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Eighth Doctor Adventures #50
Doctor Who: Grimm Reality
There is a world where wishes can come true. Where any simpleton can become a king and any scullery maid might be a princess in disguise. Kindness and virtue are rewarded, and the wicked are made to dance in red-hot shoes until they die. But a witch’s oven will cook both the virtuous and the wicked alike, and many a frog-prince is crushed beneath the wheels of a cart before he gets that magic kiss.
This world has its own rules and it doesn’t care that a certain Doctor Know-All and his friends don’t know them.
Now other outsiders have come to the world -- traders from the stars seeking the treasures that fell from the rip in the sky. There are riddles to be solved, contests to win, flax to spin. The world to survive.
But the World of Wishes is itself in danger from a race of beings with only one wish. And there is a Princess asleep, and a beast awake -- and Giants.
This world has its own rules and it doesn’t care that a certain Doctor Know-All and his friends don’t know them.
Now other outsiders have come to the world -- traders from the stars seeking the treasures that fell from the rip in the sky. There are riddles to be solved, contests to win, flax to spin. The world to survive.
But the World of Wishes is itself in danger from a race of beings with only one wish. And there is a Princess asleep, and a beast awake -- and Giants.
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2001
11 people are currently reading
292 people want to read
About the author
Simon Bucher-Jones
62 books23 followersSimon Bucher-Jones is a British author, poet, artist, and amateur actor, best known for his Doctor Who novels for Virgin and the BBC and as a contributor to the Faction Paradox spin-off series.
He is known for a hard SF approach. He has also written Cthulhu Mythos short stories. He also reviewed books for the Fortean Times, and for small press papers. He maintains a blog at http://www.simonbjones.blogspot.com where he is, among other projects, gradually turning all the Star Wars films into Shakespearean plays. He also markets a range of Cthulhu Mythos artwork t-shirts and mugs. He is also a major contributor of 'hidden cities' to the 'blind atlas' meme. His poetry has appeared in the Journal of the British Fantasy Society.
He is known for a hard SF approach. He has also written Cthulhu Mythos short stories. He also reviewed books for the Fortean Times, and for small press papers. He maintains a blog at http://www.simonbjones.blogspot.com where he is, among other projects, gradually turning all the Star Wars films into Shakespearean plays. He also markets a range of Cthulhu Mythos artwork t-shirts and mugs. He is also a major contributor of 'hidden cities' to the 'blind atlas' meme. His poetry has appeared in the Journal of the British Fantasy Society.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
November 22, 2016
This one isn’t likely to make anyone’s top ten Doctor Who novels. That’s not a fault of the book itself, rather its placing in the range. Nestled between ‘The City of the Dead’ – a stark, atmospheric, New Adventures-esque tale set in contemporary New Orleans – and ‘The Adventuress of Henrietta Street – one of the most important books of the range – this story of a planet where fairy tales are allowed to run amok tends to be forgotten these days.
Hindsight tells us that writers should be very wary of using magic in a ‘Doctor Who’ story. So, in its strictest sense, the explanation for these incredibly bizarre goings-on are not magical, although that doesn’t really matter. If you’re going to use these ingredients as the basis of the story, you need to manage them properly. And the writers do, actually. Both times I read the book, I was thoroughly entertained from start to finish, and that’s worth a hell of a lot.
There are so many great motifs here that it’s hard to know where to start. Less effective as a coherent tale than as a series of set pieces, I can’t fault the intention or the delivery. It’s great to see Fitz and Anji – who tended to get sidelined in the surrounding books – allowed to take centre stage and react to the downright peculiar situations they find themselves in. And this is unmistakably Paul McGann’s Doctor, with the blend of heroism, romanticism and vulnerability that seems to apply no matter what medium his stories are told in.
The formula wasn’t repeated, and nor can it be. It’s a testament to ‘Doctor Who’ that a tale as bizarre as this can form part of an ongoing saga, let alone come across as a worthwhile offering. And BBC Books deserve credit for taking a chance on it.
This is a far better book than most people have remembered. 12 years have passed and there are plenty of copies available second-hand. Why not give it another go?
Hindsight tells us that writers should be very wary of using magic in a ‘Doctor Who’ story. So, in its strictest sense, the explanation for these incredibly bizarre goings-on are not magical, although that doesn’t really matter. If you’re going to use these ingredients as the basis of the story, you need to manage them properly. And the writers do, actually. Both times I read the book, I was thoroughly entertained from start to finish, and that’s worth a hell of a lot.
There are so many great motifs here that it’s hard to know where to start. Less effective as a coherent tale than as a series of set pieces, I can’t fault the intention or the delivery. It’s great to see Fitz and Anji – who tended to get sidelined in the surrounding books – allowed to take centre stage and react to the downright peculiar situations they find themselves in. And this is unmistakably Paul McGann’s Doctor, with the blend of heroism, romanticism and vulnerability that seems to apply no matter what medium his stories are told in.
