Doctor Who: The Silurian Gift (Quick Reads 2013) of Tucker, Mike on 01 February 2013

Doctor Who: Quick Reads #7

by Mike Tucker

Excellent Book

Genres: Doctor Who, Science Fiction, Fiction, British Literature, Fantasy, Media Tie In, Young Adult

Paperback

First published February 1, 2013

About the author

Mike Tucker is a special effects expert who worked for many years at the BBC Television Visual Effects Department, and now works as an Effects Supervisor for his own company, The Model Unit. He is also the author of a number of original tv tie-in Doctor Who novels (some co-written with Robert Perry), and three books based on episodes of the television series Merlin. He co-wrote the factual books Ace! The Inside Story of the End of an Era with Sophie Aldred in 1996, and BBC VFX - The Story of the BBC Visual Effects Department with Mat Irvine in 2010.

Reviews

[Dan · Rating 2 out of 5]

In a future where the petroleum supply is nearly exhausted, an industrialist is extracting a mysterious superfuel called Fire Ice from a lake beneath Antarctica. But what is the super fuel and what is the beast that is attacking workers? That's what The Doctor and a journalist named Lizzie are trying to find out...

This one started out great. There were greedy businessmen, short-sighted environmentalists, dinosaurs, a mysterious hairy beast, and Silurians. Then things started getting unnecessarily complicated.

The Doctor as well written and I liked the Silurian plotline, as I always do when the scaly ones make an appearance. Then the Sea Devils showed up and things got a little cluttered.

It had its moments but The Silurian Gift fell a little short for me. 2.5 out of 5 stars.

[Thibault Busschots · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wealthy guy claims he’s found a new kind of fuel that will solve the world’s energy crisis. The eleventh doctor goes to Antarctica to find out more about this fuel. When he gets there, a man claims he’s been attacked by some kind of dinosaur.


Since it’s called “The Silurian Gift” and since the Silurians are featured prominently on the cover, it’s not a spoiler to say they’re behind all this. This is also a Mike Tucker story. And he does what he does best. He takes a plot formula from the series that works and he just executes it really well. So if you’ve seen any episodes featuring the Silurians, this will feel like a very familiar story. Unsurprisingly, this works wonders for these quick reads. This gives us a story that feels like a proper Doctor Who story and hits all the right story beats, in a very short amount of time.


Basically, if you like a fast-paced and easy to read Silurian story, you won’t regret picking this up.

[Emilija · Rating 3 out of 5]

When they say Quick Reads, they weren't joking. I read this is ten minutes at the library while my parents inspected the shelves.
It was alright with a semi-decent plot. Could have been better, could have been worse.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a quick read, this is great! It sees the Doctor use his UNIT connections to investigate an Antarctic power station claiming to have a new fuel to solve all the world's energy problems (although why the Doctor doesn't just go in the TARDIS is beyond me). It soon becomes clear that all is not as it seems (it never is) and the Silurians are involved. As usual, there's conflict between the humans and the Silurians and some indivduals of each species just make matters worse. There's a nice surprise half way through and the return of the Myrka which is good fun.

This isn't that original but it doesn't need to be. It's action packed and almost feels like it could be a Second or Third Doctor story but for the presence of the Eleventh Doctor, who is characterised well here. As with most solo Doctor stories we get a temporary companion, in the form of a journalist called Lizzie. Lizzie is an interesting character who has some major flaws which the Doctor is very disappointed to discover.

As a full length novel this would be a disappointment but as one of the Quick Reads series this is excellent- lots for fans of classic Who, lots of action and some typical witty lines from the Doctor. A great and easy read.

[Jim C · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a Quickread book that is just under one hundred pages. In this one, Matt Smith's Doctor travels to the South Pole as a new energy source has been discovered. With this discovery, a group of Silurians awake from hibernation.

