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Eighth Doctor Adventures #56
Doctor Who: The Book of the Still
The Unnoticed are bound to keep themselves isolated from all history, or face a complete collapse from existence. The Book of the Still is a lifeline for stranded time travellers -- write your location, sign your name and be instantly rescued. When the Unnoticed learn that within the book someone has revealed both their existence and whereabouts they are forced into murderous intercession to find it. Fitz knows where it is, but then he's the one who stole it. Carmodi, addicted to the energies trapped in frequent time travellers, also knows where it is. But she's the one who's stolen Fitz. Anji, alone on a doomed planet, trying to find evidence of a race that has never had the decency to exist, doesn't know where anybody is. Embroiled in the deadly chase, the Doctor is starting to worry about how many people he can keep alive along the way...
224 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2002
1 person is currently reading
268 people want to read
About the author
Paul Ebbs
21 books2 followersPaul Ebbs is a writer and director. He has written and directed several audio stories for BBV Productions. He also wrote the comedy short Do You Have a Licence to Save this Planet? with Gareth Preston which stars Sylvester McCoy in the main role. Ebbs has also written a novel for BBC Books' Doctor Who range of novels and an audio and several short stories for Big Finish Productions' Bernice Summerfield series.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
January 21, 2025
Rhian mentally kicked herself for misreading the signals. She wasn’t very good at relationships; well, at least that’s what she said when explaining to herself why she hadn’t had any yet.
A good romp that's quite experimental. Tonally, this is basically like an adventure from the "RTD2" or "DisneyWho" era though its plot is the sort of thing Moffat would write. Though it only has like three original characters, I think they're all done pretty well. I genuienly want to see the Doctor meet Carmodi again (though I could say the same thing about Kopyion from The Pit). I don't know if its ideas and set pieces congeal together but I think they're quite good. Overall, pretty solid though maybe not the best EDA.
A good romp that's quite experimental. Tonally, this is basically like an adventure from the "RTD2" or "DisneyWho" era though its plot is the sort of thing Moffat would write. Though it only has like three original characters, I think they're all done pretty well. I genuienly want to see the Doctor meet Carmodi again (though I could say the same thing about Kopyion from The Pit). I don't know if its ideas and set pieces congeal together but I think they're quite good. Overall, pretty solid though maybe not the best EDA.
August 21, 2014
Re-reading blocks of these books means I’ve picked up on a few things I missed the first time around. With this one, it’s the fact that it seemed to be one of a number of acutely post-modern books, where there’s an open acknowledgement that this is, in fact, a book. For a spin-off series from a TV show that had been off air for 12 years and – at this point – showed little signs of coming back, perhaps this was inevitable.
And so it is that ‘The Book of the Still’ followed not long after: a story set on a world where the more unpleasant side of fairy tales come to life (‘Grimm Reality’), a narrative reported as if it were a historical tome (‘The Adventuress of Henrietta Street’), a glorious Noel Coward inspired-and-featuring saga which sees talking poodles try to rewrite their own history by altering a work of fiction (‘Mad Dogs and English Men’), and, following a gap populated by more straightforward, escapist tales, a story which wears its action-thriller influences so proudly it can only be seen as metafiction (‘Trading Futures’).
I also don’t think it’s an accident that these were followed by: a treatise on what happens when flesh-and-blood characters intrude on world animated in the style of those Saturday morning cartoons (‘The Crooked World’) and a second variation on the main characters becoming involved in a genuine historical event, written by a professional historian no less (‘History 101’)!
I wasn’t aware of this at the time, and I can’t say whether anyone else was – at least consciously. Unconsciously, this may explain why Paul Ebbs’ debut novel has been largely forgotten. It’s also unfortunate that the book’s publication coincided with a gradual winding-down of BBC Books’ output, so Ebbs never had the chance to cement his reputation with a follow-up. That’s a shame, because on the basis of what we got here’ I think we’d have been in for a treat. And it’s probably the most imaginative of its stalemates – but who remembers that now?
