A distress signal calls the Eleventh Doctor and the TARDIS to the Black Horizon, a spaceship under attack from the Empire of Eternal Victory. But the robotic scavengers are the least of the Doctor's worries. Something terrifying is waiting to trap him in space . . .
David Bailey is a British editor and author whose published output to date comprises a combination of short stories, audio dramas and magazine articles.
Both before and since being professionally published, Bailey contributed to a number of Doctor Who fanzines in writing and editorial capacities, including Matrix, Silver Carrier and Cottage Under Siege.
As an editor, he worked for the British magazine publisher Titan from 1997 to 2000 during which time he edited their Simpsons and Xena, Warrior Princess titles among others.
His first professionally published writing was a number of articles for the magazine Cult Times, starting in 1996. Since that time he has contributed articles to a wide range of factual publications, including consumer guides and television listing magazines.
Subsequently, he co-authored a number of guidebooks to television series such as Friends and Frasier. These were produced by Virgin Publishing.
The body of David Bailey's fiction writing, both audio and prose, has been produced for Big Finish Productions' range of Doctor Who and Doctor Who derived materials.
In 2011, he decided to start writing under the pen name of David Bryher as his real name meant that he was hard to find on Google.
Delightfully silly and delightfully atmospheric. If it wasn't for the fact that the human supporting cast reads like dull cardboard next to the robot supporting cast, this book would be a 4 star read. It would be nice to have a longer, deeper version of this story.
I confess, Doctor Who novels are my guilty pleasure. A bit (ahem) of a literary snob generally, I have been pleased with the writing in these books, and am generous in my ratings of them, because I find them so enjoyable. But this one broke me. Generally well written, the characters are captured well and the story was clever. But exclamation marks only work in dialog, generally speaking. Cheerleader enthusiasm and exclamation marks do not have a place in narrative, no matter how exciting the circumstances. So, while I recommend Dr Who books to the fandom, I want to be sure you all know this style of writing is not typical.
Channels the energy of the Eleven/Amy/Rory era fairly well, but the plot is on the shallow side, and and a few sequences feel like filler in an already quick read. Not bad, exactly, but lightweight and forgettable. (B-)
An Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith) story featuring his companions Amy and Rory. Answering a distress call, the Doctor and his friends board the Black Horizon, a spaceship which has become entangled in a mysterious diamond web amid an asteroid field. To further complicate matters, the ship is under attack by soldiers from a conquering robot empire.
To be perfectly honest, this book was a bit boring. There's nothing you can point at and say "There! That's bad" (well, maybe one thing, but I'll get to that) but by the same token, there's nothing you can point at and say it's good either. The concepts introduced, the robot empire and the space spider, simply don't have enough room to develop into anything particularly interesting. I feel like the book probably would've been better if one or other of those elements was dropped altogether so the plot could focus on the other, but here we are.
The element of the book which you could perhaps point out as being bad is the little robot sidekick that Rory gets. He's called Messy (unfortunately) and is there for comic relief (without actually being at all amusing). It's a pointless addition which actually leaves less time to develop the new human sidekick Sam. And, of course, the true irony is that the Doctor (in the form of Tennant's Tenth in 'The Waters of Mars') is on record as hating 'funny robots'.
This was the best 11th Doctor novel I have read so far. It still sucked, but it was better than all of the other ones. It only took me three days to read, really. The plot is simple enough, they kind of explain things, and everything in a way makes an okay amount of sense. Rory was very important in the beginning. Though as the book went on and on it focused more and more on Amy and what she was thinking. Heck, Rory did not even have a last line at the end of the book. He was just dragged into the TARDIS and that was that. They did surprisingly kill all of the robots in the end, which is uncommon for a 11th Doctor book like this to dare to be so violent. So in the end this was bad, but it was more so just "okay" when it comes to typical 11th Doctor books. Nowhere as bad as The Way Through The Woods though! Just go read some 7th Doctor novelizations they'll make you feel better!
Here is the crude plot. The Doctor, Rory, and Amy are stuck in space with a huge space spider! Now the gang must save the beast from the evil Empire Of Eternal Victory before it is too late!
Author David Bailey bring us another adventure with the 11th Doctor and Amy and her husband Rory. The TARTIDS lands in the cargo hold of the transport ship Black Horizon which has been caught in the web of a large space going spider in an asteroid field of which it made its home. The Doctor and Amy head for the bridge of the ship but find that the Black Horizon has been bordered by the Army of Eternal Victory which is comprised of the robots that they had created to do everything. But one of their ranks a plumbing bot named Messy goes over to the Doctor's side. Their Commander a bot named Zero-1 who is filled with vengeance wants both the technology of the Doctor's TARDIS and the space spider in order to create an unstoppable fleet to go an concur the universe. The doctor knows this and along with Amy and Rory finds a way to stop him. This is a great Doctor Who novella and I highly recommend it for those who want a quick read
The Eleventh Doctor, Amy and Rory answer a distress call and find themselves on a spaceship in serious trouble. It's caught in a mysterious web spun between asteroids - and also being invaded by an army of renegade robots. This is going to be a tricky one...
An fairly entertaining novel, if you can overlook a couple of large plotholes.
At first I was confuse of the title. As I keep on reading, I was completely shocked what the Doctor and the Ponds find in out of space. First of all, it was an unlikely creature yet simple creature we see everyday of our lives. Then there are pirates robot too.
This was pretty cute for a really short, really quick read. I love the way the Doctor is portrayed, and the banter is perfect. I would love to see this one as an actual episode!
The book was a bit childish at best. It didn't really focus much on any one character. Just seemed more like an early morning cartoon script with some half funny jokes thrown in for good measure. Not the best Doctor Who that has been written.
A good, quick read. I've never been a big fan of Amy, but she was not nearly as annoying in this book and with the balance of Rory it worked pretty well. The story line is not super in depth, but I was perfectly okay with that and very happy to find that the author wraps everything up very well in the end. I tend to enjoy this short quick reads (in the Doctor Who world) better than the long ones as I find that they tend to put in too much information and not connect all the dots and this book was just enough of everything that I wanted.
The eleven Doctor (as played by Matt Smith) is my second favorite Doctor and I found the writing to stay pretty close to what I would expect from the eleventh Doctor which made me a pretty happy camper.
Oh! A Great book! couldn't put it down! I would highly recommend this book to read. I love it, it's a keeper. Worth the money I spent. I could give it a very higher rating like a ten ! A great book to read! Spider and all.