50th Anniversary eBooks

[Lonemagpie]

Derek Landy or Jonathan Stroud would be my picks

[Cutter John]

And the first book goes to, Eoin Colfer with a First Doctor and Susan story.

2-page excerpt at:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-...colfer-extract

[Allyn Gibson]

I realize it's just a page-and-a-half -- and thus, not enough to really judge -- but that's very not good.

[Brendan Moody]

Having looked at the Artemis Fowl books in the past I wasn't expecting much as far as prose skill, but I did have a faint hope that Colfer could do decent characterization. Alas, no.

[Nagisa Furukawa]

As an alternative:

If you guys want an excellent First Doctor/Susan novella written by a respected author, I recommend tracking down Kim Newman's "Time and Relative," told as the diary of Susan in the months leading up to An Unearthly Child. Excellent work.

[Konata Izumi]

Brendan Moody wrote:

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Having looked at the Artemis Fowl books in the past I wasn't expecting much as far as prose skill, but I did have a faint hope that Colfer could do decent characterization. Alas, no.

I'm not reading until the full story comes out, but could it be just the 'reimagined' first Doctor (lol) they mentioned somewhere, and he's a decent character..? At least he should come up with great fantasy concepts. Hopefully.

Does he rap?

[diankra]

Judge it by the full version of course, but on the strength of that I'll read it when I get the print collection for completist reasons, and hope that it doesn't get the first Doctor as badly wrong as that extract hints. Will judge the rest on who writes them, and any advance extracts.
Would be horrible if this one sells badly and convinces Penguin that nobody wants first Doctor stories. :-(

[Allyn Gibson]

SFX has reviewed A Big Hand for the Doctor. They gave it four out of five stars. But then there's this...

If the thought of William Hartnell leaping into anything seems incongruous to you, well, you're not alone. Colfer's Doctor jumps off a building, muses on Hogwarts, Marmite and his dislike of Blake's 7, and even has a weird moment of prescience where he wishes he was as fit and healthy as his eleventh incarnation.

...and a voice in the back of my head is going, "What? What? What?"

[Emh]

Allyn Gibson wrote:

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SFX has reviewed A Big Hand for the Doctor. They gave it four out of five stars. But then there's this...

...and a voice in the back of my head is going, "What? What? What?"

Yeeeaaahhh...like I said, that's one story I'll be skipping.

[Konata Izumi]

So he's the dude from Plugged. Is it known if the hand he's missing is one of the two you'd like it to be?

[OmahaStar]

Konata Izumi wrote:

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So he's the dude from Plugged. Is it known if the hand he's missing is one of the two you'd like it to be?

Huh?

[Konata Izumi]

^Reimagined First Doctor's basically the same character as the main character of Colfer's previous book. The synopsis says he's missing a hand. So I'm hoping there's no cop-out there

[Nagisa Furukawa]

Allyn Gibson wrote:

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But then there's this...

*sighs*

I repeat what I said earlier in the thread. Anyone who wants a really great First Doctor-era story that both looks at the Hartnell era from a 21st century perspective (through Susan's POV, the 60s seem as barbaric as the Tribe of Gum while still having enough inherent charm to make her want to stay) but also a First Doctor who, uh, acts like the First Doctor (he's never even called the Doctor nor is the TARDIS named; only "Grandfather" and "the Ship"), please try to track down a copy of the novella Time and Relative by Kim Newman. It's exactly the sort of thing this SHOULD be; old and new, aware of what comes later but respectful of what came before, provides new and fascinating insights into Susan (especially) and the Doctor's characters while also managing a very good and believable adventure too, all from a respected writer who's made a name for himself outside of Who yet knows the show very well.

[ToddCam]

Well, the Doctor sort of fought in "The Romans".

Wow, that excerpt is... something...

[Konata Izumi]

I didn't expect there to be these stories at all, so I don't really have any expectations they could fall behind. I'm glad if there's good stories at all whatever they exactly might be.