Set Piece

Summary: 9.5/10 This is one book you don't judge by its cover. The Ace, Doctor and Bernice are scattered across three eras of time. That wouldn't be so bad, if there weren't giant robot Ants chasing after you. Kate Orman takes and looks at the character of Ace as she's finally ready to leave the Doctor.

With Ace's departure, the New Adventures move one step away from the original series. And she deserved a book that primarily focused on her -- after all; no companion has literally grown up with the Doctor in the fashion she has. Since the Doctor first met her on Iceworld, she's ten years older, took part in a Dalek War in the future, been manipulated by the Doctor dozens of times. Ace's arrival back in Dragonfire signalled the beginning of the last era of greatness in the television series, so her departure marks the end of an era in Adventures Doctor Who as well.

I was impressed how well the jumps between the different time periods were done, it wasn't a challenge to find out which era we were in, and the pieces stuck together perfectly. Each era had something that resembled the others, with Setites, or the different periods of idealism mixed with tyarany. This tied in well with Ace, who was more violent after her period in the future.

The different eras were also very well researched, and all of the different eras felt right. I think it's always nice when a historical era can be captured with some degree of authenticity, as it returns the educational aspect that the Television series was originally intended to have.

Set Piece also had the reappearance of Kadiatu Lethbridge-Stewart. I haven't read Transit, so I was a little concerned that she wouldn't work at all because she was unfamiliar to me. Fortunately, enough of the background of her character is filled in that I didn't feel left out of the loop by not having encountered her previously. There are a few elements that might have had a bit more impact, but considering her importance to the book, it worked rather well.

One of the weakness of the New Adventures as a whole is that I really haven't seen a new villain that has knocked my socks off. Ship has much in common with Pool from Deceit, just better portrayed. (Interestingly, Deceit was the new Ace's first appearance.) The robot Ants were a bit much, I thought, but I do have to admit they are a concept that isn't out of place in a Doctor Who story, and fortunately they were given an explanation that explained their appearance.

There are enough elements in Set Piece that refer to previous NA's or the original series that I'd find it difficult to recommend to someone new to the series -- either NA readers or people new to Doctor Who completely. This isn't necessarily a weakness of the book, just my thought about how well it works within the rest of the series.

So it's a good book. The cover may be a disaster, but it's well worth the read. 9.5/10

For another set, go to Kate Orman's Web Page