Doctor Who: Molten Heart

Doctor Who: New Series Adventures #62

by Una McCormack

Deep below the surface of the planet Adamantine lies a crystalline wonder world of lava seas and volcanic islands, home to living rock-people.

But when the Doctor and her friends arrive on Adamantine they find it under threat. The seas are shrinking, the magma is cooling, and mysterious, fatal seething pools are spreading fast.

Something has come to Adamantine – but what does it want? Fearing an invasion is underway, the Doctor must lead an expedition to the surface of the world to save its molten heart…

Genres: Doctor Who, Science Fiction, Fiction, Fantasy, Media Tie In, Audiobook, Time Travel

256 pages, Hardcover

First published November 8, 2018

About the author

Una McCormack is a British writer and the author of several Star Trek novels and stories.

Ms. McCormack is a New York Times bestselling author. She has written four Doctor Who novels: The King's Dragon and The Way through the Woods (featuring the Eleventh Doctor, Amy, and Rory); Royal Blood (featuring the Twelfth Doctor and Clara), and Molten Heart (featuring the Thirteenth Doctor, Yaz, Ryan and Graham). She is also the author of numerous audio dramas for Big Finish Productions.

Reviews

[Jim C · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is based on the television series. It is part of a series but can be read as a stand alone. In this one, The Thirteenth Doctor along with Yaz, Graham, and Ryan land on a planet that seems to be deserted. Below the surface is a whole civilization and they are in trouble. The Doctor and her companions come to the rescue.

This was a likable offering from this universe. My first concern with media tie-in novels is the portrayal of the established characters. I had no problem with any of them and I especially got vibes for Jodie Whittaker's Doctor. I really liked the characters of the visited society and I would not mind seeing them again. My favorite part of this book was how the established society viewed the arrivals as the unknown. Usually, it is the other way around as aliens come to Earth and humans are the ones that are hesitant. This story fits in nicely with this universe. With everything I mentioned working it should have been a higher rating. The reason it isn't is that the drama just isn't there. We all know reading a book in this universe that The Doctor will save the day. I just never felt like there was a problem here. I believe the problem was that this was a short book and the drama needed to be more in the forefront. Some more written pages would have helped.

This was a nice read from this universe. The Thirteenth Doctor isn't my favorite Doctor so I was surprised with my initial foray into her books. It was a quick read and I will read another adventure with her and her companions.

[Ken · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Second NSA to feature the Thirteen Doctor, this one is also set on an alien planet.
The Doctor and her friends arrive on Adamantine with the planet under threat.

This felt really early in the Doctor’s Thirteenth incarnation timeline as she mentioned that she’s still getting use to her new face.
There were a couple of mentions about giant spiders on the planet too, but it felt more like foreshadowing to an adventure against them arachnids in Sheffield.
So with that in mind it really felt like this TARDIS crew were really getting to know each other properly during this story.

The alien planet was wonderfully descriptive, I also really liked the character Ash in this story.
This was really short compared to other books in this range, this helped the story move along at a quick pace.
A highly enjoyable read with The Doctor and her friends.

[Stephen Robert Collins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rock & Roll with no rope. A lot of Hand of Fear when The Doctor lands on world of people who are living rocks & seawater works like acid does on us - dissolves them killing them ..
Grahame lose his shoe ,no one remembers to pack any rope & the sonic doesn't do rocks. This is in dig at climate change which do NOT need to be lectured in Doctor Who.
It is annoying that McCormack showing off by using cheap way to do it.I do not see that need are attention drawn to change we all know about it.
Few faults too the Doctor does not sleep that is for your less mortals.
Big thing here is if you are made of rock like A Troll what do they eat & drink ? Is it like Ani Moorpork acid? Cannot wait for big problem when Graham needs a pee will it work like seawater?
All the time I am reading this I keep hearing Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Rick Walkman playing in my head.

[Katy Alice · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read two of the Thirteenth Doctor adventures so far (The Good Doctor & Molten Heart) and what both have in common--though written by different authors--is that the characters' voices are being captured exceptionally well. Which honestly I was concerned about because I didn't anticipate Whittaker's delightfully rapid-fire speech pattern and enthusiasm translating well to the page.

