* The Fall of Yquatine (Fitz & Compassion)

Yquatine - cultural, political and economic centre of the Minerva System. A planet with a month to live.  Fitz knows. He was there when Yquatine fell. Now, trapped a month in the past he doesn't know if the Doctor survived. He doesn't know where Compassion has gone. He doesn't know who the invaders will be.  But he does know the date and time when he will die with the millions of others.  The Doctor teams up with Lou Lombardo - part time dodgy temporal gadget salesman and full time pie seller. Compassion is lost in time and space. And Fitz is living out his final days working in a seedy cocktail bar. Until he meets Arielle... But is the President's runaway girlfriend really the best person to shack up with?  As the Doctor tries to talk sense into the politicians and soldiers, and Compassion tries to avert the war, Fitz is about to discover that things can only get worse.

My Review:  The Doctor & co must come to terms with the fallout from the last story. The Doctor forces Compassion to have a randomiser against her even knowing what it is and it badly affects her. Fitz ends up having an affair and ending up in jail and the Doctor tries to save a most unusual semi-sentient weapon.  Throw in an obsessive-compulsive and a few stock cliches and some time travel technobable and you have a fairly interesting page turner. The main question is of course what's going on, which is eventually resolved, however the how and why take up more of the story than might first be guessed and perhaps the origin of the weapon is Gallifreyan...

* Coldheart (Fitz & Compassion)

The Doctor, Fitz and Compassion arrive on the planet Eskon -- a strange world of ice and fire. Far beneath the planet's burning surface are vast lakes frozen solid by the glacial subterranean temperature.  But the civilised community that relies on the ice reservoirs for its survival has more to worry about than a shortage of water. The hideous slimers -- degenerative mutations in the population -- are growing more hostile by the moment, and their fanatical leader will stop at nothing to exact revenge against those in authority. But what connects the slimers to the unknown horror that lurks deep beneath the ice? And what is the terrible truth the city leaders will do anything to conceal?  To unearth the ugliest secrets of Eskon, the TARDIS crew becomes involved in a desperate conflict. While Fitz is embroiled in the deadly plans of the slimers, the Doctor and Compassion must lead a danger-frought subterranean expedition to prevent a disaster that could destroy the very essence of Eskon... its cold heart.

My Review:  This is Dune with a twist, instead of the usual desert planet of endless heat and sand, we find a huge iceberg inside the planet! However the locals are melting this ice for water, little realising that something in the ice is poisoning it. This causes a genetic mutation in the local peoples, leading to bigotry, intolerence and random acts of cruelty. Into this world the Doctor, Fitz and Compassion arrive and are immediatly suspected of everything and openly verbally abused by the local authorities. However the Doctor & Fitz try to help the locals with a couple of minor problems and end up saving not only the population from a nasty fate but also bring about social changes too. This is very much Fitz's hour to shine as he comes into his own by standing up for what he believes in, because of his own past. In the end the day is saved but the future is another question and that's when the Doctor and co take their leave.

* The Space Age (Fitz & Compassion)

This is the city: a technological paradise built by an advanced race. Its glittering towers reach proudly for the stars, and its spires are looped by elevated roadways.  The people that lived here were enlightened and contented. They travelled in bubble-topped saucer cars, along moving pavements or in anti-gravity tubes. Obedient robots tended to their every whim. Disease, war, famine and pollution had been eradicated. Food machines synthesised all essential nutrients into pill form, and personal rocket ships brought the solar system within reach. The people of the city befriended Venusians and Martians alike.  The city is self-cleansing. Its systems harness solar power and static electricity. Its buildings are constructed from a metal that will never rust or tarnish. It will stand forever as a monument to the achievements of the human race.  This is Earth. The year is 2000 AD. This is your future.  Welcome to the Space Age.

My Review:  This is by far the most boring book I've ever read, it's mind numbingly padded beyone belief. This is a 4,000 word story that's been stuffed full of turgid nonsence until it's 80,000 words of agonising misery. Nothing at all happens in this book until the final chapter, none of the characters are remotely interesting and by the end of chapter nine I was praying that they all died in gruesome ways just to add a little colour to the book and end the suffering of reading the words once and for all. As a Doctor Who novel this fails badly, it's worse and less imaginative than a lot of fan fic I've read over the years and as for the Tommy references I think the Who should have stopped this book being published, it'd have saved me the time I wasted reading it.

* The Banquo Legacy (Fitz & Compassion)

Banquo Manor -- scene of a gruesome murder a hundred years ago. Now history is about to repeat itself.  1898 -- the age of advancement, of electricity, of technology. Scientist Richard Harries is preparing to push the boundaries of science still further, into a new area: the science of the mind.  Pieced together at last from the accounts of solicitor John Hopkinson and Inspector Ian Stratford of Scotland Yard, the full story of Banquo Manor can now be told.  Or can it? Even Hopkinson and Stratford don't know the truth about the mysterious Doctor Friedlander and his associate Herr Kreiner -- noted forensic scientists from Germany come to witness the experiment.  And for the Doctor, time is literally running out. He knows that Compassion is dying. He's aware that he has lost his own ability to regenerate. He's worried by Fitz's fake German accent. He's desperate to uncover the Time Lord agent who has him trapped.  And worst of all... he's about to be murdered.

My Review:  A mix of Frankenstein and a dozen other Hammer Horror films does not a good story make. Also the use of a dry reported writing style does not allow for much emotional interplay between the characters. This is a horror story with the horror removed and made safe. The villian is far too easily dismissed as simply being mad as it avoids having to explain small things like motive and intent, which leaves the storyline a complete joke. With proper foresight and better planning this book could have been so much better.

* The Ancestor Cell (Fitz & Compassion)

The Doctor's not the man he was. But what has he become? An old enemy -- Faction Paradox, a cult of time-travelling voodoo terrorists - is finally making him one of its own. These rebels have a mission for him, one that will deliver him into the hands of his own people, who have decreed that he must die. Except now, it seems, the Time Lords have a mission for him too...  A gargantuan structure, hewn from solid bone, has appeared in the skies over Gallifrey. Its origin and purpose are unknown, but its powers threaten to tear apart the web of time and the universe with it. Only the Doctor can get inside... but soon he will learn that nothing is safe and nothing sacred.  Shot by both sides, confronted by past sins and future crimes, the Doctor finds himself a prisoner of his own actions. With options finally running out, he must face his most crushing defeat or take one last, desperate chance for salvation...