This is a Douglas Adams-inspired tale, with lashings of humour and some bold, memorable ideas, not least the titular book. It’s a great concept – the notion of a book which exists in all times and places, where stranded time travellers can request a rescue. Naturally, this attracts the attention of numerous different factions, all of whom Ebbs presents as logical, understandable reasons for wanting to get their hands on it. Again, since this follows on directly from ‘Trading Futures’ and the quest for a time machine, it’s interesting to compare how these factions, and their motivations, are presented in both books. I think this one scores more highly.
Perversely, despite it meaning we never heard from Paul Ebbs again, this book demonstrates why BBC Books’ decision to halve their output was the right one. ‘The Book of the Still’ had to compete for attention with other Eighth Doctor Adventures, not to mention the Past Doctor Adventures, and got lost in much the same way as the novel’s time travellers would have done without the Book of the title!
Whether you’re a Doctor Who fan or not, and regardless of your views on BBC Books’ turn-of-the-century output (I like them, but that is just an opinion) I suggest you give this a go.
A brilliantly-conceived sci-fi tale with great ideas, dialogue and characterisation, written with real verve and enthusiasm.
It works.
And so it is that ‘The Book of the Still’ followed not long after: a story set on a world where the more unpleasant side of fairy tales come to life (‘Grimm Reality’), a narrative reported as if it were a historical tome (‘The Adventuress of Henrietta Street’), a glorious Noel Coward inspired-and-featuring saga which sees talking poodles try to rewrite their own history by altering a work of fiction (‘Mad Dogs and English Men’), and, following a gap populated by more straightforward, escapist tales, a story which wears its action-thriller influences so proudly it can only be seen as metafiction (‘Trading Futures’).
I also don’t think it’s an accident that these were followed by: a treatise on what happens when flesh-and-blood characters intrude on world animated in the style of those Saturday morning cartoons (‘The Crooked World’) and a second variation on the main characters becoming involved in a genuine historical event, written by a professional historian no less (‘History 101’)!
I wasn’t aware of this at the time, and I can’t say whether anyone else was – at least consciously. Unconsciously, this may explain why Paul Ebbs’ debut novel has been largely forgotten. It’s also unfortunate that the book’s publication coincided with a gradual winding-down of BBC Books’ output, so Ebbs never had the chance to cement his reputation with a follow-up. That’s a shame, because on the basis of what we got here’ I think we’d have been in for a treat. And it’s probably the most imaginative of its stalemates – but who remembers that now?
This is a Douglas Adams-inspired tale, with lashings of humour and some bold, memorable ideas, not least the titular book. It’s a great concept – the notion of a book which exists in all times and places, where stranded time travellers can request a rescue. Naturally, this attracts the attention of numerous different factions, all of whom Ebbs presents as logical, understandable reasons for wanting to get their hands on it. Again, since this follows on directly from ‘Trading Futures’ and the quest for a time machine, it’s interesting to compare how these factions, and their motivations, are presented in both books. I think this one scores more highly.
Perversely, despite it meaning we never heard from Paul Ebbs again, this book demonstrates why BBC Books’ decision to halve their output was the right one. ‘The Book of the Still’ had to compete for attention with other Eighth Doctor Adventures, not to mention the Past Doctor Adventures, and got lost in much the same way as the novel’s time travellers would have done without the Book of the title!
Whether you’re a Doctor Who fan or not, and regardless of your views on BBC Books’ turn-of-the-century output (I like them, but that is just an opinion) I suggest you give this a go.
A brilliantly-conceived sci-fi tale with great ideas, dialogue and characterisation, written with real verve and enthusiasm.
It works.
