Another solid enough Tenth Doctor novel from Rayner (I haven’t checked, but she must by now be one of the most prolific of Who writers, combining books and audio). In a slightly confusing stylistic quirk, about half of the book is told by Martha Jones in the first person, while most of the rest is also from her point of view but in the third person in varying degrees of tightness. This does give us odd moments of nice characterisation like this:
‘Doctor!’ Vanni said (people do that, you know. It’s always ‘Doctor!’ Never ‘Martha!’ Same with villains. ‘Get the Doctor and the girl!’ Oh well, maybe one day it’ll be ‘Get Martha and the man!’ and he’ll know what it feels like to be the anonymous spare part. Not that I actually want to be captured by villains or anything, I should point out).
Which is more of a meditation on the companion’s lot than we are used to. As usual (as I’m beginning to realise) a slightly out-of-nowhere ending, but basically a decent addition to the shelves.
A well put together review but from the language you use it is clear where your political opinion was before you read the report – so you would have to admit that seen in that context any review you give of a report which supported your view could be seen as biased? So showing Saville to you would be a bit like preaching to the converted – you were reading what in many ways you wanted to hear & your review would’ve been much more effective if you could have restrained yourself from using phrasing like “whining of the lawyer for the murderous soldiers” or revealing you are Guardian reader – never a good idea…
You tell us that the cost was worthwhile – 190 million pounds. 190 million pounds of tax payers money & 12 years. Hundreds of people gave evidence regarding an event that happened 30+ years ago & happened in the most confusing of circumstances – & it would’ve been hard to find one person amongst those hundreds who didn’t have their own interests or agendum. Also you have to remember the background to the report itself – in the wake of the Agreement when Westminster was very aware that the nationalist/republican population of Northern Ireland had to be held into the ceasefire. Like a greasy salesman Blair had to give them a little of what they wanted to keep his legacy intact. So the ‘findings’ of this report were mostly pre-determined – & THAT’S what Private Eye get to lampoon…
My point is that your review is a biased opinion of a biased & predictable report – so what real worth has either?
In the words of Bono regarding Sunday Bloody Sunday “this is NOT a rebel song!!”