Akiva Reads

by Paul Leonard

Oh, I liked this. It was genuinely good, but comes off especially well as I read it right after the gross pointless slog that was [b:Doctor Who: The Burning|136220|Doctor Who The Burning|Justin Richards|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1172079418s/136220.jpg|131277].

The idea: three perspectives on one story taking place in Europe in 1943, told by Alan Turing, Graham Greene, and Joseph Heller, who pretty much detest each other. Paul Leonard does a great job of getting the voices of each down. (Not that I've read any Graham Greene; and, as one other reviewer says, if this is even a partly accurate depiction, I'm not planning to.) There is a lot that could go wrong with this ambitious approach, but the only thing that made me scoff was the "Author Bio" at the end where it's stated that "no one knows why Turing committed suicide." (~~ooo, mysterious~~) Bullshit, it's common knowledge that he was being tortured for being gay.

It's a Doctor Who book, but like the best of the books it's also a commentary on the Doctor, poking holes in his personal mythology, and additionally an intelligent commentary on war and morality. This is one of the few Who novels that I can actually see myself rereading on its own merits.