This was a decent story from this universe that really is a quick read. The Doctor is traveling alone and with his traveling alone adventures he finds a temporary companion. I liked the use of the Silurians and their story. The story itself isn't amazing as we have seen this before so it didn't add anything new. I was really enjoying the first half of the story with the setup and the introduction of the characters. I couldn't believe this was a Quickread as there was plenty of characterization and setup. Unfortunately I came to understand why this is a Quickread story. The ending was rushed and basically it was Doctor solves the problem just like that and good night.

I wasn't expecting much from this book as it just did not have the length to accomplish much. That being said, it was a decent story and I would read another Quickread story from this universe. Anytime I can spend more time with characters that are no more is okay in my eyes.

[Suzanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was like watching an additional episode :)

[Owen Townend · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fun little Doctor Who adventure. It ticked all the right boxes: a base under siege, a 'monster' with understandable motive, even a technical maguffin.

It was also wonderful to see Tucker drawing from Classic Who to enrich the Smith era Silurians with Sea Devils and Myrkas from the Pertwee and Davison eras respectively. There is no greater treat than seeing old aliens revisited in a short straightforward book that is intended to get people reading.

Nevertheless, being such a book means that a lot of the usual sci-fi detail must be pared down to paragraphs of quick exposition and shallow character motivations. What bothered me most was Lizzie's inexplicable desire to please the Doctor though he is practically a stranger to her. Then again this just highlights the manipulative nature of the protagonist: the Doctor can breeze in and out of your life and yet still retain your utter devotion.

Nevertheless The Silurian Gift is a light enjoyable adventure to the Arctic with an assuredly charismatic lead. I recommend this book to fans of the New show looking to broaden their reading horizons and knowledge of the Whoniverse.

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one lives up to its label...it's a quick read with no pretentions beyond being a quick read. Since Mike Tucker is the author, there is plenty of delicious fan service, and many call backs to previous Silurian and Sea Devil adventures. But this one is definitely hitting my "I want more" button -- I'd love to read a full novel-length version, or even see this as a filmed script. Good stuff...but the potential for greatness is there.

[Lucy-Jane Burns · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Doctor Who Quick Read - I loved it.

📕 "You're always going to give people a second chance, aren't you, Doctor?"

[Nicholas Whyte · Rating 3 out of 5]

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2071806.html[return][return]The latest of the BBC's Quick Reads series, we have Eleven travelling on his own, and being called in to investigate mysterious happenings on an Antarctic base. The plot is thoroughly rooted in (which is to say largely copied from) the Old Who stories, particularly Warriors of the Deep, and Tucker seems to be consciously following Malcolm Hulke's style in his novelisations, but these are not intrinsically bad things and in fact it is done rather well, if fairly obviously aimed at a younger reading audience. Who would have thought that the Myrka could actually be resurrected without embarrassment?[return][return]Though I was deeply annoyed by one grammatical point - "its" was frequently though inconsistently spelt as "it's". I know that this usage is found in the Declaration of Independence, but its time is past; it's not what we do now.

[Paul Baldowski · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fitting in with the current storyline of a companionless Doctor - he finds himself in the South Pole at the site of a refinery producing barrels of Fire Ice, a new revolutionary fuel source. Along for the ride, Liz claims to be a journalist, but her intentions seem to be to deceive everyone, including the Time Lord.

A simple tale of Silurians, greed, and environmental disaster - this is a straight forward and entertaining tale suited to young fans of Doctor Who. Nothing too original here - but with at least one nod for fans of classic Who that makes it a fine little read for adult fans.

[Terri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Scientists have announced a new clean and safe energy source in the antarctic. The Doctor is skeptical. He goes down with them to the base to find the energy source is actually a Gift from the Silurians in the hope of building a positive relationship with Humans. However, not everyone wants the same thing.

I really enjoyed this quick (99 pages) read filled with Silurians and other favorite Doctor Who creatures!

[Kribu · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quick read, as the name of the Quick Reads line of books indicates, and thus not incredibly rich in depth or character, but a very enjoyable read nevertheless.

It reminded me much more of the old Target novelisations of Classic Who stories than of new Who, and in this case, this was a good thing.

