The Tomorrow Windows

Some highlights of the latest EDA I’ve read (The Tomorrow Windows).

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

There's SO MUCH STUFF GOING ON in this book. It's a bit of a throw-everything-at-the-wall story, where you're under the impression the author had five different ideas but none of them was strong enough on its own to write an entire book about, so he combined everything like some kind of fusion cuisine. The most surprising thing is that the result actually works. It works pretty well, in fact. It doesn't start very solidly, the ending is a bit confusing, and the tone is all over the place, and yet, it's (mostly) a lot of fun, despite an insanely high kill count of secondary characters.

After all the introspection of the previous book, I really don't mind a comedic adventure romp - Eight is a bit on the cartoonish side but nothing too annoying or too out of character, Fitz is Fitz, and - wait, is that a second serving of character development for Trix?? Sign me up immediately. 

Wait. Two good books in a row? We are SO back. 8/10

 

oh, we're starting on Easter island?

Miss me with that revisionism, there were still more than 2000 people on Rapa Nui when Europeans invaded it and brought diseases and slave trading

Brand new sentences

  So... you're just gonna piss on the ghosts then?

 I guess the answer is yes

 excuse me was that a big finish Zagreus reference

 

I know the dedication is to Douglas Adams but this is all very Pratchett

 

Ignore me I'm taking notes in case I have to draw them later

 Awwww he's disappointed

 I'm sorry were they just cut in line by Blur lmao

 The Doctor's pockets, a classic

 

she's got a point

 Trix stoooooooop

 

Is that all the different alternative Nine from various continuities

 Who's that. Is that the actual TV Nine. I'm not entirely sure because the description feels a little bit off

 

Okay, yeah, that's pretty cool

 normal day in British politics

 RUN IDIOTS RUN

 Damn bitch you live like this

 Wait what, that nerd did that?

 Oh I'm unwell

 Oh I'm unwell 2: the quickening

 BAD AT IT!!

 ok but what makes you think it will work this time

I've said it already but this is still very Pratchett

 Oh, wait, that's the cover isn't it

 This is fine

Eight really wants me to add more lines to my "everything bad happens to the Eighth Doctor" decade-old spreadsheet

 I snorted out loud

 Trix's characterisation is starting to break my heart now that the previous book actually made us understand her a bit more, not gonna lie

 

My bad we seem to have landed on Tumblr circa 2016

 me

 Ok so this god-thing is ruining societies by... forbidding something which used to be at the core of their culture?

 I need to find new ways to say "this is all very Pratchett"

 lmaooo

 

this is so stupid help

 

I'm sorry for the long screenshot this is very funny

 

Not sure why all the Trix parts are in first person but I'm glad we're learning more about what I can only call her multiple neurosis

Also I just had to search what the plural form of neurosis was to write this sentence

 

holy sHIT

 slow clap

 Very ominous considering the end of this series is getting closer and closer

 IDIOTSSSSS

 billionaires. they're all like that

 ok that's funny and also very cute
 

any resemblance with current events would be purely accidental

 Yeah that checks out

in before the surface is completely fine

 I love his reaction

 Extremely predictable but still: yay, I knew it

 Okay. yes. people buying planets is very Douglas Adams

 

this is all very silly but I like it

 Oh okay, they're like reverse cybermen

 this seems to be intended as a funny bit but it's very bleak

 and now we're in the One Piece timeline where they kept using the mother flame

 I'm also getting violent Orbis flashbacks

 Yes PLEASE tell god to fuck off

 wait wait wait. wait. wait

 wait is someone destroying planets to SELL THEM

 Of course you love gothic, Eight, we never doubted that for a second

 That would solve things

 Things are starting to make sense and I'm really glad that's the case cause there's so much stuff going on it would be unsustainable otherwise

 nevermind. wtf is this

 help

 Now we're in that scrapped version of Zootopia

 I've had dreams like this

 He's as bad at it as Gehn is bad at writing worlds in Riven

Also there's a recurring joke where a list gets interrupted every time someone is about to say Gallifrey in front of the Doctor

of course you are floating and have pronouns

he really sucks at this

 just find someone smaller to oppress, that's usually how it goes

 

