Mann, George
About the Author:
George Mann lives near Grantham, UK, with his wife and children.
AVERAGE REVIEW SCORE:
3.3 out of 5
(6 books)
TOP PICK:
Doctor Who: Engines Of War
Doctor Who: Engines Of War
An original story featuring the War Doctor (as played by John Hurt) and set late in the last Great Time War. Weary and embittered from fighting the Daleks across time, the Doctor finds himself on the planet Moldox where he reluctantly befriends a young human woman called Cinder. Together they discover that the Daleks are developing a terrible weapon but soon also find themselves at odds with the Time Lords as well.
In the space of one memorable episode, John Hurt jumped to the top of my list of favourite Doctors, perfectly balancing the old and irrascible characteristics with the sense of humour and childlike glee. I was therefore very pleased to see a novel starring this particular version of the Doctor, set amid the legendary conflict which makes up the (mostly) unseen backdrop to the stories of the Ecclestone, Tennant, Smith and Capaldi Doctors. Here we see the Doctor travelling alone and reluctant to use that name, with the weight of centuries of conflict weighing upon his soul. However, the introduction of the Dalek-hunter Cinder rekindles some of the Doctor's older personality traits and through her eyes we get tantalising glimpses of the true nature of the Doctor.
What I liked most about this book was just how steeped in the lore of Doctor Who it is. On top of telling its own story, it also goes to some length to serve as a sequel to the classic anniversary special 'The Five Doctors' (as novellised by Terrance Dicks), returning us to Gallifrey's Death Zone and revealing the fate of former President Borusa. As well as this, we also get some explanation about how and why the long-dead Time Lord Rassilon is back in charge of Gallifrey (as seen on the TV show where he was played by Timothy Dalton) and the way in which it is his influence which has led the Time Lords astray.
There's plenty of action here, but for me it was the scenes where the Doctor's sense of humour shines through his otherwise grumpy exterior that made for the most satisfying reading. Perhaps the best of this is where he is captured by the Daleks and marched in front of a group of abnormally intelligent Daleks called the Eternity Circle. His first response to his impending doom is to point out that they don't actually form a circle.
Sadly, the ending of the book is a little rushed and feels incomplete, although the latter is due to the fact that it leads directly into the events of 'Day of the Doctor'. However, I'd happily read more adventures featuring the War Doctor but, for now at least, there are No More.
4 out of 5
Doctor Who: Paradox Lost
An Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith) adventure featuring his companions Amy and Rory. The TARDIS is pulled off course and lands in London in the year 2789. There the Doctor learns that a parasitic extra-dimensional race called the Squall have begun invading London in 1910. He sets off to confront the Squall whilst Amy and Rory try to put a stop to the dangerous time travel experiment which caused the invasion in the first place.
Whilst it could be said that this isn't a particularly innovative Who novel, I have to say that it is a very solid Who story. This is the sort of story which would've played out very well onscreen and makes for a perfectly enjoyable adventure for the TARDIS travellers in prose format. The three main characters are portrayed perfectly (and kudos to Mann for not just making Rory the third wheel, like some authors have) and we're introduced to some interesting new characters in Professor Angelchrist and Arven, both of whom you genuinely develop an affection for despite them being one-time appearances. Mann also does a solid job of building the wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey paradoxical nature of time travel into his plots in a way that would earn Steven Moffat's approval.
Honestly, the only negative thing in this otherwise enjoyable book is the Squall themselves. Their description is entirely generic (they're basically like gargoyles), their motivation is fairly uninspired and the detail of their invasion is so similar to ideas that have appeared before that even the Doctor himself comments on it, noting the time he drove a double-decker bus through a rift in space to foil an invasion of locus-like proportions (see David Tennant's episode 'Planet of the Dead').
4 out of 5
Doctor Who: The Eighth Doctor Vol. 1 - A Matter Of Life And Death
(Art by Emma Vieceli)
Here the Eighth Doctor (Paul McGann) visits a house he owns in Wales, only to discover a young woman living there who seemingly can bring paintings to life. He and this Josie are then whisked off on a series of adventures which will ultimately reveal just how their paths came to cross in the first place.
I love Paul McGann's incarnation of the Doctor and he absolutely delivered a compelling version of the character with surprisingly little screen time. It's therefore pretty disappointing that this graphic novel adventure fails to do that incarnation justice. McGann's easy charm just totally fails to manifest in this book and I couldn't honestly say that the Eighth Doctor here felt particularly distinct.
On top of that, instead of having a single coherent narrative, we get five separate mini-adventures, none of which really has enough time to develop any depth before we're on to the next one. There is a connecting theme of recognising sentience in beings who are very different, but it's not very convincingly strung together and doesn't cover any ground that hasn't been done a million times before in various science fiction stories (including some Who ones).
Overall this was a very disappointing book for me, even if it was slightly elevated by a surprising role for the Twelfth Doctor (my favourite).