'Molten Heart' is a tad faster paced than 'The Good Doctor', though it doesn't dig quite as deep into the planet's political drama. McCormack does an excellent job balancing the narrative focus between The Doctor and Ryan's quest to find the missing scientist, Basalt, and Yaz and Graham's travails with the planet's government and law enforcement. It touches subtly (and occasionally not subtly as is the DW way) on the topics of environmental impact and how leaders often refuse to acknowledge evidence and facts if that means changing course and admitting that they were wrong.

It was a fun fast read, and it gives Yaz's character a little more flesh and depth. I'm definitely looking forward to 'Combat Magicks' and any further novels feature the team... gang? fam?

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is wonderful. A novel that reads like one of the very best of the early & late-era Target novelizations. It feels like an adaptation of a television episode, with all the extra embellishments and additions that made the best Target novelizations something special. It gets extra marks for being the best early book to capture a new Doctor/companion team so accurately; I could hear Jodie & company in my mind, uttering every word of dialogue. An unexpected, satisfying surprised I inhaled in the space of an hour.

[Ulises Estrada · Rating 3 out of 5]

So ... this time I really like the story, but my problem was with the way the companions acted, it seems that they were not the same as in the show, or maybe the writer wanted to give them their own essence i don't know,but I get upset, to see them saying things that just didn't seem to me they would say.

[Yasmin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this audio book! Review coming soon

[Allen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very creative story with such characteristic especially on Yaz, I do like the World-Building and the Species, defiantly we haven't got something like since the Fires of Pompeii.
took me a while to finish this book because I been lack-luster on Reading since the dreadful reading of Parallel 59.

[Brayden Raymond · Rating 4 out of 5]

Una McMormack has a special ability to take different fandom universes and just not miss. With signature quirkiness of 13 era. Though I will freely admit that I think the hallmark of the 13th Doctors era is this first trio of companions. Oh how I miss them but especially Graham.

[Bree Hatfield · Rating 5 out of 5]

“A smile spread across the Doctor’s face. In the dark, she shone like diamonds.”
—
“It hadn’t taken Yaz long to notice that it was never completely quiet on the TARDIS. No, it was never that. Not even when nobody was dashing around being excited. Even at the quietest moments, there was always a faint hum reminding you the ship was alive, sort of. She certainly wouldn’t chance saying it wasn’t alive, and certainly not when the TARDIS could hear. And that at any moment, something wonderful and marvelous, and quite probably madly dangerous, might suddenly start happening. And Yaz loved it.”
—
“The doors to the lift opened, and they walked out of the cage into the gray light of an alien dawn. Ryan, stepping forwards, found himself looking out across a heathery landscape that whispered with small, but busy life. The wind blew through the trees and grasses that no human had ever seen, and which did not have, had never had, any name.”

Firstly, the plot is phenomenal. It’s a pretty typical “alien planet is in trouble so the Doctor comes to save it” plot, but Una McCormack utilizes the formula to its greatest degree! The side characters are fantastic, especially Basalt and Ash, and you really get invested in the weird planet and its troubles.

Speaking of, McCormack is really good at taking her audience to truly alien places. One of the best things about Caged was the weirdness of the aliens, and that energy is only amplified here. I also love the worldbuilding; the entire novel is set in this planet, so we really get to know it. I never thought I’d like rock people, but surprisingly I found them really compelling.

My only qualm with the plot is that it’s too short. McCormack uses the page count to her best advantage and none of it feels rushed, I just think more time for development would be beneficial. I liked the politics of the story, but it was really only surface-level, so developing that more could have been nice.

Now I’d like to talk about the main cast, specifically the Doctor. Thematically speaking, the 12th Doctor was the end of the Time War arc. He carried the burden of the trauma, and he found a way to let it go. He didn’t want to die because he thought he had lived a full and complete life, not just as a whole but with that incarnation. But instead he chose to live on, which would make the 13th Doctor a brand new person, free of the active trauma of the last 2,000 years. She would be wide-eyed, thankful for life, optimistic, and she would want to help people above all else. When she’s at her best, that’s who the 13th Doctor is. Jodie Whittaker portrays this well when she can, which is a true testament to her acting abilities given how terrible her scripts were.