The formula wasn’t repeated, and nor can it be. It’s a testament to ‘Doctor Who’ that a tale as bizarre as this can form part of an ongoing saga, let alone come across as a worthwhile offering. And BBC Books deserve credit for taking a chance on it.
This is a far better book than most people have remembered. 12 years have passed and there are plenty of copies available second-hand. Why not give it another go?
January 8, 2023
It's ambitious & well-written, but this type of Pratchett-inspired fantasy just isn't to my taste. One of those novel that simply left me shrugging, but I know others will enjoy it more than I.
December 5, 2024
The Doctor, Anji, and Fitz are trapped -- and separated from each other (as per) -- on a planet that operates by fairy tale rules. The fairy tale parts of the plot are immense fun; the sci-fi explanation for why this is happening, less so. But Fitz is so cute in this (the fairy tale environment is perfect for him, actually) and there are some lovely insights into Eight's character.
Lol. Okay, guys.
"Me?" the Doctor said. He sounded almost flattered. "Why on earth would you want to be filled with me?"
It was a classic straight line, but Fitz couldn't think of a single funny comeback.
Lol. Okay, guys.
March 1, 2025
it’s always hard coming after one of the best books of the series, which is grimm reality’s unfortunate position.
it does have the neat idea of ‘doctor who does fairytales’ at its core, with each of our trio going on separate archetypal journeys and running into an array of classic characters and plots typical of the genre. I like the lighthearted tone, some of the fairytale pastiche is done rather well, and there’s some fun dialogue tucked in here and there which I always appreciate.
unfortunately I think it really loses its’ mojo by the second half, the non-fairytale side plot is very dull and the main narrative sort of drifts around in a similarly uninspired way until the very end, which is a shame because they really could have gone all out with the fairytale aspect in a properly grand finale, and really had fun with it, so I think overall, this book ends up feeling like a slightly wasted opportunity.
also there’s a slight vein of irritating early 2000s gendered humour throughout which is always off putting to me..!
on the plus side I think eight is mostly written well - not quite top tier eight, as just with ‘the city of the dead’, but mostly enjoyable, as are fitz and anji.
it does have the neat idea of ‘doctor who does fairytales’ at its core, with each of our trio going on separate archetypal journeys and running into an array of classic characters and plots typical of the genre. I like the lighthearted tone, some of the fairytale pastiche is done rather well, and there’s some fun dialogue tucked in here and there which I always appreciate.
unfortunately I think it really loses its’ mojo by the second half, the non-fairytale side plot is very dull and the main narrative sort of drifts around in a similarly uninspired way until the very end, which is a shame because they really could have gone all out with the fairytale aspect in a properly grand finale, and really had fun with it, so I think overall, this book ends up feeling like a slightly wasted opportunity.
also there’s a slight vein of irritating early 2000s gendered humour throughout which is always off putting to me..!
on the plus side I think eight is mostly written well - not quite top tier eight, as just with ‘the city of the dead’, but mostly enjoyable, as are fitz and anji.
September 30, 2020
In the world where fairytales are real, I really like the idea and this book does have good moments but I completely do find it meh.
November 21, 2022
After reading all four books he has written set in the Doctor Who universe, I perhaps think Simon Bucher-Jones is better suited for writing short fiction than novel length Doctor Who and Doctor Who spin-off adventures and that is no better exemplified than Grimm Reality, his second Eighth Doctor Adventure cowritten with Kelly Hale. Grimm Reality Or The Marvellous Adventures of Doctor Know-All are Bucher-Jones’ and Hale’s tribute to the fairy tales of the Brother’s Grimm (and the like) but in a Doctor Who context, attempting to mash together several fairy tales and fairy tale tropes into a single novel. Primarily Cinderella and Jack and the Beanstalk come to mind when reading the book, though at different points, while being wrapped in two alien races on the planet Albert and the science fiction tropes of quantum activity and black holes. Now, blending a science-fiction story and fairy tales is actually nothing new for Doctor Who, Paul Cornell did it excellently in Oh No It Isn’t!, the inaugural New Adventure led by Bernice Summerfield, and where it succeeds is perhaps where Grimm Reality most readily fails. Oh No It Isn’t! is a book that doesn’t attempt to always take itself seriously, reveling in the absurdity of the pantomime and fairy tales Bernice finds herself in, while Bucher-Jones and Hale take the direct opposite approach, making Grimm Reality a book taking itself all too seriously. This means that the morals of fairy tales and cultural legends play themselves essentially straight here, which isn’t a bad thing, but in the structure of a novel means that there isn’t entirely one thesis that the book can come to. Had Grimm Reality been split into multiple shorter works of fiction from the pair about the Doctor, Fitz, and Anji on Albert, it would have flowed better and tightened focus in on individual ideas that could be resolved long before the book ends.