My Review: A great book, the best for a while now I loved the layers of continuity, the mix of the old and the new, familiar and unfamiliar. The resolution of the Faction Paradox arc is well done and Compassion, despite having little to do again, leaves with a feeling of completion to her story. Thus as things have been been resolved the seeds of the future are also sewn. Fitz is sent off into the future while the Doctor is sent into Earth's past, to heal and recover. For once this is a story that doesn't feel too long or too short, it's Goldilocks!

* The Burning

The late nineteenth century - the age of reason, of enlightenment, of industrialisation. Britain is the workshop of the world, the centre of the Empire.  Progress has left Middletown behind. The tin mine is worked out, jobs are scarce, and a crack has opened across the moors that the locals believe reaches into the depths of Hell itself.  But things are changing: Lord Urton is preparing to reopen the mine; the Society for Psychical Research is interested in the fissure; Roger Nepath and his sister are exhibiting their collection of mystic Eastern artefacts. People are dying. Then a stranger arrives, walking out of the wilderness: a man with no name, no history.  Only one man can unravel the mysteries; only one man can begin to understand the forces that are gathering; only one man can hope to fight against them. Only one man knows that this is just the beginning of the end of the world.  Only one man can stop The Burning...

My Review:  The book after the book before. The Burning is a small scale story with a large scale finale. The problem for me is nothing much happens in most of the book, it's just walking about, talking and nothing is learned or discovered until the last couple of chapters of the book and then it's too late. The book is essentially a relaunch of the range with no continuity holding it back it none the less fails to provde any meaningful new things to give the bones of the story some meat to savour

* Casualties of War

1918. The world is at war. A terrible raging conflict that has left no one untouched.  In the North Yorkshire village of Hawkswick, it seems that the dead won't stay down. There are reports of horrifically wounded soldiers on manoeuvres in the night. Pets have gone missing, and now livestock is found slaughtered in the fields.  Suspicion naturally falls on nearby Hawkswick Hall, a psychiatric hospital for shell-shocked soldiers, where Private Daniel Cory senses a gathering evil. As events escalate, a stranger arrives on the scene. Can this man from the Ministry solve the mystery of Hawkswick? And can Hawkswick solve the mystery that is this man from the Ministry?

My Review:  Where to start? This book is really boring? It's very badly paced? The ending is far too rushed? The characters are less engaging than a 60's pseudo-sitcom? This book is now my all-time least liked book, there is nothing redeeming about it except the fact that it ends. Most books have some worth, this is the perfect antidote to engaging Doctor Who novels, it is the anti-book!

* Wolfsbane (Harry)

see 4th Doctor section

My Review:  A growing trend with the BBC books seems to be rush into the novel, then spend the most part doing nothing and then rush the ending off as fast as possible. Wolfsbane is a supreme example of this trend, throwing the reader into a confusing opening that takes chapters to explain what is actually going on then boring the arse off the reader with needless trivia and pedantic minuae. Do we really need a whole paragraph about cutlery? This is purely bad writing and even worse editing, come back Stephen Cole, you're needed more than ever! The book meanders between 1936 where the 8th Doctor & Harry are and 1938 with the 4th Doctor and SJS and on the whole it goes out of its way not to differenciate which of these two time zones each section of the book takes place in. This really is a shockingly bad piece of prose from a repeat author, obviously getting a commision on charity rather than talent. The three endings are rushed through, as stated earlier, each getting one paragraph each when they should have had a chapter each to show what was going on.

* The Turing Test

It's nearly the end of the Second World War. There's a mysterious new code and Alan Turing has been called in to crack it. Everyone assumes it's a German code, as that's where the source is emanating from - apart from Turing's new friend, the Doctor.  When people start dying, the Doctor's knowledge of the code and the codemakers casts suspicion onto him, and even Turing starts to have suspicions.  Meanwhile, in an African village, writer and spymaster Graham Greene has found something far stranger than an unusual code.  The trail leads through occupied Germany, across the front line. What they find defies human explanations... but does the Doctor really have all the answers?

My Review:  The perfect cure for boredom! This book is full of lots of words that have no meaning to each other. Not until the final chapter does anything remotley near a story take place, the rest is all irrelevent padding.  While reading this book I managed to watch 3 complete seasons of Angel!

* Endgame

The Players have decided on an Endgame. Play ends only when one side has been annihilated -- even if the entire planet is destroyed in the process. They weren't expecting the Doctor to be one of the pieces - and neither was he. He really doesn't want to get involved.  The Doctor doesn't know who he is - but he's fast ceasing to care. Caught up in ennui, nothing seems to matter to him any more. He has no interest in the Cold War, in spies or double agents or secret documents.  But he's soon forced to take an active role. Because as far as the authorities are concerned, the Doctor is The Third Man...

My Review:  Not so much a Doctor Who novel as a political thriller starring Paul McGann, but it's a decent enough story with great characters and just enough plot to keep things interesting.

* Father Time

Earth in the nineteen-eighties is a battleground. Rival alien factions have travelled from the far future to pursue their vendetta. As UFOs fill the skies, a giant robot stalks the Derbyshire hills, and alien hunters search for the mysterious Last One, the Doctor is the only man who can protect the innocents caught in the crossfire.  But old scores are being settled, the fate of a Galactic Empire is at stake, and, against his will, the Doctor is drawn into a decade-long war that will strike at those he holds most dear.  The Doctor has lost his memory, his friends, his past and his TARDIS. All he has now is the love of his daughter.  But will even that be taken from him?

My Review:  This is really three novellas in one book and really should have been published that way. The book is far too compressed down to give any real sense of progress through the book, rather it becomes a long and unrelenting slog to finish it.  The stories themselves are quite basic and lack a lot of focus and clarity on the motivations of the main protagonists. We’re told they have reasons but they’re never adequetly explained or explored. We get vague hints of a possible future Gallifrey but by keeping things vague the story is robbing the reader of any sense of having earned them even though they’ve stuck with the story.  The plot is very simple of course, baddies try to kill girl, Doctor saves girl and raises her, baddies try to kill her again, girl fights back, baddies try again and this time fail. Had there been any real variation in this repeated meme then the book would have been much more interesting and memorable, but as it is, it is rather forgettable very easily.

