Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Doctor Who - Tip of the Tongue Review





Doctor Who:
Tip of the Tongue 
By Patrick Ness

The next round in Puffins Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Ebook centers on the 5th Doctor and I have to say it was quite disappointing.  The story itself was actually not bad but would be better off as a story that was not set in the Doctor Who universe.  When I pick up a book to read an adventure with The Doctor and whatever companion he has at the time I expect it to feature the Doctor.   Tip of the Tongue hardly featured The Doctor or Nyssa at all.   That was what disappointed me the most about this book was the lack of the main character it was supposed to feature. While reading Tip of the Tongue that it felt at times like the Doctor was an afterthought and just thrown in there.

The story features on two kids living in main during World War Two.  Jonny is a Jewish child with a German last name and that makes life difficult for him and his friend Nettie was black raised by her mother and the only factory in town won’t hire her mother because the owner is a racist and makes life difficult for the two of them.  Jonny ends up buying a Truth Teller from Nettie so he can find out if a certain girl likes him.   The Truth Tellers hang from your face and end up saying the truth about the person you are looking at.  This has caused a lot of dissent among the town folk but it is a popular fad for the kids.

I liked that part of the story and thought the story was pretty strong and interesting but felt cheated that The Doctor only showed up at the end to reveal the aliens controlling the Truth Tellers and freeing them from slavery.  I felt it would have been better as a Young Adult story about coming of age but with an alien threat and having the kids solve the mystery.  With that said it was a decent story but disappointed that it was light on The Doctor’s appearance in it.

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