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Post by constonks on Dec 20, 2017 17:40:05 GMT
We've got a listening thread and a watching thread; this seems a necessary addition for those of us who always seem to have a Virgin New Adventure or an Eighth Doctor Adventure or a Telos novella on the go.
Starting off:
Last night, I finished Head Games, powering through the last hundred pages quite quickly. Enjoyed it quite a bit, I must say. A great use of returning elements from TV episodes and previous novels. I found I wasn't lost at all, even in the references to Set Piece, The Pit, Toy Soldiers, Zamper... Even though some of the references are absolutely essential to the story, they're never inscrutable.
I did read Conundrum, but even as a sequel, Head Games doesn't require its predecessor but for a couple of character cameos, and the recurring villain (who behaves entirely differently and doesn't even recall most of the first book). In fact, the whole thing is entirely different in tone to Conundrum, with Lyons being entirely more interested in the Seventh Doctor and his long, problematic life than the cliches and tropes he played with in the original.
There's also some great time travel writing - the fight in the cafe in Chapter 14 is top notch non-chronological action.
All in all, I liked it quite a bit and will probably enjoy reading it again at some point.
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Post by constonks on Feb 1, 2018 22:03:30 GMT
Hey looks like I never made a post about The Dying Days, but, uh, I liked it? It probably ranks around the upper middle of Doctor Who books for me. It's a lot of fun and it moves along at a good pace but there's not a ton of depth to it. But! Given that the book before it is Lungbarrow, which is a very different beast, the two stories compliment each other nicely.
But shortly after finishing that, The Infinity Doctors came in the mail so I gave it a read, just wrapping up this morning. Quite a story. Athough it fizzles a bit in the end, there's some real quality writing in there and it's a real treat to see the Doctor and Master together on Gallifrey. I found myself constantly looking for clues as to where this book fits in, but it didn't take away from my enjoyment of it.
A successful Lance Parkin double feature!
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Post by mark687 on Feb 1, 2018 22:35:13 GMT
Hey looks like I never made a post about The Dying Days, but, uh, I liked it? It probably ranks around the upper middle of Doctor Who books for me. It's a lot of fun and it moves along at a good pace but there's not a ton of depth to it. But! Given that the book before it is Lungbarrow, which is a very different beast, the two stories compliment each other nicely. But shortly after finishing that, The Infinity Doctors came in the mail so I gave it a read, just wrapping up this morning. Quite a story. Athough it fizzles a bit in the end, there's some real quality writing in there and it's a real treat to see the Doctor and Master together on Gallifrey. I found myself constantly looking for clues as to where this book fits in, but it didn't take away from my enjoyment of it. A successful Lance Parkin double feature! 2 of the best books IMO
Regards
mark687
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Post by constonks on Feb 1, 2018 23:41:45 GMT
Hey looks like I never made a post about The Dying Days, but, uh, I liked it? It probably ranks around the upper middle of Doctor Who books for me. It's a lot of fun and it moves along at a good pace but there's not a ton of depth to it. But! Given that the book before it is Lungbarrow, which is a very different beast, the two stories compliment each other nicely. But shortly after finishing that, The Infinity Doctors came in the mail so I gave it a read, just wrapping up this morning. Quite a story. Athough it fizzles a bit in the end, there's some real quality writing in there and it's a real treat to see the Doctor and Master together on Gallifrey. I found myself constantly looking for clues as to where this book fits in, but it didn't take away from my enjoyment of it. A successful Lance Parkin double feature! 2 of the best books IMO
Regards
mark687
While I'd put Infinity a few notches above Dying Days, both are extremely re-readable. Even if I have years and years of Who books on my shelf, I'm sure those two will be picked up again before I get through all of the rest.