* Escape Velocity (Fitz & Anji)

The Doctor and Fitz are back together at last, but the Doctor is not the man he once was – which is a shame, because Fitz has promised Anji Kapoor that his old friend is her best hope of finding her alien-abducted boyfriend, Dave.  Soon the Doctor, Fitz and Anji find themselves involved in a desperate contest between Pierre-Yves Dudoin and Arthur Tyler the Third, each determined to be the first privately-funded man in space. But not all the parties are playing fairly: members of an alien race called the Kulan are helping the Frenchman – but what are their real motives? At the far reaches of the solar system a Kulan battle fleet awaits the order to take the planet Earth...  Can the Doctor find Dave before the alien contact proves fatal? Who are the secret agents keeping tabs on the rival Space Race teams? Will the Doctor's mysterious Blue Box finally reveal its purpose? And does the Doctor, now truly a man without a past, have what it takes to stop the Kulan Invasion of Earth...?

My Review:  A pretty good book, certainly the best of the ‘trapped on Earth’ cycle of which this is the final instalment. Getting Fitz reunited with the Doctor doesn’t take immediate priority, that’s given over to establishing the new future companion Anji who’s supposed to be ‘new and unique’ but comes off like ‘more of the same’.  There are a few minor twists to perk up a pretty flat story, Anji’s boyfriend rejecting implanted alien DNA because he’s already been implanted by alien DNA was an enjoyable spin on a largely redundant plot device.  The Doctor is pretty much back to normal, except this is more by luck than design as he’s no closer to getting his memory back now than he was 113 years ago. At least the TARDIS is back though and the homage to 100,000 BC at the end is nice.

* EarthWorld (Fitz & Anji)

Anji Kapoor has just had the worst week of her entire life, and things aren't getting any better. She should be back at her desk, not travelling through time and space in a police box with a couple of strange men.  The Doctor (Strange Man No.1) is supposed to be returning her to Soho 2001 AD. So quite why there are dinosaurs outside Anji isn't sure. Sad sixties refugee Fitz (Strange Man No.2) seems to think they're either in prehistoric times or on a parallel Earth. And the Doctor, that dashing, time-travelling hero, is probably only pretending to know what's going on -- because if he really knew, surely he would have mentioned the homicidal triplet princesses, the teen terrorists, the deadly android doubles (and triples) and the hosts of mad robots?  She's never going to complain about Monday mornings in the office again...

My Review:  This is a very safe book, it asks nothing of the reader and gives nothing in return. Every step of the way it plays it safe instead of taking risks. The characters are all one dimensional clichés and the situations are a mix of old stories and bits of old stories rearranged to give a new version of the same old whatever. The upside of all this means that EarthWorld can safely be ignored in the scheme of things as its bland empty pages offer nothing at all except a mild diversion to occupy the time it soaks up to read the simple, uncomplicated story.

* Fear Itself (Fitz & Anji)

The 22nd Century: a few short years of interstellar contact have taught humankind a hard lesson: there are forces abroad that are nightmare manifest. Powerful, unstoppable, alien forces. It's a body blow to man's belief in his own superiority, and leaves him with the only option he has ever had: to fight. When the Doctor and his friends are caught in the crossfire, they find suspicion and paranoia running rampant, with enemies to be seen in every shadow. For the Eighth Doctor, only just finding his way in the universe again, one misstep could be fatal.

My Review: Long, boring, but some good visuals.  With more care and attention this could have been a fantastic book, however as it is it's nothing remarkable.

* Vanishing Point (Fitz & Anji)

Imagine a world where death has meaning, where God exists and faith is untested. Where people die with the purpose of their lives made clear to them in blissful understanding. Such a world exists, hidden on the far side of the universe where a battered blue police box has just faded into being…  But unknown to the populace, unknown even to the Creator, an alien evil has stalked this world for hundreds of years. When the Doctor, Fitz and Anji arrive, they soon find themselves embroiled in the alien's final, desperate plans for this planet - and in the hunt for a murderer who cannot possibly exist…  Unnatural deaths are being visited on the people. Campaigns of terror threaten to tear this world apart. It seems that the prophecy of the Vanishing Point where all life shall meet all death under the Creator's aegis is coming to pass. For when God exists, prophecy, however fantastic or deadly, is fact.

My Review:  Not a bad book, it's just that we've seen everything in it before, there's nothing new, no twist, no hook to draw the reader in to the story. It's like a great big block of grey with no motif of clour to add any distinction to it. The characters are all arcetypeal cliches, the doubting priest, the over-protective guardian, the deranged loony, the unquestioning hencheman, the over-curious teenager in lust. If only they book had occasionally played against these stereotypes there would be something to make it stand out, alas there is nothing at all.

* Eater of Wasps (Fitz & Anji)

The TARDIS lands in the sleepy English village of Marpling, as calm and peaceful as any other village in the 1930s. Or so it would seem at first glance.  But the village is about to get a rude awakening.  The Doctor and his friends discover they aren't the only time-travellers in the area: a crack commando team is also prowling the Wiltshire countryside, charged with the task of recovering an appallingly dangerous artefact from the far future - and they have orders to destroy the entire area should anything go wrong.  And then there are the wasps…mutant killers bringing terror and death in equal measure. What is their purpose? How can they be stopped? And who will be their next victim?  In the race to stop the horror that has been unleashed, the Doctor must outwit both the temporal hit squad - who want him out of the way…and the local police - who want him for murder.

My Review:  After a series of disappointing books we finally have a good, well-told tale of killer insects, psychotic time cops and the Anti-Miss Marple! EoW uses strong imagery and prose to not only build up a clear picture but also add drama, tension and characterisation to the book. There's also an abundance of plot twists, one of the characters is actually the real father of a boy that hates him, one of the time cops is actually a robot/hydrogen bomb and one of the characters was possessed by the wasps and no-one suspects who it is...

* The Year of Intelligent Tigers (Fitz & Anji)

The weather is going to hell. The tigers are coming to town. And the Doctor has taken his violin and vanished.  The island world of Hitchemus is home to a colony of musicians and seemingly harmless alien animals. When the storms and the tigers break loose, the Doctor tries to protect the humans - but the humans don't want him. When he ventures into the wilderness in search of the tigers' secrets, Fitz and Anji find themselves on their own, trying to prevent a war.  With both sides eager for blood, and hurricanes on the horizon, the Doctor must decide whether this time he's on the side of the human race.