I feel like the author is carefully threading the line between homage and copy but sometimes also he falls into parody, and most of it works, but also, moments like this one pull me out of the book

 okay then

 I suggest "Dirt"

 it's a bit wild to realise how much things changed culturally irl while these books were still being printed

 it would be funny if every alien culture had a moon called "moon"

 hey.  no. stop it. that's flirting

 NOW KISS

 "autogeddon" is a pretty good word I must say

 okay. yay

 

priorities, Fitz, please

 I know this book's general tone is supposed to be comedic but this world used to have dog racing in the snow and happy girls and stuff and I'm genuinely sad

 Oh so this is reverse Mad Max

 amen to that

also I kinda love that they just assumed he was some weird type of girl and didn't question it at first

 godddddddd this supposedly fun and comedic book has a death count rivaling a Jim Mortimore book

 taking notes for hypothetical future drawings

 insane visual, thank you for that

 I love that entire sequence

 yesssss more fun dimensional bullshit

 really funny thing to read now that Google has basically decided to destroy itself for no particular reason

 this is very fandom-brained but also pretty funny I'll admit

 

Trix not being jaded for once!

 lmao excuse me what

 my friends and I buying these DW scripts a year ago or so

 

NOBODY FORCED YOU TO BUY A PLANET FITZ KREINER

 everything turned out better than expected

 and now I'm sad again

 bro

 so he was playing the role of that god?

 sentence the author probably came up with before even writing the book and tried to re-use anywhere he could

 call them shinigamis the way everything keeps dying right after they've arrived

 

reverse white savior trope. white doomer

 incredible thing to read twenty years later at a time when the word meme is everywhere and everyone knows what it means

 UH OH

 lol Vorshagg is so sad to be innocent

 ok at least this part is solved

 MURDER LIZARD SAVES THE DAY

 

Columbo, on the other hand-

 

Capitalism!

there's still 50 pages to go we're running out of people to kill

 Yeah sure why not

 

I'm a bit rusty on my UK cultural lore so it took me this long to realise this entire plot point was a big Brian Blessed joke

 

best case scenario we're in Majora's mask worst case scenario we're in Fear and Hunger Termina

 wait if this used to be the pirate planet... is all the city floating

 it's funny cause it's true

 it's funny cause it's true 2: electric boogaloo

 

this used to read like a parody

 YOU DO THIS ALL THE TIME

 teen johannes be like

 wait I completely forgot about that place from the beginning of the story

 

ok I kinda need to draw him in that t-shirt

 

if that works that would be a historical first

 okay no this is good actually

 WAIT shit she's being mind-controlled AGAIN??

 apparently we share 1 braincell cause we had the same reaction

  lmao now they're detonating a bomb on the other side of a portal right after closing it

 bruh

 WAIT THAT'S WHY SHE WAS WRITTEN IN FIRST PERSON ALL THIS TIME??

 genuinely horrifying

 jesus fucking christ I kinda feel a bit sick for real, what a tonal shift

 Doctor you might want to rename yourself the Mortician at some point

 great sentence 10/10

 "pretending to like a guy who can actually read your mind" is probably the most difficult role she ever had to play

 

on the scale of "terrible people who you really don't want to have to pretend to love", "NFT-seller with a problematic age gap" must rank pretty high

 Eight please

 YES. YES. YES. oh that was cathartic as hell thank you

 repeating myself here but yes. yes. yes

 get that shit away from her

 I'm not sure this was done on purpose but this feels like character growth for Eight as well considering the whole mess that happened with Compassion and consent. In-universe, Eight probably doesn't remember any of that, but yeah

 oh that sucks

I just realised Trix should have an off-screen discussion with Fitz about all of this. Usually you'd think he would be the worst candidate to talk about that topic, but he went through the near-exact same thing in Book of the Still

 oh. okay

 so he's showing his death to his past self. why

 I'm... confused

 idk what to think about this book

 don't get me wrong, it's not a bad book by any mean! I really enjoyed it! it's just that the tone is all over the place and that ending is a bit confusing

 COME ON

 ok that's funny