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Post by Audio Watchdog on Feb 1, 2018 23:54:55 GMT
I started in on Plague City by Jonathan Morris today. No surprise but Morris totally gets the 12th Doctor, Bill and Nardole.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 2, 2018 3:11:35 GMT
2 of the best books IMO
Regards
mark687
While I'd put Infinity a few notches above Dying Days, both are extremely re-readable. Even if I have years and years of Who books on my shelf, I'm sure those two will be picked up again before I get through all of the rest. Just War and Trading Futures are excellent as well, you really can't go wrong with a Lance Parkin book. I really like The Dying Days as a continuation of the Eighth Doctor. An Invasion-style traditional story to balance out the TV Movie's more unconventional plotting. His Eight is perfect, diving back into the heart of danger to save the life of a single cat and Greyhaven is a marvellous little riff on the NAs's "Sometimes humanity are the worst monsters." Very nearly Francis Urquhart, but with enough to distinguish him that he ends up a great character in his own right. I particularly love what Infinity does with Gallifrey. It takes all those various depictions throughout the years and finds a way to make it all flow together as a single whole. War TARDISes, Low Town, time scoops, the Panopticon, looms, traffic control, the Doctor's parents, stellar manipulators, Vampire Wars, Great Houses, the star Quaba, the Needle, vworp drive... It takes a very Vorlon-like approach to all these depictions:
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Post by constonks on Feb 2, 2018 4:30:27 GMT
I particularly love what Infinity does with Gallifrey. It takes all those various depictions throughout the years and finds a way to make it all flow together as a single whole. War TARDISes, Low Town, time scoops, the Panopticon, looms, traffic control, the Doctor's parents, stellar manipulators, Vampire Wars, Great Houses, the star Quaba, the Needle, vworp drive... It takes a very Vorlon-like approach to all these depictions: So you get sentences like "He had been born of the Loom, son of the greatest explorer of his age and a human woman, Annalise... no, his mother's name had been Penelope." If it contradicts a source a little, it never does so entirely. I love that, because it's the best option for the Doctor Who universe as a whole. It's all true. It doesn't all fit together perfectly, but it's all true.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 2, 2018 4:53:08 GMT
I particularly love what Infinity does with Gallifrey. It takes all those various depictions throughout the years and finds a way to make it all flow together as a single whole. War TARDISes, Low Town, time scoops, the Panopticon, looms, traffic control, the Doctor's parents, stellar manipulators, Vampire Wars, Great Houses, the star Quaba, the Needle, vworp drive... It takes a very Vorlon-like approach to all these depictions: So you get sentences like "He had been born of the Loom, son of the greatest explorer of his age and a human woman, Annalise... no, his mother's name had been Penelope." If it contradicts a source a little, it never does so entirely. I love that, because it's the best option for the Doctor Who universe as a whole. It's all true. It doesn't all fit together perfectly, but it's all true. And it's awesome to see it all work. People forget, we've met Penelope before in the NA directly before Lungbarrow. Both ideas come from the same range. She's even mentioned to be a Victorian-styled time traveller, almost like the First Doctor. Everything is an evolution and it's fun to see that acknowledged in the actual text. It appeals to the history buff in me. There's this great little moment where they're searching through the Book of Prophecy, I think, and one of them discovers that the timeline isn't parallel, but palimpsest. It's an obscure word, but it's basically used to describe when you can see an earlier text has been erased and a new one written on top. Like when a person erases a pencilled word and its ghost can still be seen on the paper underneath. In order for something to be replaced, the original had to exist in one form or another. Things change and there is an acknowledgment that the change has occurred. That it wasn't always this way. Gallifrey is no longer sterile as it once was, the Cybermen adopted Telos after Mondas, the Klingons didn't always worship Kahless, Lyta Alexander did leave and come back to Babylon 5, etc. All that nuance makes for a way more interesting playground.
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Post by constonks on Feb 2, 2018 5:36:07 GMT
So you get sentences like "He had been born of the Loom, son of the greatest explorer of his age and a human woman, Annalise... no, his mother's name had been Penelope." If it contradicts a source a little, it never does so entirely. I love that, because it's the best option for the Doctor Who universe as a whole. It's all true. It doesn't all fit together perfectly, but it's all true. And it's awesome to see it all work. People forget, we've met Penelope before in the NA directly before Lungbarrow. Both ideas come from the same range. She's even mentioned to be a Victorian-styled time traveller, almost like the First Doctor. Everything is an evolution and it's fun to see that acknowledged in the actual text. It appeals to the history buff in me. There's this great little moment where they're searching through the Book of Prophecy, I think, and one of them discovers that the timeline isn't parallel, but palimpsest. It's an obscure word, but it's basically used to describe when you can see an earlier text has been erased and a new one written on top. Like when a person erases a pencilled word and its ghost can still be seen on the paper underneath. In order for something to be replaced, the original had to exist in one form or another. Things change and there is an acknowledgment that the change has occurred. That it wasn't always this way. Gallifrey is no longer sterile as it once was, the Cybermen adopted Telos after Mondas, the Klingons didn't always worship Kahless, Lyta Alexander did leave and come back to Babylon 5, etc. All that nuance makes for a way more interesting playground. Oh geez I forgot to google that word when I saw it and missed that explicit confirmation of one of many overarching theories on Doctor Who canon. I was thinking of it as "meta time" where more recent stories take precedence over older ones when they contradict but both still happened. That Spiral Scratch happened, then Brink of Death replaced it ten meta-years later. It's a hand-wave and a shrug but it's a model for a shifting universe so it has to have a bit of that. Palimpsest time. What a beautiful word and fantastic concept.