My Review: A fairly average story of the usual sci-fi clichés: alien leader with a psychotic underling, unreasonable commando who threatens the hero for not being like him. Crazy scientist who sets out to find a solution no-one wants. However TYOIT rises above the one dimensional plot by being refreshingly fun to read. By concentrating on more 'minor' characters and avoiding the clichés, the story is better than it could have been.

* The Slow Empire (Fitz & Anji)

A thousand worlds, each believing they are the Centre, each under a malign control of which they themselves are completely unaware.  As the beings able to travel between the worlds instantaneously, the Doctor and his friends must piece together the Imperial puzzle and decide what should be done. The soldiers of the Ambassadorial Corps are always, somehow, hard on their heels. Their own minds are busily fragmenting under metatemporal stresses. And their only allies are a man who might not be quite what he seems (and says so at great length) and a creature we shall merely call... the Collector.

My Review: Where to start? This is a very boring book that fails to connect with the reader on any level. It's nothing more than a series of boring things connected by boring bits. The characters are cliched beyond belief and the prose is of the cod variety. Although there a lot of big ideas (tm) they're presented in such a terrible manner that comes across as forced weirdness instead of cool weirdness. Would I rwad this book again? Only if the alternative was a very slow and painful death - a moderatly quick and painful death is more preferable to this book!

* Dark Progeny (Fitz & Anji)

The planet Ceres Alpha is being ‘developed’. The surface crawls with gigantic city-machines that are churning and rebuilding the world, seeding it with tomorrow’s vegetation so that full-scale colonisation can follow.  But Gaskill Tyran, head of the biosphere-engineering WorldCorp, is finding things more difficult than he would like. The whole project seems to be falling apart under an ever-increasing burden of mysteries.  Why has a batch of strange babies been born with telekinetic powers? Why won’t the terraforming go according to plan? Why are they experiencing progressively more problems with the comp systems that run the city-machines?  It seems there may be conspirators. A rival Corporation with their eye on the contract for Ceres Alpha. And Tyran’s patience is now wearing thin.  But then he gets his answer. A mysterious infiltrator known only as the Doctor.

My Review: This is a story by someone who absolutley hates Doctor Who, as the entire book consists of nothing but the Doctor and his companions being tortured to the point of death, then healed up enough to be ready to be tortured to the point of death again, over and over. Somewhere there's a story but it's paper thin and insubstantial enough to hold the torture scenes together, so we get some inner monologues on the joys of torture as a means to an end and all the really interesting bits that would make this a good story are reduced to casual asides and short set pieces.

* The City of the Dead (Fitz & Anji)

New Orleans, the early 21st century. A dealer in morbid artifacts has been murdered. A charm carved from human bone is missing. An old plantation, miles from any water, has been destroyed by a tidal wave.  Anji goes dancing. Fitz goes grave-robbing. The Doctor attracts the interest of a homicide detective and the enmity of a would-be magician. He wants to find out the secret of the redneck thief and his blind wife. He'd like to help the crippled curator of a museum of magic. He's trying to refuse politely the request by a crazy young artist that he pose naked with the man's wife.  Most of all, he needs to figure out what all of them have to do with the Void that is hunting him down.  Before it catches him.

My Review: A splendid book, a really great change from the recent bland and boring ones. This one is like a bonfire in the dark :) The story is about magic and christmas, two subjects close at hand at this time of year. The characters are all decent spins on the usual archetypes, keeping things fresh and interesting as you try to work out who's the evil baddie and it's somewhat of a surprise, that I won't mention here. I hope there's more books like this to come :)

* Grimm Reality (Fitz & Anji)

This world has its own rules and it doesn't care that a certain Doctor Know-All and his friends don't know them.  Now other outsiders have come to the world - traders from the stars seeking the terrible/beautiful things that fell from the rip in the sky. There are riddles to be solved, contests to win, flax to spin. The world to survive.  But the World of Wishes is itself in danger from a race of beings with only one wish. And there is a Princess asleep, and a beast awake -- and Giants.

My Review: A good story, cleverly mixing fables and sci-fi to create a sort of Futurama-esque fantasy world where past and future collide with minimal culture shock and yet has horrific consequences at the end.  Anji again gets the short end of the stick as people seem to find her very hard to write for, she either gets stuck somewhere where she can be give safe meaningless clichéd hoops to jump through or a big deal is made of her being a career woman out of her depth, this book has both.  Fitz gets another meaningless run-around to keep him occupied and in a position to give a few merry quips and the Doctor once again gets to expound upon his lack of memory and wax lyrically about a tiny sliver of memory.  Still these are tiny nit picks, this book is about much more than that, it’s about reminding people that there really is magic in the world, if they look hard enough.

* The Adventuress of Henrietta Street (Fitz & Anji)

* Mad Dogs and Englishmen (Fitz & Anji)

Professor Reginald Tyler’s The True History of Planets was a twentieth-century classic; an epic of dwarves and swords and wizardry. And definitely no poodles. Or at least it was when the Doctor read it.  Now it tells the true tale of how the Queen of the poodles was overthrown; it’s been made into a hit movie, and it’s going to cause a bloodbath on the dogworld – unless the Doctor, Fitz and Anji (and assorted friends) can sort it all out.  The Doctor infiltrates the Smudgelings, Tyler’s elite Cambridge writing set of the early twentieth century; Fitz falls for flamboyant torch singer Brenda Soobie in sixties Las Vegas, and Anji experiences some very special effects in Hollywood, 1978. Their intention is to prevent the movie from ever being made. But there is a shadowy figure present in all three time zones who is just as determined to see it completed… so the poodle revolution can begin.

My Review: Much more coherent that his last two 8DA's and his PDA Verdigis, by their standard this is a coherent tale of plot and counter-plot all weaved together with weird pseudo-real characters and strangely familiar unheard of tales of fantasy adventure. Mixing Lord of the Rings with bizarre dog people might sound crazy but it sort of works, especially with a healthy dose of mock film noir drama and a hint of Sapphire and Steel.

