After the thoroughly enjoyable 'Coldheart', this was a massive let down. The premise of this book is not bad, a benevolent but misguided alien making a 'perfect future' for humans who helped them. The execution is also not bad, exactly, but it lacks heart. The characters just don't feel alive, and if your characters don't feel alive, I can't really care much about what they're going through. It's not that they are not well constructed, but they way they're written made me feel like I was being told what they were feeling rather than experiencing it with them, if that makes sense. I can't quite put my finger on it, but that was my impression.

The whole rockers vs mods thing was very silly, and boy am I lucky to have a particular interest in the 60s, because without that background this entire premise would make no sense at all. The characters (and damned if can remember a single name) are split into these two factions, fighting a ridiculous fight in this obvious fake city. The scifi part of the story is also made uninteresting by the fact that what's happening is painfully obvious. At no point we wonder if this is really the Earth, or anything of the sort; we know the mods' technician is a captured Maker, because that's the only possible answer. There's no mystery. The whole drama between whats-their-names rocker leader and wife and the mod leader was so circular it made me dizzy. They keep having the exact same conversation every 20 pages. The reveal about her being his mom? I don't care! Could not care less, actually!

It does not help that the TARDIS team is completely split up for most of the book. Compassion is quite literally parked for the whole first half of the book, and does nothing of consequence at all. This was very disappointing after her growth in the past few books. Fitz fares only a little better, because at least he's more entertaining, but even his usually charming presence felt flat. The same can be said for the Doctor, who was doing his best, but wasn't shinning as brightly as I know he can.

Very little to say about this one. Mostly forgettable, with no big consequences to the ongoing story arc that I can see. Fitz is still worried about the Doctor's increasing carelessness with his own safety, the Maker says that the Doctor's future is uncertain until the paradox in his past is resolved, referencing the Faction Paradox virus from 'Interference', but that's it. Boring, boring.