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Post by tuigirl on Sept 8, 2019 9:44:57 GMT
To all you avid Who book readers and collectors. A short question. Since I enjoyed the 8th Doctor comic so much, I thought I might get into the Eighth Doctor books a little bit deeper. Over the past couple of years I picked up the few that had been available as Ebooks, however, these are few with a lot of gaps. So far I only read a couple: I loved Eater of Wasps, one of the better Who books in my opinion. However, I could not get into Alien Bodies... I disliked the narrative style and I find the whole Faction Paradox thing extremely weird and a confusing concept.
Question- which of the books do you consider essential? Which ones are your favorites? Is there a certain order these should be read in?
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Post by Deleted on Sept 8, 2019 10:03:03 GMT
To all you avid Who book readers and collectors. A short question. Since I enjoyed the 8th Doctor comic so much, I thought I might get into the Eighth Doctor books a little bit deeper. Over the past couple of years I picked up the few that had been available as Ebooks, however, these are few with a lot of gaps. So far I only read a couple: I loved Eater of Wasps, one of the better Who books in my opinion. However, I could not get into Alien Bodies... I disliked the narrative style and I find the whole Faction Paradox thing extremely weird and a confusing concept. Question- which of the books do you consider essential? Which ones are your favorites? Is there a certain order these should be read in? From experience, there tends to be two common jumping on points for the range as a whole. Vampire Science is one, bridging the gap between the NAs and the EDAs. The Burning is the other, resetting not just the range, but the series itself with a really interesting characterisation of the Eighth Doctor. Pre- Burning is more standalone, but a bit inconsistent on characterisation. Post- Burning is a lot more serialised, but the characters don't slide around so much from book-to-book. I can remember two books quite strongly. Kate Orman's The Year of Intelligent Tigers with a quintessentially Eighth Doctor premise. The other is Lance Parkin's Father Time where he fosters a teenage daughter while trapped on Earth. Both are from that latter era, exploring this more raw interpretation of the Doctor's personality. Someone who grabs a man by the hair and forces his face to the window so he can see the carnage he's caused below. Deeply passionate. Almost in the vein of the Enlightenment era poets and writers (think of his characterisation post-Destrii).
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Post by tuigirl on Sept 8, 2019 11:09:17 GMT
To all you avid Who book readers and collectors. A short question. Since I enjoyed the 8th Doctor comic so much, I thought I might get into the Eighth Doctor books a little bit deeper. Over the past couple of years I picked up the few that had been available as Ebooks, however, these are few with a lot of gaps. So far I only read a couple: I loved Eater of Wasps, one of the better Who books in my opinion. However, I could not get into Alien Bodies... I disliked the narrative style and I find the whole Faction Paradox thing extremely weird and a confusing concept. Question- which of the books do you consider essential? Which ones are your favorites? Is there a certain order these should be read in? From experience, there tends to be two common jumping on points for the range as a whole. Vampire Science is one, bridging the gap between the NAs and the EDAs. The Burning is the other, resetting not just the range, but the series itself with a really interesting characterisation of the Eighth Doctor. Pre- Burning is more standalone, but a bit inconsistent on characterisation. Post- Burning is a lot more serialised, but the characters don't slide around so much from book-to-book. I can remember two books quite strongly. Kate Orman's The Year of Intelligent Tigers with a quintessentially Eighth Doctor premise. The other is Lance Parkin's Father Time where he fosters a teenage daughter while trapped on Earth. Both are from that latter era, exploring this more raw interpretation of the Doctor's personality. Someone who grabs a man by the hair and forces his face to the window so he can see the carnage he's caused below. Deeply passionate. Almost in the vein of the Enlightenment era poets and writers (think of his characterisation post-Destrii). Cool, thanks for the information! Yeah, I would be really interested in Vampire Science, sadly it is not available as Ebook yet and finding a used hard copy over here in Germany might be a (expensive) challenge. And I am not a fan of shady online copies floating about.
However, I got Year of Intelligent Tigers and Father Time for my kindle. Wow, I love deeply emotional stories. Great, this is something to look forward to!
I also got Trading Futures, Gallifrey Chronicles, Earthworld and Seeing I, but I have seen that Seeing I is part of a trilogy and I am not sure I will understand it out of context...
Isn't it hard when you arrive a decade late for a party?
