What a delight it is to have a fun book in this series! I don't think we've had a properly fun one since The Scarlet Empress, and I don't think I've honestly enjoyed one this much since then either. I feel like I'm really on the precipice of hitting the really excellent section of the EDAs, which is exciting to me.

But to the topic at hand: Demontage. There are a lot of moving parts in this book. Set in a casino complex at the edge of a warzone between the generically human-y Battrulians and the wolfish Canvines. As far as Who stories go, that's not an atypical kind of setup - a war, a tension, political players manouevring and scheming. Because the Battrul president is arriving, and there's a target on her head. And on top of that, the artist whose creepy works are being displayed, has been murdered, and it looks like a Canvine did it.

This book is just brimming with side characters, which is something I have complained about in DW novels before, but this one gives them a rich personality and doesn't just treat them as cannon fodder, which is refreshing. We have Bigdog Caruso, the Canvine who just wants to watch the opera in peace; the two artists Blanc and Gath who are up to no good; poor, beautiful Vermillion who gets trapped in a painting. Then we have double-bluffing Stabilo, pretending to be a buffoon but really out to protect the president; and Rappare and Forster, lying and cheating gamblers. All of these are great characters, to the point that I even remembered all the names without looking them up!

Though of course, the best side character in this novel is Hazard Solarin, super assassin with his cool glass murder-ware and a life lived entirely by random chance. For almost the entire novel, we assume he's out to kill the president and the Doctor, but in reality, he's been paid to make sure the president isn't harmed. His death at the end didn't come as a surprise, exactly, but it did make me go aw, man, which is more than a random side character's death usually does in these things.

And all of this is before I've said a word about Fitz and his ridiculous James Bond schtick, getting him muddled up in the assassination. The man just wants a cigarette, but his nature just keeps getting him into scrapes. Two books in, and I'm easily seeing why he's a fan favourite. The Doctor too was characterised beatifully in this book - seemingly naive and innocent, but always scheming, always pulling the strings. That's the Mr Dr Who that I like to see. Poor Sam yet again gets the least to do, but she wasn't totally bland  which is more than she has been elsewhere.

I'm not sure I fully understood Blanc and Rath's scheme with the painting monsters, but I'm also not sure it really matters because I had fun. The monsters were unique too - I really liked the descriptions of them as being made of canvas. The end came round quite quickly in a battle of painting demons and action, and as I say, I lost the plot a little, but I don't mind. I had fun. To me, that's what counts.