Доктор Кто. Сказания Трензалора

Doctor Who NSA Anthologies #2

by Justin Richards, Джастин Ричардс, Мария Шмидт (Translator)

ДОКТОР КТО - культовый британский научно-фантастический телесериал компании BBC. Самый продолжительный научно-фантастический сериал в мире и заметная часть британской культуры.
Сборник "Сказания Трензалора" входит в цикл "Новые приключения" (New Series Adventures), в котором насчитывается более 50 книг о 9, 10 и 11 Докторах, принимавших участие в "новых" эпизодах сериала (с 2005 года). Все книги цикла - это дополнительные истории, которые происходили с героями до или после событий, показанных в сериале.

"Сказания Трензалора" - это сборник из 4 повестей о последних днях Одиннадцатого Доктора и его жизни на планете Трензалор. Действия книги перекликается с заключительной серией 7 сезона, премьера которой состоялась 26 декабря 2013 года. Это была последняя серия с Одиннадцатым Доктором, которого играл британский актер Мэтт Смит.
23 августа 2014 года выйдет первая серия 8 сезона сериала, в которой роль Двенадцатого Доктора исполнит актер Питер Капальди.

О книге
Как и было предсказано, армии всей Вселенной собрались у Трензалора. Лишь одно стояло между планетой и ее уничтожением - Доктор. Лишь одно стояло между Доктором и новой Великой Войной Времени - его имя. В течение девятисот лет он защищал Трензалор и крошечный городок Рождество от войск, готовых его уничтожить.
Некоторые события тех ужасных лет хорошо задокументированы. Но большая их часть оставалась покрыта тайной и мраком.
До этого момента…

Об авторах

Джастин Ричардс - британский писатель-фантаст, наиболее известный по романам, справочникам и аудио пьесам, основанным на популярном британском научно-фантастическом сериале "Доктор Кто". Он является творческим консультантом ряда романов о Докторе Кто, написанных для BBC Books. Также написал серию фэнтезийных произведений о викторианской эпохе и начале 20-го века в Лондоне.

Марк Моррис - британский писатель и редактор. Опубликовал более 16 романов, а также множество повестей, статей и обзоров. Он является редактором книги Cinema Macabre - сборника эссе о пятидесяти фильмах ужасов, за которую получил в 2007 году British Fantasy Award.

Джордж Манн - автор мистического стимпанковского цикла "Newbury & Hobbes", также пишет рассказы, короткие истории и сценарии к аудиокнигам. Редактировал несколько антологий, включая The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction, The Solaris Book of New Fantasy.

Пол Финч - писатель и журналист. Дважды обладатель British Fantasy Award. По мотивам сериала "Доктор Кто" написал несколько романов и две аудио постановки.

Genres: Doctor Who, Science Fiction, Fiction, Short Stories, Fantasy, Time Travel, Adventure

224 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

Justin Richards is a British writer. He has written many spin off novels based on the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who, and he is Creative Director for the BBC Books range. He has also written for television, contributing to Five's soap opera Family Affairs. He is also the author of a series of crime novels for children about the Invisible Detective, and novels for older children. His Doctor Who novel The Burning was placed sixth in the Top 10 of SFX magazine's "Best SF/Fantasy novelisation or TV tie-in novel" category of 2000.

Reviews

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Time of the Doctor only scratched the surface of what happened during the Doctor's centuries on Trenzalore.

Let it Snow by Justin Richards: Mysterious ice meteors rain down on Trenzalore and the Ice Warriors are responsible. But what do they have in mind for the town of Christmas and the Doctor?

Justin Richards utilzes the Church of the Papal Mainframe's truth field to the utmost in this tale. The Doctor proves to be as clever as a mongoose and Christmas is saved.

An Apple a Day by George Mann: A bizarre seed pod crashes through the roof of a glasshouse orchard and soon a Krynoid is running amuck in Christmas! Can the Doctor stop the Krynoid before it kills and devours everyone in Chrismas? Of course he can. He's the Doctor!

An Apple a Day is a fun tale that hearkens back to the era when all you needed in a Doctor Who episode was a monster and some running. The Krynoid was actually a little scary and reminded me of similar creature in Day of the Triffids and The Ruins.

Strangers in the Outland by Paul Finch: A prospector gets ambushed and his daughter wanders the forty miles back to Christmas, only to say that his attackers looked just like The Doctor?