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Post by whiskeybrewer on Feb 2, 2018 12:37:41 GMT
Palimpsest > Wibby Wobbly Timey Wimey
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Post by Whovitt on Feb 8, 2018 3:36:33 GMT
Finished my first EDA (the only one I own), Placebo Effect, a couple of days ago. I was told that it was 'continuity heavy', but I didn't think that it was too bad. There were a few things that I had to pick up as I went along, but it definitely didn't impede my enjoyment of the novel If there was one thing I struggled with while reading it, it was picturing the Wirrrn larvae by the description given in the book. Described as 'mucus-like' creatures, I just couldn't reconcile this with the bubble-wrap sleeping-bag man wriggling across the floor of the Ark I had to picture green jelly or Flubber before I could take the description seriously I'm glad I was able to read it all within a week or so, as I probably wouldn't have been able to keep track of it all otherwise. It's a very busy novel, but that's what made it so engaging for me, giving me something to keep bringing me back. Overall, it was a highly enjoyable novel. Strongly recommended
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Post by constonks on Feb 17, 2018 5:24:40 GMT
I've made a plan of attack to get through my bookshelf - one VNA, one EDA, one other. Today I finished up...
Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible
From what I knew about the book, I was expecting a lot more about ancient Gallifrey. Those parts - the bits about Rassilon and the Pythia - were really where the book came alive to me. But for each one part Lungbarrow Platt, there are three parts Ghost Light Platt, so the book is good but it's hard to tell what the heck is happening a lot of the time. And I don't mean due to the weird time shenanigans - the "relative dimensions in time" stuff was pretty well explained. But I mean more the very conceptual imagery, or the bits where implausible architecture and escherian geography are described in prose (and incorporated into the action).
If you're a fan of Gallifrey, you like Ace and you can follow a good timebending story without a flow chart, you'll probably like it just fine.
Next EDA: Dreamstone Moon Next Other: The Plotters Next VNA: Cat's Cradle: Warhead
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Post by Deleted on Feb 21, 2018 22:21:29 GMT
Ordered Diamond Dogs today!I miss Bill
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Post by sherlock on Apr 10, 2018 14:40:57 GMT
The Day of the Doctor novelisation.
Hats off to Moffat for negotiating the many points of view (though there was one moment I was lost as to who's perspective a section was), and the additions to the story range range from the odd to great (the reinterpretation of saving Gallifrey works very well). I'm sure this is a book I'll be returning to frequently.
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Post by ollychops on Apr 10, 2018 19:08:02 GMT
Finished The Day of the Doctor novelisation. There was some really good additions to it, and it's written really well. There were a couple of things I didn't enjoy so much, but overall, it hit the mark for me. I'm looking forward to the other New Series novelisations now.
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Post by sherlock on Apr 11, 2018 20:32:08 GMT
Rose novelisation
This was a good read, RTD added lots of small character details that really flesh out the story and the Auton attack is so effective with these secondary characters being thrown into the mix.
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Post by J.A. Prentice on Apr 11, 2018 23:01:36 GMT
Just read Doctor Who and the Krikketmen. It's very Adams-esque and even though it's clearly the same story that became Life, the Universe, and Everything, I really enjoyed it. There's a lot more Gallifrey than I was expecting and I loved the treatment of the War TARDISes – especially just coming off reading Alien Bodies, which had its own interesting take on a TARDIS. I only wish there were more Adams stories for Goss to adapt, but I'd be interested in him writing more light-hearted Fourth Doctor/Romana/K9 books even without the Adams basis.
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Post by constonks on Apr 12, 2018 4:07:58 GMT
Next EDA: Dreamstone Moon Next Other: The Plotters Next VNA: Cat's Cradle: Warhead I guess I'm a bit behind on posting here given that I've read all three of these since then - and am now one chapter into Seeing I! Some thoughts on those three though (click to expand!): Dreamstone Moon: In Chapter 1, I thought, if this was still Sam's previous book - Longest Day - she would be stuck on the Kusk ship for fifty pages and we'd hear about every single hunger pain she felt. But as it stands, nothing is dragged out and we get to the plot nice and quickly, leaving the bad taste of Longest Day far behind.
And while I had read Longest Day very recently, it had been years since I read Legacy of the Daleks so I forgot that Sir Donna gave the Doctor a kitten at the end of that one. Who's that cat then? Wolsey II? Wycliffe from The Infinity Doctors? I hope he sticks around and is mentioned in every book forever - but I've never heard of a cat from the EDAs so I'm not holding my breath.
Anyway, there's a non-chalantness to the beginning of this book that I really appreciated - not only are there a bunch of weird aliens, but one of the weird aliens - Aloisse - says to Sam, "You're not a time traveller?" then when Sam says yes, adds "Gallifreyan, I suppose?"
