I think I've been too harsh on Orman in the past for having not particularly rigid plot structures. Or at least I thought this one worked well for the story.
I think this is the Orman book that made me the least frothing-at-the-mouth insane but, like, it's still her, so it's still gorgeously and thoughtfully written. Her style REALLY hits in this one. Multiple instances of me reading a sentence, being like "wow. i really liked that sentence" and then rereading it a couple times.

One thing shes really good at is giving exactly the amount of info needed at any given moment, and it makes certain emotional scenes feel so cinematic. She manages to pull off the prose equivalent of an actor reacting with just a meaningful expression, showing a lot going on under the surface without telling you the exact thought processes behind it. It's just gorgeous. There's a single line delivered by one of the main antagonists that explains absolutely everything you need to know about her without having to reveal much at all. Precision character writing.

The main body of the plot here is that a bunch of characters are now in the same place together for the first time and their conflicting and overlapping dynamics are making everyone feel insecure. There's also some other stuff about xenophobia and insecurity fueling the cold war, and that totally slaps as well. All of this is kind of a delivery vehicle for Kate Orman doing Her Thing, which is writing complicated, tragic people being put in bad positions by other complicated, tragic people doing what they believe they have to do. And BOY is she doing it here.

Another aspect of Kate Orman's subtlety as a writer is her ability to sneak in content I cannot imagine would have been allowed to fly if you didn't have to think about what you'd just read for a few minutes to figure what, precisely, just happened. see: certain implications about Bernice and a lesbian couple in SLEEPY. I would tell you what she was doing to that old man this time but... I'm not sure I feel comfortable discussing it in polite company. She's crazy for this one. keep up the good work, Kate.

I'm so happy with this as a resolution for the Chris/Roz situation as well. The romantic tension finally comes to a head and they decide that what they needed was to be friends after all. I really enjoy this alongside what we get here with the Doctor's unease and confusion about relationships and physical displays of affection. He's of course no stranger to physical affection and has (and has had) lots of intimate friendships, but romance feels alien to him, and he can't wrap his head around the rules and the patterns. I'm always happy to see treatments of friendship and romance that differ from the norm, and this book adds a lot, I think, to Benny and the Doctor's hard-to-pin-down relationship as well as the very Queer writing of the Doctor in this series.

There's an essay for another time.

Yes. I really enjoyed this one.

A fun enough adventure with a few cool ideas, but doesn't really measure up in strength of plot or characterization. This could've been a pleasant, breezy piece of filler, but for some reason it's Ace's comeback story, which really ought to resolve the tension of her having left the Doctor in disgust a few books ago. Instead it just sort of... doesn't. Everybody just got over it, I guess. She's totally cool to hang out with the Doctor again. After having previously told him she'd kill him. And then she's supposed to be shocked when he lies to her again..? Sure.

There's a lack of interest in certain emotional beats that undermines a lot of what this book is trying to do, even aside from the Ace/Doctor situation. One of our main locals-who-gets-dragged-around-by-the-gang has just had his girlfriend gruesomely euthanized by the villains to become a piece of their brain-computer. The horror and cruelty in this system coming to light is one of the strongest parts of the book, and really integral to making the whole thing work at all. They totally kick the legs out from under this guy's plot with a throwaway joke about how he had another girlfriend he liked better anyways. Likewise, the whole Daak plot falls a bit flat with nobody having much response to him unceremoniously getting his head blown off, after Ace spends the whole book desperately trying to keep the moron alive.

Overall this one's readable, not the military drama slog I was expecting. Still ranks above the ones I couldn't finish, and some of the ones I could. But I wouldn't jump to read it again.

ok. i did actually get enjoyment out of the experience of reading this book i just dont think it really works, as a book. i am always happy to see roz being the Main Character and Miles' prose is so spooky and hammy and good hes a lovely horror writer. reminds me very much of John Langan and Grant Morrison (Doom Patrol era). the atmosphere he writes is very tasty very lovecraftian. there are ofc a bunch of other writers on this series trying to do cthulhu mythos inspired shit but its mostly focused on the Big Monster aspects and isnt all that committed to the actual horrory horror part. Lawrence Miles can really DO that stuff. and clearly enjoys doing so.

the big roadblock here is that the central premise of the whole story, the big piece of cosmology that gets introduced of the dichotomy between 'Reason' and 'Cacophony', not only is a really weak dichotomy (which, like, sure im willing to suspend my disbelief) but they keep running into points where the defining line is Not Clear and the characters remark on it being Not Clear. but then zero effort is ever made from either the characters or the writer to make anything of the fact that it doesnt really make sense to say the two ideas are mutually exclusive opposites. so like youre actively destroying my suspension of disbelief. for nothing, i guess. which sucks cuz the "these two things are not actually opposed" angle could have been SO good here. but instead its like "yeah weird that these are supposed to be the two opposing forces of the universe when the distinction is so ill-defined and murky, but i guess thats just how it is".