The Autons are the villains this time. While I liked some of the Doctor's dialog and the Lifeboat, it was kind of weak compared to the previous story. The Autons are as creepy as ever, however.

The Dreaming by Mark Morris: A malign intelligence threatens the people of Christmas. But can even the Doctor stop an evil that attacks in the victim's dreams?

The final story in the collection is the creepiest and features the Mara. As always, the Doctor saved the day.

Tales of Tenzalore did a good job filling in a few gaps during the Doctor's time on Trenzalore in The Time of the Doctor. As the foreword said, there is ample room for hundreds if not thousands more like it so we'll probably see a sequel. The first two stories were my favorites but it's a pretty good collection overall. Three out of five stars.

[Yzabel Ginsberg · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars. Enjoyable, but the stories seemed too short. Or maybe there weren't enough of them? I can't really tell. I guess would have liked to learn about some more things, too (like how the Doctor lost his leg, etc.).

[Zeynep Sıla Seçkin · Rating 4 out of 5]

*4YILDIZ*✨Gerenimo✨
"Harika bir soru daha!Bugün tam formundasın Clara."
Kız gözlerini devirdi.''Benim adım Teskia,Doktor.''

Dalga geçermişçesine bir kapakla karşı karşıyayız.Böyle müthiş bir karakter ancak bu kadar saçma bir kapakla mahvedilebilir.Dört farklı pencereden bakıyoruz bu kitapta.O dört hikayede geçen yaratık yada düşmanların fotoğrafları öylesine kapağa yapıştırılmış.

Hikayelerin fazla resmi yazılması ve basite indirgenmesi beni fazlaca rahatsız etti.Doktor hikayelerde sadece huysuz,yaşlı,gizemli ordan oraya koşup insanları kurtaran bir kahraman gibi gösterilmiş.Doktor asla böyle olmadı.Doktor bundan çok daha fazlası.Kitapta ciddi şekilde beğendiğim tek yer ''Gerenimo'' sözcüğünün olduğu kısımlardı.

Bu konuyu içeren dizi bölümlerinde her ne kadar içim parçalansa da beni tatmin etti.Bu kitap tatmin etmenin yanından bile geçmedi.Bu kadar eleştirdiğim ve beğenmediğim için rahatsız oluyorum.Fakat memmun kalamıyorum.Dört yazarın farklı bir şekilde yazmasını yada benzer şekilde yazıp ilgi çekici olmasını istedim.Bana göre tüm yazarlar sınıfta kaldı.Zorlama vardı.Olay akışı fazla hızlıydı.Yavaşça işlenmesi daha hoş olabilirdi.Dört yıldızı değer görmemin sebebi diziye ve oyuculuğuna hayran olduğum Matt'e saygım.Dizilerin kitaplarına karşı ön yargım oluştu.Bu hoş değil.

Anlam veremediğim kısımlar olduğu gibi bir yanım da Doktor'un çocuklarla olan ilişkisini hep destekledi.Boş zamanında Tardis ile bahçemize konsa ya.

TAVSİYE ETMİYORUM!

[Can · Rating 4 out of 5]

11i ne kadar özlediğimi farkettim her whovianın okuması gerek bence

[Felix Zilich · Rating 2 out of 5]

На русском языке внезапно издали сборник рассказов про Доктора Кто. И даже не просто сборник, а официальную антологию из четырех повестей, полностью посвященную одному из самых мутных эпизодов в истории последнего таймлорда. Если вы смотрели седьмой сезон ребута, то прекрасно помните, что такое “осада Трензалора”. Почти тысячу лет Одиннадцатый при поддержке Папского Манфрейма защищал городок Кристмас и скрытую в его башне трещину во времени от бесконечных попыток своих врагов спровоцировать новый Time War.

Если вы не в курсе вышеизложенных событий (или, что хуже, эта фраза показалась вам полной ахинеей) - брать книгу в руки, наверное, нет особого смысла. Она полностью зациклена на трензалорском эпизоде и за её пределы не выходит.

Пусть эпизод совсем не маленький (тыща лет - не шутка), но авторы сборника подошли к задаче без особого воображения. Каждая новелла написана по одинаковой схеме: враг тайно высаживается на планете и пытается устроить всем большой бадабум, но Доктор пусть и хром, но всеведущ, хитёр и, сцуко, отважен, поэтому бадабум либо отменяется, либо полностью выходит из под контроля. Из врагов присутствуют ледяные воины, автоны, криноиды и какая-то злобная дрянь под названием Мара.

