't one of the action filled Doctor stories, but we do get a bit of running. The lack of action doesn't hamper the story though, and it would feel wrong if some was shoehorned in.

    There is some tension as the story progresses, and a feeling of real peril. It does move fast though, everything happens within the same day. The limited time does somewhat detract from any great suspense to what is happening. When the length of the story is this short, both in pages and narrative time, it doesn't provide much space for a slow build, and I felt it could have needed more of that.

   It is not that this is a bad story in any way, but it is a bit unfulfilling. Even though it is well told it does feel a bit too pared down to the bones, and I would have liked a bit more meat on it. That said, this is a very typical Doctor Who story in the sense that it feels a little bit rushed, and that things are resolved perhaps a little bit too quickly towards the end.

   Overall this is a good story. It excels in creating a feeling of being at the setting, and time period of Jo/the Third Doctor. and for me it is an interesting look at an unfamiliar incarnation of the Doctor. As mentioned above, the end left a little bit to be desired. But that is pretty much usual when it comes to a lot of Doctor Who (, for me at least).

   If you want a short and straightforward Doctor story, this is a very good choice. And for those that miss the Third Doctor and Jo Grant this will be welcome. As a quick introduction to the Third Doctor, I found this very interesting and it makes me want to experience more of his adventures.

NOTE: I got an e-ARC of this from the publisher/NetGalley.

REVIEWS: The Death Pit (Time Trips 1)  Into the Nowhere (Time Trips 2)  Keeping Up with the Joneses (Time Trips 3)

LINKS: Trudi Canavan   Ebury Publishing

COVER REVEAL ROUND-UP (XVII)

   Coming from Solaris 29 April 2014. This is a Steampunk novel set in the Far East. I actually feel that information is a bit redundant, the cover has already said that. I must say I find this dragon very intriguing, I really want to know what it is doing, and why. I also think it is a very cool piece of art in itself.

   You may have caught the news that Raymond E. Feist is working on a new series. This is the (US/Canada) Harper Voyager cover for the first book in that series, coming out 6 May 2014. Uhm...it's a sword in a field. I'm perfectly okay with that, but there's really not much to go on here. Either you like this sort of cover image or you don't.

   I've previously showed the cover for the first novel in this new Shannara series here. This second novel will be out from Del Rey 19 August 2014. This is a trilogy of standalones. I really like the cover this time too. It fits very well with the last one, creating a great series feel.

   The second book in this tie-in trilogy is coming from St. Martins Press 4 March 2014. I think this cover is very good. In my opinion it captures the feel of the TV series even better than the previous one. (That I said was book number three. As far as I can see now, it's the first one.)

   From Orbit comes this book, with a 27 May 2014 release date. From what I can see this is a whole new series. I like the cover a lot. It may have the usual hooded figure, but it does something new with it. And it looks -for want of a better word- inviting.

  Harper (US) paperback cover, release date 22 April 2014. Book five in the Watch series. This has already been out in hardcover, but I wanted to show it anyway. This is a series that was huge some years ago, when the movie came, and then it sort of petered out. I don't think I've heard about it since book three was lined up for a release in English. Not really sure what happened with it. The cover is no more than okay and doesn't do much for me. But it's really different from the movie I saw, so I put it up here as curiosa. Did anyone who reads this read the books? If so, please give me a heads-up about them in the comments.

      From PYR, 8 July 2014 this is the fifth Burton & Swinburne novel. I almost posted the cover for the fourth novel, until I checked the release date and found out it was already out. This is done in the same style, and I really like this one too. I haven't ready any of these books, but the covers make me want to pick them up.

  Out from Tor (US) 20 May 2014. This is the seventeenth book in the Saga of Recluse. I think there was four or five books the first time I became aware of the series. It's one of those that I've never gotten started on. Although the few people I know who have read it talk highly of it. I am actually a fan of this style of covers for Epic Fantasy books. I think this is a really good cover just for that reason. And it is of course also a really good illustration.

   Also from Tor (US), this is the follow up to The Quantum Thief and The Fractal Prince, and is out 6 May 2014. I think it's a really good cover. But I have to say the background figures reminds me of the (PlayStation) Final Fantasy games. Considering the amount of hours I have spent playing those games, that is pretty high praise.

  Out 13 May from PYR. I started with a dragon, so I thought I'd end with one. This is a more Western type dragon, and in some ways this is a pretty traditional cover. Not that it matters. It's a great image in my opinion, and I'll most likely hunt down a copy of this so I can have it in my shelves.


   If you've read any of my previous cover reveal round-up posts you may have noticed something different this time. There's no credits for artists here. That's because I have taken all these covers from different publishers' catalogs online, and that information wasn't available. I'd love to add that though, so if you are the artist or work for the publisher of these books, I'd appreciate it if you could tell me what credits I can add in the comments or by sending me an e-mail to the address in the top right hand corner. Facebook and Twitter is also fine. I want to give credit to those who have made these covers.