The Witch Hunters (1998)

The Witch Hunters is a story that I read about two years ago if I am being honest so my review is based on what stuck in my memory and maybe not what I was thinking about it at the time. The thing about this book which sticks in my mind all this time later is how intriguing this book is. It felt like it had come straight from that era. The idea that a prolonged amount of time seems to have taken place is something that wouldn’t have happened during previous stories.

This story sees Susan wanting to change the course of history instead of Barbara. In fact reading this means that you have to think about the events of The Aztecs. I think that the Susan on TV was horribly served and its only during the Big Finish audios and novels like this that have showed what the character can do. I thought that she the strongest of the regulars with the Doctor and Barbara a close joint second. Ian did seem to be a bit left out and wasn’t really allowed to be the Ian that he was on TV.

I return to how the setting and how it doesn’t feel like its rushing. It’s the longest book I have read in the PDA’s. It’s only six pages longer than Synthespians and 3 pages longer than Illegal Alien but it’s the one that feels like it is taking the story in its stride. It is allowing us to savour the history of America in 1692. I know that this might not to everyone’s satisfaction but there is a bravery to take things this slow in a book that was released in the late 1990’s. In Synthespians and Illegal Alien I have commented on how long it takes for the action to get started but because there isn’t a well known alien or an alien at all and so it saunters in its narrative.

Despite my enjoyment of this story, there is one aspect that was always going to trouble. Well two actually but the first is the most important. Whenever you do something in history you know that things cant change and so if you use certain characters, you are pretty much restricted with what happens to them. Secondly there is the issue of whether you know what the event is.  I didn’t know a great deal about what happens in Massachusetts in 1692 but in a way that wasn’t a problem because the characters were interesting enough.

I don’t know whether it’s the best PDA ever written but it’s the one that has left a warm feeling with me and that is a rare thing in a book.