This book portrays the 13th Doctor how I feel like she was always meant to be. Una McCormack does a fantastic job capturing her voice, characteristics, and general vibe so much better than Chibnall ever could. And unsurprisingly, she’s actually a fantastic Doctor when she’s written well!

This book is also a fantastic character study for Ryan. We see him continue the arc he began in the first episode, The Woman Who Fell to Earth. He’s still unsure about things, but he’s determined to open his mind and be courageous. We see him make the active choice to be brave, and we see that pay off as he sees the beautiful landscape of the alien world and becomes moved by it.

Overall, this novel was peak Doctor Who. It’s so nice to see the 13th Doctor in her element with a story that’s genuinely great. Definitely read this one.

[Jacqueline · Rating 5 out of 5]

Molten Heart is an achingly beautiful book. The planet where the Doctor and her companions happen to land is beautiful, and home to a unique society of living rocks. The story opens with the Doctor and her companions, Graham, Ryan, and Yaz landing the TARDIS - they are in a bubble inside the crust of a planet. There are gemstones and semi-precious stones in abundance, but something seems off. Ryan and Graham are nearly killed by a sudden super-heated geyser of water and steam and the group meets Ash - a living rock, and one of the people who live in Diamond City, though she is more of an explorer than the very much stay at home types of her home city. It turns out her father, Basalt was a scientist - and a scientist who is very concerned about their home. He did studies and experiments in his library and workshop but the leadership of Diamond City ignored him. Finally, in desperation, he set out on a mission to find out more about the sudden cracks in the sky, the geysers, why the Ocean dried up, etc.
After learning about this from Ash and a friend of Basalt's named Quartz, the group hides as much of Basalt's research as possible, then sets off to follow him. Fairly early on in the trip, there's another surprise geyser and the group is separated into two groups - the Doctor, Ryan, and Ash continue to follow Basalt's trail whereas Quartz, Yaz and Graham return in secret to Diamond City. The Doctor manages to warn Yaz not to trust Quartz.
In Diamond City, Yaz and Graham meet a group of Basalt's "friends" but many of them don't quite trust the travelers and see them as proof of Basalt's "heresy" instead, so they are turned over to the Greenwatch - the secret police directly controlled by Emerald the leader of Diamond City. Yaz tried to explain to Emerald she was from another planet but that the Doctor was there to help, but Emerald refuses to listen and locks her up. Fortunately, one of the people at the initial meeting, Onyx, does believe Yaz and helps her and Graham get out of jail.
Meanwhile, The Doctor, Ryan, and Ash follow her father's trail - it's beautiful, exciting and weird, the type of fantasy-science adventure we don't often see in Doctor Who more similar to Jules Verne or JRR Tolkein than the show, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. You have canoeing on a lava river, giant mushroom forests, all sorts of weird and wonderful stuff. Eventually, they find Basalt and the remains of an extraterrestrial mining colony - which is stressing the crust of the planet and threatening the entire civilization. Basalt and his small company of companions are trying to stop the crack, because if it continues the entire world will flood, but they aren't having much luck against such a huge problem. The Doctor goes to the surface of the planet only to discover the entire operation is automatic, and even the machines were built automatically by nanomachines. She turns off the drilling equipment but triggers a series of defense satellites, which start firing at the planet. Then she contacts the people responsible - only to discover an inexperienced staffer on his second day who has no idea what to do. The Doctor talks him through making some good decisions. Ryan also gets to play an almost video game of shooting the unarmed satellites out of the sky. Needless to say, Ryan loves it.
The Doctor also uses to alien telecom equipment first to reach Yaz and Graham, but later to address Emerald - and when she discovers Emerald had declared Basalt a heretic who's "science" was causing the disasters (by this time an entire "colony" or suburb had been destroyed when a crack in the sky let in deadly seawater), the Doctor address all the people in Diamond City, showing them the truth about their Bubble World, the aliens who had started mining operations, and how even with shutting everything down - Basalt would need help fixing the existing damage.
Emerald has a hard time admitting her mistakes - but she does, and the Doctor uses the TARDIS to transport more rock people to the crack to help fix it. Ryan also suggests reversing the nanobots to take apart machinery and fill in the miner's tunnels, which they do.
With everything on its way to being fixed, and Basalt being rescued - as well as seeing the surface of his own planet for the first time, briefly, the Doctor and her fam leave.
Molten Heart is a beautiful story - the rock people and their city is gorgeous, their society makes sense (it's small and insular and in general no one wants to explore - very much the small English village or even small, American town), and even though the message about how the climate is changing and it threatens everyone and everything if something isn't done - well the message is there but I didn't feel it was too overbearing. Emerald isn't evil, just a bit misguided in how she approaches a challenge. Her fear of "panic" if people know the danger is overblown of course, once the Doctor tells everyone the truth and asks for help for Basalt - she gets even more help than she needs and everyone pitches in to help shore up the cracked ceiling and prevent seawater getting in and killing the rock people and destroying their city. (The salt water acts like acid and dissolves the rock people instantly.) Even the aliens who set up the mining are more lazy and inefficient than outright evil - the planet seemed uninhabited. (The guy the Doctor contacts is almost laughable and adorable at the same time - it's his *second day* and he has no idea how to handle a crisis, much less the Doctor!) I highly recommend this novel, it's one of the best Doctor Who stories I've read in a long time!

