A few months ago I pointed to the reviews of Robert William Berg, and said that with a thousand readers like him I could take over the world. His reviews of Here, There & Everywhere and Paragaea are among the most insightful that my books have ever received, and he always manages to tease out meanings or influences that other reviewers seem to miss.
His review of End of the Century is no different. And do I love the fact that much of the review is devoted to comparing End of the Century to Doctor Who, and to Steven Moffat’s Doctor Who in particular? Why yes, yes I do love that, as a matter of fact.
Here’s how he sums up the review:
All of the same can be said for Roberson’s marvelous End of the Century. The Arthurian Legend, Lewis Carroll, Oscar Wilde, James Bond, Doctor Who, Jack the Ripper–all of these literary and cultural references and more make up the vast, burbling stew that is this, one of the best time travel novels I’ve read. The novel also deserves high marks for including numerous gay characters who are as sensitively drawn as they are three-dimensional and non-stereotypical. End of the Century succeeds on every level–as an intricate puzzle, as a reunion with characters readers of Roberson’s previous books will have grown very fond of, as a fascinating character study of new heroines and heroes from various eras, all of whom are unknowingly bound by a single quest, and, most of all, as an excellent story wonderfully told. As the Tenth Doctor might say, “This is brilliant!”
There’s loads more cogent analysis at Robert’s blog (including, as it happens, his views on the premiere of Moffat’s Doctor Who), so check it out, why don’t you?