Читабельно, но пресно. Будем надеяться, что последующие переводные книги про Доктора будут отбираться более тщательно. Если они, разумеется, последуют.

[Henri ❃ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.75 stars

This was a lot of fun. All the stories were a little too short for my own liking, but overall they were pretty enjoyable.

[~Geektastic~ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tales of Trenzalore is a collection of four stories that attempt to give a little more insight into the life of the Doctor during the centuries-long siege of Trenzalore. These are very lightweight adventures, just a few notches above the little vignettes that appeared in The Name of the Doctor (the wooden Cyberman, the Sontarans in the invisible vehicle). Essentially, they attempt to give readers an idea of the continual struggle between the Doctor and the various alien races that forever try and fail to reignite the Time War. Of course, since we know the Doctor lives beyond Trenzalore, it isn’t a spoiler to say that each story ends with the Doctor victorious.

Let it Snow by Justin Richards

An “invasion” (if four is an invasion) of Ice Warriors threatens to bury the town of Christmas. This one had an interesting introductory sequence and a nice plot twist, though the Warriors themselves were incredibly underwhelming.

An Apple a Day by George Mann

An old-fashioned monster chase, this one sees a Krynoid- a flesh-eating, plant-based life form- land in one of the few heated spaces on the planet and attempt to consume all the living things on Trenzalore. The Doctor works with a young boy, Theol, to save the day. The less recognizable foe was a nice touch, though the solution could be seen a mile away. (This author also wrote the full-length Engines of War, featuring the War Doctor).

Strangers in the Outland by Paul Finch

We finally see a little bit more of what Trenzalore is like outside of the town of Christmas, as a lone trapper and his daughter find trouble in the subarctic tundra miles away from civilization. This one brought back a foe that we haven’t seen since the earliest days of the New Series, and the Doctor’s battle with them felt a little weightier than the preceding two.

The Dreaming by Mark Morris

An enemy familiar to fans of the Fifth Doctor makes an appearance, threatening to destroy Christmas from the inside. This one had a very Tommyknockers/pod people feeling, and seemed to be resolved the quickest, though the menace felt the most powerful of the four.

Taken all together, the stories are fun but not terribly substantial. We know that many, many instances like these had to have occurred over the centuries the Doctor spent defending the town of Christmas, and most of them had to have been fairly undramatic, as he survived for so long. It’s a nice read if you’re looking to bridge that gap in the timeline, and it does make The Name of the Doctor feel a little more substantial in retrospect, but none of them felt particularly memorable. Recommended if you just can’t let go of Eleven and need a few more adventures to help you along.

(Cross-posted at Booklikes: http://atroskity.booklikes.com/post/9...)

[James · Rating 2 out of 5]

Anthologies always suffer from a lack of consistent voice I think, which makes it hard for them to excel. I hadn't even realised this was an anthology when I started it, but the rule holds true despite an attempt to tie the four stories to a single place - if not a single time (this is Doctor Who after all). Each story is set on the planet Trenzalore, in the town of Christmas, where the Doctor held his 2013 Christmas special episode: The Time of the Doctor. It's a neat way to do an anthology - the Doctor after all spent a long, long time in Christmas so a number of shorter stories is easy to fit in. This them though also becomes a problem: each story follows an almost identical format; each author seems to struggle to describe the unending snow in a unique way; and none of the stories really feel like they have any sense of real tension - even the deaths of random villagers feels a little too 'meh'...

[Don Incognito · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not recommended, even for Whovians such as me. Four poorly written and not particularly interesting short stories about various attacks on the Doctor and the town of Christmas during the Siege of Trenzalore depicted in "The Time of the Doctor."

You need to be broadly familiar with the original Doctor Who in order to fully appreciate the stories, because all the alien monsters are drawn from it and only two of the four have appeared in the contemporary Doctor Who. If you're not familiar with Krynoids or the Mara, two of the four stories will be even more a waste of your time.

You can have a better experience reading a full-length Doctor Who novel, especially one of the old New Adventures. These short stories give the impression that the four writers cranked them out over one weekend.