[Maja · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very creative setting which I admire as something difficult to do in Doctor Who where it feels like everything has already been done. The writer also strongly grasped the voices of the pre-existing canon characters and really brought them to life. The writiing style as a whole was very good with a few areas of beautiful discriptions and evocative inner thoughts from the characters. However, I do feel that the plot was a little formulaic and uninspired. It followed the regular plot of a Doctor Who epiosde which is broadly fine but I would have liked to see some further experimentation. I also didn’t feel like the newly introduced secondary characters were fleshed out enough. Their voices were not independent and I didn’t feel emotional stakes for them. As a whole, this book also needed a little bit more editing as there were quite a grammar mistakes.

[Beta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stone people that live inside a hollow world which is about to collapse - do I need to say more? A perfect Doctor Who adventure with the Doctor and her gang.

[Mathilda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed it, another great Doctor Who book! A very interesting and engaging story, though maybe a bit of a 'perfect' ending? I didn't think ALL the characters would end up being 'good'... but perhaps this is one of those lucky times!

[Natalie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Full disclosure: I am not a fan of 13, or her era. I read this as part of a buddy-read situation, and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. The hook was interesting and the story plodded along at a decent pace with enough happening that it kept my attention. 13 and her groupies arrive on a planet that has a world underneath its surface, and people don't know there's more above their heads, or even that space or other worlds exist. Things are going horribly wrong for these beings made of rock, including their lava pits drying up and deadly seawater getting into their sphere. The crew run into a scientist and his daughter who believe there's more out there and challenge the society's authority on the matter, even though it's forbidden. The typical chases, discoveries and captures ensue, while the Tardis crew attempts to save this society and their world. There's the usual preachiness that this era is famous for, but it's not laid on so thick that it's nauseating.
McCormack does a great job with the team's characterization, to the point where I found myself tolerating Graham, ignoring Yaz and being completely irritated by Ryan, just like the show. The latter was constantly whining and complaining about one thing or another, and I couldn't wait for his scenes to be over. I think with better companions and better interactions with the Doctor, this story could have easily been a 4.
As it stands, I had a decent time with it. I'm glad I gave 13 a chance in novel format, even though she isn't one of my favorites. If you're looking for a light but interesting DW story, this might just fit the bill.

[Hollie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading this book. The plot was well written, and the story had me hanging on for more. The characters were interesting, and I loved to learn about what the civilisation under the surface were like. I would honestly read more books about this world and how everything came to be if there were some.