February 15, 2025
Perhaps it’s because it has been such a long time since I’d dipped back into the adventures of the Doctor, Fitz, and Anji, but I found their involvement to be the best part of Paul Ebbs’ Doctor Who debut The Book of the Still. Okay, this isn’t really doing much to move forward the larger arc, but Paul Ebbs as a writer is clearly overflowing with ideas on what he wants to do with this book that The Book of the Still is at its core a fascinating read. Structurally, it begins at the end with an epilogue opener and prologue closer, both written with this very light tone of an author beaming with the fact that he is getting the chance to play in this little sandbox. The Eighth Doctor Adventures as a series of novels often likes to play around with the idea of the Doctor being unable to stop things, often making the Eighth Doctor far more deadly and dangerous than the Seventh Doctor before him, paradoxically with an almost lighter attitude towards the universe being on the surface. The Book of the Still is Ebbs’ one chance to really explore that, wrapping the titular book as in a roundabout way a take on the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy but for stranded time travelers, plus the actual plot involving the creation of a species that should not exist means there’s a lot of influence on the novel from other eras of Doctor Who. The plot itself actually wraps itself up nicely by the end, sadly being perhaps the weakest element outside of Ebbs brimming with ideas. When you get to the end of it, despite Ebbs using his structure to be intentionally backwards, it’s a simple creation of a paradox that the Doctor, Fitz, and Anji are technically only tangential to actually happening.
Despite the simplicity of the plot, being split into Anji doing the actual work, Fitz having a fabulous romance and heist for the actual book, and the Doctor just trying to keep everyone alive while being a prisoner himself, it’s actually a lot of the set pieces that Ebbs includes that really make The Book of the Still stand out. There is a museum of locks, a masquerade ball, and several high-tension chases that are at the very least competently written. The idea of the villains literally being the Unnoticed is another great conceit for storytelling, the way they eventually come about is perhaps a bit obvious in hindsight, Ebbs is tributing a bunch of Doctor Who with this. The supporting cast is also quite small, only really having five characters because this is attempting to replicate what possibly could have been done on television in I suppose 2002 when this was published (or possibly recalling the cast sizes of Big Finish Audio Dramas as Ebbs had written The Greatest Shop in the Galaxy around the same time). Yet, for whatever reason this is a novel that just doesn’t ever quite add up. It’s certainly a well-written book, the plot is interesting and fun, the characters are brimming across the page (there’s this one moment where Fitz nearly realizes that he actually loves the Doctor yet for whatever reason the BBC Books range never makes that connection proper), but somehow it is held back because there are almost too many ideas. Despite hitting both the page count of approximately 280 pages, plus enough of a word count to use a smaller font size while keeping the hard page limit of these books, it doesn’t seem to have enough time to explore everything that it wants to.
Overall, despite having several problems with how everything adds up, The Book of the Still is actually a very solid little adventure that puts a lot of classic Doctor Who ideas together. Really what’s impressive is actually Ebbs’ strengths as a novelist establishing a surreal mood that while clearly being inspired by Douglas Adams isn’t trying to be or even emulate Douglas Adams. There are problems but it made me realize how much I still love this particular team. 6/10.
Despite the simplicity of the plot, being split into Anji doing the actual work, Fitz having a fabulous romance and heist for the actual book, and the Doctor just trying to keep everyone alive while being a prisoner himself, it’s actually a lot of the set pieces that Ebbs includes that really make The Book of the Still stand out. There is a museum of locks, a masquerade ball, and several high-tension chases that are at the very least competently written. The idea of the villains literally being the Unnoticed is another great conceit for storytelling, the way they eventually come about is perhaps a bit obvious in hindsight, Ebbs is tributing a bunch of Doctor Who with this. The supporting cast is also quite small, only really having five characters because this is attempting to replicate what possibly could have been done on television in I suppose 2002 when this was published (or possibly recalling the cast sizes of Big Finish Audio Dramas as Ebbs had written The Greatest Shop in the Galaxy around the same time). Yet, for whatever reason this is a novel that just doesn’t ever quite add up. It’s certainly a well-written book, the plot is interesting and fun, the characters are brimming across the page (there’s this one moment where Fitz nearly realizes that he actually loves the Doctor yet for whatever reason the BBC Books range never makes that connection proper), but somehow it is held back because there are almost too many ideas. Despite hitting both the page count of approximately 280 pages, plus enough of a word count to use a smaller font size while keeping the hard page limit of these books, it doesn’t seem to have enough time to explore everything that it wants to.
