The Scaramancer

War Master #5.2

Released: 28 October 2020

Listened: 1/15/22

If you were listening to this boxed set for the first time, you could be forgiven for thinking that the plot is taking a long time to get going (I certainly did). The previous story was all about getting a ship. This story is about flying the ship to the planet. The third (in order) story is a flashback. Having killed off a couple of interesting characters in the last story, we immediately replace them with more interesting characters, Dorada the mercenary, and the Scaramancer, a pirate. Again, Sir Derek is mostly playing the Doctor, although the Master does appear in a short flashback, perhaps for the purpose of reminding us what the Master really sounds like, to make a contrast. Because while the Doctor isn’t acting typically Doctor-ish here – he seems somewhat hardened, and more angry than usual – he’s not really acting like the Master either. The purpose of this story seems to be lining up some more characters who are really unhappy with the Master, and then drop the big reveal at the end. Honestly, I wonder if that couldn’t have been done in the first story.