Doctor Who and the Library Of Time

by Jonathan Morris (Introduction), James Goss (Contributor), Eric Saward (Contributor)

The Library of Time contains a universe of dangers...

Travel back through the Doctor's adventures, old and new, with exclusive extracts from BBC Books' upcoming set of Target novelisations. Through these modern retellings you can join the Fourth Doctor fighting for survival on Zanak and the Seventh as he becomes the Eighth... the Fifth, Sixth and Ninth Doctors as they battle Daleks in their own inimitable styles... and the Eleventh and Thirteenth Doctors as they face terrifying threats in Earth's murky past.

Oh, and watch out for the Library's curiously proprietorial custodian...

This book features extracts from:

The Pirate Planet by James Goss
Resurrection of the Daleks by Eric Saward
Revelation of the Daleks by Eric Saward
The TV Movie by Gary Russell
Dalek by Robert Shearman
The Crimson Horror by Mark Gatiss
The Witchfinders by Joy Wilkinson
And an exclusive introduction by Jonathan Morris

Genres: Doctor Who, Science Fiction

170 pages, Paperback

First published February 4, 2021

About the author

Jonathan Morris is one of the most prolific and popular writers of Doctor Who books, including the highly-regarded novels 'Festival of Death' and 'Touched by an Angel' and the recent guide to monsters, 'The Monster Vault'. He has also written numerous comic strips, most of which were collected in 'The Child of Time', and audios for BBC Audio and Big Finish, including the highly-regarded comedies 'Max Warp' and 'The Auntie Matter', as well as the adaptation of Russell T Davies’ 'Damaged Goods'.

Recently he has started his own audio production company, Average Romp. Releases include a full-cast adaptation of Charles Dickens' The Chimes', an original play, 'When Michael Met Benny', and three episodes of a SF sitcom, 'Dick Dixon in the 21st Century'.

For details visit www.averageromp.com

He also originated his own series, Vienna and script-edited the Nigel Planer series 'Jeremiah Bourne in Time'. He’s also written documentaries and for TV sketch shows.

Librarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name

Reviews

[Polly Batchelor · Rating 4 out of 5]

"I've had so many adventures with the Doctor. I've travelled through time and space to so many different worlds, and I've seen so many marvels and monsters. How can I possibly remember them all?"

[Graham]

I cannot see the point of a book of exerts. Incomplete stories leave you hanging in mid-air.

[Sean · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not much to say about this one. It's just a collection of extracts from the latest Target novelisations, which is pretty cheeky given that it was advertised as a 'new and exclusive Target book'.

The only 'new' content is an introduction written by Jonathan Morris, regarding the TARDIS sifting through written accounts of the Doctor's travels (hence the title), and it would have been much more interesting had this formed an over-arching narrative dotted throughout the book.

[Elon · Rating 2 out of 5]

A cute collection of first chapters from a couple of Who stories, with potential that it sadly doesn't live up to.
Had it included full novellas, or even more interesting first chapters, I could have loved this, but these only barely manage to set a scene before the extract ends.

[Bo Schutte · Rating 3 out of 5]

It a cute little sample of some new Target books so, that is fun, nothing special otherwise

[LK · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I liked the stories, they were only parial stories. I know some of the episodes, but I wish they were full-length stories instead of just a sampler.

[Gabor Hernadi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ok, I’ve only read the Introduction because I’ll read all the books the extracts int it are from. Still a great idea.

[Jack · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remember getting my first set of Doctor Who books at a young age, I came home from school and my Gran came home from her work where a travelling book salesman would travel round the offices on 2 Fridays of each month.

On this particular Friday, my gran browsed the catalogue and noticed the first set of Christopher Eccleston & David Tennant books were being sold as a set of 10 books at a very reasonable price and so when she got home, she wrapped them up in Doctor Who wrapping paper and gave the gift to me.

Whilst staying at my Gran’s she would each night read me a bedtime story and on this night we started with The Clockwise Man forefronted with The Ninth Doctor & Rose, this kick-started my next obsession in the Doctor Who universe… The New Series Adventures.

Little did I know the things to come when I discovered the new and reimagined Target Novelisations many years later…

A great little gem in book form which accompanied DWM #561, although I am just getting around to reading this book, I feel happy to have bought the books I did when the target novelisations were released in March 2021, even if there is a backlog of them for me to read.

By far my favourite of the excerpts read in this book had to be The Crimson Horror by Mark Gatiss which offered the perfect insight that although a fantastic episode on the show, maybe lacked a little backstory!

My least favourite has to be both excerpts by Eric Saward which is surprising as the TV episodes the books were based upon by the same writer were stellar!

Overall I felt some of the story lacked a little pace pace but overall I enjoyed the book thoroughly and the little intro at the start made the whole book giving it whole new dimensions.