The Well-Mannered War by Gareth Roberts

The Well-Mannered War Reviews

• 
  Danny Welch

  The Well-Mannered War has been a novel I've been intending to read for a long time because not only is it the end of the VMA's but it's also the conclusion to the 4 and Romana trilogy in the range. But I've been a little hesitant partially because I don't read much Doctor Who anymore and also because of the author's ideology and harmful beliefs, but I've separated the art from the artist before and I can do so again.
  
  Barclow has been in a state of war between The Chelonians and the Human race for a very long time. But the war is a curious one for neither side wants to fight each other and the humans and the Chelonians very uncharacteristically are the best of friends, even occasionally having a cup of tea with one another! But something's about to change all that for a force known as The Darkness is watching in anticipation and it wants nothing but death. The Doctor, Romana, and K9 arrive just before the crisis begins, soon Romana discovers that their friend Menlove Stokes has somehow been transported to the far end of the universe's existence and that K9 after a terrible political accident is to be made a presidential candidate on the planet Metralubit. But something is very off about all this, almost as if someone is manipulating events...
  
  This was an incredible action-packed space opera with plenty of laughs, horror, and epic sequences to enjoy! The Virgin Missing Adventures concluded with a bang and a story brimming with incredible ideas, strong prose, and plenty of humor. The characters are strong and the writer perfectly captures the essence of Season 17.
  
  Overall: A brilliant Doctor Who novel that really deserves to be considered one of the very best the expanded-media has ever had to offer. 10/10
  
• 
  Steven

  So here we have a tale spun out of Doctor Who mythology, landing publication-wise as the last of the Missing Adventures series, and somewhere in the midst of Classic Who's 17th and 18th seasons. Roberts' draws on events that occur in the show, as well as throughout the Missing Adventures series.
  
  Here's where things go off the rails a bit.
  
  The plot is a convoluted war between humans and the Chelonians (a race the Doctor has encountered before, but in his Eighth incarnation, while Well-Mannered War occurs squarely in his Fourth form.) where both sides are posturing at war without really engaging each other. Hovering overhead is a Hive of insect creatures waiting for both sides to kill each other so they can feast on the corpses and for added fun they animate a corpse to wander around and sew additional chaos.
  
  Meanwhile, on another planet, Romana and K9 get involved in local politics with the humans who are managed by Femdroids (who are exactly what the name would suggest).
  
  There just seems to be a lot going on without really getting anywhere and the "surprise ending" of this tale is ... well, lackluster at best.
• 
  Christian Petrie

  As the last 4th Doctor Missing Adventure story in chronological order, and the last Missing Adventure story published by Virgin, it ends on a high note, with one dangling plot thread left unresolved.
  
  Gareth Roberts seems to be at his best writing for the 4th Doctor. The Romance of Crime and The English Way of Death were well done. As with those he does a fantastic job of capturing the 4th Doctor and Romana. For the supporting characters he fleshes them out enough it gives weight to their actions and motives. Even with the Chelonians, who I did not like when first introduced in the New Adventures, he make them work in the story.
  
  As far as the plot goes, he does a good job of weaving the characters's story lines together to form a strong plot that resolves itself nicely at the end. Once you see what has been going on, that nice aha moment when everything comes full circle.
  
  There is one plot thread that is left unresolved, which does not affect the main story. It is a subtle sub-plot that leaves the book on a cliff hanger for the Doctor, Romana, and K-9. What is annoying, is you can see how it could be picked up in another book. However, with the end of the Missing Adventures, the BBC's Past Doctor Adventures could pick up on it. Alas, they do not. This is the only downside to the book.
  
  If you are going to read this book, which I do recommend, there are a couple of options. There is the version that was published. This is the cover you see here. Then there is an e-book version that creates a Target like cover and has illustrations like the first few Target books. Big Finish has done an audio adaptation of this, but I have not had a chance to listen, but it does give another option.
• 
  Jeffrey

  Surprisingly good right out of the gate. Not only are The Doctor, Romana, and K9 quite funny but so are all of the other characters and situations.
  
  The downside is some of the baggage and cruft from the main series (The Black/White Guardian). Ends with a type of deus ex machina. Ugh.
• 
  Jacqueline

