Gareth Roberts' reconstruction of Douglas Adams' Shada is a mixed bag.
Up to the fifth chapter, Roberts does a fine impression of Adams' narrative voice. Much of the narrative has the flavour of The Hitchhiker's Guide, and I have no trouble imagining Tom Baker as the story's Doctor. That may be simply because that's who played the Doctor at the time the original script was written, but nonetheless.
Now, I can't say the first chapter is particularly strong. Showing the major villain and his/her plot straight away is fine for television, but presents a challenge in print.
After all, seeing the inner workings of a madman is kind of meaningless if we've no other characters by which to measure him. A book could very easily be populated by sociopaths.
Roberts really only grasped my attention when Chris Parsons (the hapless protagonist) and Prof. Chronotis (an eccentric old man) were introduced. Both of these characters are better reader proxies and, by extension, are easier to care about. After chapter two I wanted to read more.
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