Writing on the wall, so you can scream....

I tried.  Honestly I did.  I really did try to get through it.  But this will the first Doctor Who book I have read that I don't think I'll be finishing.

Oh my God, it's just terrible.  I mean, the story itself isn't too awful, from what I read of it.  I did manage to get through 163 (out of 343 total) pages.  But it was a struggle.  And the story wasn't terribly interesting or gripping.  But what got me was the writing.

I've never read Michael Moorcock before, but I've heard of him.  He's supposed to be this great awesome writing.  His profile in the book lists a lot of awards he's gotten and states he was named one of Britain's 50 greatest writers since 1945 by the Times.  Okay.  but I don't see it.

Here, let me give you an example. How about the very first sentence from the very first chapter: Sprawling back in his brightly coloured lawn chair and tipping his panama just a fraction lower over his eyes, Urquart Banning-Cannon decided there was nothing like the crack of oak on willow and the small of new-mown grass to make a chap feel that all's well with the universe in general.   Yep, thats one sentence.

Or this: Lying not far from the whackit pitch beside the river, he was sucking his stylo and pondering an elusive rhyme for 'snake in the grass' when, with red rose in her smart black Elon crop and clad in the flimiest lavender frock of her chosen year's latest Loondoon collection, Jane 'Flapper' Banning-Cannon, the stunning subject of his pensee, sailed by, poling a punt and singing, 'I'm A Hip Swaying Honey From Honalu-la-lu-la' in a high, clear soprano.  Yep, that's another single sentence.

Or this one: Problem One came in three parts, (a) how to win the affections of the lady in question, (b) how to achieve a softening of attitude in his loved one's doting father, who had not unreasonably been described as a blazing boil on the face of a universe of boils and so far seemed to regard Hari, when he regarded him at all, as less than worthless and with a criminal mouth to boot; certainly not in the running as a suitable spouse for the apple of his eye, and (c) ditto re: his loved one's doting mother.  And yes, once more just one sentence.

I mean, seriously...who in the HELL writes like that???  And receives accolades and awards for it?

He says in three paragraphs what could be said in one sentence.  The book could probably be less than 100 pages if not for the overly verbose writing.

The style is pretentious, takes itself WAY too seriously, and thinks itself to be funny to several hundred degrees more than it truly is.

After almost half the book, I am done.  Finished.  And I don't like doing that with a Doctor Who book.  But honestly, had this been any other type of book, I'm certain I would have given up on it long ago.

Anyway, onto bigger and better things.

POLT