[Meg · Rating 5 out of 5]

You guys, are you watching the Thirteenth Doctor? So good. I like it so much that my husband got me the new Thirteenth Doctor comics, BUT it’s the stupid serial format with cliffhangers and weeks between them, which is not at all how I like to read comics. I think I’m going to wait for the trade, instead. Bingereading, y’all.

Molten Heart is a new Doctor Who spinoff novel. It reads like a longer ep, with more internal monologue, especially from Yaz. There’s more space for character growth, too. Or, in certain cases, some spot-on character stagnancy, like when Ryan just switches to past tense for Ash’s missing dad, because he’s Ryan and he has gigantic father issues. The characters are so good that I hear their dialogue in the actors’ voices — also can we talk about how this doctor’s companions are actually very good at taking direction and not needing rescue every 10 minutes? So good.

Molten Heart has the same optimism, risk, friendships and danger that I love in the TV season (and that sucked me into the Ninth Doctor, too). I’m really enjoying the complete lack of Daleks, Cybermen or the Master this season. Classic Who is fine, but I feel like all of those classic enemies has been taken just about as far as those storylines can go. I don’t want to find just one more final Dalek, again. Molten Heart has a new enemy, which can be read as an allegory for climate change denial, but also works as another beautiful, dangerous planet, in need of the Doctor and friends. So good, you guys.

[Tessa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh, I was bored. I didn’t even want to pick up the book.

I don’t think that the characters were well written, I think they were quite different from the show. Graham constantly called her Yaz “Yaz love” and I can’t recall that ever happening in the show.

The story was flat and I wasn’t really caught up in it. It hurts to give a book about the Thirteenth Doctor only two stars but this just wasn't my cup of tea.

[Cannon Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Molten Heart is a solid book for anyone wanting their Thirteenth Doctor fix, which I was certainly craving mid-Flux. Molten Heart sees the Fam visit the planet Adamantine. You see, Adamantine is a hollow world, within which lives a civilization of rock people. These rock people live in ignorance, unaware that there is anything beyond the crust of their world. That is, all except Basalt, a scientist who, like most revolutionary thinkers, is ridiculed by everyone around him. The ruler, Emerald, has been able to repress Basalt’s ideas for a long time, but now, she’s forced to face the facts, as cracks in their world begin to have fatal consequences. Like The Good Doctor, Molten Heart shares a heavy-handed metaphor about real-life problems, and this time, it’s climate change. This theme isn’t bad by any means; hell, it’s handled much better than it was in Praxeus or Orphan 55. However, it is oversimplified, which comes as no surprise from a BBC children’s novel. The message of Molten Heart is that climate change cannot be ignored. If the powerful elite refuse to acknowledge what’s right in front of them, our planet will crack under the pressure - literally, in Adamantine’s case. Besides building a metaphor, Molten Heart’s main goal is creating an engrossing alien setting, and Una McCormack certainly succeeds. While the concept of rock people has been done before (my mind kept going back to Gorons from The Legend of Zelda), the visualization of a hollow world filled with gems - like a geode - is awe-inspiring. Thinking about being able to see the other side of the world simply by looking up boggles the mind. Although this is a beautiful mental image, this originality does not extend to the civilization itself. The characters are all archetypal - the sympathetic daughter, the disgraced scientist, the tyrannical queen. The most complex of the side characters is Quartz, a sort of double agent who is caught between the two extremes of friendship. Don’t get me wrong, though - this book is filled with great characterization. The Fam is well-defined. Ryan, as the cover suggests, gets a spotlight. Early on in the book, the Fam is split up, meaning the Doctor and Ryan get some alone time. I felt that I understood their dynamic perfectly based off of these interactions. Ryan is like the Doctor’s younger brother; naïve, but well-intentioned. Their relationship is hard to put into words, but it works extremely well. I hope that we’ll get to see more interactions between them at some point. The other half of the Fam, Yaz and Graham, spend most of the novel together as well. Yaz is well-characterized, although I never can feel entirely confident about that claim, since she’s been all over the place during her time on the show. Something that I only started noticing in recent episodes was her emulation of the Doctor, and surprise, surprise, it seems that Chibnall actually planned for this to be a character trait. In this 2018 novel, which was written with limited knowledge about what the show would look like, Una McCormack chose to characterize Yaz in the same way Chibnall is doing now. I guess Chibnall had a plan for Yaz after all. Yaz is anxious to impress the Doctor. She feels a sense of responsibility to be the perfect companion, since she still can’t wrap her head around why the Doctor would single her out of all people to be her friend. Yaz is blunt, and immediate to trust the Doctor. This is exemplified in certain scenes with Quartz. Sensing that the Doctor distrusts Quartz, Yaz pokes and prods him at every chance she gets. Graham, on the other hand, likes to see the best in people, and hopes that the Doctor’s suspicions are mistaken. This contrast is the most we get out of Graham, who otherwise acts as a sort of babysitter for the two younger companions. This isn’t entirely off the mark, but the character isn’t a perfect replication of his television counterpart. He feels a lot more reserved; he’s still an extrovert, but don’t expect any of Bradley Walsh’s signature comic relief. As for the Doctor: well, she’s okay. She has that stick-it-to-the-man attitude which has become a staple of just about every one of her stories. She’s a bit of a puppy dog, but can turn cold in a heartbeat. The ending of this book is where the Doctor shines the most. She can be brutal when things get serious. She may joke around and act aloof, but she will take no nonsense from anyone, be it Adamantine’s ruler or an intern at a mining company. Really, her characterization doesn’t differ much from many of her episodes. She’s likeable as always, but there’s nothing about her characterization that really makes me jump for joy. Overall, Molten Heart is enjoyable. It’s the perfect example of how to construct a good Thirteenth Doctor story - not a fine story, not a fantastic one, but a solid tale. And honestly, I could use some more solid, enjoyable stories among this era, which seems to be hell-bent on providing the sleep-inducing, the jaw-dropping, and absolutely nothing in between.

[Aidan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Doctor Who meets fracking.
I was weary going into this one after my bad experience with Una McCormack's 12th Doctor adventure Royal Blood which I gave a measly 1 star review to. This one was far more enjoyable, however. It's nothing remarkable, but is a nice Doctor Who by numbers adventure. There are some nice ideas here and the idea of the sphere at the centre of the planet was a really great concept. It was a little Journey to the Centre of the Earth-esque, but with the surface having absolutely no knowledge of the world that exists beneath it. The idea of the characters, too, was brilliant with their rock formation selves being named after the gem that features most prominently on their carapaces. I enjoyed this far more than Doctor Who story's usual approach of keyboard spam names.
Though the voices and characterisation of the main TARDIS team wasn't as strong as in The Good Doctor, the characters were still clearly and distinctly who they are on TV with some good expansions. The authors seem to only have Yaz's job as a police officer as information to go off, yet it still means we get some insight that the main show never provided. There are also connections to Graham and Grace which is nice, and Ryan gets a lot to do here which he never got the chance to do on TV. The 13th Doctor has a slight tendency to go into overly long rambles, but otherwise feels excitable and energetic as does Jodie Whittaker's portrayal.
The New Series Adventures novels are hardly the deepest reads, but I found this one sped by unusually fast. The Good Doctor, for example, did dedicate a lot of time to world building and getting to know its core cast, but I felt Molten Heart move exceptionally quickly. I got a good sense of the concept of the world we found ourselves in, but not the actual mechanics. I thought Emerald was a sorely underdeveloped villain (to be honest, this story didn't really need a villain as the natural threat was enough) and I never really understood the context of the world in which she operated. I liked Ash and Basalt but never really knew why I should care about characters such as Quartz. Some action sequences would also occur on less than a page and I struggled to understand why they were needed at all. Without grand prose descriptions, it rendered some scenes pointless as they did not move the story on particularly far. I also don't think characters needed to be locked up and rescued twice - once was enough for that trope.
I'm not blown away by this one, but I'm also not offended by it as I was with Royal Blood. A perfectly fine, harmless adventure. Which is sometimes exactly what you want from a Doctor Who story.
A high 2.5 would perhaps be a more accurate rating...