theres also a really stupid, wildly sexist, pseudo-bioessentialist thing going on in here that adds nothing and is equally muddy as the other dichotomy going on. I've read a lot of truly dreadful old genre books, i can handle misogyny, but i draw the line at the misogyny not making sense in context. you're trying to tell me Roz is more naturally aligned with the forces of illogic and instinct than Chris is...? theres one or two other smaller ideas that are Fun but don't really work within this canon at all too.

i think this idea of a force that had to be banished from the world for the sake of Order, even though its not any worse, just different and not easily controlled, is actually done a lot better in the like... three paragraphs in the last chapter of Sky Pirates where they're talking about the Charon. it's way better executed and not wishy washy about its own premise.

Also very "fun" to compare the Sky Pirates! take of "the choice to return to the status quo was made for us a long time ago and now were seeing the proof that this was a pointless and cruel choice made by a people terrified of not being gods anymore" vs. this book that's more like... "well. everything went back to normal, and we didn't particularly learn anything about the world. but we don't have to worry about that anymore. yay!" the choice is barely rationalized and only serves to make chris realize he maybe can't trust the Doctor, which is a character beat we already did in Head Games.

completing my compliment sandwich: i think this is some of the most solid Roz Character Development Content ive seen actually. feels more substantial than some of the previous attempts. just straight up being faced with what her place in history is if she doesnt start making more of an effort to change, while seeing how much better she is already. her ghost of christmas future moment.

overall i think this book structurally is just kind of busted and poorly thought through. but the prose and cosmic horrory bits are excellent, and id love to soak my brain in them. Lawrence Miles does some great insane otherworldly stuff, predictably. uhh. 3/5 or something.

Don't make me tap the sign ⬇️

"But I didn’t and still don’t like making a cult of women’s knowledge, preening ourselves on knowing things men don’t know, women’s deep irrational wisdom, women’s instinctive knowledge of Nature, and so on. All that all too often merely reinforces the masculinist idea of women as primitive and inferior – women’s knowledge as elementary, primitive, always down below at the dark roots, while men get to cultivate and own the flowers and crops that come up into the light. But why should women keep talking baby talk while men get to grow up? Why should women feel blindly while men get to think?"

-- Ursula Le Guin

spent much of my time reading this alternate wildly between "hey this is a cool idea" and "i cant take much more of this". still couldnt put it down. Stone thanks Fritz Leiber in the first pages of this book and man, you don't have to tell ME twice. feels a lot like the later Lankhmar books, in that it lavishes in the completely off-the-wall worldbuilding, the prose is totally self-indulgent, and it often leans into the realm of self-parody, and in much the same way and for many of the same reasons you may or may not be able to stomach this book.

i did have fun! at first i was worried this book was going to fall into certain characterizations of the Doctor that i find interesting enough, but tedious, but in the final act it pulls a couple reveals that totally turned all of that around. i think the lean into cosmic horror that happens here is a lot of fun and very well executed. it could have easily gotten overcooked and over explained, but i think Stone knows right where to stop in this respect. although maybe not in many other respects.

"Scream, I'll save you later."

I read 3 Paul Cornell books. I really loved all of them. I read a fourth Paul Cornell book. I really loved it. Big surprise.
As always the man's a great, subtle character writer who does some truly beautiful things with the dynamics here. The prose is gorgeous and punchy. The plot is wonderfully twisty. Cornell is one of those DW writers who gets how to make a story totally saturated with fun and interesting Concepts without letting the plot get bogged down by them, and this one has SO much fun snuck in amongst all the big important plot beats.
I love the Monk in this. This might actually be my first Monk story, in fact. He makes for a great villain with his grand and unbeatable schemes built on a foundation of pathetic, childish motivations, i always love that kind of contrast in a villain (or a hero, as this version of the Doctor dips into that sort of territory pretty frequently, and to great effect).
Ace also does pretty darn well here, starting out sinister and eventually coming back around and revealing her motivations. you get a great sense of just how much she's grown, and how even when she's got the darkness in her soul she's had since returning in Deceit, she's still managed to grow into an adult with a good heart and a good head. I dearly love the knight in shining armor she plays to the Woman in Red here. It's such a romantic role for her, and one that feels just right for the Champion's steward...
Bernice is great here as well, with so much heart and a bit of comedy. We get to see the complexities of her dynamics, caring deeply for her companions, understanding they're imperfect and getting frustrated with them, and still being maybe a bit too quick to forgive them some of their faults.
This is another story in my favorite genre (one that Cornell seems pretty keen on as well), one where the Doctor finds himself suddenly, terrifyingly, stumbling over his obstacles. He's left blind here, and nearly out-gamed if it weren't for the grace of Ace's loyalty. And he knows it too.
The emotional lows here are *low*, and it all wraps up in a happy ending that still manages to be bittersweet. It's hard. And maybe things wont get better in our lifetime. But this turned out alright, so maybe other things will turn out alright for us, too.
And of course I have to shout-out Cornell's returning love for rough and tumble sweetheart anarchists. Can't think of another piece of media that ends with the good guys wishing their buddy good luck with the anarchist revolution. Good for him.
10/10

A bit hard to follow plot-wise at points, but an incredible character study of my personal favorite character in all of Doctor Who: Ace McShane.

