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Why are Dr. Who books so bad?!

I actually started The Eyeless this morning and I'm only a few chapters in, but I am enjoying it so far.


Of the handful of new Who novels I've read, I'd say this was the best. More "adult" than the others in concept and execution.
 
Thanks for the Ebooks link. I will check them out.

I would like the new books to be more "adult" in content, though. I'm basically a NuWho fan. Although, I like the other series, its the new one that got me interested in Dr. Who univers. Can't have it all I guess.

Thanks again.
 
I am not a huge Who fan, but I have read a couple of the new Who books -- Only Human and Peacemaker -- and found them perfectly fine entertainment.
 
I hear ya man. Apart from the old Target novilizations, the only Who novel I ever read was the 'New Adventures' book 'Legacy'. I think I gave up about halfway though out of sheer boredom and confusion. Haven't picked one up since.
The moral of the story is that you should never judge a book range by the installment written by Gary Russell.

I am not a huge Who fan, but I have read a couple of the new Who books -- Only Human and Peacemaker -- and found them perfectly fine entertainment.
Oh, yes. Only Human was pretty good. So was The Stealers of Dreams from the same batch.
 
As no-one else seems to have done it (sorry I've I've missed a post - and I bet it's int he FAQ), it might help out to fill you in on the different Doctor Who book ranges there's been over the years.

There's the current range of Young Adult small-hardback novels, which seem to be the ones you've been reading and not liked; as said elsewhere, they're targeted at 12 year olds, tend to include some sort of child identification figure if there's not a companion to fill the tole, and in defence of the authors, they often have to be written long before the companions they feature have actually appeared onscreen.

There's the original range of novelisations, based on the stories transmitted between 1963 and 1989, and published over roughly the same period. Some are brilliant, others are rubbish, and they're also aimed at the intelligent pre-teen - anecdotal evidence suggests they did more for literacy in the UK than an awful lot of government initiatives. There's about 150 of those.

Then there's the New Adventures - 7th Doctor stories released from 1991 to 1997, which often aspire to be challenging science fiction (or, to be critical, William Gibson rip-offs!), and occasionally need 'bleeping' for the four-letter words. The Missng Adventures are a sister range started in 1993, using the first six Doctors. They're now out of print, but as pointed out above, some of these are available as free e-book downloads from the BBC website.

And finally, there's the original BBC book range, released from 1997 to 2005-ish, which pretty much carries on where the NAs and the MAs left off, except with the 8th Doctor as the 'current' Doctor, and no on-book labels to separate the ranges (though they get referred to the Eighth Doctor and Past Doctor Adventures - EDAs and PDAs). They're also out of print now, but as they're quite recent, they're easier to find.

Finally? Not really, as there's also the Telos range of novellas, and the Short Trips story collections, but as that's already 400-odd books, that's enough to be getting on with...
 
Then there's the New Adventures - 7th Doctor stories released from 1991 to 1997, which often aspire to be challenging science fiction (or, to be critical, William Gibson rip-offs!)...
That's unfair.





The Also People is actually an Iain Banks rip-off. :borg:
 
Then there's the New Adventures - 7th Doctor stories released from 1991 to 1997, which often aspire to be challenging science fiction (or, to be critical, William Gibson rip-offs!)...
That's unfair.





The Also People is actually an Iain Banks rip-off. :borg:

Which he was very eager to have a read of - and not in a 'How do I get my lawyers onto this?' way, I hasten to add!
 
I've read 6 of them (given to me as Christmas gifts). The first one I read was the only one I didn't care for: The Art of Destruction. It took me a few weeks to get through because I could only read a chapter at a time. However, I did give the others a chance and I really enjoyed all the rest:

The Doctor Trap
Ghosts of India
Shining Darkness (the best of the bunch)
Martha in the Mirror
The Many Hands

The only thing stopping me from buying more is the price - it's hard to justify $12 for a 250 page novel.
 
Wolfsbane. It's a 4th Doctor story, although it's largely written from the perspectives of Sarah Jane Smith & Harry Sullivan. Also, Harry meets a mysterious figure who is strongly implied to be the 8th Doctor.
Strongly implied nothing. It is the eighth Doctor. This is set, for him, during the "Earth Arc" where he's been stranded on Earth for about 120 years without his memories.
 
Wolfsbane. It's a 4th Doctor story, although it's largely written from the perspectives of Sarah Jane Smith & Harry Sullivan. Also, Harry meets a mysterious figure who is strongly implied to be the 8th Doctor.
Strongly implied nothing. It is the eighth Doctor. This is set, for him, during the "Earth Arc" where he's been stranded on Earth for about 120 years without his memories.
100 years - the 100 years of the 20th century to be precise, with all that would involve for someone who appears to be a fit young man in good health. Some great books in there, precisely because the Doctor gets to be more human than ever before, as it's only things like the lack of ageing that bit-by-bit tip him off that he isn't.
 
100 years - the 100 years of the 20th century to be precise
Well, if we want to be precise it's 112/113 years- from sometime in 1888 to February 2001.
Some great books in there, precisely because the Doctor gets to be more human than ever before, as it's only things like the lack of ageing that bit-by-bit tip him off that he isn't.
Absolutely. Among them are two unusual classics (The Turing Test and Father Time) and two strong 'traditional' books (The Burning and Casualties of War), any of which can be read on its own. And then Wolfsbane, though that's more a Harry Sullivan story than anything else.
 
I did not like the 8th Doctor books very much. Space Race was readable but I hated all of the ones about the Faction Paradox.
 
Feast of the Drowned is a reasonable New Series novel, featuring Ten and Rose, though Mickey again gets the shaft.
 
100 years - the 100 years of the 20th century to be precise
Well, if we want to be precise it's 112/113 years- from sometime in 1888 to February 2001.
Some great books in there, precisely because the Doctor gets to be more human than ever before, as it's only things like the lack of ageing that bit-by-bit tip him off that he isn't.
Absolutely. Among them are two unusual classics (The Turing Test and Father Time) and two strong 'traditional' books (The Burning and Casualties of War), any of which can be read on its own. And then Wolfsbane, though that's more a Harry Sullivan story than anything else.

I thought he got stranded in 1901, but it is 10 years since they came out and I've not re-read them, so mea culpa! And Father Time, definitely somewhere in that Top 10 list of books you (hopefully) never get roudn to writing out...
I'll tell Jac you like Wolfsbane!
 
Wolfsbane. It's a 4th Doctor story, although it's largely written from the perspectives of Sarah Jane Smith & Harry Sullivan. Also, Harry meets a mysterious figure who is strongly implied to be the 8th Doctor.
Strongly implied nothing. It is the eighth Doctor. This is set, for him, during the "Earth Arc" where he's been stranded on Earth for about 120 years without his memories.

Well, yes, the book doesn't really leave any room for doubt in the minds of the informed reader. However, the book is written in 3rd person limited form from the perspectives of Sarah Jane & Harry. And although Harry has his suspicions, IIRC, he never finds out for sure that this person is the Doctor. When Harry suspects that this man is the Doctor, he figures that either he's an earlier incarnation that hasn't met him yet, a near-future incarnation that is simply pretending to not recognize Harry so as to not contaminate the timeline, or a version of the Doctor from so far into the future that he has forgotten Harry entirely. But Harry certainly seems thrown from the scent when this mystery man doesn't even bat an eye at the mention of Skarro.
 
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