[Nicolas Lontel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Peut-être mon roman Doctor Who préféré jusqu'à présent? (Après, je n'en ai lu probablement qu'une dizaine).

La Docteure et sa gang arrive à l'intérieur d'une planète où vit une population de pierres vivantes au nom représentant souvent le type de pierre qu'illes sont (Granit, Quartz, Émeraude, etc.). Cette population est cependant prise avec un problème d'infiltration d'eau qui est aussi dangereux pour elle que la lave l'est pour l'équipage du TARDIS et l'infiltration est tellement importante en ce moment qu'elle risque de détruire toute la civilisation. C'est donc au tour du Docteur et de Ryan, à l'aide de Ash, de retrouver le père d'Ash qui tente de trouver une solution au problème tandis que Yaz et Graham sont coincés avec Quartz dans la cité où un monarque, Émeraude, préfère nier cet apocalypse et persécuter ceux qui y croient que d'adresser le problème.

Plusieurs allusions au Seigneur des Anneaux, en plus d'une création de réflexion philosophique (des êtres souterrains qui n'ont jamais vu la surface et qui ne peuvent que postuler son existence; mais ne même pas pouvoir imaginer qu'il pourrait y avoir d'autres mondes en plus!) intéressant; ça me rappelait un peu la planète de Douglas Adams qui ne voyait pas les étoiles et que donc il n'y avait aucun intérêt pour eux et vouloir voyager au-delà.
Évidemment, il y a de nombreux parallèles avec les changements climatiques avec de soi-disant sceptiques qui ne font qu'accroître le problème ou du moins empêcher sa résolution.

Les personnages étaient brillamment écrit, au point où on se pose la question à savoir comme McCormack a réussi ce tour de force sans avoir vu la série (elle n'était pas encore sortie au moment de l'écriture), l'action va super bien et la résolution des problèmes sans être nécessairement très originale, a le mérite de nécessiter des ressources auxquelles je n'aurais pas songer.

C'est aussi le premier roman dont j'ai l'impression qui n'est pas juste destiné à une jeune public de par son écriture (sans contenir plus de violence ou de propos pour des personnes plus âgées).

Une très bonne entrée dans l'univers romanesque si jamais quelqu'un·e voudrait en essayer un pour voir. Un super livre aussi qui donne un très bon rôle à Yaz qui a été quelque peu négligée dans la série à mon humble avis sans laisser tomber les autres personnages.

[Dale · Rating 5 out of 5]

Starring the 13th Doctor, Yasmin, Ryan, and Graham

A world inside a world…

Possible Spoilers

When the TARDIS lands on a small planet the Doctor and her companions find themselves in a huge cavern. This turns out not to be just a cave on the planet’s surface. It is the hollow center of the planet.

Shades of the Star Trek episode “For the World is Hollow and I have Touched the Sky” the inner world is inhabited. The people of this subterranean realm are formed from rock and crystal. The rivers and lakes here are lava. Crystal patches like wildflowers glow and provide light.

Now there are lights in the sky, or rather the upper mantle. Jets of boiling seawater cause mayhem. People touched by the steaming water usually do not survive.

One of the inhabitants has preached about aliens, the surface, and ways to combat the leeks, only to be heckled and persecuted. Now, his findings could save his people—if they will listen. How do you help people who don’t believe you?

I loved this book, very Star Trekky! In a world where up is down, water is fire and so on, the book brings the reader to a truly alien planet. Too often in sci-fi, the aliens are merely humans with a slight difference. This story is Doctor Who, where alien often means more than a forehead piece or skin tone.

The plot builds nicely and the characters draw the reader in. The reader will find as much to love about the aliens as with the Doctor and her companions. The twist in the story may be a bit expected, but not boring.

I give the book five stars!

Quoth the Raven…

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, this was a pretty quick read!

Sometimes, fan fiction like this is either too simplistic or way to convoluted. But the author her hit the mark pretty well. I could almost visualize it as an episode on TV. She very much got the characters actions and speech accurate and the action moves forward appropriately.

There are a few technical problems -- minor typos, etc. but nothing major. Even when the action shifts between the various groups it's not confusing as there is a clear break in the text.