* Hope (Fitz & Anji)

The air is thick with fog. The sea burns. Law and order are a thing of the past. Headless corpses are being found at the edge of the city, and the militia can't find the killer. Members of a deranged cult mutilate themselves while plotting the deaths of their enemies.  Even the Doctor can't see any possibility of redemption for this cursed place. All he wants to do is leave, but to do so he needs the TARDIS - and the TARDIS is lost in the depths of a toxic sea. When the most powerful man on the planet offers to retrieve the TARDIS - for a price - the Doctor has no choice but to accept.  But while the Doctor is hunting a killer, another offer is being made - one which could tear the Doctor and his companions apart…

My Review: A small-scale story after the previous epic-scale...epics. Hope takes a close look at Anji, seeing who she is, what she wants and how quickly she can get pissed at someone. Hope centres on her relationship with dreary Dave the dead trekker and how much she pines for him. Her emotional vulnerability allows her to be easily manipulated by a sociopathic genocidal tyrant and causes her to betray the Doctor.  The rest of the book is a bout the 'island' city of Hope, ruled by Silver a weird cyborg who pretends to be a nice-ish guy to get what he wants, and he wants everything. The TARDIS is conveniently lost early on, keeping the Doctor & co from escaping and they end up getting involved in trying to solve some murders and from there events lazily circle out of control until everyone is at risk of being turned into a mindless cyborg-drone.

* Anachrophobia (Fitz & Anji)

Imagine a war. A war that has lasted centuries, a war which has transformed an entire planet into a desolate No Man's Land. A war where time itself is being used as a weapon.  You can create zones of decelerated time and bring the enemy troops to a standstill. You can create storms of accelerated time and reduce the opposition to dust in a matter of seconds.  But now the war has reached a stalemate. Neither the Plutocrats nor the Defaulters have made any gains for over a hundred years.  The Doctor, Fitz and Anji arrive at Isolation Station Forty, a military research establishment on the verge of a breakthrough. A breakthrough which will change the entire course of the war.  They have found a way to send soldiers back in time. But time travel is a primitive, unpredictable and dangerous business. And not without its own sinister side effects.

My Review: This is a very weird book and for once deals with Time in a convincing and realistic way. Even more so it features a time war almost as good as the one in The Ballad of Halo Jones book 3 :)  The regulars are quite their usual selves, with the Doctor having extra bouncy hair. it's the Doctor's turn to suffer again as he's poisoned by mustard gas and then there's the usual angst about the guilt of his actions and we go back as far as Adventuress, pity he didn't go back further and get his memory back though or as far back as Adric like the NA's did.  Mistletoe is a typical 2-D villian, he could be Chinn's identical clone created by an alien empire and it wouldn't be a surprise. Except of course he's someone sadly far more predictable and I spent half the novel wondering when he'd drop the disguise :(  Still it's a very good book and quite Sapphire and Steel in some ways which isn't a bad thing :)

* Trading Futures (Fitz & Anji)

The early decades of the twenty-first century. All the wars have been won. There are no rogue states. The secret services of the world keep it electronically monitored, safe from all threat. There is no one left for the United States and the Eurozone to fight. Except each other.  A mysterious time traveller offers a better future -- he has a time machine, and with it, humanity could reach the next stage of evolution, they could share its secrets and become the new Lords of Time...either that, or someone could keep the technology for themselves, and use it to fight the ultimate war.

My Review: An interesting tale of crime and war in the near future. It does get a little flat in places as the author gets bogged down in referencing his previous novels in unsubtle ways. The main thrust is the conman selling a time travel device to start a war and gain access to the world's money, it's quite a tame idea really and Sabbath is sellotaped onto the story as a cheap gaudy extra. Still the main characters are reasonably served, Anji gets the most interesting stuff and Fitz gets to impersonate the Doctor and the real Doctor's in the story too.

* The Book of the Still (Fitz & Anji)

The Book of the Still is a lifeline for stranded time travellers - write your location, sign your name and be instantly rescued. When the Unnoticed learn that within the book someone has revealed both their existence and whereabouts they are forced into murderous intercession to find it.  Fitz knows where it is, but then he’s the one who stole it. Carmodi, addicted to the energies trapped in frequent time travellers, also knows where it is. But she’s the one who’s stolen Fitz. Anji, alone on a doomed planet, trying to find evidence of a race that has never had the decency to exist, doesn’t know where anybody is.  Embroiled in the deadly chase, the Doctor is starting to worry about how many people he can keep alive along the way...

My Review: An interesting story that sometimes nearly lets the complexity of the story get away from itself. After a promising start I really got bogged down in the plot, despite comparing one of the guest cast to Velma from Scoody Doo (my role model) it's went off the off the boil for a while. I was hoping for Sabbath to turn up at the end and put the story out of my misery but alas it was a simple self-fulfilling time loop...

* The Crooked World (Fitz & Anji)

Take Streaky Bacon, for example. This jovial farmer wants nothing more from life than a huge blunderbuss, with which he can blast away at his crop-stealing nemesis.  And then there's Angel Falls, a racing driver with a string of victories to her name. Sure, her trusted guardian might occasionally put on a mask and menace her for her prize money, but that's just life, right? And for Jasper the cat, nothing could be more pleasant than a nice, long nap in his kitchen - so long as that darn mouse doesn't jam his tail into the plug socket again.  But somebody is about to shatter all those lives. Somebody is about to change everything - and it's possible that no one on the Crooked World will ever be happy again.  The Doctor's TARDIS is about to arrive. And when it does... That's all folks!

My Review: This is kind of like all those 70's cartoons I watched as a kid (although my favourites - the Hair Bear Bunch - aren't even referenced) The Doctor and co arrive and inevitably mess things up. I guess the story can kind of be seen as a metaphor for growing up, with the innocent antics of childhood innocent followed by the lurching uncertainties and conflicts of teenage years and then a quieting maturity in the closing chapter as things settle down again with a more confident approach to life. Still I haven't watched cartoons for years so I got nothing from this at all, but then I'm not the target audience this book is aimed at...

* Telos Novellas: Fallen Gods

In ancient Akrotiri, a young girl is learning mysteries from a tutor who, quite literally, fell from the skies. With his encouragement she can fly and surf the timestreams and see something of the future. But then the demons come. Death and disaster are meted out by the gods of her land. Perhaps retribution for some heinous crime... or something far more sinister?