Overall, despite having several problems with how everything adds up, The Book of the Still is actually a very solid little adventure that puts a lot of classic Doctor Who ideas together. Really what’s impressive is actually Ebbs’ strengths as a novelist establishing a surreal mood that while clearly being inspired by Douglas Adams isn’t trying to be or even emulate Douglas Adams. There are problems but it made me realize how much I still love this particular team. 6/10.
February 18, 2013
If this is the kind of work we get from the first time writers then as far as I'm concerned we can give all the upcoming stories to the new guys, because at this point I'd rather someone trying too hard as opposed to people just phoning it in. Which is basically what this is, completely overstuffed and unable to explore any of the nine thousand things it brings up in depth but there's so many interesting things going on that it manages to be okay. This time.
The central idea of the novel rests around a rather brilliant concept in a universe with time travel and nobody around to regulate it . . . the Book of the Still. Basically, it exists in every time and thus if you're a stranded time traveller you write your name in it and eventually another time traveller who isn't stuck will see it and come find you. The Doctor, for reasons that require the plot to get going, winds up trying to steal the book and getting thrown in prison for the next twenty years. Meanwhile, Fitz falls in love with someone who really likes time travellers (and manages to steal the book on her own) while Anji plays damage control and tries to come up with something resembling a plan. Oh, and this is before the murderous aliens show up, and not counting the other villains who keep inserting memories into people.
Like I said, there's a lot going on. On some level each of these things could have probably taken up their own plot of the novel and if you're the kind of reader who wants something close to a focus you're going to be very frustrated. The Book of the Still on its own is worth it but then you have the concept of people addicted to tine travellers, or the concept of aliens who shouldn't exist and trying to keep it that way, or the concept of using amino acids to insert memories into people . . . and chances are I'm probably missing something. It does at some moments give the book the feel of being somewhat shallow because all of this is worth exploring but to do it in depth would render the book incoherent. Or six hundred pages long. Or both.
But Ebbs manages to keep all the balls in the air moving, considering how many moving parts this story has, and doesn't seem to drop any, which is impressive. To me, the reason that any of this happens to work is because he has deft touches with characterization. While Anji spends a good portion of the novel understandably confused (and she seems to bear the brunt of his tendency to runallthewordstogether), he gives everyone else a lot of touching human moments. Fitz and Carmodi's "relationship" may be manufactured on some level but there's enough actual caring involved that you feel for Fitz and this is the first time in a while that he's been portrayed as emotionally wounded instead of amusingly cowardly or lackadaisical. Even the supporting cast have their moments, the villains are effective with just the right touch of bumbling (including the rather funny running joke where one wants to beat the crap out of the other behind his back) to keep them comical. Imprisoned academic scholar Rhian finds that nice balance between being exasperated and in awe of the Doctor, and all of the characters have a nice touch of humor that keeps the book feeling somewhat zany when some fairly horrible things are going on.
His portrayal of the Doctor nails it though . . . most of the writers are good at writing "the Doctor" but Ebbs is pretty decent at writing "The Eighth Doctor", with his mix of innocence and compassion and hyperactivity, like an action packed five year old Dalai Lama. He gets most of the best moments in the story, the scene where he and Rhian attempt to dance, his wordless angry sorrow after he fails to save a planet, and the small touches, like how he helps someone else before he even worries about himself. Few writers are able to convey how intensely good this incarnation is, his utter sincerity in ensuring that everyone is safe and his unswerving devotion to righting wrongs, but it comes across loud and clear here.
There's so much going on here that its not surprising that Ebbs basically wrote himself into a corner and has to hit a reset button to get out of it. It doesn't feel as much of a cheat as it should, I think because the whole story has occupied itself with a kind of magical SF strangeness that seems unique to "Doctor Who", whether its because of the sheer Britishness of the proceedings or simply the author's style, but when the tone is consistent I'm not expecting exact science. I'm okay with the Doctor not totally understanding what's happening because I like the idea he lives in a weird universe. Still, the author can only get away with that trick once, the next time will seem like a lack of ideas.
