Timeless

 Some highlights of the latest EDA I’ve read (Timeless).

I took these screens while reading, along with my reactions. As usual, this is full of spoilers.

I apologise for how long it took me to read this book. One of my goals this year is to finish reading this entire series, and I don't know how that will turn out, but I'm still going to try!

After the mess that was The Last Resort, this one feels like a return to form, but it very rarely rises above "competent" despite some really fun imagery at the beginning of the universe and pretty decent characters. The plot is all right, just not very engaging, and I thought there were a bit too many characters in the main team this time around. There's also a few continuity errors. But I can't say I was ever bored either.

At this point, I have to compare it to some previous average books in the range to give it a proper score. And it's kind of on the same level of enjoyment for me as Dark Progeny or Parallel 59. Which I both rated 5. Not gonna lie, I'm glad this arc seems to be nearly over. 5/10

The Last Resort

Some highlights of the latest EDA I’ve read (The Last Resort).

I took these screens while reading, along with my reactions. As usual, this is full of spoilers.

What happened. No seriously, what happened.

I should love this book. It's written by Paul Leonard. His "worst" EDA so far was Dreamstone Moon, and I rated it 7/10 and even made fanart about it. His previous books were full of emotion, examined what it means to be human, what made a person a person even when they looked completely alien, talked about cosmic tragedies viewed from a small, personal angle. And now, here's a book where the stakes are higher than ever, and suddenly, nobody cares about anything.

From one scene to the next, we're following different versions of the same characters interchangeably. People die again and again, and little to no weight is given to any of it. We're told Sabbath and maybe the Doctor have a plan to solve the whole situation, but we can't parse what it is, so we don't really care. There's a lot of technobabble. About a third of the way into the story, it gets obvious that all of this is going to get hit by a big red RESET button at the end, so you're just waiting for it to happen. Thankfully, there's some very good imagery near the end, but it's too little too late.

It took me two years to get through The Last Resort. It's experimental, exhausting, convoluted but not complex, weirdly one-dimensional for a thing about multiple realities colliding, and more than a bit nihilistic. I want to care about things again, please. 3,5/10

The Sights 3 [Constellations]

 

Autopsy scars

The Eighth Doctor has lived rent free in my head for more than ten years at this point and yet @daydreamycrustacean drawing Eight with autopsy scars reprogrammed my entire brain with a single drawing

 

Infinity Train crossover

 

I haven't updated this blog in more than a year even though I was originally planning to finish reading this series of books in 2024. The problem is that I fell into my biggest hyperfixation-turned-special-interest since, well, Doctor Who ten years earlier. As you can guess, it was Infinity Train.

At some point in August 2024, one user called deathchrist2000 asked me "Of the 8th Doctor companions, who would have the largest number upon entering the Infinity Train? Why do I feel like the answer is Fitz?" to which I replied: "Look me in the eye. Look me in the eye, and tell me that Fitz “intergalactic loser of mystery” Kreiner would have a higher number upon entering the Train than the alien mass murderer raised in a death cult" and posted that first picture with C'rizz from the audios. Then I added "Sidenote: over there we have someone who couldn’t deal with the death of a loved one and who tried to clone him, except the clone isn’t a perfect copy. Weird how that keeps happening, uh" and posted that second drawing with Eight and Fitz.
 

The Sights 2 [Satellites]

 

I did it because you're a jerk