Quick synopsis: The Doctor (#13) and the gang set the TARDIS down on a nondescript planet. But it turns out they've materialized below the surface where there's a whole civilization of rock based people. One scientist has worked out that there's some danger to them from something going on in the shell of their world but those in power have suppressed his ideas out of fear since even he isn't really sure what can be done. Of course, The Doctor has a plan.

Definitely worth a read if you're a Doctor Who fan.

[Garrett · Rating 3 out of 5]

I mean, I probably should have expected a book where the "aliens" are rock people to move a little slower, but the departure from typical narrative structure pacing here is pretty pronounced, and leads to a slow build up to an all-at-once denouement, sort of like an avalanche? Is this on purpose? Is Una playing with us a little? This has the feel of a Second or even First Doctor story, but with the welcome addition of Yaz's perspective. Finally, this is an extended "Save the Planet" metaphor (with an "Our Elected Officials Are Often Clueless Liars" subplot thrown in), and a pretty good one, though not everyone will need to be hit over the head with that quite as extensively as it is presented here.

[Nicholas Whyte · Rating 3 out of 5]

https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3184665.html

First (I think) of the new novels featuring the Thirteenth Doctor and the new Team Tardis. This is a well-paced and well-written book that captures the regular characters very well. I was a bit less convinced by the setting - a society of silicon-based creatures living on the inner surface of a cavity inside a planet, which itself is threatened by environmental catastrophe; I think there would be logistical difficulties with some elements of this. But the social and political non-human world is well portrayed, and it is one of those stories that you can imagine would have worked well on screen; as it is, it's a fun read.

[Lucy-May · Rating 5 out of 5]

Am I really giving 5 stars to a 13th Doctor novel, again?! You betcha! Una McCormack did a brilliant job with this story; I loved the new world & it’s one I wish I could see on my screen... I think I’d fall totally in love with the sight of it. I also loved the collection of new species & how different their world was to ours - this isn’t an alien race anything like humans & I loved that. The plot was well fleshed out too & the twists left you unsure of who to trust. This wasn’t just a good story by Doctor Who standards, it was a good story for the world of science fiction.

Extended Review to follow.

[Luke Sims-Jenkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been away from Doctor Who for a few years, but with a new Doctor and producer knocking it out of the park I thought I'd give the new books a go.

This is a solid fun good time. Nothing life changing here. Una McCormack captures the characters near perfectly (except for one part when Ryan called Graham Granddad. Bit thats a nitpick and I am a nerd). The books pretty light, you'll knock it out almost as fast as you would an old Terrance Dick novelization.

If you like the new series, this is a good time. Just think of it as one of the lighter adventures.

[Gabriel Mero · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another literary adventure for the Thirteenth Doctor, Yaz, Ryan, and Graham. I liked the idea of living rocks and that each companion had something to do besides stand around and contribute exposition. I do feel that the story itself was kind of a slow burner and that the ending was a tad bit rushed; I think this one would have been better suited as a short story or novella. I'm not criticizing Una McCormack, who is a great writer and has made great contributions to the literary worlds of two of my favorite sci fi shows.

[Alex Mitchell · Rating 3 out of 5]

While a mostly entertaining adventure, this books is a largely uneventful entry into the Thirteenth Doctor's already slightly dodgy era. The characters are all decent, but at only 180 pages the conceptually interesting world is underdeveloped and underutilized, meaning that the conclusion wasn't really that satisfying. Also you can tell that the authors weren't given much information about the characters due to Ryan calling Graham his Grandad despite it being suggested that this Tardis team haven't been together that long. The Good Doctor is the better read from the same wave of releases.

[Andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I quite enjoyed this book. It was a fun story to read as we follow the Doctor and the gang as they try to save a civilization from destruction. I liked how descriptive it was McCormack really conveyed the alien planet and the people very well. I thought the characters were well written, the Doctor, Yaz, Ryan, and Graham all felt in character. Overall, I greatly enjoyed it so much, so I finished it in just a couple of days. It felt like a really good episode of Doctor Who which is exactly what I hope for when I read these books.