By around Chapter 5, I was a big fan of this one. It was fun and pulpy - like Kursaal. A BBC Book that isn't trying to be a New Adventure (not that there weren't fun pulpy NAs - Conundrum and Dying Days feel like that - and now that I've read a bit of Paul Leonard, I'm hoping Toy Soldiers feels like that too! Although I won't get to that one until 2020 or so...).
But eventually Dreamstone Moon does get bogged down by some misery and darkness - and the plot never really comes together. The beginning really had me going - I liked all the characters and species and such - but it lost me a bit at the middle and I'm still trying to wrap my head around the ending - the Doctor seemed to know some things he shouldn't have. It's possible this has to do with some of the mind-melding going on, but it's never really adequately explained.
As it is, this was probably a middling EDA - certainly above War of the Daleks & Bodysnatchers and miiiiiles above Longest Day - but in the bottom quarter of Doctor Who books overall. The Plotters: After writing notes all the way through Dreamstone Moon, all I seem to have written down for The Plotters is "Page 23 has good First Doctor repartee." Which it does, but the whole book does! Gareth Roberts writes some spectacular William Hartnell dialogue and gets his mannerisms perfectly. Here's a bit of that page, though, for the sake of my past self's notation:
As for some of the other characters, King James is written a tad too broad and mawkish, but a pair of childish old monks translating the Bible (slowly, poorly and bitterly) work well as comic relief against Hartnell's Doctor.
When it comes to the plot - or the Plot - itself, it's certainly interesting. Gareth Roberts gives a disclaimer at the front claiming the book is "as faithful a portrait of the final days of Robert Catesby’s plot as, for example, Dennis Spooner’s TV script The Romans was of the burning of Rome." But this goes even further - there's one twist in this novel that changes the historical record in an inspired and bold way (even if Big Finish eventually did something somewhat similar in an audio...) - although I'd say the whole plot is a little too tightly wrapped up at the end and a few aspects of the villain's master plan had me scratching my head.
I'd say this one falls under "good, not great" in my opinion. But if you're a huge Hartnell fan, read it for him alone. You'll swear you can hear him reading the lines. Cat's Cradle: Warhead: So, after reading the lighter-than-Longest-Day Dreamstone Moon and the Spooner-esque Plotters, I thought I'd continue this trend with Andrew Cartmel's fun, hilarious romp, Cat's Cradle: Warhead!
Yeah, this is a dark book, guys.
Right from the beginning, we see a world that's gray and overbuilt, with everyone dying of horrible immune diseases (including a likeable minor TV character!). And of course, the Doctor is at work in the background, trying to stop humanity from making a tragic mistake.
The structure of this book is somewhat fascinating - we don't see the Doctor very much, each chapter from the prologue to Chapter 5 introduces a new focal character (even if they don't all survive their introductions!) and Ace doesn't appear until page 80, despite being on the cover. It seems a bit disjointed, but eventually, we understand how it all fits together - and it's pretty good, actually. Quintessential spooky, manipulative Seventh Doctor stuff.
And it's got a real harsh story for Ace, too! There were times I had to remind myself that this was only VNA #6, not one of the ones after she came back as a hardened space soldier. But it's a good story to foreshadow that development - shows what she's capable of, even if she hasn't been pushed in that direction quite yet.
Granted, it's got one of those usual Doctor Who problems - the story just keeps being cool and atmospheric, and then the word/time limit approaches and the whole thing just sorta... ends.
I liked it though. More than Time's Crucible certainly - there's more weight here. More consequence. Although there's part of my brain I can't turn off that says "this is set in the not-too-distant future of 1992 - so this must have been erased at some point!" That kinda dampens the weight and consequence a bit, but that part of my brain is no fun and I really shouldn't listen to it when I'm trying to read.
I also read Ben Aaronovitch's Rivers of London (well technically I read the North American version, Midnight Riot) which I thought was fantastic. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Aaronovitch has reused a couple flourishes that I remember from Transit - namely visceral body horror (in Transit, it's the monsters - in Rivers, it's the effects of a shapeshifting spell) and a weird conceptual ending (I think that's vague enough not to be a spoiler for either book). It also had the flippant world-building that Dreamstone Moon had - casual sentences like "no, that's not what a mermaid looks like" that imply a bigger world rather than talking about it. It was definitely worth checking out and I'm looking forward to the rest of the series! Next EDA: Seeing I Next Other: Amorality Tale Next VNA: Cat's Cradle: Witch Mark
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Post by Deleted on Apr 12, 2018 9:44:21 GMT
My revival Target novelisations haven't arrived in the mail yet
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shutupbanks
Castellan
There’s a horror movie called Alien? That’s really offensive. No wonder everyone keeps invading you.
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Post by shutupbanks on Apr 12, 2018 9:56:20 GMT
My revival Target novelisations haven't arrived in the mail yet I just checked the tracking on my order: it gets sent out on Monday to arrive later in the week. Feeling your pain!
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