Still, hopefully he has another book in him and just didn't decide to throw every single idea he's ever had into one novel because he figures he'll never write one again. His prose is engaging and eager to please in that way of first authors, impressing with its nimble darting playfulness and even the digressions that don't have much to do with the plot (Fitz and Anji's memory implants . . . the Bollywood one being utterly, utterly brilliant) are fun. There are times when you want super-serious and game changing, and there are times when you want full to the brim and fun. This is the latter and while I hope he can bring a bit of depth to his nifty ideas next time out, I'll take this for now.
The central idea of the novel rests around a rather brilliant concept in a universe with time travel and nobody around to regulate it . . . the Book of the Still. Basically, it exists in every time and thus if you're a stranded time traveller you write your name in it and eventually another time traveller who isn't stuck will see it and come find you. The Doctor, for reasons that require the plot to get going, winds up trying to steal the book and getting thrown in prison for the next twenty years. Meanwhile, Fitz falls in love with someone who really likes time travellers (and manages to steal the book on her own) while Anji plays damage control and tries to come up with something resembling a plan. Oh, and this is before the murderous aliens show up, and not counting the other villains who keep inserting memories into people.
Like I said, there's a lot going on. On some level each of these things could have probably taken up their own plot of the novel and if you're the kind of reader who wants something close to a focus you're going to be very frustrated. The Book of the Still on its own is worth it but then you have the concept of people addicted to tine travellers, or the concept of aliens who shouldn't exist and trying to keep it that way, or the concept of using amino acids to insert memories into people . . . and chances are I'm probably missing something. It does at some moments give the book the feel of being somewhat shallow because all of this is worth exploring but to do it in depth would render the book incoherent. Or six hundred pages long. Or both.
But Ebbs manages to keep all the balls in the air moving, considering how many moving parts this story has, and doesn't seem to drop any, which is impressive. To me, the reason that any of this happens to work is because he has deft touches with characterization. While Anji spends a good portion of the novel understandably confused (and she seems to bear the brunt of his tendency to runallthewordstogether), he gives everyone else a lot of touching human moments. Fitz and Carmodi's "relationship" may be manufactured on some level but there's enough actual caring involved that you feel for Fitz and this is the first time in a while that he's been portrayed as emotionally wounded instead of amusingly cowardly or lackadaisical. Even the supporting cast have their moments, the villains are effective with just the right touch of bumbling (including the rather funny running joke where one wants to beat the crap out of the other behind his back) to keep them comical. Imprisoned academic scholar Rhian finds that nice balance between being exasperated and in awe of the Doctor, and all of the characters have a nice touch of humor that keeps the book feeling somewhat zany when some fairly horrible things are going on.
His portrayal of the Doctor nails it though . . . most of the writers are good at writing "the Doctor" but Ebbs is pretty decent at writing "The Eighth Doctor", with his mix of innocence and compassion and hyperactivity, like an action packed five year old Dalai Lama. He gets most of the best moments in the story, the scene where he and Rhian attempt to dance, his wordless angry sorrow after he fails to save a planet, and the small touches, like how he helps someone else before he even worries about himself. Few writers are able to convey how intensely good this incarnation is, his utter sincerity in ensuring that everyone is safe and his unswerving devotion to righting wrongs, but it comes across loud and clear here.
There's so much going on here that its not surprising that Ebbs basically wrote himself into a corner and has to hit a reset button to get out of it. It doesn't feel as much of a cheat as it should, I think because the whole story has occupied itself with a kind of magical SF strangeness that seems unique to "Doctor Who", whether its because of the sheer Britishness of the proceedings or simply the author's style, but when the tone is consistent I'm not expecting exact science. I'm okay with the Doctor not totally understanding what's happening because I like the idea he lives in a weird universe. Still, the author can only get away with that trick once, the next time will seem like a lack of ideas.
Still, hopefully he has another book in him and just didn't decide to throw every single idea he's ever had into one novel because he figures he'll never write one again. His prose is engaging and eager to please in that way of first authors, impressing with its nimble darting playfulness and even the digressions that don't have much to do with the plot (Fitz and Anji's memory implants . . . the Bollywood one being utterly, utterly brilliant) are fun. There are times when you want super-serious and game changing, and there are times when you want full to the brim and fun. This is the latter and while I hope he can bring a bit of depth to his nifty ideas next time out, I'll take this for now.