2 out of 5
Doctor Who: The Twelfth Doctor - Ghost Stories
(Art by Ivan Rodriguez, Pasquale Qualano and Dennis Calero)
This graphic novel sees the Twelfth Doctor (Peter Capaldi) being reunited with old friends in the form of Grant AKA superhero The Ghost, sharp-minded New York reporter Lucy and their daughter Jennifer. To save the universe the Doctor enlists Grant's help to track down the sibling gemstone of the one which gives him his superpowers, travelling across time and space to do so.
I know a lot of Who fans didn't like the Christmas Special 'The Return of Doctor Mysterio', but personally I've always rather enjoyed it. It's clearly Steven Moffat's homage to the superhero movies and TV shows which were at their height at the time, whilst throwing in a bit of meta humour thanks to dropping Capaldi's often-caustic Doctor into the mix (plus Nardole's great, but that goes without saying). So, I was pleased to revisit the premise of mixing Doctor Who with a superhero story, as well as revisiting these characters in particular.
The result absolutely feels like a superhero comic, complete with supervillains whose powers can match Grant's, and the Doctor's relationships with Grant and Lucy remain compelling.
Unfortunately, because of the episodic nature of the story being told and the very short nature of those episodes, the book as a whole doesn't hang together too convincingly, feeling a bit patchwork. For example, the return of the Sycorax could've been a uniting theme across the book but instead they simply turn up in the last quarter and a written out almost as quickly. It's not that this is bad book by any measure, it's simply that I felt that, with these ingredients, it should've been better.
3 out of 5
Star Wars: The High Republic - Quest For The Hidden City
282 BBY. Part of Wave One of Phase Two of The High Republic, set one hundred and fifty years before the events of Phase One. The Republic is just beginning to expand its influence in the Outer Rim, using Jedi-led teams of Pathfinders to explore and offer aid where necessary. When a team of Pathfinders mysteriously goes missing, a second team, led by Jedi Master Silandra Sho and Padawan Rooper Nitani are sent to investigate.
The real-world structure of the High Republic publishing programme is baffling, with Phase One being a jumbled mess and Phase Two bizarrely being set a century and a half earlier. There was very little continuity and coherence to Phase One and the backwards time jump means that the same is true of its relationship to Phase Two. However, in this book's specific case, those things are an advantage here.
Because this book isn't beholden to pre-established characters or being forced to link to a set event like the Great Disaster or the Republic Fair, what we get instead is a stand-alone story of a Jedi-led team travelling to a mysterious planet and conducting an investigation. It feels like a very long time since we've had a Star Wars book with a cast of characters small enough to get used to, tackling a problem localised enough that it can be properly explored in just one book. In short, this book represents what I'd hoped The High Republic would be but which it had, so far, failed to be.
Now, I wouldn't go so far as to say this was a brilliant book, but it is a solid and enjoyable one, which stands on its own merits and features protagonists and antagonists who you can actually get invested in. It's also worth pointing out that the quality of writing here is also far higher than any of the previous High Republic 'younger reader' books, so don't be quick to dismiss it over its intended age audience.
4 out of 5
Star Wars: The High Republic - The Nameless Terror
(Art by Eduardo Mello and Ornella Savarese)
Whilst en route to another monster hunt, former Jedi Ty Yorrick relates the tale of how, more than a century earlier, a group of Jedi and Pathfinders crashed on a remote world and were confronted by the Nameless, terrible creatures which feed on the Living Force itself.
The framing story of this book takes place amid the events of Phase 1, but the meat of the story takes place in Phase 2, which is confusingly set 150 years earlier (the High Republic publishing programme is a mess). Unfortunately, that framing story proves this book's biggest drawback, having no actual plot of its own and leaning a bit too far into the 'all ages' target audience with it's distinctly unfunny banter between Ty and her droid.
The main story, with the Jedi, their Pathfinder allies and members of the Path of the Open Hand (well, 'Closed Fist' by this point) is much better. We get to see the Jedi standing up for their principles despite the bone-deep horror that the Nameless instil in them, we get to see the Pathfinders expressing why they're so loyal to their Jedi colleagues and we also get to see the deep-seating hatred that members of the Path have for the Jedi Order, even when the Jedi are trying to save them.
The problem is that because this is an 'all ages' graphic novel, the horror that the Nameless represent is somewhat muted and I feel like this was the wrong storytelling medium/target audience for this particular tale. On top of that is the fact that it feel like a bit of a plot hole to have several Jedi directly confront the Nameless and yet for the creatures to still be a total surprise to the Jedi Order when the Nihil start using them back/forward in Phase 1.
3 out of 5
Collaborations & Anthologies:
Doctor Who: Supremacy Of The Cybermen (here)
Doctor Who: Tales Of Trenzalore (here)
Doctor Who: The Lost Dimension - Book One (here)
Doctor Who: The Lost Dimension - Book Two (here)
Doctor Who: The Target Storybook (here)
Star Wars Adventures: Defend The Republic! (here)