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Post by Deleted on Sept 9, 2019 1:02:05 GMT
From experience, there tends to be two common jumping on points for the range as a whole. Vampire Science is one, bridging the gap between the NAs and the EDAs. The Burning is the other, resetting not just the range, but the series itself with a really interesting characterisation of the Eighth Doctor. Pre- Burning is more standalone, but a bit inconsistent on characterisation. Post- Burning is a lot more serialised, but the characters don't slide around so much from book-to-book. I can remember two books quite strongly. Kate Orman's The Year of Intelligent Tigers with a quintessentially Eighth Doctor premise. The other is Lance Parkin's Father Time where he fosters a teenage daughter while trapped on Earth. Both are from that latter era, exploring this more raw interpretation of the Doctor's personality. Someone who grabs a man by the hair and forces his face to the window so he can see the carnage he's caused below. Deeply passionate. Almost in the vein of the Enlightenment era poets and writers (think of his characterisation post-Destrii). Cool, thanks for the information! Yeah, I would be really interested in Vampire Science, sadly it is not available as Ebook yet and finding a used hard copy over here in Germany might be a (expensive) challenge. And I am not a fan of shady online copies floating about. However, I got Year of Intelligent Tigers and Father Time for my kindle. Wow, I love deeply emotional stories. Great, this is something to look forward to! I also got Trading Futures, Gallifrey Chronicles, Earthworld and Seeing I, but I have seen that Seeing I is part of a trilogy and I am not sure I will understand it out of context... Isn't it hard when you arrive a decade late for a party? Better late than never. All aboard who are coming aboard! Yeah, I've let up on tracking down older releases just because the postage is becoming astronomical. It's tariffs on tarrifs on tarrifs. For, as far as I can tell, no reason than it just "needs" another tax. Ooh. Of the six books there, I'd hold off on The Gallifrey Chronicles until the very end and be aware that Earthworld takes place right after the Exiled on Earth arc that's running from The Burning to Escape Velocity, so it takes all the stories in that bracket more onboard. Seeing I should be okay actually because all you need to know is Sam ran away and the Doctor's tracking her down. Father Time continues the Doctor's immortal jaunt through Earth's history (the long way round), but there isn't anything essential from his previous decades that stops the enjoyment of the book. Everything else, Tigers and Trading Futures are both standalone. The "hitching posts" of the latter range, where the status quo changes dramatically, are: The Burning, Escape Velocity, Earthworld, The Adventuress of Henrietta Street, Camera Obscura, Time Zero, The Last Resort, Timeless, Sometime Never and The Gallifrey Chronicles. There's a tonne that happens in between them like the TARDIS accidentally introducing conventional ethics to a world of Loony Toons (The Crooked World) and a colony world run by magic ( Grimm Reality), but those are the "buffers" between each period, so to speak. Hope you enjoy!
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Post by tuigirl on Sept 9, 2019 7:13:15 GMT
Cool, thanks for the information! Yeah, I would be really interested in Vampire Science, sadly it is not available as Ebook yet and finding a used hard copy over here in Germany might be a (expensive) challenge. And I am not a fan of shady online copies floating about. However, I got Year of Intelligent Tigers and Father Time for my kindle. Wow, I love deeply emotional stories. Great, this is something to look forward to! I also got Trading Futures, Gallifrey Chronicles, Earthworld and Seeing I, but I have seen that Seeing I is part of a trilogy and I am not sure I will understand it out of context... Isn't it hard when you arrive a decade late for a party? Better late than never. All aboard who are coming aboard! Yeah, I've let up on tracking down older releases just because the postage is becoming astronomical. It's tariffs on tarrifs on tarrifs. For, as far as I can tell, no reason than it just "needs" another tax. Ooh. Of the six books there, I'd hold off on The Gallifrey Chronicles until the very end and be aware that Earthworld takes place right after the Exiled on Earth arc that's running from The Burning to Escape Velocity, so it takes all the stories in that bracket more onboard. Seeing I should be okay actually because all you need to know is Sam ran away and the Doctor's tracking her down. Father Time continues the Doctor's immortal jaunt through Earth's history (the long way round), but there isn't anything essential from his previous decades that stops the enjoyment of the book. Everything else, Tigers and Trading Futures are both standalone. The "hitching posts" of the latter range, where the status quo changes dramatically, are: The Burning, Escape Velocity, Earthworld, The Adventuress of Henrietta Street, Camera Obscura, Time Zero, The Last Resort, Timeless, Sometime Never and The Gallifrey Chronicles. There's a tonne that happens in between them like the TARDIS accidentally introducing conventional ethics to a world of Loony Toons (The Crooked World) and a colony world run by magic ( Grimm Reality), but those are the "buffers" between each period, so to speak. Hope you enjoy! I love we have people like you with such a wealth of knowledge here. Great, thanks again! Yeah, I hope I will enjoy those. When I get the time to get stuck into it (hope I can take another week of work in November).
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Post by elkawho on Sept 22, 2019 14:18:23 GMT
Last of The Gadarene. Just started it.
