In search of new writers
Posts tagged Una McCormack
Doctor Who The Way Through the Woods by Una McCormack
Jun 28th
Una McCormack’s The Way Through the Woods unburies that old storytelling yore of the dark woods that seemingly swallows people whole, for all those who enter the woods will never be seen again… It’s a device that I myself have utilised in my own short stories. So, on first appearances, The Way Through the Woods appears quite hackneyed. Although men and women from the town of Foxton have vanished in the woods over the centuries, Una McCormack just concentrates on a few women who have disappeared in this manner, and to be honest, on first reading, I lost track of which woman was which, and wasn’t all that involved in the narrative. In addition to this, the story pivots around an abandoned and broken down spaceship, a motif that’s really been done to death in Steven Moffat’s Doctor Who. So, it seemed to me (on first impressions) that The Way Through the Woods was rather a let-down when compared to Una McCormack’s Doctor Who debut, The King’s Dragon, which was quite good.
Such was the quality of her Gallifreyan debut however, that I decided to give The Way Through the Woods a thorough re-read, and I’m very glad I did. For one thing, Una’s characterisation of Rory is spot on (the Doctor and Amy not quite so, but nearly), and for another, her references to the 2005 series of Doctor Who were very good (I particularly liked her cogent explanation of the fact that Rory both is and isn’t the Auton Roman centurion who guarded Amy while she was trapped in the Pandorica). There’s also a nice scene later on when an image of a Roman soldier causes Rory to blush (although he’s not quite sure why, as he’s lost his memories), as this is something will appeal to adult readers. The Way Through the Woods is also very educational; for instance, I’d never heard of the nickname ‘Conchie’ before reading this book (short for ‘conscientious objector’), and I’d previously thought that the pub closing hour introduced during World War I was 11pm (Una points outs that it was actually the far more restrictive 9.30pm). The theme of the First World War also runs through the narrative in a much more subtle way than in did in it did in the 2007 episode of Doctor Who called The Family of Blood. At first, I also thought the naming of the alien as a ‘Werefox’ to be quite old hat, and redolent of the overabundance of anthropomorphic creatures that have faced the Doctor in the recent past. However, I then read Una McCormack’s acknowledgement at the end of the book to Fairport Convention “for recording Reynardine”. Since ‘Reyn’ is the name of the aforementioned Werefox, I had to look this up, and discovered that there are actually ancient tales of a Werefox called Reynardine that steals away maidens to his castle in British folklore. This explains why so many women feature in this book – which, of course, is not a fault – the fact that I lost track of who was who was down to my not paying adequate attention when I first read The Way Through the Woods. So, if Una McCormack is guilty of anything with regards to this book, it’s that she’s perhaps a bit too subtle, and too modest to point out just how clever she’s been in this very good book.
Doctor Who The King’s Dragon by Una McCormack
Jun 22nd
I once met and chatted with Una McCormack in the late lamented Page’s Bar, so I decided to read The King’s Dragon before any other of the latest Doctor Who releases. At first, I was a bit disappointed, as the font used in the book was quite a bit larger than the last BBC book release that I read a couple of years ago, and the text more juvenile. Not that these are Una’s fault, as this is, of course, very much the default style for the current books (although one suspects that Michael Moorcock might well have been let off the leash a tad more with his upcoming Doctor Who novel The Coming of the Terraphiles). However, as I cast my mind back as to how the Target novelizations of the classic series read, I must admit that I was disappointed that The King’s Dragon was not written in the same style. Yet, now that I have finished reading The King’s Dragon, and have grown to love it, I appreciate that it’s a much different beast from the Target books of yore, very much due to the fact that it isn’t based upon a TV serial that featured regular cliffhangers (although the title is perhaps a nod back to the Peter Davison adventure The King’s Demons). No, The King’s Dragon is, by contrast, a much more measured piece that Una McCormack builds up gradually. Una does a splendid job of capturing Matt Smith’s new incarnation of the Doctor, along with Amy and Rory, which can’t have been easy, as she could not have based her characterisation upon seeing completed episodes (although the very fact that Rory’s involved so prominently in the book and the cover does tend to give the game away that he’ll be returning from the dead in the series, even though this book is set before Cold Blood). The Doctor takes Amy and Rory to the City of Geath (possibly named thus after one of Tom Baker’s best adventures, The City of Death), which is famed for its hospitality. However, although the citizens are not openly hostile to the time travellers, they are more wary than their reputation suggests. Amy soon discovers that even the humblest domicile is furnished with gold. It’s not long before they’re invited to meet the king, although, according to the Doctor, Geath has always been a staunchly democratic republic. The Doctor is also suspicious due to the large quantity of gold on display, as there shouldn’t be any on the planet. It could therefore be a flaw in the plot for the people of Geath to be so jealous of their horde of gold, if they have only recently been aware of its existence, never mind its value. Yet, as the Doctor soon explains, this substance that Amy, Rory, and even the Doctor have been taken to pilfering, is not gold, but the illegal material Enamour, which entrances all before its thrall. So, the time travellers decide to examine the mysterious gold dragon that resides in the king’s hall, and discover it to be the source of the Enamour (although it never rears up threateningly, as the front cover suggests). As the Doctor points out, Enamour is an alien technology far in advance of that of the local inhabitants, so how did it arrive on Geath? And who are the monstrous apparitions that are intent on getting Enamour back? Una McCormack is excellent at plotting, and characterisation, so much so, that you do really feel for the the main protagonists on Geath: King Beol, the Teller (despite the fact that he is basically a spin meister), and Hilthe, the former leader of Geath who was usurped by Beol, even although most of these characters do very much turn on our heroes at various parts of the story. The Doctor tasks himself with the role of deciding with whom the Enamour should reside, a job that is not so easy when they are alien spaceships blasting bits out of the city… Contrary to my initial fears that The King’s Dragon would be too juvenile, it turns out that Una McCormack has delivered a very thoughtful, mature, and stimulating Doctor Who adventure, and I look forward to reading more of her splendid work.
