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Salvation

Steve Lyons

Book review by Brad Schmidt

Although the BBC's Doctor Who books have been accused of being less daring than their Virgin incarnations, little acknowledgement has been given to their initiative in pushing the boundaries of the Missing Adventures. So here we are re-introduced to Dorothea Chaplet, but much more satisfactorily.

While The Massacre was a story for Steven, Salvation is about Dodo, with her first adventure taking place in New York, 1965 - and weaving cleverly into the circumstances that saw her running through Wimbledon Common beforehand.

The gods have returned to New York, in the form of five strangers with miraculous powers. Rather like omnipotent Spice Girls, these five beings are clearly labelled in their token personalities. However, this is more of an indication of the materialistic culture in which Salvation is set, as opposed to any lack of imagination on Steve Lyons' part.

Following the themes Lyons established in his flawless novel The Witch Hunters, Salvation deals with the implications of changing history, as Steven sides with the ‘enemy’ (although by the conclusion it is still indistinguishable who exactly is the enemy). Salvation also deals with the ways in which religion is so heavily interwoven into our cultures (both past and present). Salvation is downbeat and depressive, but in a thought-provoking manner - it's just a shame that the story still tries to conform to the format of a defunct children's television show. [4/5]

This item appeared in TSV 57 (July 1999).

Index nodes: Salvation