Doctor Who: The Wheel of Ice

Stephen Baxter's novel is a week written page turner that captures the flavour of Patrick Troughton's Doctor and paints an epic tale beyond representation on the TV of the time. Most enjoyable.

This Doctor Who novel starts out, I must admit, rather slowly. The TARDIS is called to a rather abrupt stop in its voyage beyond space-time just above the orbit of Saturn, and it soon comes to pass that the universe’s favourite genetically challenged space ship (i say that in a most affectionate and loving way, of course) - and its inhabitants - find their continued existence under serious threat. It does not take long for new characters to be introduced, and pull the TARDIS away from danger, but the very alarms that halted the blue police box in mid-flight raise their own version of merry hell when one of these visitors trip the alarms again just as they step inside.

Having said all of that, the first true glimpse of the genius that is Stephen Baxter, as well as the book’s first true sense of OH-MY-GOD-ISN’T-THAT-BRILLIANT, happens as the reader approaches the forty percent mark. Not only does he explain how, and why, the alarms were set off at the book’s beginning, but he also manages to put the story, life as we know it, and heck - the universe itself, in a completely different perspective.

The story is quite complex. It turns out a mining company has chosen one of the moons of Saturn as a mining base for a highly valuable mineral, and after investing hundreds of squillions of billions of millions of pounds (dollars) into the project, NOTHING is going to get in the company’s way of retracting their investment. Many operational choices made by the company come into question, but not before even more layers of outrage are lifted from the soul of the reader and aimed squarely at those in control of this mining company.

There is danger in this book, not just for the characters, but for mankind itself. There is beauty, here, too, for those that care to look. The universe is an amazing place. We all know that by know. But just as we still find parts of this sacred blue orb we call home that amaze us, even after millions and millions of years, there are deserted moons orbiting a colossal galactic giant that possess wonders even Horatio has not imagined. And some of them can be found in this book.

The characters are brilliant. Ironically enough, in THE WHEEL OF ICE, the dominant character is not The Doctor! Scottish companion Jamie manages to steal the show with his bravery, his sense of humour and commitment to all things good (and all things Scottish, of course!) There are robots, too, that will steal your heart, as well as interesting discussions concerning the ethics of artificial intelligence, as well as guidelines concerning its creation. Children play a large role in this tale, as well as life forms whose role which increases proportionately with your progress through the book. And the bad guys get whats coming to them, some earlier than you think, and some not until the very end.

So i give this book a very solid four stars. It was slow to get going, and with a bit of extra oomph to hurry things along at the start, I might have given it full marks. But it is a great Doctor Who novel and also a great science fiction novel.

What else can we ask for?

BFN Greggorio!