[Michael Loring · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is for the Whovians who have seen The Time of The Doctor, who are like me and wondered what happened during the Doctor's time on Trenzalore. This book contains four short stories of the Doctor fighting four unique monsters intent on killing him. I'd like to review each story individually, but I don't want to give away the plots as part of the book is discovering what will happen when the town of Christmas faces the alien threats.

Written brilliantly, each author bringing depth to the Doctor and the people around him. I was not disappointed by this book in the least. My only tribulation is in the second story. THE DOCTOR DOES NOT EAT APPLES!

I highly recommend this book for all Doctor Who fans who have seen The Time of The Doctor!

[Mimi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, I have this dumb issue with the fact that I've already seen so much of the show and read hardly any of the Doctor Who-inspired books, so basically I missed actual-Matt-Smith. However, George Mann is one of my favorite authors and it was easy to like his story :) And I feel like all the authors did a good job with the dialogue (the Doctor's dialogue was the most important thing to me). This book was actually quite good all together.

[Elisabethclaire · Rating 4 out of 5]

An Apple A Day
All I can think is How Did He Lost His Leg?! Answer please :/
This was a fun DW read, thanks for enlargening Trenzalore stuff :)

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Doctor Who: Tales of Trenzalore: The Eleventh Doctor's Last Stand - 3.5/5
Let it Snow by Justin Richards - 5/5
An Apple a Day... by George Mann - 3/5
Strangers in the Outland by Paul Finch - 2/5
The Dreaming by Mark Morris - 4/5

This is a neat little extension to the last episode with the 11th Doctor. With a strong start, the structure of each story is the same from each story.

[Kieran McAndrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Doctor stands on Trenzalore against all the evils of the universe. Aging and on his last body, he watches for centuries over the colony of Christmas, protecting them from harm.

These four novellas are well written and each writer is faithful in their interpretation of the Eleventh Doctor.

[Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wouldn't think I'd be the target market for spin-off stories of this nature, but I enjoyed this more than I expected to. The various writers really captured the tone and the feel of the 11th Doctor.

[Sarha · Rating 5 out of 5]

LOVE Doctor Who!! Would love to read more of Trenzalore

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tales of Trenzalore tells some of the stories of the Doctor defending the town of Christmas on the planet Trenzalore during his long stint there. You really need to have seen the Eleventh Doctor's final story "The Time of the Doctor" for the context.

Let it Snow by Justin Richards: This is a decent story featuring the Ice Warriors as the aggressors. It's great that we get a well characterised Ice Lord and they have a decent plan but it does feel like any alien race could have taken their place, like the Cybermen. Seeing the Doctor's relationship with the people of Christmas also works really well in this story. It's a strong start to the collection.

An Apple a Day by George Mann: Having the Krynoids is an interesting choice for this story. They are the least well known of the aliens to feature here, having appeared in just one TV story, and the seed pods can't germinate in the cold and Trenzalore rarely reaches above freezing temperatures. Somehow though Mann manages to make it work wonderfully well and he just about gets away with his way round the temperature issues. My favorite of the stories.

Strangers in the Outland by Paul Finch: Perhaps the weakest of the stories, largely because it doesn't reach it's potential. It's an Auton story and the Nestene Consciousness' plan is to send in Auton replicas of the Doctor. Strangely though the author decides to make the plan not really work- barely any Autons survive and the replica side of things never comes into play, and that's really the main reason for having the Autons around outside of an environment when there are shop dummies.

The Dreaming by Mark Morris: Morris shows his horror credentials in this story featuring the Mara. It's genuinely creepy and I felt the story really got into the Eleventh Doctor's character and his thoughts about being stuck on Trenzalore better than the other stories here. My one issue with it though is that it feels like it drifts a little from the character of the Mara shown on TV in the 80s.

Overall this is a good collection and I'm really pleased that Justin Richards and BBC Books have been coming up with lots of clever ideas for e-books which tie more directly into the TV series than most Doctor Who books. A great idea with four decent stories which make it work.

[Hilary · Rating 4 out of 5]

f you haven't seen "The Time of the Doctor" (the last Christmas Special with Matt Smith), I strongly suggest watching it before you read these 4 tales for full appreciation and minimal confusion.

These tales, in a chronological order (though not back-to-back) tell of some of the Doctor's exploits while defending Trenzalore and the town of Christmas from all of his enemies.