* History 101 (Fitz & Anji)

Spain, 1937. In April, the small town of Guernica was razed to the ground in a firestorm that claimed a thousand or more lives. In May, Barcelona exploded into fierce street fighting as different political faction fought for control of the city.  Both events have been the subject of fierce propagandist claims by all sides, but this book examines new evidence to suggest that the two events are more closely linked than previously thought.  Who were the shadowy figures working behind the scenes? Who were 'the Doctor', 'Anji' and 'Fitz' and what were their objectives? And were there really monsters roaming the streets?  Presented in the form of a novel, History 101 tries to discover if the absolute truth can ever be revealed. It should be read as part of the ongoing Doctor Who: Eighth Doctor history course.

My Review: I'm not one for historicals at all, they're usually long and dull and eminently switchoffable. I couldn't put this book down until I'd finished it as it was neither. The characters all had a fresh spin on them, a refreshing way of looking at tired old faces and seeing something new in each. Could have done with a bit more Sabbath imho, I felt cheated that he was hardly in the story at all, I think he's shaping up to be a most refreshing challenge for the Doctor.

* Camera Obscura (Fitz & Anji)

The Doctor sat alone and listened to the beat of his remaining heart. He had never got used to it. He never would.  The single sound where a double should be. What was this new code hammering through his body? What did it mean? Mortal. No, he'd always known he could die. Not mortal. Damaged. Crippled. Through his shirt, his fingers sought the thick ridge of his scar. Human...  The Doctor's second heart was taken from his body - for his own good, he was told. Removed by his sometime ally, sometime rival, the mysterious time-traveller Sabbath. Now, as a new danger menaces reality, the Doctor finds himself working with Sabbath again. And discovers the shocking truth about what became of his missing heart.  From a seance in Victorian London to a wild pursuit on Dartmoor, the Doctor and his companions work frantically to unravel the mystery of this latest threat to Time...  Before Time itself unravels.

My Review:  After the fantastic City of the Dead this comes as a slap in the face, its standard Victoriana fare, like Talons of Weng Chiang but worse. Sabbath is the only interesting thing in the book and he's a very poor imitation of his normal self. The story comes off as a half a dozen boring theories mixed up and put in no order at all. Then just as we head towards the resolution of the story the book ends.

* Time Zero (Fitz, Anji & Trix)

With Fitz gone to his certain death and Anji back at work in the City, the Doctor is once more alone. But he has a lot to keep him occupied.  At the Naryshkin Institute in Siberia, scientists are busily at work in a haunted castle. Over a century earlier, creatures from a prehistory that never happened attack a geological expedition. Pages from the lost expedition’s journal are put on display at the British Museum, and a US spy plane suffers a mysterious fate. Deep under the snowy landscape of Siberia the key to it all remains trapped in the ice.  Only the Doctor can see that these events are all related. But he isn’t the only person involved. Why is Colonel Hartford so interested in the Institute? Who is the mysterious millionaire who is after the journal? How is the Grand Duchess, descendent of the last Tsar, involved?  Soon the Doctor is caught up in a plot that reaches back to the creation of the Universe. And beyond...To Time Zero.

My Review:  A pleasant, quick and easy book to read. The physics was easy enough to grasp and understand. I thought that something like o-space is probably the case long before reading a fictionalised version of it here. The idea of Shrody's cat forming an entire novel is an original approach and to learn that at the end the Doctor had the wrong cat in the box is a bold move.  Also Trix (although briefly seen without her disguise) is a welcome addition and is welcomingly Sam-esque but not too much.

* The Infinity Race (Fitz & Anji)

The Doctor is in trouble. He has his own race to win. Stuck in a parallel dimension, pursuing the mysterious Sabbath, he must unravel a complex plot in which he himself may be a pawn.  Following the only lead, the TARDIS arrives on Selonart - a planet famed for the unique, friction-nullifying light water that covers its surface. A water that propels vast, technological yachts across its waves at inconceivable speeds. All in all, an indulgent, boastful demonstration of power by Earth's ruthless multi-stellar corporations.  Is Sabbath's goal to win the race? Who is Bloom, the enigmatic Selonart native?  As the danger escalates, the Doctor realises that he is being manoeuvred into engineering his own downfall. Is it already too late for him?

My Review:  A strange book with seemingly seperate plot threads being a lot more connected than they initially seem. I guess the main flaw of the book is the over indulgence of writing the book from either Anji or Fitz's retrospective POV, it takes the whole edge off the book because we know they must be safe because they're talking about events they survived. It might have been far better to stick with a third person present tense style to add a sense of danger and uncertainty to the book that the POV style takes away from the prose.

* The Domino Effect (Fitz & Anji)

The TARDIS lands in the Scottish capital, Edinburgh, during Easter 2003. The city is almost at a standstill, its public services close to collapse and its people terrorised by a bombing campaign.  Within hours one of the Doctor’s friends is caught in a deadly explosion, while another appears on television confessing to the murder of twelve people. The TARDIS is stolen by forces intent on learning its secrets. When the Doctor tries to investigate, his efforts are hampered by crippling chest pains.  Someone is manipulating events to suppress humanity’s development – but how and why? The trail leads to London where a cabal pushes the world ever closer to catastrophe. Who is the prisoner being held in the Tower of London? Could he or she hold the key to saving mankind?  The Doctor must choose between saving his friends or saving Earth in the past, present and future. But the closer he gets to the truth, the worse his condition becomes...

My Review:  This is about a parallel Earth that's only slightly worse than our own, like ours theirs is ruled by a secret society dedicated to maintaining absolute control of society by any means necessary, unlike ours though theirs is run by a group of people who make GWB look like a genius! Their Britain is a fascist, racist police state while ours condones racism. Their society is quick to blame their troubles on innocent scapegoats and ignore all evidence contrary to their conviction, so no change there. Their media is a tightly controlled propaganda machine heavily censored to show only the approved good facts; ours makes 1984 look like a work of fact not fiction. They have terrorist bomb scares that are actually the work of the government; some people also say that about ours. In short this book is a comment on Britain in 2003 and its spot on.

* Reckless Engineering (Fitz, Anji & Trix)

The history of the planet Earth has become splintered, each splinter vying to become the prime reality. But there can only be one true history.  The Doctor has a plan to ensure that the correct version of history prevails - a plan that involves breaking every law of Time. But with the vortex itself on the brink of total collapse, what do mere laws matter?  From the Bristol riots of 1831, to the ruins of the city in 2003, from a chance encounter between a frustrated poet and Isambard Kingdom Brunel, to a plan to save the human race, the stakes are raised ever higher - until reality itself is threatened.