April 19, 2018
This was chaotic and hard to follow (especially at the end) but entertaining throughout. Thought there were a tone of interesting ideas that weren’t really developed like a book that stranded time travelers can write their names in to be rescued or a species that wants no trace of its existence to be left anywhere in the universe plus more.
June 18, 2013
Finally a planet that isn't Earth!
I really appreciated the vivid imagery, even if it was less than pleasant. Fitz experienced a painful backwards slide in character development that had me temporarily hating him again. Meanwhile we got a good look at Anji's character that also made her seem less than pleasant--even if she was the only character who made 'good' choices. The Doctor's lack of concern over imprisonment is out of character, but the dancing lessons were a beautiful moment where we really got a look inside his head.
I don't care if the pages of that book are made of indestructible gobbledigook, there's no way you're making a plane (big enough to fit 6 people with elbow room) out of them and then flying it into the sun with the calculations of a glorified iPad to guide you. Where did he even get the space to construct the dratted thing?! That whole scene was nearly worse than the poodles.
If you love the Doctor, you should still read it. It was pretty intense.
I really appreciated the vivid imagery, even if it was less than pleasant. Fitz experienced a painful backwards slide in character development that had me temporarily hating him again. Meanwhile we got a good look at Anji's character that also made her seem less than pleasant--even if she was the only character who made 'good' choices. The Doctor's lack of concern over imprisonment is out of character, but the dancing lessons were a beautiful moment where we really got a look inside his head.
I don't care if the pages of that book are made of indestructible gobbledigook, there's no way you're making a plane (big enough to fit 6 people with elbow room) out of them and then flying it into the sun with the calculations of a glorified iPad to guide you. Where did he even get the space to construct the dratted thing?! That whole scene was nearly worse than the poodles.
If you love the Doctor, you should still read it. It was pretty intense.
September 14, 2010
An Eighth Doctor adventure finds him encountering paradoxes and non-Gallifreyan timetravellers, etc etc etc. Engagingly written, with a twisting time-paradox finale that leaves me still wondering what, exactly, was going on. Partly, this is because the actual “rules” of time-travel without a TARDIS aren’t spelled out. The Doctor’s pretty much in character, but he gets beaten up an awful lot and doesn’t seem to remember that he’s a Timelord (I think this is part of the continuity of the Eighth Doctor’s adventures). At the end, he might possibly cross his own timeline, but since he doesn’t see himself, I’m not sure how all that works. In all, a fun read that keeps the spirit of the television show pretty well—and utterly, utterly disposable.
August 31, 2010
So, this is another one of those books about the eighth Doctor, the one from the movie that only ever had the book series. As usual its a bit out of sorts and hard to fit in the timelines... and has Fitz and Anji as companions.
Bad things, as usual, happen to Fitz. He seems to be this Doctor's plot whipping boy in all these stories.
Its a complex time travel paradox story, with a twisty Mobius Strip nature to it. Parts are, well, rather unbelievable, especially towards the end where it feels the author is doing the techno-babble chrono-logic dance way more complex than it needs to be to justify the end point.
Not the best of these books, but not the worst.
Bad things, as usual, happen to Fitz. He seems to be this Doctor's plot whipping boy in all these stories.
Its a complex time travel paradox story, with a twisty Mobius Strip nature to it. Parts are, well, rather unbelievable, especially towards the end where it feels the author is doing the techno-babble chrono-logic dance way more complex than it needs to be to justify the end point.
Not the best of these books, but not the worst.
August 24, 2014
http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2328825.html[return][return]I thought this was a rather good Eighth Doctor adventure, with Team Tardis getting caught up in a complex struggle between time travellers seeking the eponymous artefact, the Doctor, Fitz and Anji each being subjected to separate but entertainingly appropriate adventures. Apparently this was a point when the series was winding down, but there seems to have been a bit of an uptick in quality.
March 3, 2010
At this point the EDAs really took an upward curve, with regular excellent books, very well written. My favourite EDA era is about to commence.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews