In addition to watching Doctor Who, I have read quite a few Doctor Who novels, mainly the New Who ones, but also a few of the novels about the Doctors from the Classic series. With a new series out, there are three new ones. For some reason, the release date in the US is several months after the UK release. They were out in the UK in late April and my mother-in-law kindly delivered them when she was last here, so I was able to read them several months earlier and while series 10 is actually on the air.
The Shining Man by Cavan Scott was the first of the three. I can highly recommend this one. Despite a topic matter that wouldn’t have otherwise interested me (mythical Earth creatures) and a time and location that wouldn’t typically enthrall me either (Manchester 2017), this was a fantastic read. It had two distinct phases. The first felt very much like a series 10 episode and near the end, it reminded me a bit of some of the Seventh and Eighth Doctors’ eras. It worked very well. I can easily given this 9/10 for being properly scary, having good one off characters and proper characterization of both Bill and the Twelfth Doctor and making a topic, place and time that are only of limited interest to me fascinating. Extremely well done Cavan Scott. I’d be happy to see him back writing more. This is the first novel he’s done entirely on his own and it was a massive success in my estimation.
US Amazon link Kindle only, UK Amazon link available in Kindle and physical editions.
Diamond Dogs by Mike Tucker is the second in the series. Mike Tucker has a mixed track record. I really loved Snow Globe 7, but thought The Crawling Terror was awful. This particular story wasn’t as good as Snow Globe 7, but was still quite enjoyable and far better from The Crawling Terror. It had a stellar location in the rings of Saturn. I liked the location better than The Shining Man, but didn’t feel quite as sold on the new characters. It was still generally a very good story though with diamond mines, aliens, intrigue and sabotage. I give this 8/10.
US Amazon link Kindle only, UK Amazon link available in Kindle and physical editions.
The final book, Plague City, takes place in Edinburgh, unsurprisingly, during the time of the plague. This one is the only one to also feature Nardole. Some of it is written in Scottish dialect, which I had never actually read at any length before. I did not previously know that ‘know’ is ‘ken’ in Scotland, but fortunately having studied some German and Dutch, this was obvious from context. This book seems about as good as the other book I’d read by this author, Jonathan Morris. He also wrote quite an enjoyable 11, Amy and Rory story called Touched by an Angel. Although they are very different times and stories, something they have in common is being properly scary. Doctor Who ghost stories really have to do a good job to be scary as it’s basically never actually ghosts and even if it were, I don’t believe in ghosts. His not quite ghosts are properly creepy, in part because of the grimness of the location and time, but his writing skills are also stellar. The new characters were all well fleshed out. The ending was heartwarming, but also made sense. Easily 9/10.
US Amazon link Kindle only, UK Amazon link available in Kindle and physical editions.