My Review:  An interesting book, but a little too indulgent in all the wrong places to make it a great story. I liked the idea of an alternate reality that wouldn't die but the need to include some epic outside entity to fight against ruins in by making the solution all to easy. I felt like the characters had earned half a victory and were just given the other half free of charge, it felt incomplete and I felt cheated.

* The Last Resort (Fitz & Anji)

Anji isn't sure, but then it's hard to be sure of anything now. Good Times Inc. promised a new tourist experience, with hotels in every major period of human history - but that kind of arrogance comes with a price, and it's a price the Doctor doesn't want to pay.  As aliens conquer an alternative Earth, Anji and Fitz race to find out how to stop Good Times without stopping time itself - but they find that events are out of control; they can't even save each other. When the Doctor tries to help, it gets far worse. At the Last Resort, only Sabbath can save the day. And then the price gets even higher...

My Review:  An interesting tale, fractured time lines and multiple realities all merging into one chaotic mess. Repeated scenes with a different outcome provide necessary padding to the story as there is no end, only an abrupt ending. I liked the way that Fitz and Anji were constantly questioning themselves to make sure that they were the 'right' versions of themselves when they saw so many versions of themselves killed off by either the Doctor or Sabbath. Once again we have Trix hiding in the TARDIS but this time she claims not to be human. How this will play out in later stories remains to be seen. All in all a well written but badly presented story.

* Timeless (Fitz & Anji)

The fuse has been lit. Reality has been blown apart, and the barriers that shield our universe from the endless others running parallel have shattered with it. The only chance the Doctor has of saving the multiverse from total collapse is if he can get back to Earth - where the damage was first done - and put things right.  With time running out, the Doctor finally understands why 'our' universe is unique. In proving it, he nearly destroys the TARDIS and all aboard - and becomes involved with the machinations of the mysterious Timeless organisation. They can fix your wildest dreams, get away with murder and bring a whole new meaning to the idea of victimless crime.  Soon, Fitz is married, Anji's become a mum, and an innocent man is marked for the most important death in the universe’s long history. The reasons why force the Doctor into a deadly showdown with an old, old enemy, in a killing ground spawned before time and space began.

My Review:  An interesting attempt to write an 'important' story by emphasising the boring bits more than the exciting bits, but somehow it works. There's enough intrigue to lure the reader on in the hope that something really good is in the next chapter. Timeless does deliver, by degrees, but it maintains the emphasis on the low key storylines so that the reader isn't burdened by anything too interesting or exciting. Oh and Anji leaves too, with as much build up as this sentence.

* Emotional Chemistry (Fitz & Trix)

1812: The Vishenkov household, along with the rest of Moscow, faces the advance of Napoleon Bonaparte. At their heart is the radiant Dusha, a source of inspiration – and more besides - for them all. But family friend, Captain Padorin, is acting like a man possessed – by the Devil.  2024: Fitz is under interrogation regarding a burglary and fire at the Kremlin. The Doctor has disappeared in the flames. Colonel Bugayev is investigating a spate of antique thefts on top of which he now has a time-travel mystery to unravel.  5000: Lord General Razum Kinzhal is ready to set in motion the final stages of a world war. More than the enemy, his fellow generals of the Icelandic Alliance fear what such a man might do in peacetime.  What can bridge these disparate events in time? Love will find a way. But the Doctor must find a better alternative. Before love sets the world on fire.

My Review:  I really didn't like this story, way too boring and it failed to grip me on any level, not even when it started trying to poorly impersonate The Shadow of Weng-Chiang...

* Sometime Never (Fitz & Trix)

This Week: A hideous misshapen creature releases a butterfly.  Next Week: The consequences of this simple action ensure that history follows its predicted path...  Sometime: In the swirling maelstrom of the Time Vortex, The Council of Eight maps out every moment in history and takes drastic measures to ensure it follows their predictions. But there is one elemental force that defies prediction, that fails to adhere to the laws of time and space... A rogue element that could destroy their plans merely by existing.  Already events are mapped out and defined. Already the pieces of the trap are in place. The Council of Eight already knows when Sabbath will betray them. It knows when Fitz will survive the horrors in the Museum of Anthropology. It knows when Trix will come to his help. It knows when the Doctor will finally realise the truth.  It knows that this will be: Never.

My Review:  Billed as the big reset button book, yet the 99% of the book does no such thing, it's mindless padding included as filler for the last couple of pages which really are incredibly bland anyway, as a book it has pages, as a novel it fails in every respect...

* Half-Life (Fitz & Trix)

The Terran colony world of Espero seems the unlikely source of a sophisticated distress call. And the Doctor, Fitz and Trix are not the only ones responding to it.  While Fitz consorts with royalty, the Doctor’s on the run with a sixteen year old girl, and Trix meets a small boy with a dark secret.  In a race for the minds and souls of an entire planet, the Doctor and Trix are offered temptations that may change them forever.  And at least one of them will be unable to resist.

My Review:  An interesting tale but hardly anything new or original, the only fresh thing is the arrangement of the clichés and the reveals within reveals. At least it's clever in its use of stock sci-fi ideas and not as dull or repetitive as other books in the range. The characterisation of the regulars makes the book more a success as we delve into the psyches of the characters like never before, learning more about Trix in one paragraph than we knew about her in ever previous book she's appeared in!

* The Tomorrow Windows (Fitz & Trix)

There's a new exhibition at the Tate Modern - The Tomorrow Windows. The concept is simple: look through a Tomorrow Window and you'll see into the future. You'll get "The Gist of Things to Come". According to the press pack, The Tomorrow Windows exhibition will bring about an end to war and suffering.  Which is why someone decides to blow it up.  Investigating this act of wanton vandalism, The Doctor, Fitz and Trix visit an Astral Flower, the show-world of Utopia, and Gadrahadradon - the most haunted planet in the galaxy. They face the sinister Cecces, the gratuitously violent Vorshagg, the miniscule Micron and the enigmatic Poozle. And they encounter the doomsday monks of Shardybarn, the warmongers of Valuensis, the politicians of Minuea and the killer cars of Estebol.  The also spend about half an hour in Lewisham.