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Post by constonks on Sept 27, 2019 16:22:36 GMT
Went looking for it yesterday around town but ended up grabbing it on Amazon just now (and purchasing Chris Boucher's Psi-ence Fiction while I was out). Arrived today! http://instagram.com/p/B26888UFcaO
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Post by Deleted on Sept 27, 2019 21:45:43 GMT
A discussion on the Time War thread a couple days ago got me back into reading the Doctor Who Annual 2006. Fresh-faced Who after over a decade's absence with the Ninth Doctor and Rose Tyler at the helm. A few short stories by familiar faces here-- Paul Cornell, Steven Moffat, Robert Shearman -- tackling the unity of the quicksilver-faced Masakaar masquerade, vengeful rain that can cut through steel and a different, far younger Sally Sparrow seeking to help the Doctor over her Christmas holidays. It's remarkable how fully-formed the Ninth Doctor emerged onto the scene just after the millennium. Parting of the Ways gave a sense of closure to his all-too-brief journey, but I find myself missing him. His life at the moment may be the briefest of the Doctors (fingers crossed that's soon to change). There's a sense of unspoken history to the stories and extracts here. Davies sprinkles intriguing whispers of what we'd never seen after cancellation, among stealthy and not so stealthy references to television and Big Finish. I had a ponder and we're only three or so years away from the New Series overtaking the Wilderness Years for time. Time, that old healer. Long may it continue.
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ljwilson
Chancellery Guard
It's tangerine....not orange
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Post by ljwilson on Oct 2, 2019 17:34:11 GMT
Is The Auton Invasion any good?
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Post by tuigirl on Oct 2, 2019 18:32:03 GMT
Re-Reading the Missy Chronicles. I bought the hard-copy just because I enjoyed this so much as ebook and it arrived the day before yesterday. Even in a stressful time as right now, it always makes me laugh out loud- especially the story "Girl Power!" which is simply amazing.
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Post by mark687 on Oct 2, 2019 19:21:18 GMT
Is The Auton Invasion any good? As in the Target Novelization of Spearhead from Space? Yes,,, Yes it is.
Regards
mark687
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Post by constonks on Oct 3, 2019 1:02:36 GMT
Is The Auton Invasion any good? Yes! I really enjoyed it. It doesn't deviate from Spearhead all that much but I think I preferred it ever so slightly. It also moves along at a fantastic pace and can be easily devoured in a day, but there's still some real artistry in between the action. It made me want to pick up another couple Targets at some point, certainly, to pepper in amongst the massive stack of original Who novels on my shelf.
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Post by newt5996 on Oct 3, 2019 1:46:09 GMT
Finished and reviewed Beltempest last night and while I genuinely enjoyed it, of all Mortimore's work it may be the weakest. There just aren't that many interesting characters which is odd considering his usual track record.
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Post by constonks on Oct 3, 2019 1:48:33 GMT
Finished and reviewed Beltempest last night and while I genuinely enjoyed it, of all Mortimore's work it may be the weakest. There just aren't that many interesting characters which is odd considering his usual track record. That's next on the EDA list for me (after a trio of VNAs)! Will have to share what I think of it - I liked the other two Mortimores I've read (Lucifer Rising & Blood Heat).
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 3, 2019 5:07:25 GMT
Finished and reviewed Beltempest last night and while I genuinely enjoyed it, of all Mortimore's work it may be the weakest. There just aren't that many interesting characters which is odd considering his usual track record. Interesting this has popped up when it has. Jim Mortimore's been working on a Director's Cut of Beltempest (similar to what was done with Blood Heat), so there is/will soon be the option to read an updated version now.
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Post by newt5996 on Oct 3, 2019 23:29:17 GMT
Finished and reviewed Beltempest last night and while I genuinely enjoyed it, of all Mortimore's work it may be the weakest. There just aren't that many interesting characters which is odd considering his usual track record. Interesting this has popped up when it has. Jim Mortimore's been working on a Director's Cut of Beltempest (similar to what was done with Blood Heat), so there is/will soon be the option to read an updated version now. That's interesting. I never got a hold of the director's cut of Blood Heat, any idea where it is available?
