Item - Lucifer Rising

This book was a gap in my collection for many years... and then I went on vacation and stumbled across it in a used book store. That discovery was more rewarding than the actual reading of the book. That's not to say that this is a particularly bad entry in the series... it's just fairly typical. The basic premise -- investigation of mysterious alien artifacts -- is one of my favorite sci-fi devices, and it's not totally botched here. It's just that this is no Rendezvous with Rama or Gateway, and it can't avoid comparison with its better-thought-out predecessors. From the Doctor Who perspective, there are quite a few minor geek-pleasing continuity references, and there are some attempts at fleshing out the characters of Bernice, Ace and even the Doctor. The problem, of course, is that this has the hard-edged (or rather, broody adolescent) tone so prevalent in the series so far, and that effectively cancels out the impact of any character development. It doesn't feel like Doctor Who, so I have difficulty accepting any changes to the central characters from the TV series -- might as well be fan fiction. As for Bernice, well, she has so far completely failed to interest me at all. Still, I hold out hope for future improvement, and I'm sure I'll keep plodding through these things as I find the time.

More reviews by Demian