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Post by The Doctor on Aug 10, 2019 20:56:10 GMT
I was under instructions not to answer the question.
-Ralph
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Post by Pinwig on Aug 10, 2019 22:04:58 GMT
Spreadsheet updated.
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Post by Pinwig on Aug 20, 2019 17:50:19 GMT
Another two second hand bookshops failed to provide me with an adequate Target purchase today. One actually had five target books for sale, but ones I already have. I almost bought another copy of The Cave Monsters just to say I'd bought a Target book, but it is not the victory I seek. They had a reasonable selection of film tie in novels too, but none shite enough to be worth tormenting Ralph with.
Instead I bought Threshold of the Stars by Paul Berna. An exciting space adventure for children published in 1954. Looks like my kind of thing.
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Post by Pinwig on Aug 20, 2019 20:16:25 GMT
Finished reading the DWM Target special. Most enjoyable reading. Really liked that.
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Post by The Doctor on Aug 22, 2019 17:55:54 GMT
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Post by Pinwig on Aug 22, 2019 18:36:53 GMT
This does look interesting, but I have to wonder what makes this a 'Target' storybook as opposed to just another one of the annual short story collections we've had for several years now.
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Post by The Doctor on Aug 22, 2019 19:11:09 GMT
Indeed. That is the aspect that intrigues me the most. I don't quite 'get' what makes it Target other than branding but would like to find out.
-Ralph
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Post by blueshift on Aug 22, 2019 19:36:50 GMT
Isn't it supposed to be stories that take place inside the tv stories, which was the domain of Target novels?
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Post by Pinwig on Aug 22, 2019 19:40:09 GMT
Hmm. That's true. That'll be the link. They're prologues and epilogues to TV stories aren't they.
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Post by The Doctor on Aug 22, 2019 19:50:56 GMT
Yes, but loads of other stories in prose have already done this approach. I just don't 'get' it, but then if it is a branding thing it's worked on me. I haven't got round to the other recent short story collections but this will be a day 1 purchase.
-Ralph
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Post by Pinwig on Aug 22, 2019 20:31:26 GMT
Indeed. Same here. They know what they're doing!
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Post by Pinwig on Aug 29, 2019 11:56:15 GMT
I have decided I must now locate secondhand bookshops this summer. I will not rest until I have bought a Target novel I don't own in a shop. Where have they all gone? Mission parameters set! 14 months and no luck. I'm kicking this up a gear today. It is ON.
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Post by Pinwig on Aug 29, 2019 12:16:27 GMT
Now then... Let's see what we find in here...
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Post by Pinwig on Aug 29, 2019 18:42:38 GMT
We find that Target books cost a lot more than they used to! Short jaunt to the Isle of Wight today, so this time made a point of pit stopping at the Who shop in Ryde hoping to finally complete the 'buy a Target book in a shop' mission. The shop is pretty much as the adverts in DWM make it out to be: huge selection of books and CDs. Shelves of Target novels, but I was disappointed to find I had them all. They stopped a long way short of the end of the range and I realised the 'good stuff' was on a bookcase roped off behind the shop counter. So I asked if the guy had any of the missing books I am after, and of course he did, but at a price. I got new copies of The Smugglers and Planet of Giants and a like new copy of Attack of the Cybermen. That was all I could sensibly afford. I asked about the Trial season and he showed me new copies of all four books. The price for all four? £100. I didn't buy em.
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Post by The Doctor on Aug 29, 2019 20:33:04 GMT
ONE HUNDRED POUNDS??!!!
-Ralph
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Post by Pinwig on Aug 29, 2019 20:37:19 GMT
£25 a book for the four stories. I thought I got off lightly paying a tenner for Attack of the Cybermen!
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Post by Pinwig on Sept 30, 2019 18:47:54 GMT
Reading Scratchman at the moment and something occurred to me. It has a weird narrative style in that it's first person, but quite happily explains at length what other characters are up to (including their thoughts) when the Doctor isn't present, using the occasional 'I found out later that...' to try and knit it together. The writers just about pull it off under the banner of 'it's Tom, it's going to be weird', but I just realised that's exactly how the old 70s Genesis of the Daleks record works. The Doctor narrates in first person, introducing the scenes he isn't in before they play out without him.
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Post by The Doctor on Sept 30, 2019 19:17:57 GMT
Also like his 1st person narrating of the Power of the Daleks soundtrack in the early 90's.
-Ralph
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Post by Pinwig on Oct 13, 2019 21:26:07 GMT
2/3rds through Scratchman. Not enjoying it as much as I'd hoped I would. It's not really grabbing me. I need to work out which DWM did the big feature on this and see how close this book is to the original proposal.
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Post by blueshift on Oct 15, 2019 15:23:08 GMT
I just found something exciting that I thought I lost! Anyone want to read something New Adventures related, shoot me a PM with your email! (being vague on purpose as I probably shouldn't share it but it's like, 25 years old now)
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Post by The Doctor on Oct 20, 2019 19:46:13 GMT
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Post by Pinwig on Oct 20, 2019 20:20:10 GMT
Oh dear.
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Post by Pinwig on Oct 22, 2019 19:22:50 GMT
Finished Scratchman the other day. It is... not good. It doesn't feel like a complete story, more like two short stories stitched together and padded out. Using the new handy-dandy index with this month's DWM, I dug out the ish that had the big feature on it, which I thought was a few years ago but turned out to be TWELVE. YEARS. AGO. OH MY GOD. The detailed plot breakdown in that is a lot more rounded and feels like a complete story - the novel is more like Tom remembering the bits he liked and going to town with them in his usual flamboyant style.
I like surreal humour (I'm a huge Robert Rankin fan), but this is surreal without a proper narrative to hang it off. It's weird because it should work - Doctor Who did zombie scarecrows with David Tennant and that was fine, and Scratchman's opening half should work in the context of Hinchcliffe's 'gothic' Who, but it just doesn't gel. The second half is one third Mind Robber, one third nightmare matrix sequence from Deadly Assassin and one third insane Baker. But it just goes on and on and on with no real direction.
It's a shame. I reckon had Ian Marter still been around to push Tom into shaping this into a proper novel it could have been fantastic, but James Goss clearly didn't have the clout to stop Lord Baker's rambling style getting out of hand. Really want to like it, but it isn't quite Who and it isn't quite a good book in its own right.
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Post by The Doctor on Nov 3, 2019 16:05:26 GMT
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Post by The Doctor on Nov 13, 2019 21:03:33 GMT
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Post by Pinwig on Nov 13, 2019 21:27:22 GMT
Absolutely. Ten target books in a hardback omnibus though! Ten! Even considering how short the target books are, that's one weighty volume.
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Post by The Doctor on Nov 30, 2019 20:58:57 GMT
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Post by Bogatan on Dec 8, 2019 9:45:35 GMT
I bought my first Target books today.
They are short enough that I might even get around to reading them rather than adding to the pile.
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Post by Pinwig on Dec 8, 2019 10:36:09 GMT
Hooray! Which ones?
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Post by Bogatan on Dec 8, 2019 11:13:20 GMT
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