Doctor Who Books (Fiction)

[Philip Ayres]

They're probably the Target novelisations of the TV stories rather than the original fiction tho.

[The Doctor]

I used to have a heavy addiction to WHO books, and read most of the NA's and BBC 8th Doc books. Most of them are gone due to space issues alas, but generally a decent monthly read, though the BBC books went downhill after The Ancestor Cell. I retain great affection for the NA's. The best Who book writer remains Lawrence Miles by a country mile.

Loved the Targets as a child.

-Ralph

[Grand Moff Muffin]

Andu thrust two Doctor Who books onto my person in Glasgow. They shall be read over the Christmas period.

Martin

[blueshift]

I used to be addicted to them, I have an almost complete run of New Adventures, Missing Adventures, and the BBC book range from 1997-2001.

Anything by Lawrence Miles, Lance Parkin, Paul Cornell or Mark Clapham is amazing. Plus Mark Clapham likes Transformers! (and yet it was Lance Parkin who had Bumblebee as a villain, in Father Time!)


However, Escape Velocity is utter bilge! Avoid!

[Philip Ayres]

Now my one encounter thus far with Mad Larry did not go well - Adventuress of Henrietta Street. I do however have both Interferance volumes en route.

Colin Brake - the Escape Velocity author - was scheduled to write for DW at one pt, he was a mate of Cartmell's who had him lined up for S27.

[legios]

I have read a considerable pile of original Doctor Who fiction at one point or another. I read most of the early New Adventures novels, and a fair chunk of the later ones. Likewise I read a fair proportion of the BBC Books Eight Doctor material. I have kept very few of them, because there is only so much space in my house, but I have kept ahold of everything that I have that Lawrence Miles did for BBC Books, along with Philip Purser-Hallard's "Taking of Planet Five" (a book whose existence is the one thing I thank "Image of the Fendhal" for).

I began to part company with them around about "Time Zero" though, as I felt the quality was starting to decline.

I'd have to agree with Ralph - Lawrence Miles is by far the producer of the most interesting and different BBC Books Who fiction.

The Target books were very much a fixture of my childhood. In my early years my local libraries furnished me with a larger quantity of Doctor Who than my television ever did.

Karl

[Grand Moff Muffin]

Dec 1, 2009 21:12:49 GMT Philip Ayres said:

Now my one encounter thus far with Mad Larry did not go well - Adventuress of Henrietta Street.

You'd probably take issue then with 'The Adventuress of Henrietta Street' being one of the two Doctor Who books that Andy T thrust into my hands at ScotCon, to educate me on what Doctor Who books are like.

Of those two Who books (the other being 'Alien Bodies' by the same author), this is the one I chose to try out over Christmas, and I finished it this morning. I was unlikely to ever read a Who novel of my own instigation, since I pretty much exhausted my tolerance for franchise novels with Star Trek, Star Wars and Babylon 5 while at university. While some of the books associated with each of those three franchises have been very good, they all suffer from a certain degree of reliance on successful brands and formulae, and a stifling of the author's creativity and originality by the need to satisfy the expectations of fans. I prefer to read non-brand, non-franchise novels these days, where the author has complete control. (I count the original 'Star Wars' novel by George Lucas and 'The Lord of the Rings' as non-brand, non-franchise novels.)

Anyway, 'The Adventuress of Henrietta Street'. Well, the style was certainly distinct, told as if by a historian with a sense of the dramatic piecing together events from diaries and legends. It is a style that I can accept provided it is confined to one novel, as a bit of novelty. The moment I come across another novel in the same style, written by this or another author, dated before or after, my tolerance for this novel will plummet sharply. Because it is quite a lazy style, in the sense that it allows the author to leave things vague where they can't figure out satisfactory explanations, and cover events quite rapidly in synopsis form. Although I found the book quite long enough, the story would perhaps be much more engaging if spread over a trilogy, where the characters actually have time to speak and breathe, where we get to know them as people and have more reasons to care about what happens to them.

