The Lost Boy

Sarah Jane Adventures Novelizations

by Gary Russell

Sarah Jane is shocked to see an appeal on television by the distraught parents of a missing boy - Luke, her adopted son! She is accused of kidnapping him and has to hand Luke over to his 'real' parents. But something doesn't seem right. With the help of her friends, Maria, Clyde and Alan, Sarah Jane uncovers a sinister alien plot and a shocking truth about a loyal 'friend'.

Genres: Doctor Who

128 pages, Paperback

First published November 6, 2008

About the author

Gary Russell is a British freelance writer, producer and former child actor. As a writer, he is best known for his work in connection with the television series Doctor Who and its spin-offs in other media. As an actor, he is best known for playing Dick Kirrin in the British 1978 television series The Famous Five.

Reviews

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have a large number of books that I have either collected due to bulk purchases or given to me as being the "book guy" so I will admit I am sitting on rather a lot of books that I may not have chosen to read if it was just down to me. This is one of them - a YA book from the Sarah Jane Adventures a Doctor Who spin off aimed at the younger fan.

I have to say that the book was a fun read having never really watched any of the TV series (I was familiar with Sarah Jane from her time as the Doctors companion) but it was fast paced and suitably strange.

As you can imagine the situation was rather quickly and cleanly wrapped up as you would expect considering the target audience but I have to say it still felt like a rewarding "episode" I see there were a number of books that appear to be linked to the TV series so I guess if ever I wanted to read more there are other options out there but for now its time to pick up another one off the pile.

[Seb Hasi · Rating 3 out of 5]

As much as The Lost Boy is a very interesting story, this novelisation on the story really fell short. With so much material to get through, so much of the narrative was either cut or raced through; pretty much none of the ideas being given enough room to be fleshed out. The real highlight in what was different to this story on page was the use of internal monologue, giving a lot more depth to Luke being kidnapped by the Slitheen. The action sequences are given barely a few lines each, so each chase scene or fight felt massively inconsequential. Another problem is that the characters only really fulfil a role as opposed to offering anything unique or endearing. There are some great jokes and bits of comedy unique to the novelisation, but overall nothing too different or special. The best part of the book & story for me is easily Alan Jackson, getting so much to say and do; whilst also being such a loveable and endearing character. The Slitheen are defeated even easier in this than on TV which was a weakness of the book, much in the same way that Mr Smith is a far weaker antagonist in this book. Trying to juggle comedy, character drama, and plot drama really weakened each aspect; rendering the story enjoyable only for its comedic relief and nice imagery. The novel is well-written that’s for sure, with imagery and dialogue being done very well. The problem as I mentioned before is there being too much source material to commit to print, that so much is overlooked. The ending with Maria’s parents is really done well, and that is just one example of the small bit significant strengths of the book; going only a small way however to make up for the relative inconsequentiality of characters like Sarah Jane in the narrative. Everyone does get something to do, but the problem character-wise is that too much time is spent on the wrong people at the worst times. Every time that Sarah Jane and friends should be having ‘screen time’ it’s the Slitheen getting random things to do that never happened in the original. Even the resolution overlooks the people who defeat the evil plan, in favour of random bits of imagery; defacing the scene of any great tension that is intended. All in all the book is well written, but a fairly poor conversion of the source material. A couple of extra chapters, cutting some unnecessary material, and possibly a conclusion with more depth would’ve made this a far better read.

[Nicholas Whyte · Rating 3 out of 5]

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2206836...

[Gabriel Mero · Rating 5 out of 5]

A pleasant end to the firt series.