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Post by Deleted on Jul 5, 2018 23:10:34 GMT
Ooh, yeah, it left quite the impression on me reading it for the first time. There's something very reminiscent of "An Unearthly Child" in Angela finding the Doctor on Torrok in those first couple of chapters. The planet being this hellish, battery acid sort of place. It's so difficult to talk about without going into spoilers, but I'm very curious how you guys are going to go about visualising: {Spoiler}the Doctor's reaction to Angela's death and him bashing Nik Calvin's head in with the TARDIS hatstand while the Valeyard laugh echoes in his ears. Look forward to seeing the final product, in any case. It's a great little tale in a very unique period of Sixie's life. I’ll probably alter it a little as I’m cutting down on quite a lot of the actual TV shows just so we can get a reasonable cast as we’re producing it after Timewyrm Revelation and that’s got a monster of a cast list I'll say. Most of whom are more or less integral to the story unlike Time of Your Life, yeah. Well, that'll certainly end up the tour de force in its own right and from the looks of things you've got at least two listeners already.
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Post by newt5996 on Jul 5, 2018 23:29:51 GMT
I’ll probably alter it a little as I’m cutting down on quite a lot of the actual TV shows just so we can get a reasonable cast as we’re producing it after Timewyrm Revelation and that’s got a monster of a cast list I'll say. Most of whom are more or less integral to the story unlike Time of Your Life, yeah. Well, that'll certainly end up the tour de force in its own right and from the looks of things you've got at least two listeners already. Yeah I’m already halfway through the book but I should probably mention the adaptation of Timewyrm Genesys is actually releasing soon as we’re already editing it. Just look up Briarheart02 where there’s a sneak peak on youTube and a trailer dropping on the 14th/15th depending on where you are in the world.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 26, 2018 19:04:22 GMT
The Missy Chronicles Well,the first story - James Goss' Dismemberment (ooo-er). The book flits Missy's entire life and this is pretty much her first day. It turns out there's a Gentleman's Club in London The Master goes to every time he regenerates as a little ritual. Well....they're not too keen now he's not a he any more Well....what do you think Missy would do when told people don't want her around because she's a woman? It's really a very defiant story that it's impossible not to read as criticism of stuffy fans refusing to accept gender-swapping regeneration but it's not preachy - it's funny, clever and scary. Few wee spoilery things: {Spoiler}
Missy sold Nathan Barley that giant sea beast in Thin Ice Lytton - of all people - gets a namecheck It ends with the reveal that one of the club is Dr. Skarosa...and Missy has an idea about cremations, leading right into Series 8.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 29, 2018 9:42:21 GMT
The Missy Chronicles
Teddy Sparkles Must Die! by Paul Magrs. I've been a Paul Magrs fan, and often defender, for decades. This is bags of fun but.....I'm wondering if it's not a rehashed idea he had for Iris.
Missy is a nanny for some kids in the 20s, she brings a teddy bear for them that grants them wishes. For the last wish they have she suggests they ask it for very specific futures that she can manipulate later on. It's very whimsical, very Magrs. Yet Teddy Sparkles is just a powered Panda and Missy's actions could easily be Iris'.
I'm thinking people who don't know Paul's work will find this very rewarding. Those of us that do...it's his greatest hits.
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melkur
Chancellery Guard
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Post by melkur on Jul 29, 2018 16:26:30 GMT
Last week I read 'The Tales Of Trenzalore' & will be starting to read 'Class: Joyride' once I've finished 'The 39 Steps'
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Post by Deleted on Jul 29, 2018 17:15:21 GMT
Survival- it’s very breezy.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 8, 2018 9:47:25 GMT
Doing a bit of cleaning in the cupboards and rediscovered an old copy of The Sontaran Experiment. Ian Marter doesn't tend to be mentioned very often when talk of Targets comes up, but his style of writing is really charming. It's littered with these gems he's been able to put in thanks to the story's comparatively short script.
The Doctor's rebuttal to Styre's Controller gasping, "Who...?" is a grinning, "You're getting warm." While stunned unconscious, he has a nightmare about rats gnawing their way into the TARDIS and Harry speculates that Styre might be a mythical golem. The Earth is left in far worse a state in the book, the black rocks and dry weeds of Earth bathed by a red sun hanging in the sulphurous yellow sky. Properly apocalyptic.