Here the Doctor is tricksy as old enemies evade the Church and come to him, and with typical high-speed delivery stuns the townsfolk into silence with bad news while leaving them hanging for his brilliant plans. (Later on, of course, they've figured out - as Clara and other companions do - that he generally makes it up as he goes along!) Some of the enemies I vaguely remembered from the old series, but one was completely new to me.

We learn why he really needs a walking stick, and where it came from, and see an unusual variety of methods for dispatching his enemies along with the incredible inventions the people of Trenzalore have made to keep them living on such an inhospitable planet. Some mysteries are unraveled, but we also see the Doctor gradually fading, losing the seemingly inexhaustible energy that made the Eleventh Doctor who he was. Only the knowledge of the overall ending made that part better.

They were well-written, with a good choice of foe and resolution, and all gave a little more insight into that interminable period while the Doctor gave up everything for the planet. I'd like to read more like this!

Disclaimer: I received a free copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

[▫️Ron S. · Rating 2 out of 5]

The idea of the Doctor allowing himself to be stranded in one place for centuries was absurd, so I was eager to see if this book redeemed it at all. Instead it offers up 4 cartoon depictions of enemies of the Doctor that new series viewers wouldn't be very familiar with. The enemies in the Ice Warrior and Auton stories could have been almost any other characters - the stories were that generic and weak. The Krynoid ending hurt. It was a Doctor ending, but the Doctor in question is Seuss. The Mara installment may have been the strongest - but it was a struggle not to be in full-on skim mode by the time I got to it.
Do we get to look at whether generations of humans appreciate one person endangering their lives non-stop? Not really. Do we get to know Handles? Nope. How about some insight into how it is that the town itself barely changes in so many hundreds of years? LOL, no.
Damnit Doctor Who handlers, why you wanna do me this way? I wish I didn't care. It's silly to be bothered by this.

[Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it. This book contains four stories set during the long period while the Doctor was stuck in the town of Christmas on the planet Trenzalore before his most recent regeneration. Four villains from the classic series return to bedevil him in these stories: the Ice Warriors, the Autons, a Krynoid, and the Mara. I particularly liked the Auton story which emphasized the plastic creatures' toughness and unstoppability. The Ice Warrior story is also excellent, with a well-characterised Ice Lord. The other two stories were a little weaker I thought, but had their moments. A great effort overall.

[çilek · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yoruma 11. Doktor'u cidden çok özlediğimi söyleyerek başlamalıyım. 11 benim favori doktorumdur ve bu kitabı okurken onu çok sevdiğimi bir kere daha anladım. Bir ara tekrar 11 & Amy & Rory ve 11 & Clara bölümlerini izlemeliyim. :)
Kitap 4 hikayeden oluşuyor ve hepsi Trenzalore'da geçiyor. Eğer Doctor Who izlediyseniz Doktor'un orada yüzyıllar boyu kaldığını ve oradaki halkı düşmanlardan koruduğunu bilirsiniz. Kitaptaki hikayeler güzeldi ama en iyileri 'Dolu Yağmuru' ve 'Rüyalar' idi. Doctor Who hayranları mutlaka bu kitabı alsın, okusun. İthaki'nin basmış olduğu diğer Doctor Who kitaplarını okumak için sabırsızlanıyorum!

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 4 out of 5]

A small, efficient little collection of stories that manages to punch well above its weight by communicating the tragedy of the ever aging, ever fragile Doctor defending the people of Christmas town: he's merely delaying the (apparently) inevitable finale cataclysm. You'll need to be familiar with the Matt Smith finale, "The Time of the Doctor", to comprehend the situation fully...but once you do, you will be well rewarded. The final story, featuring the dream-manipulating Mara, is particularly creepy.

[Panda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gerçekten harikaydı! Doktor'un Trenzalore'da ne yaptığını merak edenler için birebir.Kitapta , TTOTD bölümünden küçük detaylar gizli , bu kısmını sevdim.Öyküler de çok güzel ve çok eğlenceliydi ama çok kısalar.Zaten 4 tane öykü var ve bu öyküler de Doktor'a yakışamayacak kadar kısaydı.Bu yüzden bir yıldız puan kırdım.
Bence ilk önce The Time Of The Doctor bölümünü izleyin , sonra okuyun.Ben izlemeden önce okudum ve kitap bitince bölümü izledim ve tekrar gözyaşlarıma hakim olamadım.Doctor Who evrenin en iyi dizisi!