Bucher-Jones as an author also suffers from having a style that is almost impenetrable for the casual reader. He has a tendency to use purple prose that is almost incomprehensible, most apparent in The Death of Art, his first novel, where the plot is a rather thin mystery that suffers from a writing style concerned with how ‘clever’ the author thinks he is. That air of cleverness is here in Grimm Reality especially whenever the science fiction elements appear, often cloaked in the fairy tale elements which are often made needlessly complex. Bucher-Jones’ penchant for complexity worked brilliantly in The Taking of Planet 5 but that was dealing with more esoteric matters while Grimm Reality simply isn’t. This makes the book drag and fall into the trap of boring its reader. Bucher-Jones and Hale also don’t really have a consistent characterization or any real idea on how Anji Kapoor should be portrayed, which is such a shame after books like EarthWorld, The Year of Intelligent Tigers, and The City of the Dead handle her really well. She makes a deal with a witch early on which is this tremendous lapse in judgment, being written as not taking any skepticism of the deal itself, and is later essentially put into the role of Cinderella as she continuously tries to wish for things that will help her situation. While the ironic ways they do not work have a tendency to be fun and one of the better portions of the book, it doesn’t feel like what her character would or should be doing. It’s a shame as the Doctor and Fitz are excellent, Fitz enjoying the fantastical nature of the setting as someone who grew up in the age of 1950s B movies and The Lord of the Rings and the Doctor being romantically aloof about the situation. This is a slight shame on the front of the Doctor after Lloyd Rose’s treatment of the character in The City of the Dead, but on the other hand there is a nice pause between two books with emotionally wrenching reputations.
Overall, Grimm Reality Or The Marvellous Adventures of Doctor Know-All is at it’s core a Simon Bucher-Jones novel, something that will never be perfectly appealing to me, falling into many of that author’s traps despite sharing credit with Kelly Hale. It covers ground that has been done better by other authors but is at least an inconsequential book in the grand scheme of things with some nice ideas that need to be in a different format to really, truly work. 4/10.
Bucher-Jones as an author also suffers from having a style that is almost impenetrable for the casual reader. He has a tendency to use purple prose that is almost incomprehensible, most apparent in The Death of Art, his first novel, where the plot is a rather thin mystery that suffers from a writing style concerned with how ‘clever’ the author thinks he is. That air of cleverness is here in Grimm Reality especially whenever the science fiction elements appear, often cloaked in the fairy tale elements which are often made needlessly complex. Bucher-Jones’ penchant for complexity worked brilliantly in The Taking of Planet 5 but that was dealing with more esoteric matters while Grimm Reality simply isn’t. This makes the book drag and fall into the trap of boring its reader. Bucher-Jones and Hale also don’t really have a consistent characterization or any real idea on how Anji Kapoor should be portrayed, which is such a shame after books like EarthWorld, The Year of Intelligent Tigers, and The City of the Dead handle her really well. She makes a deal with a witch early on which is this tremendous lapse in judgment, being written as not taking any skepticism of the deal itself, and is later essentially put into the role of Cinderella as she continuously tries to wish for things that will help her situation. While the ironic ways they do not work have a tendency to be fun and one of the better portions of the book, it doesn’t feel like what her character would or should be doing. It’s a shame as the Doctor and Fitz are excellent, Fitz enjoying the fantastical nature of the setting as someone who grew up in the age of 1950s B movies and The Lord of the Rings and the Doctor being romantically aloof about the situation. This is a slight shame on the front of the Doctor after Lloyd Rose’s treatment of the character in The City of the Dead, but on the other hand there is a nice pause between two books with emotionally wrenching reputations.
Overall, Grimm Reality Or The Marvellous Adventures of Doctor Know-All is at it’s core a Simon Bucher-Jones novel, something that will never be perfectly appealing to me, falling into many of that author’s traps despite sharing credit with Kelly Hale. It covers ground that has been done better by other authors but is at least an inconsequential book in the grand scheme of things with some nice ideas that need to be in a different format to really, truly work. 4/10.
August 3, 2017
Mixing Doctor Who and fairy tales has been done before and been done better. If aliens are always dredging through human minds for fantasy to bring to life, why is it always fairies and giants? Especially in the future, I'm sure there's more current, vivid stories to mine.
The Doctor and companions are well depicted though I'm a little bit over the amnesiac Eighth Doctor, there's something a bit unsettling at having him without his memories, makes his carefree charm seem a little bit more unpleasant and alien.
The Doctor and companions are well depicted though I'm a little bit over the amnesiac Eighth Doctor, there's something a bit unsettling at having him without his memories, makes his carefree charm seem a little bit more unpleasant and alien.
