Sting of the Zygons
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BBC Books Sting of the Zygons |
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| Author | Stephen Cole |  |
| ISBN | 1 846 07225 5 | |
| Published | 2007 |
| Synopsis: The TARDIS lands the Doctor and Martha in the Lake District in 1909, where a small village has been terrorised by a giant, scaly monster. The search is on for the elusive 'Beast of Westmorland', and explorers, naturalists and hunters from across the country are descending on the fells. King Edward VII himself is on his way to join the search, with a knighthood for whoever finds the Beast. |
A Review by Joe Ford 4/9/07
That was so dull. Not just The Mutants-dull but like reading the entire history of Doctor Who and cutting out all the bits that you like and cutting them into a hardback book, sticking a stock photo of the Doctor and Martha and a Zygon on the front cover and pretending that you've made it all up yourself. I struggled with this one, I really did.
Stephen Cole needs to have a rest from writing Doctor Who fiction; that becomes ever more obvious. The Art of Destruction was the weakest of the last batch on NSAs and Sting of the Zygons follows that pattern with frightening mediocrity. It reminds me of when David A. McIntee was writing a book every year and his talent dried up and he started churning out nonsense like Mission: Impractical. McIntee returned to the fold years later with The Eleventh Tiger, one of the best books of its year, and I feel Stephen Cole could return to the delights of Ten Little Aliens and Timeless if only he went off to work on something else for a couple of years. As the saying goes he has been Who-ed out. At least The Art of Destruction had a good hook, the African Volcano setting; Sting of the Zygons is already cliched after you have read the blurb, most of the book being a cut and paste job with Terror of the Zygons and Tooth and Claw.
My time is limited these days, work and study taking up a huge gulp of my time and I cannot be arsed to waste valuable time reading this sort of tripe. Just as energy breeds energy, boredom breeds boredom and you can tell very little effort has gone into assembling this novel and thus very little energy went into reading it. Go and read Martin Day's Wooden Heart if you want to see how this sort of thing can be done properly.
So what exactly is wrong with Sting of the Zygons? It aims low and hits even lower, especially with its lazy plotting. There are early hints that this book might be about an alien bounty hunter that is trying to hunt the Zygons and that might have been different enough to work but turns out this is just misdirection. Instead we have a far more interesting tale of the Zygons manipulating a hunt of their Skaresen so they can kill the King and then at his funeral kill all of the political heavyweights that turn up and take over key positions over the Earttthhzzzz... oh sorry, did I fall asleep? Apologies, but such original and amazing ideas do threaten to cure insomnia. Thrilling scenes of everybody chasing around after a beast, the Doctor and Martha wondering which ones are Zygons... it's all so hopelessly predictable and dull.
Characterisation falls down at the first hurdle with all of the characters herded into either "aristocratic" (who say things like "You an autocar enthusiast yourself, old buck?") and "working class" (such as Mrs Unwin and Ms Flock). Imagine the fun we have with them. The Doctor and Martha are only graced with surface characterisation, the Doctor acting Doctorish (goading the villains, performing clever technical wizardry) but there's no effort to make him sparkle. Martha could be any companion and she only thinks thoughts that the plot allows her to think, I did not get any real sense that she existed outside of this book. And I cannot believe that Steve Cole had the nerve to try and fool us all with the fake Doctor trick. Yawn and double yawn.
The prose is okay, you could read any page and pick out a few atmospheric descriptions but like the rest of the novel there is never any sense of effort involved. When there is no sweat in the writing style they are just words on a page rather than a world coming to life around you. With such a dialogue heavy story you would think this story would whizz by, but it's like watching The Long Game for three hours. Wrist-slitting territory.
Shall I tell you how boring Sting of the Zygons was? So dull that I cannot be bothered to continue listing its faults. Don't waste your time reading this review. Certainly don't waste your time reading the book. There are hundreds of Doctor Who books out there and hundreds more reviews that are worthy of your time.
A Review by John Seavey 4/1/08
Ahh, there's nothing quite like a good old-fashioned shapeshifting monster run-around. Only, of course, since this is a Stephen Cole book, it's a good old-fashioned shapeshifting monster run-around with the volume turned up to eleven. You're prevented from spotting the Zygons (the classic parlor game, "Spot The Zygon" is, of course, fun for the whole family) by the sheer number of clues you get; and, of course, they're all true. Pick a random character, any random character, and odds are pretty good that they'll wind up metamorphosizing into an evil orange sucker-face at some point in the book. And yet, that's half its charm. Towards the end, it feels like Cole is practically in on the joke, as the Zygon revelations get bigger, more dramatic, and at times quite clever.
(Although the Zygon plan seems to be from the Ten Little Aliens Memorial School of Ridiculously Overcomplicated Plots, involving clandestinely ordered heavy moving equipment, Frenchmen with guns concealed in their camera cases, Skarasen signalling devices, surreptitious telegraph messages, and the crowned heads of Europe gathering for a state funeral with minimal security present. The Doctor does almost as much to facilitate their evil scheme as he does to thwart it.)
Mooooooooo by Nathan Mullins 23/2/09
I hope that wasn't too big a hint for those who haven't read this book but plan to soon. I must say, and truth be told, that this book is the best I have ever read. It's not a secret by telling you all that this book features the return of an old enemy, who are indeed the Zygons. I loved Terror of the Zygons, which I first saw on video (VHS) back when my brother collected all the old episodes and it amazed me and still does to this day. The reason I enjoyed the book as much as I did is because the author keeps you guessing as to who's the shape changer and who's not. It's written like an episode and if it had been made into one, I'm sure it would have been classed as a classic. It's certainly one of the best 'new series' books so far that have kept me wanting to know what's happened to who and has kept me guessing continuously.
Stephen Cole has proved a hit with fans so far, what with writing The Monsters Inside, The Feast of the Drowned and The Art of Destruction which kept me entertained for a while. Of course, he's witten others which I could mention but are irrelevant to this individual book. He has a good understanding of the show and knows how to get you hooked on a particular 'something' in his many books. Other authors fail to do so, for example the author of The Stone Rose which failed to grab my attention even though the beginning was somewhat interesting but I just felt it hadn't that same spark as The Sting of the Zygons. It failed to pull me in as a reader and thats a quality every book should have, that spark that gets you hooked, right from the start.
I must say that I've never read a book that has had so many twists and turns throughout the course of the whole book. The 'animals' that are spotted here and there are really old enemies in disguise, and those who we get to know change into something hideously creepy. I love where the story's set. The Lake District is seen as a creepy death zone that is known here for its dark tales and myths.
Also, the Zygons are well suited here. The reason I loved the Zygons back in the day was partly because of their costumes which were unlike anything the show had ever delivered. They were iconic and original. Plus, they were fearsome and scary, and the fact that they could morph into a human scared me even more because anyone out there could have been one - and that's what we get here. Something quite similar and to compare this book to the episode, Terror of the Zygons, it's like they're one and the same. Iconic, memorable, terribly interesting and did I say iconic? Oh yes I did and it is, like I say, the best I've ever read.
I love the fact that the Tenth Doctor has already come up against his old foes. It's something that I'm very pleased about as he's the best since the 4th; some could argue but that's my opinion and Martha Jones has proved herself to be one of the best companions since Rose Tyler. I don't mean to sound dull but by the time I read this book, she had already found a place in my heart.
There's only one thing I'd like to add and that is... When are they (the writers) going to bring the Zygons back to the television screens? That wouldn't be something to miss!