[Vendea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Skvělá jednohubka do vlaku. Angličtina byla fakticky celkem jednoduchá a četlo se to samo. Moc se mi líbilo využití Silurianů, protože jsem si je oblíbila už v seriálu. Škoda, že jsem zatím neměla možnost vidět v akci i "Sea Devils" (jsou údajně někde v classic Doctorovi), protože vypadali vážně suprově. A nejlepší? Doctor a jeho umění krást sonický šroubovák.

4/5*

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another enjoyable quick read. However, once again I felt the characterisation of the Doctor was somewhat too generic, I didn't 'feel' Matt Smith in this. If anything, the voice was rather more Eccleston.

[the cerulean.gif™ · Rating 5 out of 5]

charming, i suppose, but the plot holes are... a thing.

[Brooklyn Tayla · Rating 2 out of 5]

For whatever reason, this one I didn't enjoy. I mean there were some great lines from Eleven which I adored but my love for the book ended there.

[Helen (they or he) · Rating 2 out of 5]

This kind of depicted the bad and the good side of humans and silurians. It was definitely interesting but not good enough for my taste. (Hence the two stars)

[ValeryVal · Rating 3 out of 5]

¡Doctor Who and The Silurians sobre hielo!

En vez de verte las 7 partes del serial del Tercer Doctor, ahora puedes disfrutar de la aventura de los Silurians en menos de 100 páginas… ¡Pero en el Polo Sur!

Vale, quizás sea un poco exagerada, pero es que la historia me recuerda muchísimo al episodio clásico como para simplemente tacharlo de inspiración. ¡Aún así no es un mal libro, eh! Tenemos a un empresario “descubriendo” una tecnología demasiado avanzada para su tiempo, al Doctor metiendo las narices, a una acompañante ingeniosa, y a un misterioso grupo de científicos detrás de la hazaña… ¿Qué puede salir mal?

Mike Tucker crea una aventura intrigante que en ningún momento se siente apurada al contar con tan pocas páginas. Algo que está hecho a propósito, por cierto, ya que el libro pertenece a la colección de “Quick Reads”, pequeñas historias para inspirar al público a volver a disfrutar de la lectura. Lectura en inglés, eso sí, ya que el libro solo se encuentra legalmente en ese idioma. Si lo queréis en español, buscad “Audiowho” en Google y descubrid un tesoro que impresionaría incluso a los Silurians.

En resumen, pequeño libro recomendado si quieres una aventura rápida con argumento típico de la serie. El nivel de inglés es más o menos un B2-B1, por lo que también sirve para practicar un poco el idioma con el Doctor.

(Y si queréis más contenido de Doctor Who en español, seguidme en las redes sociales que aparecen en el siguiente link: https://linktr.ee/ValeryVal)

[I DRM Free · Rating 4 out of 5]

This books is definitely not intended for adults or least adults expecting a great read with lots of unseen twists and turns or a in depth story. However if you are a Doctor Who fan and have child like wonder and can check your brain, then this is a great read.

Reading this seemed to me to be quite like watching an episode of Doctor Who. It was a quick read where it introduced the characters fairly quickly, gave you just enough depth to understand where they were coming from and how you should fell toward them and then the story takes off.

The story is very easily predictable as per most any Doctor Who episode. But that’s just fine with me because that is exactly what I was wanting and expected. The Doctor is on to something that seems bigger than it appears on the outside and knows that something is up. He works his way into the middle of the fracas and starts meddling and digging until the truth is revealed. Once revealed he does what the Doctor does best and solves the problems to the best of his abilities with a companion of course (who is not a regular from the show and is just a one time companion in this book).

Overall I would give it a 5/5, but it has DRM so I have to take off 1 point for that.

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Quick Reads novella featuring the Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith).
Investigating a too-good-to-be-true new fuel source originating from a drilling operation in Antarctica, the Doctor finds an unscrupulous human businessman exploiting a group of Silurian scientists.