[Fehiman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yorumun aslı ve devamı Yorum Cadısı'nda.

Trenzolare Öyküleri, olay örgülerini zayıf bulduğum ve birbirine benzeyen birçok ögenin kullanıldığını düşündüğüm hikayelerden oluşan bir kitaptı. Son öykü olmasaydı, kitaba çok daha düşük bir puan verecektim. Fakat son öykünün yaratıcılığı ve aksiyonu ile şaşırtıcılığının yüksek olması, iyi bir kapanış yapmamı sağladı. Kitabı, Doctor Who sevenlere tavsiye ederim :)

[Numa Parrott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lost one star only because I wanted to know how he lost his leg gosh darn it!

All the stories were fun and highly entertaining from start to finish. There was a bit of childish silliness, but that's just the Eleventh Doctor for you. It stayed very true to his character. There are even some good quotes.

[selen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Muhteşem olduğundan bahsetmeye bile gerek yok. Kötü olan şey ise izlemenin çok daha zevkli olması. Daha heyecanlı daha aksiyonlu. Ama yine de kitap bitmesin diye uğraşmadım değil.
-
Don't need to say it was awesome. But the bad thing is watching is better than reading, if our subject is Doctor Who. More exciting, full of action. And other side, i really didn't want to finish this book.

[✿яσsαℓιη∂α✿ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kitaptaki öykülerin, olayların dizide yer almasını isterdim. Okumak kadar izlemekte keyifli olurdu. Kitabın baskısına ise bayıldım! Son olarak on birinci doktoru sevenlerin okuması gerektiğini düşünüyorum. :)

[Mr A. Rapado · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointing

This wasn't as good as I was hoping it would be. Didn't really get into the stories that were being told.

[Darnoc Leadburger · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm going to take my sense of objectivity to *Tales of Trenzalore* and say: as a voracious reader, this book isn't too meaningful, impactful, or... well... anything, really. It's made up of four short stories set during the Christmas special "The Time of the Doctor" (Matt Smith's last outing as the Eleventh Doctor) as the Doctor keeps a watchful eye over the town of Christmas as various aliens from his past all slip past the Papal Mainframe's technology forcefield in order to kill him. The four authors involved had a good opportunity to intertwine their stories together and tell a tale about how the generations of Christmas interact with each other and the Doctor, but instead, we got... well... *The Tales of Trenzalore*.

--Each story is written by a different Doctor Who tie-in fiction stalwart; the opening story, "Let it Snow," was written by Justin Richards and features the Ice Warriors. Like every story in here, it opens with a person living on the outskirts of Christmas (in this case, a snow-runner) getting attacked by the aliens (in this case, the Ice Warriors) as they slide by the technology barrier in some "clever" way. This time, I think they slipped through encased in ice? The Warriors quickly meet Elias, a local who points them in the right direction towards the scattered parts of a weapon they've smuggled down. A little later the Doctor gets the native farmfolk searching for the parts as well and, we see him confront the Ice Warriors and we discover that he was Elias the whole time. Actually, not a bad twist! The end, in which the Ice Warriors fire their big weapon at the city and then try and start a big avalanche or something like that, is... fine. Not too exciting or memorable, and neither is this depiction of the Ice Warriors (although, honestly, the Ice Warriors have never been my favorite of the Doctor's scaly foils). One of the random locals does get wrapped up in the Doctor's adventures, but he was bland and indistinct... I mean, like every story here, this one is fine. It's only when stacked up against each other that they become trite...

--"An Apple a Day..." by George Mann might have the best imagery in the collection. It's about the Krynoid, and it pairs the Doctor up with a local boy who takes him to the glass-walled apple greenhouse that the Krynoid's first victim and host falls prey to. They eventually lead the beastly Krynoid mutant to the city where they freeze it using water from a hose the Doctor used to help the kids make a skating pond earlier in the story, which was a nice callback to the early part of the story. Another nice touch was that the child's father actually had a history with the Doctor, which gave a nice emotional touch to the characters that isn't really present in the rest of the collection. For that reason, this may be my favorite story, even if the structure is, well, just like the others.

