This review contains spoilers!
The Angel’s Kiss is a prequel to the TV story The Angels Take Manhattan and stems from the conceit in the TV episode of River Song writing stories under the pseudonym Melody Malone (with one of her books being read by the Doctor in Central Park during the episode).
Justin Richards contribution is to not only write a Melody Malone ‘mystery’ but also to move some of the playing pieces of The Angels Take Manhattan into place – specifically the private eye, Garner, crime boss Grayle and the Angels themselves.
Originally released as an ebook, I actually read this in the collected print volume which also included Summer Falls (ostensibly written by Amy Pond) and The Devil in the Smoke (the audio reading of which I reviewed back in the Victorian era). Of the three, I have to say I think this is my least favourite.
The ‘River as Private Eye’ schtick is admittedly fun. Richards plays with the ‘black and white’ atmosphere of detective fiction and has fun with the idea of River being both the detective and the femme fatale rolled into one. The mystery builds up quite well with characters that River has spoken to being encountered subsequently and not remembering who she is.
The final reveal of clones is suitably Doctor Who and fits nicely with the idea of the Hollywood film machine. Therein, lies a slight problem. The story itself would actually fit far better, plot wise, in the home of the Silver Screen. But, because this is a direct prequel to The Angels Take Manhattan, Richards is required to set it in New York. However this actually gives the story an historical aspect which I’m not sure was intentional (as very little is made of it – probably due to the short nature of the book).
The film studio that River ends up investigating is the last one left in New York. Apparently in the early 20th Century the film industry was focussed in New York but dominated by a company owned by Thomas Edison who issued patents for filming equipment and would seize cameras from company’s operating them without the correct paperwork. As a consequence, film companies were moving to Los Angeles, away from the influence of Edison’s company so that, by 1912 most companes had set up production in the sunnier California climes.
Aside from the slightly forced setting, the biggest issue is with the inclusion of the Angels as an enemy. They simply don’t fit the story and Richards has to change their modus operandi to squeeze their square peg into the round hole of his clone story. It is revealed that the villain of the piece is turning poor unsuspecting victims into replicas of his two main stars. Somehow the machinery he has constructed is ‘powered’ by a captive Angel. There is a very half-hearted explanation about the Angel taking energy from the victims but no real reason for how this leads to them becoming replicas of the two film stars but with severe memory loss.
I’m aware that the way the Weeping Angels behave does change within the TV series, even between Blink and The Time of Angels, with additions such as ‘the image of an Angel becomes an Angel’; Angels being able to convert other statues into their own kind; and their ability to speak through their victims who sometimes they kill rather than send back in time…
But Richard’s addition to their abilities doesn’t make any sense at all. Why would the time-manipulating power or quantum-locking weakness have any influence, whatsoever, on a victim’s appearance? It just doesn’t work as a reveal. At the close of the story, the Angel disappears, presumably stolen by Grayle, ready to be installed in his house ready for the TV episode.
It’s quite a disappointment that Richards couldn’t fit the story around the Angel’s established abilities a little more convincingly. Admittedly, the ‘displacing in time’ bit was to all intents and purposes exhausted in Blink – which is why on TV Moffat has had to add to their abilities to keep them from becoming repetitive.
But then, I question why this had to be a Weeping Angel story and simply couldn’t have been River facing a different alien menace in 1930s New York. It’s not as if that would have been any less interesting and the inclusion of Garner and Grayle adds very little to the story so it’s not as if he does particularly well in writing a prequel to The Angels Take Manhattan with any of the other aspects beyond the Angels themselves.
There is also the question as to whether these events actually happened. Maybe this is Richards deliberately writing as River who is writing a fictional adventure for the private detective, Melody Malone. Maybe the reason some of this doesn’t make sense is because it is River writing the book and maybe her talents don’t like in plot climaxes.
The Angel’s Kiss is a short read which means its shortcomings are a little less egregious than they would be in a longer novel, and the build up to the reveal is a fun read so it is really only the forced inclusion of an Angel that makes this, overall, a bit disappointing.
deltaandthebannermen
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