Silurian stories, ever since their first appearance during Jon Pertwee's run as the Doctor, pretty much follow the same pattern. Humans and Silurians discover each other, tensions arise, the Doctor tries to broker a peace, conflict erupts, the Silurians are either killed or return to hibernation.
This book is no exception to that pattern but, I have to say, is nevertheless quite an enjoyable version of it. I think the fact that this very short book has to keep its momentum up is to its benefit, since it means we're never belabouring ideas that have already been explored elsewhere.

What we get here, then, is a fast-paced adventure for the excellently-portrayed Eleventh Doctor, which has the nice touch of not only including the Silurians but also their Sea Devil cousins too.
It's not going to blow your mind, but as the advertised Quick Read, it's a lot of fun.

* More reviews here: https://fsfh-book-review2.webnode.page *

[Ryan Hindley · Rating 2 out of 5]

I want to preface this by saying I am a huge fan of Mike Tucker, and have enjoyed many of his offerings to the Whoniverse. This, however, wasn't great.

The main problem with The Silurisn Gift was that it crammed way too much in to a quick read. The characters, as a result were severely underdeveloped. There was no need to include the Silurians, the Sea Devils and the Myrka. The Silurians alone would have sufficed.

Moreover, the characterisation was off. The Doctor didn't feel like Smith. I could believe it was 11, but it reminded me a lot more of Eccleston.

Don't be mistaken, there are some great ideas and elements here. My favourite part of the book was where the Doctor dissuades Lizzie from pressing the button to blow the place up.

In short, this would have worked much better as a full length novel. Tucker presents several nice ideas that would have worked had they been fleshed out.

[Joe Pranaitis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Author Mike Tucker brings us a tale of the Doctor as he visits Antarctica for a special presentation from the company called PelCorp. What PelCorp has done has found a new fuel scores that would change the energy industry. But as the Doctor investigates he finds out that the fuel comes from the Silurians who are working with the PelCorp but not of their own free will. The Silurians have their sleeping population being held hostage by the private armed forces of PelCorp. Plus the man running the company decided that it would be best to kill the daughter of the lead Silurian scientist. The thing is he didn't she survived and is bringing havoc down on the base in order to free her people from the apes that have them. This is a great quick read and I highly recommend it for all Doctor Who fans.

[Christy · Rating 5 out of 5]

For how short and quick of a read this was (as evidenced by the "quick reads" advertisement on the cover!), this was actually a fantastic Doctor Who story! It had all the elements of storyline that made it definitely fall into that Doctor Who rhythm. It was a quick read, but it was enjoyable to just sit and read something so succinct. I really enjoyed this! This was surprisingly one of my favorite Doctor Who books.

[Taaya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fastfood. Nichts wirklich Negatives, aber leider fehlte auch alles, was das Buch über die emotionale Nulllinie gehoben hätte. Kein sarkastischer oder cleverer Spruch des Doctors, kein Situationshumor, aber auch keine wirkliche Tiefe. Nur eine Anregung von Action, hier eine Explosion, da ein Mensch, der angeknabbert wird,... Nur dafür brauch ich halt kein Doctor Who.

[Nikki · Rating 3 out of 5]

A short, simple story with the doctor without an official companion.
There are a couple of plot holes in this one and not everything is explained properly. The ending is too abrupt for my liking and the accepted defeat is too quick, it does not feel natural.

[Kayleigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sometimes you just want a quick read. I have had this one on my shelves for such a long time.
It read like a Doctor Who episode, the one that has nothing to do with the rest of the series.
It was easy to see everything played out.

[Kieran McAndrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

An Antarctic drilling expedition frees the Silurians and the Doctor must negotiate the peace once more.

The story captures the 70's sensibilities of 'Doctor Who' quite well, and it is interesting to see the Eleventh Doctor involved in this type of adventure.

[Malcolm Meli · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a nice fun adventure featuring the 11th Doctor going all the way south to Antarctica, where a rich man has managed to find a new type of fuel which will revolutionize the world.

It was an enjoyable read.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Took me 40 minutes to read. Quick and entertaining.