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Post by Deleted on Oct 4, 2019 23:20:48 GMT
Interesting this has popped up when it has. Jim Mortimore's been working on a Director's Cut of Beltempest (similar to what was done with Blood Heat), so there is/will soon be the option to read an updated version now. That's interesting. I never got a hold of the director's cut of Blood Heat, any idea where it is available? Good question. I'll PM you with a possible link.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 5, 2019 4:13:33 GMT
Race Against TimeWith the Sixth Doctor off the air, back in the days of the 1986 hiatus, Doctor Who became unusually reliant on its print media to continue the titular character's adventures in time and space. Novelisations fuelled a preexisting gap for old tales retold, but new travels came largely from elsewhere. Namely, the DWM comic strip and (what are now deeply obscure) Make-Your-Own Adventure books. The latter of these, the same size and shape of a Target novelisation, featured returning authors such as David Martin (co-creator of K9), William Emms (writer of Galaxy Four), Philip Martin (of Varos fame), and Pip and Jane Baker (late of The Mark of the Rani). Six in total. Forming their own lost season. 1Race Against Time was the last entry in these unusual tales. At this point, we've duelled against Omega alongside K9 and Drax, bested the villainous Garth Hadeez's attempts to subvert Galileo and destroy Earth's solar system, solved the mystery of Riff City on Gallifrey, smashed Darval's omnicidal genetic re-coder and outwitted imps en route to Venus. For this final adventure, the Bakers pit the Doctor, Peri and YOU (a nameless youngster from contemporary Earth) against the Rani's latest experimental project -- the Time Destabiliser. There's a heavier emphasis on puzzles, this time around, as you navigate mazes, unscramble anagrams and science your way out of the Rani's various death traps. The story begins much in the same manner as one of the Trial entries. Already in media res. YOU are swept up in the Doctor and Peri's attempts to escape temporal limbo, a time-based singularity, drawing the TARDIS like rubber band back and forth through Earth's history. Freed with the emergency power booster, the TARDIS lands on the rich iridescent blue soil of Pyro Shika, home to the hunting Shikari. Friends of the Doctor, he emerges with little concern for his safety, but his trust proves misplaced. He's attacked with an electrostatic net and hauled off to meet their new oppressor. The Bakers really nail the regulars' characterisations. The Sixth Doctor is at his best. Bravado in the face of danger, deep compassion for the subjugated Shikari and evenly matched against the sharp cruelty of the Rani. He has a real sense of presence in the story and his banter with Peri is lovely. Speaking of which, she gets a great deal to do during this adventure. Her botanical expertise and shrewd judge of character are front-and-centre for much of your explorations. She's the one to bail you out of trouble if things prove too difficult (in one memorable instance, with a blowtorch). The Rani retains her cold, debonair attitude, lacking the pantomime pitfalls that would befall her in Time and the Rani. The Doctor hypothesises sadly that resentment at her exile from Gallifrey may have pushed her beyond amoral into genuine evil. The Bakers have genuinely considered every aspect of the book they could. From the two leads' banter (the Doctor mends Peri's broken heel as they walk) to why the Rani chose Pyro Shika in particular for her experiments (it has a unique planetary core, see...). This is their description of the Temple of the Great Fountain: Moreover, the stakes feel very real. As you're crossing through the temple cloister, not too far from where the Rani has established her base, something flares in the night sky above your heads. A nearby star winks out. The Doctor identifies it as an inhabited solar system. He's failed to prevent the initial test firing of the Time Destructor. A heavy sense of foreboding resonates through your party of Time Lord, humans and Shikari defectors. It's something that has to be stopped. While many of these elements may sound familiar to the Seventh Doctor's debut, they come across as almost Hinchcliffian in their execution. This is a classically Gothic story with adventure book overtones. One particularly ghoulish failure leads you to a desiccator, an iron coffin device, that will extract your internal fluids until there isn't enough to "fill a thimble". Gruesome. The Doctor, providing the wonderfully sesquipedalian "lyophilise", is freeze-dried by the Rani in a vacuum casket for later dissection and organ transplantation. The Maze of the Ratapes will pit you cudgel-to-whisker with Moreau-like hybrids of rodent-primate and the Cryogenates, her chosen henchmen in her inner sanctum, possess transluscent crystalline bodies holding solid fleshy organs. All in all, a fun way to spend an afternoon. A strong read with intelligent storytelling and enjoyable characters. Reminiscent of The Rescue with its many traps, old acquaintances and unusual natives. If the Doctor and Peri's adventures had continued uninterrupted, I wonder if we might have seen this on-screen in 1987 instead? 1 - Fun fact: If you split the Sixth Doctor's comic run, these Make-Your-Own-Adventure books and the lost televised Season 23 into six/seven stories apiece, the Sixth Doctor has four lost seasons for his two/three years in the role.
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Post by whiskeybrewer on Oct 11, 2019 14:48:28 GMT
Four of the Doctor Who Virgin New Adventures
Time's Crucible, WarHead (don't know why they labelled it as part of the Cat's Cradle trilogy), Witch's Mark & Nightshade
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Post by newt5996 on Oct 11, 2019 19:31:49 GMT
Four of the Doctor Who Virgin New Adventures Time's Crucible, WarHead (don't know why they labelled it as part of the Cat's Cradle trilogy), Witch's Mark & Nightshade Three of those are great, no prize for which one isn't.
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