After the fun of 'Demontage', 'Revolution Man' is a slap in the face. In the same fashion as Paul Leonard's 2 previous EDAs, 'Genocide' and 'Dreamstone Moon', this is a quite bleak adventure, and probably the darkest of the three. The story begins very fast, no time for fun and games: the Doctor detects an anomaly in the vortex rooted in the late 60's, changing history. Unless they put things back into place, the Earth will be destroyed in an atomic WW3. It's a pretty simple plot, actually, and effective. A group of (mostly?) well-meaning flower-child revolutionaries got a hold of a mysterious plant in Nepal. The plant, Om-Tsor, gives them near unlimited, god-like power, including mind control. The group, under the lead of the 'Revolution Man', start using these powers to attack major powers, leading to world to the brink of war as everyone starts blaming everyone else for the attacks. The book uses this to be very critical of the revolutionaries of the 60's and their naivety and unfocused, self-centered efforts.

All this right up Sam's alley. I like the way Leonard writes her, as he actually does something with her political beliefs and activism. These traits are the core of her character, and it's good to see them appear prominently in the plot and drive her actions. She's deeply dismayed by the methods of the Revolution Man and his followers, and annoyed by their aimless and rash protests. Sam's quite in control here, which is a nice change.

The Doctor is almost a specter in the story, giving Sam and Fitz directions, but staying out of the center of things, mostly just showing up for major rescues and the big finale. I'm pretty sure he stole that motorbike, by the way. Dick move, Doctor, I hope you payed for it later, at least.

A big theme going on here is the Doctor's different relationships with Sam and Fitz. He and Sam have been traveling together for so long now that things come easy, and her trust in him is absolute (more on this later). Fitz is still very much the new guy, and he's a needy guy to boot. He's feeling a bit left out, and unsure if he actually wants to keep up the life of danger of a full-time companion. He does trust the Doctor and relies on him, and is rewarded for this when the Doctor brings Maddie back from the brink of death, but he's still not full on on board.

It's crazy convenient that they pretty much randomly meet Maddie, the one person who can tell them more about Om-Tsor and Ed Hill. Even more convenient is how Fitz immediately attaches himself to her, basically just because she's pretty. If he hadn't decided to pursue her, the Earth would be in shambles, I guess. In an incredibly hasty decision, he leaves the TARDIS to stay with Maddie, a girl he met 1 day ago. And he stays gone for two years! I don't think this was necessary at all for his development as character, but okay, I guess. The only reason we get him back is because, since he stayed behind to be with Maddie (who he literally just met!!!), who is deeply involved with the Revolution Man, the Doctor leaves him with a special call card to the TARDIS (I've never come across this call card business before). When Fitz and Maddie go to Nepal to track the source of Om-Tsor, he gets kidnapped by the Chinese army, and is brainwashed, I believe, for a whole year. Maddie calls the Doctor, and agrees to help him and Sam investigate the Revolution Man cult, gets brainwashed.

The TARDIS keeps skidding around in time because of the mess in the time vortex, so whole team (Sam, Fitz, Maddie and the Doctor) only really get all together for the grand confrontation with Ed Hill/Revolution Man. This is where all goes to sh*t. Both Maddie and Fitz are still out of sorts due to the brainwashing, Sam's being held back by Ed's followers, and it's 1 minute before the bombs hit and WW3 begins, and ends everything. The Doctor needs to get to the Om-Tsor, but Ed, all powerful, won't let him. Ed's messing with the Eye of Harmony in the TARDIS, which adds another layer of 'the Earth will be destroyed if we don't stop him now'. Then he's in Fitz's face and is 100% going to kill him, so Fitz shoots the guy in the face. But he's still in god mode, only making even more of a mess because, well, bullet to the brain will mess you up, won't it. There's seconds to go. So the Doctor takes he gun and shots Ed in the head again to finish him off, takes a looot of the drug, and saves the day. I guess he stops the bombs and contains the damage to the TARDIS. The news reports in the following pages indicate that he does not erase the Revolution Man from history, but all international powers somehow calm down enough to not go into war anymore.

But yeah, let's go back to that point where the Doctor shoots a man in the head to save the day. Like, wow. He's very distraught at this, of course, and it really seems like there was no alternative, but damn. Moving to the real world for a sec, this was bold choice for Paul Leonard. Let's not delude ourselves: we've seen the Doctor kill plenty of people before. But like this, gun in his hand, point blank shooting a guy, blood splattering on his face, 'there was no alternative'? Oof. Thankfully, he is very affected by it, along with Sam and Fitz, even in the next book, 'Dominion'.

Back to the finale, Sam's in shock, angry at the Doctor, and he's trying to rationalize things, to explain, rambling, mostly to make sense of things for himself. Paul McGann would have acted the sh*t out of this scene, by the way. A while later, in the TARDIS, she's discussing this with Fitz. While the Doctor is clearly very upset about what happened, apparently mopping somewhere in the TARDIS, Fitz is more defensive. He shot Ed because he was on him and he panicked, and while he's not happy about it, he can't really regret it either. Sam's interesting in this scene. Ed's murder shocked her, but when she starts yelling at Fitz we can see that the crux of her issue is actually that Fitz made the Doctor finish the job. Fitz argues that she can't put the whole blame on him, because the Doctor did have a choice in the matter. But for her, the Doctor 'is a hero, and he never never never does anything wrong, you don't understand!', so blaming Fitz completely is the easy way out. Sam Sam Sam, careful with that absolute trust and devotion! Fitz, on the other hand, is shaken and isn't sure if he wants to really go back to traveling in the TARDIS. This was not a fun time for anyone. There's no happy moment. Even Fitz's normal year with Maddie is tainted. There's a point where someone offers Sam a pistachio ice cream, in Rome, and she declines. No happiness whatsoever.

So, did I like it? I'm not sure! I liked Sam, I liked Fitz (even though I don't see why they chose to give him this timeskip, as he just joined the team). The true alien origin of Om-Tsor is never revealed, and I don't really see how exactly the Doctor puts things to right after the geopolitical mess the Revolution Man caused. And Maddie just goes bonkers at the end. As I said, the Doctor is in the background for most of the story, and mostly in control, and then shows up and kills a guy. I think it was interesting and shocking. I've already read 'Dominion', the next book, and I do think what happens here is a big influence on how he's acting there, so the ending wasn't just for shock value, which I appreciate. It also served to highlight both how Sam's got the Doctor firmly on a pedestal (worrying!!!), and how Fitz's opinion of him is still uncertain. So, all in all, it's interesting and well written book, and I was engaged throughout. Let's see how things develop from here!