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Post by The Doctor on Dec 4, 2013 20:33:13 GMT
I could check the Burger for the two you lack. But what if I succeed? Your brain will then tell you that you have 10/11 AND IT WILL EXPLODE.
-Ralph
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Post by blueshift on Dec 5, 2013 0:04:24 GMT
I have managed to obtain eight of them - two were not locatable within the stacks, and the eleventh was something I already have in a nice hardcover format so I passed on it. But eight Doctor Who books for thirteen pounds is not to be sniffed at. Karl It's still a WEIRD selection though, sint' it? I mean, they could have printed some really desirable and well-regarded books, rather than... what seems to literally be a random selection. |
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Post by Andy Turnbull on Dec 5, 2013 0:28:10 GMT
Probably as much to do with rights as anything else. Authors might not have agreed to their terms. But yeah, why Alien Bodies wasn't the Eighth Doctor selection is beyond me.
Andy
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Post by The Doctor on Dec 5, 2013 7:59:58 GMT
The 8th Doc one does smack of 'favour for a mate'. It's ok ( a decent read for £2) but it's hardly in the top half of the 8th Doc series. Unfortunately, it has reminded me of the most awful companion of all: Anji! Hateful character!
-Ralph
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Post by Philip Ayres on Dec 9, 2013 9:19:32 GMT
Secured from Works website. £20.90 but saves running around
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Post by Andy Turnbull on Dec 10, 2013 22:35:45 GMT
Was in The Works today with the Kaptain only the Fifth and Sixth Doctor stuff, but all the old Marvel trades are gone so that would suggest new ones are imminent.
Andy
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Post by The Doctor on Dec 23, 2013 14:55:21 GMT
Hmmm. I'm finding About Time 7 to be as much of a chore as volume 6 was. Again, I get the impression that the authors just don't like most of what they are writing about with the added annoyance of the essays often being pointless or far far too long this time. Much of the humour has also been replaced with "Isn't this all crap?" asides. There's also an uncomfortable subtext of what the authors think of people living in poorer council estates. A shame. Volumes 1-5 and the second edition of 3 in this series were absolutely superb, balancing critical commentary and interesting discussions with a fondness of the subject matter without being fawning.
-Ralph
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Post by Philip Ayres on Dec 23, 2013 15:35:15 GMT
I get the feeling that they're missing Mad Larry somewhat
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Post by legios on Dec 23, 2013 19:56:06 GMT
I must admit to finding volume a bit of a slog to get through. The level of negativity does get hard to wade through after a while.
Karl
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Post by The Doctor on Jan 2, 2014 14:18:39 GMT
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Post by Andy Turnbull on Jan 4, 2014 10:56:17 GMT
Prisoner of the Daleks is pretty good as well. One of the better Doctor Who books since the tv series came back.
Andy
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Post by Andy Turnbull on Jan 4, 2014 10:57:25 GMT
I get the feeling that they're missing Mad Larry somewhat Definitely. The essays are all overlong and laboured. You can tell they don't really like the show, so I question them doing the writing. Would have made more sense to get someone with a fonder view of the 2005 onwards series to pick up the book and do it. Andy |
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Post by blueshift on Jan 4, 2014 11:05:42 GMT
Prisoner of the Daleks is pretty good as well. One of the better Doctor Who books since the tv series came back. Andy Its nice that they're republishing some of the NAs / Missing Adventures. Some nice choices, some terrible (Scales of Injustice? Argh! Way too violent!). Most of them seem to be ones that had been published on the bbc site as ebooks so rights would have been renegotiated already. Still, the whole thing seems to be a bit of a wasted opportunity. You could have republished the 10/10 books, the ones insanely hard to find, but instead they just went for a random grab off the shelf. |
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Post by Andy Turnbull on Jan 4, 2014 11:07:47 GMT
Yeah, just to piss off the folks continually selling the likes of The Dying Days or Cold Fusion have them released.
Andy
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Post by blueshift on Jan 4, 2014 11:25:49 GMT
The 8th Doctor book should have been Dying Days (that was an ebook too so I guess it fell under the same rights issues), Alien Bodies (not sure if Lawrence Miles would have welcomed or blocked a reprint) or Unnatural History. But... uh... Earthworld?  As to these 'monster' books, they seem decent choices, much stronger than the 'doctors' series anyway. Classic monsters didn't seem to be that well represented in the older lines. The only one I am leery about is Scales of Injustice. I remember it being uncomfortably violent and dark, not the sort of thing I'd want kids to be reading. |
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Post by The Doctor on Jan 4, 2014 13:25:22 GMT
There now seems to be a steady reprint programme on the go now so we may still get the 'classics' again in time.