  The Well-Mannered War is one of the best TV tie-in novels I've ever read, and the best I've read so far in Virgin Publishing's Missing Doctors Adventures. It isn't often that a tie-in novel makes you think, but not only does this novel do that - it is a deeply philosophical work.
  The novel begins in a typical way, The Fourth Doctor (as played by Tom Baker), Romana II (as played by Lalla Ward) and K-9 are in the TARDIS when something goes awry. The Doctor manages to materialise the TARDIS successfully, and he and Romana decide to look around where they've landed, even though they have hit the Temporal Boundary - past which no Time Lord should explore. It seems even Time Lords shouldn't see their own future. However, what seems to be a typical "excuse" to start the adventure is returned to at the end of the novel - and the accident and the Doctor's reaction to it - wasn't as much of an accident as it seems.
  Meanwhile, the Doctor and Romana are on Barclow, which is meant to be a colony planet. However, for over 100 years a war has been brewing on the planet - between human soldiers from nearby Metralubit who claim the small rock as their colony, and alien Chelonians, turtle-like intelligent beings. But it an novel twist - no one has actually fired a shot at the other side for all that time. In fact, the two "armies" have actually become close enough friends to attend teas and similar gatherings - while preforming their tours of the war zone, and pointing deadly weapons at the other side.
  Romana with K-9 and the Doctor are separated and each end-up visiting the other side. However, video of K-9 attempting to save the life of the Metralubit candidate for the premiership surfaces - allowing K-9 to claim the principle of "Constitutional privilege" meaning he gets to assume the place of the dead political candidate and run for office against the sitting premier. K-9's political campaign is rife with political satire - and a lot of humor. This novel is quite funny especially in what is basically the first and second parts of the novel (there are no formal parts designations).
  Romana and K-9 journey to Metralubit, where K-9 runs his campaign, and Romana begins to figure out what is going on. She, however, makes one miscalculation. And Stokes, the artist from The Romance of Crime, also takes an action with far-reaching consequences. When more is revealed - it's a race to stop an ancient, unassuming, and very surprising enemy. To say more would spoil the fun - so I won't reveal it.
  For most Doctor Who books that would be it - and it would be enough - a fun read, lots of humor, lots of action, an intriguing plot, and a truly original enemy. But perhaps because this is chronologically the last book in the Missing Doctors Adventures series of original Doctor Whonovels, Gareth Roberts goes farther - and it's the final few chapters of this book that made me really love it, despite the bittersweet tone, and give this book the highest rating possible - something I seldom do for tie-ins and original novels based on a TV series. I don't want to spoil anything - so I won't go into details. But the end is truly philosophical, it's brilliant, it's bittersweet, and it makes you think. Highly recommended!
• 
  Mel

  This is Gareth's third Doctor and Romana II novel. It is the last of the Missing adventures series and for that reason is probably why it is the most expensive. I managed to find a "cheap" copy for only £20! Which is quite a ridiculous ammount to spend on a Doctor Who novel! But I enjoyed his others so much I had to complete the set. It had Romana wearing a bow tie!!! That alone has to be worth the £20! Also K9 was running for election as president on a random planet and had some of the most brilliant lines ever!!! There were schemeing robots and very nice lizard aliens. Like the other two of Gareth's novels there were also people possessed by alien intelligences, which probably should have been getting old but was still really enjoyable! The book didn't have as many characters to keep track of as the English way of Death and was much more like his first novel, there was even an overlapping character. I really did enjoy this. In fact the whole novel series has been like discovering three missing Romana episodes which I've really enjoyed. Now I'm just sad he hasn't written any more!
• 
  Nicholas Whyte

  
  http://nhw.livejournal.com/546078.html[return][return]The author confesses in his notes that he deliberately aimed to write a novel that could have been filmed in a gravel pit, and he certainly succeeded. I very much liked the way in which the apparent theatricality of the setting turned out to have well-founded roots; I was able to suspend my disbelief in the layers of plot convolution which probably wouldn't survive careful analysis; the shock ending was audacious but successful; I liked also the characterisation of Romana. Not so convinced by the characterisation of K9, especially his interaction with the Doctor; and the Femdroids fell into the category of one of my pet hates. I did like the idea of K9 running for President, but unfortunately it didn't last for long.[return][return]I couldn't really recommend this book to anyone who wasn't already a Doctor Who fan, but I think it captures the early season 18 feeling (The Leisure Hive / Meglos) very well, with both the good and bad points of that.
• 
  Missy

  What a wild one! The Fourth Doctor, Romana and K-9 find themselves embroiled in an eccentric "war" on a far-flung rock at the end of the universe. The characterizations of the Doctor and Romana are spot-on. K-9 less so, but he is amusing none the less.
  
  While a cast of thousands is more often than not a recipe for confusion and pointless digressions, here it worked. I liked a lot of the secondary characters, mostly because they were given a lot to do. Despite this, the Doctor and Romana still had the lead and weren't shunted aside. Well done by Gareth Roberts, who also captured a bit of Douglas Adams' magic in telling this zany, amusing tale. And that's even before the surprise ending!
  
  Definitely recommended.
• 
  Leela42

  Missing Adventure (MA) with fourth Doctor and Romana (II). Ugh, the writing! I stopped at page 22 in the e-book. Part of the problem is some phrasing is badly composed. Part of the problem is the author seems to think he's writing a comedy, but it isn't funny, it's deadening. And since the plot is bound to be somewhat like the style, I can see why this one never made my list of DW books I was especially interested in reading. Synopsis indicates a great wrinkle just before the climax, but mostly it's by the numbers.
• 
  Laura

  Read this on the BBC website. I am continually disappointed by the fact that all Doctor Who original fiction seems to suck harder than William Hartnell on an Aztec-themed soundstage, which is difficult to manage because of how much something like that sucks. Stay far, far away. They must be free on the website because they can't get people to buy them anymore.
• 
  Daniel Kukwa

  Best description for this novel: "Gareth Roberts loses his mind as he writes the ultimate season 17 story." This is space opera that has been skewed to various abnormal angles...but it's the summation of an era of "Doctor Who" that would have met with Douglas Adams' seal of approval.
• 
  Sarah

  A war that has been in a holding pattern for 125 years is finally brought to a head through the machinations of the Black Guardian and an insect groupmind. Fourth Doctor, Romana and K9 try to resolve this.
• 
  Chriss

  This is a fun book that brings back the Black Guardian. I read it online on the BBC's free eBook page on their Doctor Who site.
• 
  Nicholas

  Excellent Missing Adventure with characterizations so crisp and real it's like watching an episode. The finale is both hilarious and touching. Outdoes the Romance of Crime and that's saying something
• 
  RC

  A novel which perfectly captures the era when Doctor Who was The Tom Baker Show. The story itself is uninspired.