Iceberg
Summary: 8/10 Cybermen. Buried under the ice in Antarctica since their space ship crashed during their failed Invasion in the seventies, they have been waiting. When their so-called Tenth Planet Mondas disintegrated in 1986, they gathered the remains. Now, in 2006, with the SS Elysium on a cruise, and Earth on the edge of an ecological disaster, the Cybermen are ready to act.
Ok, I'll be honest. I've always thought Cybermen were cool. Even when they've been in poor stories on television, I still always enjoy watching them. Both Tomb of the Cybermen and Earthshock qualify as all-time favorites for me. So, when it came to reading Cyberleader David Banks's Iceberg, I was excited about seeing them again. I didn't have the highest of expectations in reading this novel, after all, it's reasonable to think that Banks's only qualification for writing about Cybermen was playing one on TV. Fortunately, Iceberg is a solid book, playing on the history of the Cybermen.
Perhaps interestingly, the definitive 1980's Cyberman focused not on the Cybermen of Earthshock and Silver Nemesis, but on the Cybermen of 1960's, particularly The Invasion and The Tenth Planet. In some sense, this book shares some similarity with Attack of the Cybermen, in so far as both are sequels to the past. It's been too long since I've seen Attack of the Cybermen for me to actively compare them, however.
There were a couple other nice plays on what are expectations of a Cyber-story, with us set up to look for traitors everywhere. It plays with the history some more by giving an origin to the CyberController and Cybermats, and of course Cybermen have always been tied into cold weather.
The one surprise in this attention to detail was the complete absence of any comments regarding the events of Silver Nemesis. This may be because it's using Cyber-costumes (and weaknesses) that Banks doesn't want Cybermen from around the year 2000 to have. However, my thought is when you pay close attention to continuity (which this book does), one can not casually ignore pieces that contradict your theories. Perhaps I missed a throwaway line, but despite how much some of us might wish to ignore Silver Nemesis, this didn't strike me as a place where you could do so.
I won't worry too much about some of the technobabble in this book; I've never given any serious thought on the consequences of a reversal of Earth's magnetic field, and it isn't really important to me, as it is a reasonable Doctor Who plot device in any case.
However, one point that makes Iceberg different is that it doesn't share much of the common cast with the other New Adventures. No Ace, no Benny, and for most of the book, really no Doctor. The central character is one Ruby Duvall, who ends up as a pseudo-companion of the highest order. Moving the perspective of the story to someone who is not a traveller in the TARDIS is often a good thing, as it provides a new perspective on what goes on in the series. For once, we see how the governments of Earth handled all of the different invasions Doctor Who has shown over the last 30 years. For example, we find out what happened to Isobel Watkins's photos of the Cybermen from The Invasion. I like this, and I think one of the grounds that the New and Missing Adventures can cover is the effect the Doctor's adventures have after he is gone, something rarely seen on the television series.
I have not read Birthright, so I have no idea how the two books work together. Fortunately, Iceberg isn't so dependent on the other book that it bothers this story much, the Doctor using some sort of TARDIS escape pod to get into (and out of) this story, and while it leaves questions about what's going on at the other side, it doesn't get in the way of the rest of the book.
Iceberg was quite a pleasant surprise, turning out to be a much better book than I originally expected. It is definitely recommended to fans of one of Doctor Who's most popular monsters. 8/10