-Ralph
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Post by Pinwig on Mar 20, 2014 22:25:40 GMT
Continued from tmukhub.proboards.com/post/172698/threadI did take delivery today of the Fourth Doctor Time Capsule. I decided that given the exclusive figure in that set is the only one I didn't have that I'd cave in and use the better discount code for the BBC Shop at the moment to get it (20% off using 'DOCTOR'). I thought I'd whip the figure out, watch the Tom interview DVD and then ebay it to try and bring the cost of the figure down to something reasonable, but now I've got it and looked at it it is a lovely presentation set. Doesn't really contain anything we don't already have bar the figure and the interview, but it'll be hard to part with it. Was slightly disappointed to find the interview is only 25 minutes. Sounds like the upcoming Big Finish release will be better value! I also noted that mine is numbered in the 1200s of a run of 5000, so they clearly have a lot left still and I would imagine the set will drop a lot in price through the year as they try to shift them. It's a pity it doesn't contain more unique material. If the Zygons DVD had been swapped for a really good documentary and the novel for a new guide in the vein of the handbook series it would feel like more of an essential purchase. I felt that set was so disappointing, as it seemed to literally be just random stuff thrown together. It would have been so easy to create a set that was a bit more... meaningful. (Like... Tomb of Valdemar? Really?) Yes, that does seem an entirely random choice. |
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Post by blueshift on Mar 20, 2014 22:38:40 GMT
(Like... Tomb of Valdemar? Really?) Yes, that does seem an entirely random choice. I mean I know the BBC has Gareth Roberts on side, why not reprint Romance of Crime or Englush Way of Death? Or even a copy of Shada with a Target novel-esque cover? |
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Post by Pinwig on Mar 20, 2014 22:53:50 GMT
Would those be more expensive for them to reprint as they were from the Virgin era rather than their own imprint? I like the Shada idea, that would have been brilliant. I love book covers with themes. I've been very tempted to buy these to frame since I saw them (half way down the page): www.colemandesign.co.uk/shopJust a clever idea. |
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Post by blueshift on Mar 20, 2014 22:54:40 GMT
They've been reprinting some of the Virgin books as part of their 'Doctors' and 'Monsters' collection.
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Post by blueshift on Mar 20, 2014 22:56:40 GMT
Would those be more expensive for them to reprint as they were from the Virgin era rather than their own imprint? I like the Shada idea, that would have been brilliant. I love book covers with themes. I've been very tempted to buy these to frame since I saw them (half way down the page): www.colemandesign.co.uk/shopJust a clever idea. Oh wow these are nice, how frustrating he doesn't show all of them! |
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Post by Pinwig on Mar 20, 2014 22:58:48 GMT
So they have, yes, I'd forgotten that. There's another series with nice covers. I liked the target reprints they were doing too.
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Post by blueshift on Mar 21, 2014 9:21:29 GMT
Have they stopped doing those now? If so, it's a shame, I would like to have had some later books released with quasi-Achilleo illustrated covers. That would have been neat
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Post by The Doctor on Mar 21, 2014 12:21:14 GMT
Yes, that does seem an entirely random choice. I mean I know the BBC has Gareth Roberts on side, why not reprint Romance of Crime or Englush Way of Death? Or even a copy of Shada with a Target novel-esque cover? BF are doing adaptations of those Gareth Roberts novels! -Ralph |
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Post by Pinwig on Mar 22, 2014 12:53:26 GMT
Have they stopped doing those now? If so, it's a shame, I would like to have had some later books released with quasi-Achilleo illustrated covers. That would have been neat I think they've stopped. There were six in 2011 and six more a year later, but none since. I guess the current reprint style has superseded the idea so they're encompassing the full range of novels available. |
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Post by The Doctor on May 3, 2014 21:19:16 GMT
BBC Books are publishing a novel about the War Doctor. Take my money, take it all.
-Ralph
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Post by Andy Turnbull on May 4, 2014 22:21:37 GMT
Oh yes, i was most pleased when I saw that in this month's DWM.
Also the impending collection of the Cakebastard's strips.
Andy
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Post by KnightBeat on May 5, 2014 0:04:38 GMT
BBC Books are publishing a novel about the War Doctor. Take my money, take it all. Written by George Mann, no less. I'm a big fan of his Newbury & Hobbes books. |
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Post by legios on Jun 3, 2014 19:09:03 GMT
Read a couple of New Adventures novels for the first time this week:-
"The Room with No Doors", by Kate Orman was pretty good. Very obviously a book written towards the end of the run when they knew the writing was on the wall both for the line and for the Seventh Doctor, it has a strong undercurrent about how you face death, whether and how you prepare for it and what you do to manage in the shadow of death. Setting that in the period of Japanese history known as "the age of the country at war" is a strong choice, and manages to subvert a lot of the "noble samurai" stereotypes which often crop up at the same time. Some great characterisation of both the Seventh Doctor - which does feel like you can get from there to the relaxed, comfortable version who dies in the TV Movie - and Chris Cwej.
"The Also People" by Ben Aaronvitch really wears its love of Ian Banks' work on its sleeve. The setting couldn't be more like Banks' Culture dropped into the Who universe if it tried. But there is something quite endearing about this to be honest. Concerning, effectively, a murder investigation in Paradise it takes in sapient, near-omniscient computer systems, sentient spacecraft and a utopian-socialist post-scarcity society where people are free to do what interests them. A surprisingly good setting for Who really. I quite like the fact that a lot of the stakes in the books main plot are relatively personal, and the "Great Secrets" tend to be about characters rather than "Evil, Eeevil from the dawn of time". It is interesting to go back to this book in the light of having read Aaronvitch's more recent output and note just how much of his slightly wry tone is firmly in place even at this early stage in his career. It also has a marvelously whimsical cover, which I remember from seeing on shelves back in the day.
Both of these have been great stuff, glad to have had the chance to read them now having missed them back in the day.
Karl
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Post by blueshift on Jun 3, 2014 19:47:03 GMT
Read a couple of New Adventures novels for the first time this week:- "The Room with No Doors", by Kate Orman was pretty good. Very obviously a book written towards the end of the run when they knew the writing was on the wall both for the line and for the Seventh Doctor, it has a strong undercurrent about how you face death, whether and how you prepare for it and what you do to manage in the shadow of death. Setting that in the period of Japanese history known as "the age of the country at war" is a strong choice, and manages to subvert a lot of the "noble samurai" stereotypes which often crop up at the same time. Some great characterisation of both the Seventh Doctor - which does feel like you can get from there to the relaxed, comfortable version who dies in the TV Movie - and Chris Cwej. It is good, but I remember feeling that it was suspiciously similar to SLEEPY which she published a year before. Not sure HOW similar it actually was, but that struck me. |
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