TYPE: New Series
FEATURING: Tenth Doctor, Donna Noble
AUTHOR: Mark Michalowski
PAGE COUNT: 249
SYNOPSIS:
For Donna Noble, the Andromeda galaxy is a long, long way from home. But even two and a half million light years from Earth, danger lurks around every corner...
A visit to an art gallery turns into a race across space to uncover the secret behind a shadowy organization.
From the desert world of Karris to the interplanetary scrapyard of Junk, the Doctor and Donna discover that appearances can be deceptive, that enemies are lurking around every corner - and that the centuries-long peace between humans and machines may be about to come to and end.
Because waiting in the wings to bring chaos to the galaxy is The Cult of Shining Darkness.
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!
REVIEW:
Donna is tired of going places where the Doctor always knows more than she does, so the Doctor takes them to the Andromeda galaxy, a place he isn't all that familiar with. Unfortunately, this lack of knowledge gets the pair caught up in a fight involving the Cult of Shining Darkness, a group hell bent on ridding the galaxy of machine intelligences.
With a lot of running around from one planet to another as the Doctor tries to rescue Donna, Shining Darkness is a typical adventure romp. However, it's also a tale about racism and xenophobia. The cultists are paranoid, unconvinced that machines can have sentience on the same level as organic life, and also convinced that one day machines will rise up and revolt. Despite little evidence for this scenario, with mechanical and organics living in peace for centuries, the cultists are driven by their own misplaced paranoia to collect the part of a device they hid away years before, once which they will use in their plan to strike first. Most of the cultists are nasty characters, but the alien Mesanth is the only one that I actually began to like. While he says he holds the same belief about machines, he comes from a peaceful society and abhors violence. You begin to wish he'll switch sides, but in the end his association with the cultists proves to be his downfall.
On the other side is a ragtag group determined to stop the cultists. The most interesting and sympathetic character of this bunch is the robot known as Mother. A prototype droid developed as a war machine, Mother gained awareness of what her creators were using her for and wanted no part of it, damaging herself to make her useless. Mother helps to illustrate how wrong the cultists are; she is a machine but she is also intelligent and compassionate.
Other amusing and memorable parts of the book include the Jaftee, an ape-like species that collect religions, having fun with them for awhile and then discarding them for the next big thing that provides an entertaining diversion, which Donna attempts to take advantage of by proclaiming herself the Ginger Goddess. The there's Crusher and Chuck, the two giant robots on the scrapyard planet Junk, who squabble like an old married couple.
This was the first book I've read with Donna as the companion, and her portrayal is absolutely spot on. There's no doubt that this is Donna, her manner is quite unique, especially her willingness to get in someone's face if she doesn't like them. This is one reason why Donna was my favorite companion so far in the series, I just love her personality. She doesn't take crap from anyone.
I won't spoil the two major plot twists in the story, but it wasn't too hard to figure out the first well in advance, while the second was only obvious after a major revelation near the end of the story. Other readers may not figure it out, but after so many years of watching and reading Doctor Who (as well as other shows and books), I've gotten good at anticipating potential plot twists.
I really enjoyed this book, and would go so far as to say it's the best one I've read so far in the New Series line.