--Paul Finch tackles the Autons in "Strangers in the Outland," which opens with a man in the outlands being killed by crashing Autons. His daughter returns back to Christmas or, something like that, and then the Doctor - who's starting to get old - takes off to confront the Autons with a bunch of young whipper-snappers. He ends up taking their snow-ship (kind of like a water ship?) onto the ice with the Autons and trapping them in the hold. There's a tense on-ice battle, and while the scene ain't bad, it's... I don't know. Pretty uninspiring.

--Speaking of uninspiring, the Doctor's age is really starting to show by the time we get to "The Dreaming" by Mark Morris, which not only features the Mara but also a decrepit old Doctor whose memory is start to get muddy - all the kids he's saved over the years are starting to blur together, and the of calling back to kids from past stories is another missed opportunity when it comes to shared storytelling! The main story, where the Mara takes control of Christmas' children in order to manifest a physical form around a legendary skeleton buried outside the city until the Doctor makes the Mara... not believe in the skeleton anymore?... is alright, but I don't find Morris' portrayal of an aging Time Lord to be particularly cool or worth the weight of a several-thousand-year-old hero. And everything else is, well, what you'd come to expect, and the Mara, like the other three villains here, don't grow or change compared to their television origins. They're stagnant, and so are the rest of the plot elements throughout this book. This is one of the book where the sum is less than its parts.

So it's with a heavy heart that I take a high-and-mighty dunk on this book and give it a 5.5/10. If you really like the Eleventh Doctor, maybe this is worth your time, but if you're just a casual fan looking for some solid adventures... I'd check out one of the full-on Eleventh Doctor novels, like *Touched By An Angel* or something like that. This one gets a 5.5/10. I don't know when I'll next read a Doctor Who book - it'll be a while - but I'll be sure to cleanse my palette with some intense, more literary science fiction. Thanks for reading, and here's hoping I have better things to say next time our paths cross...

[Finlay O'Riordan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four bite-sized stories featuring the Eleventh Doctor and classic villains.

Ever since the Monoid puppet show in Time Of The Doctor, I'd always wanted to see more of the Doctor's last stand on Trenzalore. I knew this book existed for a long time, but it wasn't until volume 5 of the Eleventh Doctor novels audio anthology was released that I actually got round to it - And I'm very glad I did.

Each of the villains selected here and how they arrive on Christmas are smart and sensible decisions with respect to the technology barrier that was introduced in the televised episode.

Something I really love about this book is how it really emphasizes just how much time the Doctor spent on Trenzalore. The children of Christmas know of the Doctor both in person and also from their grandparents' tales, and they themselves eventually grow old knowing the Doctor too. We also see him tap into his First and Second incarnations' personalities too, so we learn a lot more about what the aged Eleventh Doctor is like, which we didn't really have time for in the episode.

The first tale features the Ice Warriors. This one was pretty short and straightforward. Yeah, an easy and fun read/listen.

The second features the Krynoids. I'm mixed on this one. On the one hand, I loved this representation of an underused villain, but on the other hand I do feel half of this tale dragged a bit, being the longest by quite a few chapters. But I will say the audiobook reading of this tale is very, very good, and to be fair the final few chapters were pretty good.

The third features the Autons/the Nestene Consciousness. I felt the Autons were a bit weak in this one, especially since they're stated to be indestructible about five times but the Doctor is able to deal with them relatively easily when the final chapter comes around. I'd hoped as well maybe the Nestene creature itself would appear, but alas, it does not. Still, for a short story, it's not bad.

The final (and best) tale features the Mara. This one really emphasizes just how much of the Doctor's life has passed on Trenzalore, and it's also the best representation of any of the four villains in this anthology in my opinion. An absolute treat this one. The human-Mara hybrid was a grotesque yet awesome sight to envision.

None of these show how the Doctor lost his leg (though it is mentioned in passing) which I feel was a bit of a missed trick, but the actual prose here is still fairly meaty.

So in conclusion, I'd say if you're a fan of the Eleventh Doctor, go for it. Even if you're just a fanatic about Doctor Who books, go for it. I think newer fans might like it as well as it gives fair accounts of classic villains without making any prior knowledge necessary.

As a side note, I recommend listening to the audiobook version of this if you have the choice, as it works really as a sort anthology audio 'mini series' that way, and it's just so much more enjoyable to view it like that rather than just as another Doctor Who novel.