Kursaal [PROSE/1998.1.8]

★★★☆☆

  To sum up what I'm about to write in a sentence, Kursaal is a very enjoyable book that both fulfills its potential and lets down the team somewhat. What I mean by this is that Peter Anghelides was right to write the second half in a completely different timeframe and continue the story organically, and also that the Jax (i.e. the werewolf aspect of this entire story) were quite underused. It's just me going on about missed potential again, but there are several Doctor Who stories concerning werewolves which have used the concept of them better -- or should I say, more fitting with the individual potential it had with each story. Something like Tooth and Claw didn't exactly go far into werewolf lore, but it never really set up all the potential anyway; it was a perfectly enjoyable episode with the lupine representation it had. With Kursaal here, the Jax are given so many interesting ideas, so many whispers of development as a concept and a race/virus... and that's all that they get within the novel. Bar a summoning ritual and an ornate cathedral, they're totally unmemorable as monsters. I'd say this hurts Sam as a character as well, since she gets possessed by the queen hivemind, but I'd argue that this is one of her finest showcases among the early Eighth Doctor Adventures novels. For the first half of the book, we get a hefty amount of the inside of Sam's mind, and it's something I always appreciate.

  I've taken a slight tour around the Internet, and it seems reception of Kursaal is largely mixed. Well, here's my two cents: it's pretty fun. Not to say it's a masterwork of any sort, or to say it lived up to its overall potential (I mean, c'mon... a planet under heavy renovation to become an amusement part/leisure spot, with capitalists and archaeologists clashing egos), but it has enough fun with its elements. Reading this, I can tell every time that Anghelides had fun writing it; there are entire chase sequences, office break-ins and subsequent hacking/info-gathering moments straight out of a 1990s action film, and I think it's both a befitting and hugely entertaining style for a Doctor Who novel. It's perhaps not the best showcase for the Eighth Doctor (he's very much a typical hero-type figure here, and less the breathless romantic he was at this very early stage of his life), but he still serves well as the protagonist. It's bloodier than usual, more action-packed, and so it makes for a pretty easy reading experience.