Paul Cornell immediately establishes himself as THE Ace writer here, a title that he definitely keeps up as time goes on. Cornell's Ace feels like the most natural development of her character from the TV show -- she's action-oriented and tends towards impulsivity, but is tempered by her kindness, virtue, and intelligence. She's a perfect foil to the Doctor, sharing many of his feelings and emotional experiences (particularly in relation to both of their pasts) while handling them in wildly different ways, bringing them head to head. They're a powerful match here in particular.

Much of Ace's arc here -- having her experience stripped away, her past altered, and finally her entire life replaced with sanded-down, perfect, painless version before reclaiming her self-knowledge and rising up, victorious -- really resonated with me as a queer fan. It brought me to tears at a couple points, which hardly ever happens. Ace's name is a tool of self-determination for her. She's Dotty to the childhood bully that nearly destroys her entirely, she's Dorry when she's been stripped down and reupholstered as a perfect, popular girl, and when she rises up again, bloody knuckled and wreathed in flame and victorious, she's Ace again, the name she picked for herself. Her clothes as well (her jacket of course) show her taking back her power and identity, going from pink sweaters and ungainly stilettos to her own boots and anorak.

She reclaims her identity at the same time that she regains control over her gender presentation. This isn't the really the main plot of the book, but it is the heart of it. It's the thing that allows her to help the Doctor (another character who picked their name for themself...) to save himself, and to become a better version of himself, which in turn allows him to defeat Ishtar once and for all.

Cornell sets the standard for Ace's characterization in this series -- a standard that is sadly rarely met. Revelation should, quite honestly, be considered one of the most successful queer empowerment stories in all Doctor Who media, whether created intentionally or not. This one earns an 8/10 from me.

9/10

Greatly enjoyed this one. I always get a kick out of the way Marc Platt writes Ace and Seven and their particular patter. Ace get's to be smart and richly characterized, and the Doctor gets to be tricky while still keeping his heart(s).

This story has a very pleasing amount of Stuff in it to me. McCoy's era of the TV series has a tendency to have a ton of different ideas and plotlines that all interlace, which can sometimes be very fun and entertaining, and sometimes get overwhelming (Platt's debut Ghost Light being a pretty good example here by most standards). I thought this one managed to keep the balance very well, with just enough Stuff to hit the entertainingly eccentric feel while keeping the conceptual clutter out of the way of the plot. Feels very pleasingly like watching an actual serial. Such a shame this one never got made, it could have been a wonderful departure for Ace.

(Although I think I still prefer their continued off-screen adventures)

a gorgeous little comic with a boardgame motif! definitely has some weaknesses re: visual clarity but still very charming, i think. this one's stuck with me since the last time i read it.

I think this book takes a bit to find its legs. The first couple chapters had me in love instantly, but once they hopped backwards in time the first time I started having doubts. The chunk of the story taking place in Tenochtitlan (expectedly) border on orientalism, and I found myself a bit confused on what the gang was trying to accomplish on a scene-to-scene basis. That particular feeling didn't fully let up until the final act, but the character writing and overall vibe more than made up for it to me. Orman is, as always, a character writer. Between this, Vampire Science, and The Year of Intelligent Tigers, I've found that Orman's writing has such a clear understanding of the appeal of spending time with these characters. She understands our main crew well enough to use their emotional conflicts devastatingly, and, as usual, our newly introduced sort-of-audience-surrogate Cristián is immediately lovable. Hummingbird isn't quite as much of a winner as Orman's later contributions, but it still delivers the industrial-strength hurt/comfort Doctor torture she'd become known for.

If I was a more principled man this would probably be a 7.5/10. Fortunately, I have no backbone and am a massive sucker for Ace+Seven, their headbutting, and seeing my favorite guys get emotionally and physically destroyed. So I'm giving this one a 9/10. Happilyeverafter.

An instant favorite. I'm already partial to stories about children being forced to deal with somewhat absurd horrors they have no control over, and I will never turn down grody creepy circus folk. Aaronovitch manages to balance soul-crushingly bleak with sweet pretty darn well here. This was my first piece of prose by him, and I very quickly found myself charmed by his style and vivid imagery. He really does a good job cooking up Gilliam-style visuals in this one, and I've found myself stewing on the character design and setting aesthetic for the last couple days since I gave this one a listen. I've already listened to it twice, in fact. Definitely see myself revisiting this again and again, and I'll be keeping an eye out for more of his writing from now on. Five stars and a favorite from me.