Review: Wooden Heart

Spotting a huge starship - the Castor - drifing idly through space, the Doctor and Martha can't help but investigate the vast vessel. Finding it unnervingly unpopulated, they turn back to return to the TARDIS, but the place where the left it has turned into a beautiful patch of woodland which hides a mysterious village and a community whose children are mysteriously vanishing, only to re-appear as apparitions in the swirling fog . . .

What's immediately noticeable about Wooden Heart, the first contribution by Martin Day to the ongoing New Series Adventures line, is how unusually adult it is. Whereas other books have been broadly family-friendly or specifically child-orientated, there's an indefinable something which makes Wooden Heart feel more "grown-up" - its themes, its style, its language and its plot are all more complex and a little darker than regular readers may have come to expect. Even the story's main child character, a resident of the incongruous village called Jude, is portrayed as being wise beyond her years, mature and headstrong, perhaps even a little jaded. This all combines to make a novel that's instantly more engaging to an older reader, but whether or not it's as accessible for younger fans is open for debate.

Another prominent contrast compared to other books is Day's more gentle style. The tranquility of the beautiful forest and the simple life of its residents is mirrored in the slow speed at which the plot unfolds. Day chooses to build up a series of mysteries, gradually hooking the reader's interest through the accumulating puzzles of the opening chapters, rather than hammering straight into action sequences too early on. Wooden Heart is pleasantly relaxed in terms of pacing, whilst still being a taut and absorbing tale.

The settings are vividly-realised, with the principal environment of the forest and village depicted as simultaneously vibrant and menacing; and the new characters introduced are realistic and three-dimensional. Martha and the Doctor are their usual inquistive and excitable selves, depicted accurately and given meaty roles within the story - Martha's decision to stay behind in the woodland world rather than accompanying the Doctor to safety makes for several particularly dramatic and well-written moments.

Wooden Heart is unpredictable, engaging and throroughly enjoyable.