In my few years watching Doctor Who, I have perceived there being two types of story - the ones that are silly if creepy fun (the most recent being 'Planet of the Dead', the best being typefied in my opinion by 'The Empty Child'/'The Doctor Dances' and 'Blink'), and the ones that would like to be taken a bit more seriously (the most recent being 'The Waters of Mars', the best being typefied in my opinion by 'Dalek' and 'The Parting of Ways'). Stories in the first category don't require life-like human characters in order to work for me - the likes of Captain Jack Harkness will do just fine instead. However, for me to engage with a story that wants to be taken seriously, I need it to have real people in it. In other threads I may have said I need to connect/relate to characters who are "people like me". With hindsight, I should put in a comma - I need to connect/relate to characters who are "people, like me". There have to be people who I can believe to be human beings, with human lives and human feelings. Fearless characters with no apparent need for human things like family, friends, home, security, etc. don't come across as real to me because I've never met or read about such a person in the real world.

Sadly, 'The Adventuress of Henrietta Street' doesn't develop any of its characters to become real people in my eyes. If the events were told over the course of a trilogy it would have time to do so - we could find out about the fears and longings of the various characters. But as it is, they all come across as too cold, too hardened, too detached - even the Doctor's two companions, who may have been introduced and fleshed out in another story, just come across here as two more bodies to assist in the fight.

And this is a particular problem when the author is trying to do an apocalyptic could-be-the-end-of-the-world story. It falls flat because nowhere in the book are we shown the human race that is so worth protecting. Compare with 'The Parting of Ways', where we were shown the personal, human side to some of the staff and contestants on the Gamestation, and cut back from the battle with the Daleks to Rose's life on present-day Earth. There was none of that here. It was to me very much like Transformers stories that have no humans in them - everything that should feel big and scary is reduced to something that I as a reader find mundane and easy to take in my stride.

Which is a shame, because the general premise of the novel, with the prostitutes, apes and ancient magics, beats hands-down the premises of most of the end-of-the-world scenarios I've seen during David Tennant's tenure on the TV series, or in 'Torchwood'.

Martin

[blueshift]

Alien Bodies is far far far better. I couldn't get to grips with Adventuress at all, and I'm the guy who has even slogged through every Christopher Bulis book!

[Grand Moff Muffin]

I expect I shall read 'Alien Bodies' in January. Though that will probably be my quota for franchise novels in 2010.

Martin

[blueshift]

There's a lot of Who books that are far superior to your usual 'franchise' stuff (and some stinkers too). Mostly these were the Virgin ones, but quite a few of the BBC ones were great too.

[Grand Moff Muffin]

I've read 'Alien Bodies' now, and yeah, it's much more readable than 'The Adventuress of Henrietta Street'.

The main story was very good. However, the numerous interlude flashbacks - 'X's story,' 'Y'story', 'Z's story' - kept bringing the plot to a grinding halt and so detracted from the tension and urgency for this reader. I think, as I get older, I'm losing my appetite for non-linear storytelling when it lacks a good reason for being there - which both these books are subject to, though Doctor Who on TV tends not to be.

Probably nearly everything I've written has been non-linear without good reason, but as a reader the novelty wears thin after a while and I find myself valuing stories that just take you through what happens through the eyes of a character in chronological order, with the backgrounds of other characters either being told to you straight by the narrator when they are introduced, if they aren't supposed to be mysterious, or revealed in due time as the lead characters learn about them in the course of the story, or never revealed at all if the lead characters never find them out. The best-written characters simply reveal who they are and where they come from by their visual description, speech and actions. Stories within stories, I love - when a character just says to another character, stop, let me tell you my story, because you can judge them by listening to them. But random jumps back and forth through time which carry nobody with them but the reader just seem like poor story planning to me now (it has been so whenever I've done it, anyway, even when I've got away with it).