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Post by theotherjosh on Aug 17, 2018 15:47:23 GMT
I listened to the Rose audiobook, narrated by Camille Coduri. I like Jackie Tyler okay, but I dearly love Camille. She just seems to have an authenticity not always found in actors. I watched the episode prior to listening to the book. When it originally aired I thought it was a very solid (re)introduction to the world of Doctor Who. I realize now how wholly inadequate that assessment was. Watching it now, I find it nothing short of iconic. (I think it came squarely in the middle of the most recent DWM episode poll I saw, which is a crime!) Frank Cottrell-Boyce claims that Davies' greatest contribution to British television drama was saving it from extinction and watching Rose again, I can understand what he means. Writers are often told to “kill their darlings”, but RTD could never bring himself to do that. He loves them too much. He’s not the most technically gifted scribe to ever write for Doctor Who, but that surpassing affection he holds for his creations is the core of this book. He makes me feel for Rose Tyler how he feels for her. And that is a triumph. For me, one of the central messages of Doctor Who is that the strong have to stand up for the powerless, and that is the engine that drives the story. There are dozens of tiny details like the Doctor instinctively protecting Rose from shards of broken glass, or Clive sacrificing himself Autons so his family will have time to flee. Mickey comes off particularly well in the book. “The first thing he did when granted the keys to #90 was to prop that door open and make others welcome.” I had read that the book featured a transgender character, but I thought that things would be written so that the character’s status was only inferred. Nope. “Sally Salter, born Stephen Salter…” She has a safe place in Mickey’s flat, and that makes me love Mickey. He’s not the hero of the book, but we get a little more of his background and it makes sense why he would be reluctant to leave his home, which he sees as a safe place and a refuge. Also, ”We can't all be heroes, because somebody has to sit on the curb and applaud when they go by.” Clive gets a larger role as well. His death was technically off-screen in the television episode, and I was dearly hoping that he survived through some improbable twist of fate. {Spoiler}He doesn’t He gets the same treatment as Mickey and Rose. He manages to stub his toe on his own front door and it’s just so endearing. For the first time ever, the Autons seem like a real threat. The attack is genuinely unsettling, in part because we’ve been given a chance to know those people threatened by it. Things that seemed odd in the original episode (the poorly photoshopped picture, why the Nestene kept Mickey alive, Rose’s failure to notice that Mickey was made of plastic) are called and recontextualized until they make sense. Sometimes the “this mistake isn’t really a mistake” can lead to a very clumsy retcon, but Davies handles everything with a deft hand. Davies has been given a profound gift in this book. He has the opportunity to reframe and refine his seminal work. Rose (the episode) was brilliant, but not flawless, and Davies does not merely transcribe the events of the book, but instead draws on ten years of personal growth and ten additional years of Doctor Who mythology (Clive says of the Doctor “Clever. Isn’t he? Or she.”) to expand and enrich what we saw back then. I really enjoyed it. Eccleston’s run was my favorite era of New Who, and it’s great to have a chance to go back and rediscover it.
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Post by Ela on Oct 23, 2018 1:30:37 GMT
I finished re-reading Nightshade today. It was better than I remembered, as it didn't make a huge impression on me the first time around. When I read the ending, I also remembered that the next book is Love and War.
I've started listening to the audio adaptation, also, interesting how they've changed things to adapt to audio.
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Post by tuigirl on Oct 23, 2018 11:14:54 GMT
I finished re-reading Nightshade today. It was better than I remembered, as it didn't make a huge impression on me the first time around. When I read the ending, I also remembered that the next book is Love and War. I've started listening to the audio adaptation, also, interesting how they've changed things to adapt to audio. I actually liked the Nightshade book.
But somehow, I am not a fan of Love and War. It was a bit bizarre in places and the Doctors actions are questionable and offputting. And Bennys first appearance was not as good as expected.
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Post by tuigirl on Oct 23, 2018 11:20:10 GMT
I think the best Who books I read in the past year were the "Missy Chronicles" (the story "Girl Power!" is simply amazing) and Moffats "Day of the Doctor". I think "Day of the Doctor" is my alltime favorite Who book so far. I love the non-linear story telling, I love the different viewpoints of the different Doctors, I love the added scenes (one word... Spoilers....bathtub) and I love that it expands and stands on its own compared to the TV episode.
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Post by Ela on Oct 23, 2018 13:54:32 GMT
I finished re-reading Nightshade today. It was better than I remembered, as it didn't make a huge impression on me the first time around. When I read the ending, I also remembered that the next book is Love and War. I've started listening to the audio adaptation, also, interesting how they've changed things to adapt to audio. I actually liked the Nightshade book.
But somehow, I am not a fan of Love and War. It was a bit bizarre in places and the Doctors actions are questionable and offputting. And Bennys first appearance was not as good as expected.
I actually enjoyed Love and War. And I love Benny. The audio adaptation of Love and War is well worth your time, if you haven’t listened to it yet.
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Post by tuigirl on Oct 23, 2018 15:43:35 GMT
I actually liked the Nightshade book.
But somehow, I am not a fan of Love and War. It was a bit bizarre in places and the Doctors actions are questionable and offputting. And Bennys first appearance was not as good as expected.
I actually enjoyed Love and War. And I love Benny. The audio adaptation of Love and War is well worth your time, if you haven’t listened to it yet. Well, I have not bought the audio adaptation of Love and War yet... reason being, I really did not like the book (and I actually got it because it is Benny's first appearance! I love Benny). But I liked some of the other audio adaptations, so when another sale comes round (maybe during the 13th Doctor sales) I might get it. Question to you- do they cut out some of the very bizarre virtual reality bits? I already heard that the love affair between Ace and that guy is even worse handled on audion than in the book (time constraints?) and I already did not buy it in the book. As for the Doctor... he is a downright a$$ in that story. Whatever the reasons why he does what he does... he is just not my Doctor.
