My Review of "The Drosten's Curse"

A.L. Kennedy's The Drosten's Curse is not a Doctor Who novel I expected to enjoy. I came to Doctor Who through the more recent regenerations, so returning to one of the classic Doctors -- in this case, the Fourth -- wasn't something I expected to enjoy. But A.L. Kennedy has really captured the Doctor at his best.

The Doctor is always whimsical, but the Fourth Doctor, especially at the tip of Kennedy's pen, is even more so. The Time Lord that I've come to love is eccentric and sometimes even disjointed in the most charming of ways -- and Kennedy has given us all that and more in The Drosten's Curse.

The story, as my husband informs me, is an expansion of an older short story written by Kennedy, about an ancient alien being that's causing all manner of disturbances on a golf course/spa hotel in Arbroath. It's stirring up enough of a ruckus to attract the attention of the TARDIS and the Doctor, and he recruits an employee of the spa/hotel -- Bryony -- to help him investigate. The Drosten's Curse may not quite an all-new adventure, but as far as I can tell, it does go into more detail than any short story might ever do.

I came to this book with a fresh perspective. All the Doctor Who novels I've read have been recent regenerations -- well, actually only the last two. And I've never read anything else written by Kennedy (who, my husband informs me, is well known in the sci-fi circles). I've only ever seen a handful of Fourth Doctor episodes -- and those only because my husband insisted we watch them. I'm a new Whovian by any measure. But this was a wonderful book, and any Whovian will love it.

I received a free copy of this book as part of the Blogging for Books program in exchange for my honest review here.

Comments

My Review of "Come as You Aren't"

Come as You Aren't: A Role-Playing Game for Adventurous Couples is a simple role-playing kit for couples who want to explore and experiment in ways to seduce one another that they simply wouldn't have imagined otherwise. The set is meant to offer one partner who draws a Who, a What, and a Where card at random and places them in an envelope for the other partner. From there, it's up to them to enact the scenarios as they see fit. The instructions are printed on the back cover of the box and the deck comes with a few blank cards for couples to customize. This is a fun little gift for couples -- and just in time for the holidays. I received a free copy of this game from the Blogging for Books review program in exchange for my honest review here.

My Review of "Inside the Criminal Mind"

Samenow's Inside the Criminal Mind is an odd book to review. Samenow, a research psychologist, says criminal behavior is 100% voluntary. It is a product of disordered thought patterns that are almost entirely congenital. Poverty doesn't cause crime, Samenow claims. Nor do bad parenting, peer pressure, drug use, or any of the other "standard excuses". Some kids are born anti-authoritarian thrill seekers and will remain so pretty much no matter what. The only hope is to get criminals to intensively examine their thought patterns, and change them through sheer force of will. Originally written in 1984, I have to wonder: Is this book merely a product of its time? That is, does it represent the best of the cultural thinking that went into personal responsibility and individualism that was so rampant in America in the mid-1980s? Because, let's be honest: Inside the Criminal Mind has a glaring problem. To quote another 19...

My Review of "The Heist"

Chris Durso's The Heist: How Grace Robs Us of Our Shame is an amazing book! Sin, as Durso is right to insist, can only be understood in the light of grace. We cannot know our sin until we know God's grace. And that grace is known as it overcome and vanquishes our sin. For Durso, our shame and our brokenness rob us of the life God, in Christ, makes for us. And, like the Prodigal Sons, God's grace can only be made known because God has come to us in our own squalor and gifted us with more, so much more, than anything of which sin has robbed us. This is the great "heist" of the Gospel -- that God in Christ takes back what the Enemy has stolen. This is a book that easily change melt even the hardest heart, because it places the emphasis where the Gospel places that emphas is -- on God's love. I received a free copy of this book as part of the Blogging for Books program in exchange for my honest review here.

The Mrs. & the Minister

Search This Blog