November 2, 2024
An abundance of wit, whimsy and imagery but with a dark tone at times that keeps things from getting too airy Fairy. I could tell when the two writers were writing because their styles were very different.
February 10, 2020
I think this one has a bad rep. Which is a shame. It's pretty cool. I liked the 8th doctor in it. I'm enjoying Anji and liked the fairy tale theme.
February 13, 2022
Good grief that was a waste of time. Boring as hell
March 7, 2017
A world whose rules are governed by fairy tale stories. A bit of a mind-f, but fun to read if you can untangle it as you read.
April 7, 2013
What the heck was that?
This story was a mish-mash of complete nonsense from start to finish. Looking back at the whole thing I can just barely make out a plot, but the writer tried to be so mysterious that most of the way through the story I couldn't even tell what was going on. The only reason this was entertaining enough to finish was because of all the Grimm fairytale stories.
However, the Doctor's character journey takes a few steps and Anji and Fitz have interesting side stories.
I never really understood the techno-babble that was supposed to explain how a bunch of fairytales are allowed to be in a sci-fi novel. Basically it's magic again.
If you love the Doctor and don't mind reading 200+ pages of gibberish, go ahead and read it.
This story was a mish-mash of complete nonsense from start to finish. Looking back at the whole thing I can just barely make out a plot, but the writer tried to be so mysterious that most of the way through the story I couldn't even tell what was going on. The only reason this was entertaining enough to finish was because of all the Grimm fairytale stories.
However, the Doctor's character journey takes a few steps and Anji and Fitz have interesting side stories.
I never really understood the techno-babble that was supposed to explain how a bunch of fairytales are allowed to be in a sci-fi novel. Basically it's magic again.
If you love the Doctor and don't mind reading 200+ pages of gibberish, go ahead and read it.
April 8, 2009
http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2241878.html[return][return]A rather odd Eighth Doctor Adventure, with the Doctor, Fitz and Anji trapped in a fantasy world where fairy-tales (hence the 'Grimm' of the title) are more or less true. Some good Anji moments in particular, and a few nice descriptive passages, but this has been done better elsewhere.
January 27, 2013
Eighth Doctor Adventure with Anji and Fitz. A giddy mix of fairy tale and quantum theory. I enjoyed it, but I can't quite imagine re-reading it. Page 146 was page 150, so there were two 150s; I wonder if all copies of this book are the same? Toward the end of chapter 13 it suddenly gets harder to follow, as if an editor left off. That's when some amateurishly wrong words start cropping up--"tally" instead of "dally", "gambit" instead of "gamut"....
January 18, 2018
I read this book earlier this month and I can say that I jumped into the 8th Doctor series with little hiccup. Sure I probably would have gotten more out of it if I found the book that came before it for the characterization, but ultimately it didn't hinder me in my experience.
The story is about The Doctor and his comanions Anji and Fritz when they land on a planet that is 'alive' and manifests that existance in the form of fairy tale based magic. Think magic sleep spells that keep princesses in coffins until a kiss, or making a promise is a binding contract and will have dire consequences if not kept, or the fact there are giants, magic looking glasses, and fairy folk.
If you're more used to the standard Doctor Who forumla that everything is aliens or technology and want to have something more fanciful, I'd recommend this.
The Doctor is quite innocent and charming in this to be frank and you also get to spend a significant amount of time with Fritz and Anji on their own and gain great insights into their character. I get the feeling, just from how I read the text that Anji and Fritz are stil new to the Doctor and are working out the kinks of being around him.
It has a multiple layers story that each of our main characters has to rise to the occation, while simultaniously have several on going plots OFF world with a group of traveling merchants just off the planet's orbit. It can get a bit bogged down and confusing in that regard, but nothing too bad ultimately.
The story is about The Doctor and his comanions Anji and Fritz when they land on a planet that is 'alive' and manifests that existance in the form of fairy tale based magic. Think magic sleep spells that keep princesses in coffins until a kiss, or making a promise is a binding contract and will have dire consequences if not kept, or the fact there are giants, magic looking glasses, and fairy folk.
If you're more used to the standard Doctor Who forumla that everything is aliens or technology and want to have something more fanciful, I'd recommend this.
The Doctor is quite innocent and charming in this to be frank and you also get to spend a significant amount of time with Fritz and Anji on their own and gain great insights into their character. I get the feeling, just from how I read the text that Anji and Fritz are stil new to the Doctor and are working out the kinks of being around him.
It has a multiple layers story that each of our main characters has to rise to the occation, while simultaniously have several on going plots OFF world with a group of traveling merchants just off the planet's orbit. It can get a bit bogged down and confusing in that regard, but nothing too bad ultimately.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews