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Doctor Who : Coldheart
by Trevor Baxendale
Product Group: Book
Publisher: BBC Worldwide Publishing (2000-05)
ISBN: 0563555955
EAN: 9780563555957
Dewy Decimal #: 813
Mass Market Paperback: 277 pages
SKU: MM2217
Condition: As New
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
In the eighth Doctor, Fitz and Compassion story, the Doctor materializes underground, where he and his companions are led to safety by a humanoid character, who explains that this is the planet Eskon.
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Customer Reviews
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Is that a GIANT SLUG in your pocket...?
Rating  (4)
Date: 2002-03-18
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
Great, traditional Doctor Who monster story. Genetic mutations are occurring within the population of Baktan and the Doctor has found out the cause (see front cover pic - arrrggghh!!!) You'll find the Doctor beaten up a lot more than usual, Compassion is changing slightly, and Fitz, well, it's revolutionary and girl trouble again for him. Baxendale has a great way in describing his planetary landscape, especially conveying the increasing need and survival the people of the desert city Baktan for water. Nice short chapters urge the story on, so it makes it hard to put the book down. RECOMMENDED to all!!!
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Flawed, but faintly enjoyable
Rating  (3)
Date: 2001-09-24
1 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
Somehow I enjoyed Trevor Baxendale's COLDHEART and I'm not entirely sure why that happened. As I was reading it, I was mentally groaning at the weakness of the plot, the poor characterization and the obviously hasty rewrites to take the New Compassion into consideration. Yet I kept turning the pages, interested in what was going to happen next. It was derivative and unoriginal at every turn, and still it held my attention for the full two hundred and seventy-seven pages, which is quite a feat bearing in mind how thin the story is stretched.The book has an annoying tendency to end virtually every chapter on a cliffhanger, and given that there are thirty chapters in the book, it means that the characters can't go for more than about ten pages or so without being shot at or grabbed by monsters. This really puts quite a bit of unneeded padding into the story, though it might have been this quick pace that made the book as entertaining as it is. Even though none of the sudden escapes, macho dialogue or improbable turnarounds ends up making any difference in the big picture, it does distract from the flimsiness of plot by slowing down the speed at which it is revealed. This was such a visual book, that it's hard not to picture this as a novelisation of a television story that we never got to see. While this does result in some breathtaking visuals, it also provides too many awkward moments. Main portions of the plot are revealed by having two people explaining things to each other that they must surely already know. This sort of exposition is allowable in television or film, but it just seems silly to do this in a novel. In addition, there are far too many fight scenes that just don't work in written form. Between these and the numerous unnecessary descriptions of decaying, mutating flesh and mucus (it's not horror, it's just gross), I could have been happy with a book that had about fifty to a hundred less pages. I can't really say too much about why I enjoyed this. I was not blind to its many flaws, yet despite them I was entertained by the overall story. It isn't especially thrilling or exciting, but it is an enjoyable, if terribly light, read. Just don't think about too much about the plot or the relationship that Fitz has with a camel. Both will make your head spin.
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A New Author for the Eighth Doctor
Rating (3)
Date: 2001-07-09
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
Trevor Baxendale does a decent job of writing for the Eighth Doctor. He manages to come up with an interesting Plot line, as well as using Fitz and Compassion in a decent manner. The only thing that I would say is that it would be best to read some of the other books, especially Paul Cornell's The Shadows of Avalon, to understand some of the things that are going on in this book. Overall, a well done book, and I look forward to reading more from this author.
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Very traditional, in almost every respect
Rating (4)
Date: 2000-07-17
I found Coldheart to be a relatively good read. It's extremely trad (traditional), which is a good thing, when you see it's surrounded by the continuity-messing blockbusters like Interference and The Ancestor Cell.I felt that Coldheart was like a rest from the mounting tension with the events of Shadows of Avalon leading to Ancestor Cell (I won't spoil it). Fitz is an excellent character in this novel, and is decidedly Doctorish throughout. Compassion is cold and obtrusive, and is my utter favorite EDA character apart from Fitz. The Doctor is spot-on. The Slimers are the villans (well, apart from the other one) of the piece, but aren't painted as such. They are just despised by the Eskoni, and want to be the same as everyone else. So I'd recommend this to those readers who want to take a break from the arc which is slowly building. Remember, a change is as good as a rest.
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The BBC Falls Flat Again
Rating  (2)
Date: 2000-05-28
2 out of 6 customers found this reveiw helpful
Coldheart is the worst Doctor Who novel in about a year. The pace is extremely slow. Fitz is back to being an immature, sarcastic imbecile. I thought Mr. Baxendale's previous Doctor Who novel, The Janus Conjunction, was much better. What made the editors at BBC choose this book?
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