So I guess I'd have found the book more entertaining if we'd learnt about all the alien characters in real time, through the Doctor's or Sam's eyes, and only learnt what they learnt, rather than have all these random scene-dumps.

But the story itself is excellent - great main concept. It would make a good episode or two, or a great book of half the length. Just a bit over-drawn-out at over 300 pages.

Says the man who likes LOTR and 'War and Peace'.



Martin

It was Ralph who told me of this book and forced a copy into my hand and said to read. It's thoroughly enjoyable and one of favourite books. The flashbacks are in reverse order apparently, with the last flashback being the first. One of the high points of Doctor Who books and indeed licensed fiction.

Andy

[Philip Ayres]

Reading Alien Bodes at the mo.

If you don't want Adventuress I'm willing to give it another go.

Got some of the rarer end of NA's cheap - Happy Endings, Godengine and Return of the living Dad. My to read pile currently registers at 12+ DW Novels.

[blueshift]

Alien Bodies was pretty new and exciting for the time. Unfortunately they made the rather dodgy decision of putting the background of the tale into a big arc plot, and then after kicking it off, kicking out the writer (Lawrence Miles) and replacing his ideas with a lot of rather ponderous and rubbish fanficcy stuff, culminating in The Ancestor Cell.

Actually that's a bit unkind, some of the books before and after were pretty great, but The Ancestor Cell was utterly terrible (the Enemy turned out to be CELLS POWERED BY TECHNOBABBLE AND UH TECHNOBABBLETECHNOBABBLE BLAH BLAH)

[Philip Ayres]

Miles continued writing DW after Ancestor Cell. But what happened in between Interference and that with him I don't know - link to a web page anyone ?

[Andy Turnbull]

The only two books he says had any halfway decent handle on Faction Paradox and "The War" were Unnatural History by Blum and Orman and The Taking of Planet 5 by Clapham and Bucher Jones (iirc). He detests The Shadows of Avalon.

Andy

[Andy Turnbull]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Miles

For links to some of the Mad Larry controversies!

Andy

[blueshift]

Dead Romance is one of the Virgin 'non-Who' NA books by Miles that is a direct sequel to Alien Bodies, and is pretty amazing.

Shadows of Avalon was a huge disappointment. Cornell is usually so much better

I seem to remember The Ancestor Cell turning Faction Paradox from cultists into a full-fledged EVIL ARMY who rather than wore skull-masks were uh, blow-torching peoples faces off because they were EEEEVIL and stuff. It was pretty bad.

[Andy Turnbull]

There's the nugget of some good ideas in The Ancestor Cell lost amidst the technobabble and the complete failure to handle Faction Paradox correctly. The resolution to the Third Doctor's fate in Interference Book 2 is quite elegant I thought. It's nice how they kind of sweep under the carpet that the books range never reset the death of the Third Doctor on Dust.

I wish we'd gotten Loz's Fourth Doctor on the Planet of the Spiders book.

Andy

[Grand Moff Muffin]

Jan 23, 2010 11:01:42 GMT Philip Ayres said:

If you don't want Adventuress I'm willing to give it another go.

I've been reading Andy T's copies.

Martin

[The Doctor]

Dead Romance remains the litmus test of spin-off fiction. One of my favourite novels, full stop.

-Ralph

[Andy Turnbull]

Jan 23, 2010 17:13:45 GMT Grand Moff Muffin said:

Jan 23, 2010 11:01:42 GMT Philip Ayres said:

If you don't want Adventuress I'm willing to give it another go.

I've been reading Andy T's copies.

Martin

You can pass it on to Phil.

Andy

[Grand Moff Muffin]

Phil - PM me your address and I'll send Adventuress your way using the awesome power that is Royal Mail.

Martin

[Philip Ayres]

Just finished Alien Bodies and lo it was good. Worth a read. To celebrate I've put The Krotons on....

Started Interference 1 now.

[The Doctor]

I read Alien Bodies before I saw The Krotons. They were somewhat less awesome on screen than they were in my head, alas.