Not sure how this is handled in the audio version...
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Post by tuigirl on Oct 23, 2018 15:53:39 GMT
This brings me to the topic of these New Adventures books... some of them are really, really weird. I even dared reading the Left-Handed Hummingbird and oh my god, that is something else. It is just one long, dragged out bad trip on magic mushrooms (not only for the Doctor, who is drugged and out of it for most of the story) but also for the reader and, one can only assume, the author. If you ever need convincing how horrible magic mushrooms are as a recreational drug, read this book. The 90s must have been a really weird time for Whovians...
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Post by Ela on Oct 23, 2018 16:45:59 GMT
I actually enjoyed Love and War. And I love Benny. The audio adaptation of Love and War is well worth your time, if you haven’t listened to it yet. Well, I have not bought the audio adaptation of Love and War yet... reason being, I really did not like the book (and I actually got it because it is Benny's first appearance! I love Benny). But I liked some of the other audio adaptations, so when another sale comes round (maybe during the 13th Doctor sales) I might get it. Question to you- do they cut out some of the very bizarre virtual reality bits? I already heard that the love affair between Ace and that guy is even worse handled on audion than in the book (time constraints?) and I already did not buy it in the book. As for the Doctor... he is a downright a$$ in that story. Whatever the reasons why he does what he does... he is just not my Doctor.
Not sure how this is handled in the audio version...
It's been a while since I listened to it, so I don't clearly remember all the details, but I do remember that I enjoyed it. Some of the virtual reality bits are in there, to be sure. And the Doctor does become different towards Ace through the New Adventures, so I see it as part of a pattern. It's certainly a carryover from the way he behaved toward Ace in the previous book, including his inexplicable (and unexplained) final action at the end of the book. Lisa Bowerman is fantastic as Benny in Love and War, as always. That's all I've got, at the moment.
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Post by Ela on Oct 23, 2018 16:48:57 GMT
This brings me to the topic of these New Adventures books... some of them are really, really weird. I even dared reading the Left-Handed Hummingbird and oh my god, that is something else. It is just one long, dragged out bad trip on magic mushrooms (not only for the Doctor, who is drugged and out of it for most of the story) but also for the reader and, one can only assume, the author. If you ever need convincing how horrible magic mushrooms are as a recreational drug, read this book. The 90s must have been a really weird time for Whovians... Yes, many of the New Adventures go off and weird and bizarre directions. The weirdest was The Faction Paradox. I was really not into nor taken in by that story line at all, though many love it. Pretty much anything written by Lawrence Miles tended to lose me, as I find his plots a bit too convoluted for my taste.
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Post by tuigirl on Oct 24, 2018 7:16:35 GMT
Yes, many of the New Adventures go off and weird and bizarre directions. The weirdest was The Faction Paradox. I was really not into nor taken in by that story line at all, though many love it. Pretty much anything written by Lawrence Miles tended to lose me, as I find his plots a bit too convoluted for my taste. One the one hand I am happy that the new books coming out are more straightforward stories and cater for a "simpler" audience. On the other hand, we lose all the imaginative and experimentative writing (which, as we both agree, is in some cases un-readable) which is a bit sad. But I think in the current time, we cannot expect too much of the complicated and experimental- I was already very surprised that Moffat could publish "The Day of the Doctor" book in the way it is (I loved it for the writing style, but it is positively harmless compared to some 90s books).
Although, that "Girl Power!" story in the Missy Chronicles was also amazing (and experimental), though I had no trouble following it.
So there is some hope.
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Post by Ela on Oct 24, 2018 15:15:57 GMT
I haven't read that many of the new Who books. I know I was disappointed, though, by the short stories in the 50th anniversary Doctor Who story anthology (Doctor Who: Eleven Doctors, Eleven Stories. I found many of the stories overly simplistic and evenly out of character. They seemed to be aimed a a young audience.
I have bought several new Who books that have been recommended by people here, though. Haven't gotten around to reading any of them yet, though.
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Post by tuigirl on Oct 24, 2018 16:27:31 GMT
I haven't read that many of the new Who books. I know I was disappointed, though, by the short stories in the 50th anniversary Doctor Who story anthology ( Doctor Who: Eleven Doctors, Eleven Stories. I found many of the stories overly simplistic and evenly out of character. They seemed to be aimed a a young audience. I have bought several new Who books that have been recommended by people here, though. Haven't gotten around to reading any of them yet, though. Hmm, I did not think that the story anthology was too bad, some stories I quite enjoyed. But yes, they are a bit simplistic. As are most of the NuWho novels I am afraid (one reason I branched out into the New Adventures, my first one was Human Nature, which also introduced me to Benny- it was love at first sight ). I also was not really happy with the River Song book, that was a bit disappointing, however, the Missy book at least was great fun (but of course it also won't win the Nobel prize for literature).
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Post by constonks on Oct 25, 2018 4:47:24 GMT
A one-sentence defense of the VNAs:
Give me an ambitious trainwreck over mediocre and accessible any day of the week.
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