Longest Day [PROSE/1998.3.2]

★★★☆☆

  If you ask me to make a list of the most taxing (in terms of both emotional investment and the time and patience required for the competion of the reading experience in general) Dr. Who adventures of all time, Longest Day would end up in at least the top 20. The Doctor and Sam are subjected to numerous physical and mental tortures throughout the book, so much so that I can't help but suspect that Stephen Cole has a thing for this sort of treatment. What's worse is that human teenager Sam Jones gets the worse treatment out of the two; I'm of two minds about this because while it's horrible to see a character you like be beaten down and inflicted pain upon so severely (really bringing credibility to the rumour that the Eighth Doctor Adventures writers generally hated Sam), I really like that we got a whole heap of new insight into Sam as a character. Her adolescent inner troubles and desires (her huge crush on the Doctor chief amongst them), her brief memory of a parallel life she was denied by the Doctor's intervention, and even her underlying heroism -- these come out to the forefront and let the reader appreciate the character in a new light.

  If nothing else, it certainly livens up the book... because oh dear, this thing is a huge downer of a novel. Half the time, I was asking myself whether I even enjoyed reading it at all; the middle portion of the book, on its own, is such a slog and an unenjoyable, slow mess. It also happens to be the portion that's most sadistic towards our main characters, so I have even more reason to point this out. Thankfully, the beginning section and third act make the general experience much more pleasant; the Doctor gets to be the improvising schemer, as well as a dashing hero of the universe, and Sam gets to show her grit and quite frankly amazing willpower as she navigates the dangerous story on her own. The Kusks may be very generic Dr. Who monsters, but with a narrative that manages to just edge itself into 'mildly well-plotted and enjoyable' territory and a style of writing from Stephen Cole that is -- for better or worse -- passionate about what it tries to achieve (whether it be to excite readers or to make the Doctor and Sam suffer some more), Longest Day makes for a pretty engrossing reading experience. Just remember to be patient as you trudge along the middle portion, and you'll be rewarded with a gut-wrenching final few pages as Sam and the Doctor are separated. The Eighth Doctor as a man on a mission (to find his friend back) -- enough to get any reader excited.