-Ralph

[legios]

Yes, if Alien Bodies was your first experience of the Krotons I can see why you would have been disappointed by them on screen. For me it was much the other way around. I had seen them onscreen and been amused by them in a "wobbly monster" kind of way, then I read Alien Bodies and was impressed that someone had made the Krotons good. I like the sense of humor that the book has as well - the observations about Zen and pocket lining, and the ending of the chess game scene that goes from slightly portentous to somewhat slapstick.

Jumping back a long way in the thread, I can see why "Adventuress" isn't going to work for everyone. It is of somewhat peculiar construction - certainly by spin-off novel standards. I have a soft spot for it, partly because I love its use of "unreliable narratorism" and the sense it creates by the end of the book that there are multiple competing interpretations of some of the events that take place. But I can see why it wouldn't be everyones cup of tea.

I will second Andy's observation that it is a shame we never got the "Beneath the Planet of the Spiders" book though.

Karl

[The Doctor]

Non-fiction, but not long finished Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale - The final Chapter, which is 600-odd pages of emails between showrunner RTD and journalist Ben Cook. Which sounds dry as dust but turned out to be a very engaging and absorbing read and very different from any 'making of' book I've ever read. Gives you a much greater insight into how these types of shows are made. Worth a look.

-Ralph

[Philip Ayres]

Arrived today Martin - thanks. Just as I thought my Mad Larryathon was over.

Also recieved: Taking of Planet 5, Shadows of Avalon & Christmas on a Rational Planet.

For other things Phil got today SEE ALSO: Marvel Handbooks, TF new aquisitions and graphic novels

[skillex]

I am an absolutely huge fan of the original Doctor Who novels, although admittedly I'm quite pleased they're not on the go anymore in a way - it saves lots of money and shelf-space!

The Virgin New Adventures are probably my favourite ever era of Doctor Who, just edging out the RTD TV era - which in many ways was heavily influenced by that novel series. Having said that, I was an ideal age to read them as they came out (a teenager) so perhaps that epic re-read I've always wanted to do but never had time would equal out the quality with the BBC novels a bit. The various books series gave us my favourite ever companion (Bernice Summerfield) plus a whole host of other fantastic characters and concepts: Chris and Roz, Faction Paradox, the War in Heaven, Iris Wildthyme, Irving Braxiatel, the People, President Romana and more.

Some recommendations I'd make...

Love and War by Paul Cornell
Human Nature by Paul Cornell
Warlock by Andrew Cartmel
Set Piece by Kate Orman
The Also People by Ben Aaronovitch
Just War by Lance Parkin
Return of the Living Dad by Kate Orman
Damaged Goods by Russell T Davies
Bad Therapy by Matthew Jones
The Room With No Doors by Kate Orman
The Dying Days by Lance Parkin

Alien Bodies by Lawrence Miles
Interference by Lawrence Miles
The Blue Angel by Paul Magrs
The Turing Test by Paul Leonard
Father Time by Lance Parkin
The Crooked World by Steve Lyons
The Adventuress of Henrietta Street by Lawrence Miles

The Witch Hunters by Steve Lyons
Verdigris by Paul Magrs
Cold Fusion by Lance Parkin
The Empire of Glass by Andy Lance
Fallen Gods by Jonathan Blum and Kate Orman

Dead Romance by Lawrence Miles
Walking to Babylon by Kate Orman
Of the City of the Saved by Philip Purser-Hallard

[blueshift]

I hated The Blue Angel when it first came out, but now I think it is absolutely amazing. Probably the boldest ending for not only a Doctor Who book, but 'tv tie-in book' in general. I mean, christ!

SPOILER: Click to show

The Doctor running off before the finale, and the '20 questions' instead of a denoument

[Philip Ayres]

Blue Angel's in my "to read" pile. Along with 20 others.

Just finished Happy Endings - Meh - now on Godengine. More traditional.