My Review:  A good story about the manipulation of time and ideas used for nefarious ends and naturally the Doctor and co get involved, get split up and nearly get killed. There are the usual red herrings and fake reveals, but the story itself in enjoyable and well written with good characters that liven up the dullest of scenes. The only major let down is that the main villain is just so inferior, which is pointed out in the book in advance as one of the laws the story is following, in such a strong book such a deliberate weakness is unfortunate.

* The Sleep of Reason (Fitz & Trix)

The near future: a man in a psychiatric hospital claims to be an alien time-traveller called 'the Doctor'. He once adventured across countless galaxies, fighting evil.  The past: an asylum struggles to change Victorian attitudes to the mentally ill. It catches fire in mysterious circumstances.  Now: a young woman takes an overdose and slips into a coma. She dreams of Death falling like a shroud over a benighted gothic building.  Caroline 'Laska' Darnell is admitted to the Retreat after her latest suicide attempt. To her horror, she recognises the medical centre from recent of an old building haunted by a ghostly dog with glowing eyes. She knows that something is very wrong with the institute. Something, revelling in madness, is growing ever stronger.  The mysterious Dr Smith is fascinated by Laska's waking dreams and prophetic nightmares. But if Laska is unable to trust her own perceptions, can she trust Dr Smith?  And, all the while, the long-dead hound draws near...

My Review:  A good story, a variation of the classic ‘devil dog’ tale of old (only this one has green eyes instead of red) and the simple storyline is crammed full of rich characters and detailed characterization. I’m not too keen on flashback in prose, but this story makes use of it in the form of old diary extracts and I think it works quite well in that respect, however the only failing in all the book is the recounted ending, it’s far too rushed and I feel that as a reader we’d earned more than we’d been given. The little coda at the end while charming adds very little to the story and instead seems added on only so the reader can get an extra chuckle at the expense of one of the lesser guest characters. The regulars are sidelined for much of the book, which focuses on the character Laska, which is a bit of a shame because while she’s an interesting character she’s put forward to mask the true intentions of the Doctor, Fitz and Trix which are to find and defeat the evil that’s haunting Laska, so we’re cut off from our heroes in a way, making the story less accessible because our means to finding the resolution of the story is blocked by her, but this investment in her character does pay off later in the book when we learn of her hidden connections to much of what is going on.

* The Deadstone Memorial (Fitz & Trix)

There is no such thing as a good night. You may think you can hide away in dreams. Safely tucked up in bed, nothing can touch you.  But, as every child knows, there are bad dreams. And that dreams are where the monsters are.  The Doctor knows all about monsters. And he knows that sometimes they can still be there when you wake up. And when the horror is more than just a memory, there is nowhere to hide.  Even here, today, tonight... in the most ordinary of homes, and against the most ordinary people, the terror will strike.  A young boy will suffer terrifying visions... and his family will encounter a deathless horror. Only the Doctor can help -- but first, he must uncover the fearsome secret of the Deadstone Memorial.

My Review:  Another spooky ghost story right after a belter of a chiller, this one however gets lots a little along the way as it sacrifices quality haunting time for needless character scenes that add nothing to what we already know. In fact there's altogether too much repetition of the same events for comfort and it distracts from the events of the story somewhat. Borrowing from The Exorcist in some ways and bits of The Evil Dead may seem a good idea on paper but on the printed page they lack the visual presence of the films. Still despite all this there's still a good story to be read and enjoyed.

* To The Slaughter (Fitz & Trix)

The Terran solar system is being spring cleaned. Under the supervision of celebrity planetary make-over decoratiste Arisotle Halcyon the number of moons of Jupiter is being brought down to an aesthetically pleasing level. But with eco-terrorists taking an active and deadly interest in the work, corrupt officials lining their own pockets, and incompetence leading to the demolition of the wrong moon, the Doctor and his companions realise that not everything as is aesthetic and innocent as it seems.  Will the Doctor be able to stop dangerous experiments in genetic engineering and overturn a clandestine evil plan to conquer the solar system? Will Trix escape from the deadly space sheep? And will Fitz become the galaxy s next megastar designer on the future equivalent of Changing Planets ?

My Review:  After the excitement and suspense of the last couple of books this one fails to live up to expectation, or indeed the level of the author's previous books, instead it's a paper thin run-around over what is really a short story padded out to novel size.  The characters are stock clichés of the worst kind; they make a 1 dimensional dot look 3 dimensional with a quirky personality and a hidden past! If any book can be left out of the range and not have any impact what-so-ever on anything at all then it is this book and that's a shame because it should have been so much more...

* The Gallifrey Chronicles (K9, Fitz & Trix)

The Doctor's home planet of Gallifrey has been destroyed. The Time Lords are dead, their TARDISes annihilated. The man responsible has been tracked down and lured to Earth in the year 2005, where there will be no escape. But Earth has its hands full - a mystery signal is being received from a radio telescope, there's a second moon in the sky, and a primordial alien menace has been unleashed.  The stage is set for the ultimate confrontation. Now, the last of the Time Lords must ensure that justice is done. The Doctor and his companions Fitz and Trix will meet their destiny.  And this time, the Doctor isn't going to be able to save everybody.

My Review:  A rather simple straight-forward story really, with lots and lots of curve balls thrown out to distract and dazzle in equal measure and the ending is taken right from Angel.  We finally find the person the TARDIS was stolen from and we also get cameos from the Master and Romana III and K9 makes an appearance too, as does Anji. As a wrap up of the series it's not even close, but as a summation of the 8th Doctor it's perfect, pity they really killed Sam off though, she was the best character in the range by far...

* Telos Novellas: The Cabinet of Light

Where is the Doctor? Everyone is hunting him.  Honoré Lechasseur, a time sensitive "fixer", is hired by mystery woman Emily Blandish to find him. Lechasseur discovers that the Doctor is, in fact, a semi-mythical figure who has appeared off and on throughout Earth's history. But what is his connection with London in 1949? And why is a mysterious group seeking "the cabinet of light" - a device somehow connected with the Doctor.  Lechasseur is about to discover that following in the Doctor's footsteps can be a difficult task.

* Telos Novellas: The Dalek Factor

When a Thal platoon arrive on a hostile planet investigating reports that Dalek artefacts have been detected, they are unprepared for what they find. In an underground room is a stranger, a Professor, or so he claims, with no memory of who he is or why he is there.  With death and horror their only companions, the Thals make their way with the Professor into the heart of a crumbling Dalek citadel in search of answers … only to find that the Daleks are the least of the horrors they must face.