#earthworld

earthworld (novel: 2001)

the EDA ranking tournament you’ve not been waiting for! this is not an elimination bracket! this is to determine a ranking of 1st to 73rd place.

ROUND FOURTEEN: POLL EIGHT

Earthworld by Jacqueline Rayner

vs…

The Banquo Legacy by Andy Lane & Justin Richards

EarthWorld (Jacqueline Rayner) "Synopsis: "Anji Kapoor has just had the worst week of her entire life, and things aren't getting any better. She should be back at her desk, not travelling through time and space in a police box with a couple of strange men.

The Doctor (Strange Man No. 1) is supposed to be returning her to Soho 2001 AD. So quite why there are dinosaurs outside, Anji isn't sure. Sad sixties refugee Fitz (Strange Man No. 2) seems to think they're either in prehistoric times or on a parallel Earth. And the Doctor is probably only pretending to know what's going on — because if he really knew, surely he would have mentioned the homicidal triplet princesses, the teen terrorists, the deadly android doubles (and triples) and the hosts of mad robots?

Anji's never going to complain about Monday mornings in the office again… "

Why it's Stranger: The setting alone is uncannily bizarre -- a theme park on one of Jupiter's moons devoted to Earth history, with research drawn from mistranslations, myths, and popular fiction. Sinister androids populate the place, and everyone is hiding the most terrible secrets. Meanwhile, Fitz Kreiner is having an identity crisis about being a clone, which is only made worse when he has to battle an Elvis impersonator to the death."

MaMa (Ruby Jean Jensen) "Once upon a time there lived a sweet little dolly. Her porcelain-like face was so smooth, just like a baby. Her mouth even had a tiny hole so she could eat and breathe. But her one beaded glass eye gleamed with mischief and evil. She had waited a long time in the attic for someone to set her free…

Once upon a time there lived a sweet little girl. The only place she was happy was in the attic with her dolly. If she could have seen her little doll's legs kick, she would have been frightened. If she could have felt her little doll's arms squeeze, she would have been shocked. But if she could have read her little doll's thoughts she would have run from the attic forever--for her sweet little dolly only had killing her on her mind…"

MaMa (Ruby Jean Jensen) "Once upon a time there lived a sweet little dolly. Her porcelain-like face was so smooth, just like a baby. Her mouth even had a tiny hole so she could eat and breathe. But her one beaded glass eye gleamed with mischief and evil. She had waited a long time in the attic for someone to set her free…

Once upon a time there lived a sweet little girl. The only place she was happy was in the attic with her dolly. If she could have seen her little doll's legs kick, she would have been frightened. If she could have felt her little doll's arms squeeze, she would have been shocked. But if she could have read her little doll's thoughts she would have run from the attic forever--for her sweet little dolly only had killing her on her mind…"

4.5/5

After the Doctor, it's Fitz I wanna hug. He was kinda annoying in the first part but then hell broke loose on him (again) and shit now I really want to read the Ancestor Cell to know what happened to those two. And again protective!Fitz is too good for this world. Also I think the Doctor kinda remembers what happened, maybe not all of it, but I think he's also trying to protect Fitz somehow (and himself). Can't wait to find out if I'm right. Anji was much more interesting : I love having her insights, how she has REAL problems (like wearing heels and having blisters), how she's still cold and logical and clearly too brave for her own good but she stills breaks down at the end and that final scene with the Doctor had me in tears. I liked how her grief was handled, how she's fine as long as she's doing something and the e-mails were a nice touch. As for the plot : it was completely bonkers, hilarious at times, emotional at others. The only thing that bothered me a bit was the characterisation of the Doctor, he felt a bit bland somehow. Also, I'd like to add that these three dumbasses really deserve each other :

"Fitz raised an eyebrow and smiled smugly. ‘Just leave this to me. One look at this -’ he took a lighter from his jacket pocket - ‘and he’ll be worshipping us as gods.’ Then the stupid prat flicked up the flame and started walking towards the caveman - was that PC? Caveperson? Evolutionally challenged, perhaps? - going ‘ug ug ug ug ug ug ug’ for goodness sake. Anji raised her eyebrows heavenwards. […] Her attention was ripped back to earth as the caveman suddenly screamed - it sounded like a shrieking chimpanzee. But it didn't sound like fear, more like … oh help! It started charging towards them. The idiot (meaning Fitz) had obviously enraged the creature.”

“The Doctor had tried to escape a few times, yelling ‘Look! Over there!’ to the scary robots, or sticking out a foot to trip it (the Doctor had limped for a while after that), but none of it had worked. On one bizarre occasion he’d shouted ‘Anji! Quick! Number seventeen!’ and had then looked utterly confused.”