Cat's Cradle: Witch Mark

"It wanted to be let into his soul."

Writer: Andrew Hunt

Format: Novel

Released: June 1992

Series: New Adventures 07

Featuring: Seventh Doctor, Ace

Synopsis

'Spare no sympathy for those creatures. They were withes, they deserved to die.'

A coach crashes on the M40. All the passengers are killed. The bodies carry no identification; they are wearing similar new clothes. And each has a suitcase full of banknotes.

A country vet delivers a foal. The mare has a deep wound in her forehead. In the straw, the vet finds a tapered horn.

In the darkening and domed world known to its inhabitants as Tir na n'Og, the besieged humans defend the walls of their citadel Dinorben against mythical beasts and demons. 

The TARDIS's link with the Eye of Harmony is becoming ever more tenuous and is in urgent need of repair. But the time machine takes the Doctor and Ace to a village in rural Wales, and a gateway to another world.

Verdict

Cat's Cradle: Witch Mark was a pretty average novel to conclude the trilogy started with Time's Crucible as part of the New Adventures series. I was so happy to be back reading this series after a far too long extended absence, but that's dad life! It's probably the longest I've ever taken to complete a trilogy but that didn't really seem to matter with it being more of a loose trilogy following the issues experienced by the TARDIS. I loved the idea of the TARDIS losing its link with the Eye of Harmony and having the description of the interior being dull given that all that was going on with it losing power was great, and I wished the book focused more on that. Sadly, it just seemed to be bookend the overall plot which was a pretty good if not confusing one. I loved the setting of a rural Welsh village of Llanfer Ceiriog but I do think that establishing a firm date would have been beneficial. The relationship between the Doctor and Ace was intriguing in this one and I liked the continuation of his manipulation as he made a point of leaving her behind whilst she slept with a claim of protecting her, but it was nice for Ace to know that he wanted her to do something instead. I thought the links between the Welsh village and the mythical land of Tir na n'Og was a little strange and whilst the gateway concept was good, it all got a bit much I think and slightly overcomplicated which was a shame. I thought some of the creatures breaking through and being found with the likes of unicorns and centaurs causing chaos for the police. Jack and David were fun little characters and their finding a centaur only for the policeman they enlisted for help ended up burning it to death! That was pretty horrifying. Bathsheba was a very good character and probably my favourite of those guest appearing in the book. Her relationship with Ace was brilliant and I really liked how through the horn that they developed a literal connection. That was terrific. I just thought the different factions of creatures was a bit much to follow and there wasn't enough description or distinction throughout with a lot of memory required to remember the likes of the centaurs, unicorns, humans and even trolls and what they stood for or who was on whose side. I didn't think the characterisation of the Seventh Doctor was massively strong but I did think the author did a good job with Ace so it wasn't all bad from that point of view. Hughes was a good character and I liked that he had a past relationship with the Doctor who'd visited with Mel, although I thought it strange that the two marked versions of the Doctor and Ace seemed to just vanish. Loose ends definitely needed tying up. Goibhnie was a decent villain and I liked the premise behind the experiment, but it was just so predictable once the little log inserts occurred. The Doctor confronting him should have been more powerful in my mind but it was quite simple really with the sun vanishing and it just needing refuelling. The moment that happened was very nice. Caeryon was a strange character and I thought the idea of having a character with a lisp and writing in the letters as if he was speaking them was just terrible, and Ace's comments weren't complimentary either which was quite sad. Stuart Taylor being found was good and I liked how he was finally reunited with the Inspector who he'd called about the unicorns to start with. The Doctor using Herne, who linked in with Davey as the same person but experiencing time in opposite directions, was very good and that last chapter with him repairing the TARDIS was brilliant. It's a shame that everything that came before it had potential but just seemed a bit too kerfuffled. Closing the gateway was neat though. Overall, a decent read in parts but there was a lot going on! 

Rating: 6/10