Doctor Who: The Empire of Glass

Doctor Who: Missing Adventures #16

by Andy Lane

'There is a old Venetian saying,' the Doctor murmured. 'The council of ten send you to the torture chamber; the council of three send you to the grave.'

A strange invitation brings the Doctor, Steven and Vicki to Venice in the year of our Lord 1609: a place of politics and poison, science and superstition, telescopes and terror. Galileo Galilei is there demonstrating his new invention to the Doge, and William Shakespeare is working as a spy for King James I. And there are other visitors too: inhuman ones that lurk in the shadows, watching - and killing.

Vicki is abducted to a flying island. Steven is accused of murder and challenged to a duel. The Doctor, meanwhile, finds himself at the centre of what looks like an attempted invasion. But who are the invaders? And why can’t they proceed without his help?

Genres: Doctor Who, Science Fiction, Fiction, Ebooks, Fantasy, Time Travel

252 pages, Paperback

First published November 16, 1995

About the author

See also works published as Andrew Lane

During 2009, Macmillan Books announced that Lane would be writing a series of books focusing on the early life of Sherlock Holmes. The series was developed in conjunction with the estate of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Lane had already shown an extensive knowledge of the Holmes character and continuity in his Virgin Books novel All-Consuming Fire in which he created The Library of St. John the Beheaded as a meeting place for the worlds of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Who.

The first book in the 'Young Sherlock Holmes' series – Death Cloud – was published in the United Kingdom in June 2010 (February 2011 in the United States), with the second – Red Leech – published in the United Kingdom in November of that year (with a United States publication date under the title Rebel Fire of February 2012). The third book – Black Ice – was published in June 2011 in the UK while the fourth book – Fire Storm – was published originally in hardback in October 2011 with a paperback publication in March 2012. The fifth book, Snake Bite was published in hardback in October 2012 and the sixth book, Knife Edge was published in September 2013. Death Cloud was short-listed for both the 2010 North East Book Award. (coming second by three votes) and the 2011 Southampton's Favourite Book Award. Black Ice won the 2012 Centurion Book Award.

Early in 2012, Macmillan Children's Books announced that they would be publishing a new series by Lane, beginning in 2013. The Lost World books will follow disabled 15-year-old Calum Challenger, who is co-ordinating a search from his London bedroom to find creatures considered so rare that many do not believe they exist. Calum's intention is to use the creatures' DNA to help protect the species, but also to search for a cure for his own paralysis. His team comprises a computer hacker, a free runner, an ex-marine and a pathological liar.

Reviews

[April Mccaffrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This review contains spoilers!

"And now for your side of the bargain," Shakespeare whispered. "I could have counted myself happy these past seven years, were it not that I have had bad dreams. If you have a physic to restore to me that which was lost, I would fain die happy." Braxiatel balanced the pile of papers in the crook
of his left arm while his right hand reached into a pocket of his coat.
When it emerged it was holding a small metal device with a fleck of green glass in one end. He pointed it at Shakespeare's head and pressed a stud on its side.
"Now cracks a noble heart," he quoted softly. "Good night, sweet Prince, and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest." Shakespeare did not see him leave.

-


Venice is a city of opposites: mystery and misery; excess and penury; hard marble and soft water. No matter how often he visited, he was never sure whether he loved it or hated it.

-

I have read Empire of Glass so many times, and each time, I find this novel an utter joy to read. I reread it again recently because I'm going to meet the author Andy Lane at a convention and I am so excited to tell him how much Empire of Glass means to me. The writing was easy to read, and very engaging and the historical information was just enough to keep you invested in the setting and time period without getting boring. The balance of the science fiction elements worked perfectly. What made it more enjoyable this time round was actually engaging with Andy Lane on twitter about my love for this book, and learning lovely facts about it along the way.

This book is such utter joy to read. First, this takes place directly after the Three Doctors serial. "I've no right to scold you, hmm? If you must know, I've been... " He frowned. "Well, that's most extraordinary. I can't remember where I've been. The memory has gone. All I can remember is a dandy and a clown. A dandy and a clown."


It's been a while since I've watched the Vicki and Steven episodes, but I've always had a soft spot for them as the pair both have similar traumas. Both are being kept held prisoners in small spaces, but both have yet to gain enough of their friendship to share the burden of their traumas with each other.

I also loved Steven Taylor so much in this book. The fact he meets three of Earth's most famous historical famous figures and not knowing any of them is funny but also relatable. Because looking at paintings or hearing about a historical person is one thing, but getting to meet them is like expectations versus reality. In this book, he meets three most prominent figures: Galileo who becomes famous drinking buddies with, Christopher Marlowe becomes his boyfriend, and William Shakespeare who he gets to shake hands with.

I also adored the introduction of a very young Irving Braxiatel. I love his almost feminine features here, because I can also picture myself as sorts, and I relate to Irving Braxiatel in a lot of ways 00some scaringly close). I loved seeing this younger side of him; of Brax being overly confident and not yet having the experience he does as we see him in the Gallifrey/Bernice Series. I loved seeing how he was so sure things would go the way he wanted, but yet, even after careful planning without help of his own people, things still manage to go wrong. I also love that we still get to see that ruthless aspect in Brax, and how a lot of the human characters describe him as thin, hungry for knowledge, and lean.


"Irving Braxiatel stood in the center of the room and gazed around with some pleasure at the books that lined the walls, their spines facing inward as was the custom. The collection was complete. " Brax being more focused on his books than the actual hosting of the convention is an honest mood.

I loved the friendship he and Vicki had in this book. I also loved how observant Vicki is and notices the similarities between the two brothers. Both of them not quite directly admitting they are, but0 somehow always getting cut off!

Vicki was also great in this and is very adorable. Even though she is small, she is still as capable as any of these men in this book and not afraid to tell any of them off. She's so small and precious and I love her and Brax talking about father and daughters and Time-Lords looking out for humans. (kind of foreshadowing for Brax with his own daughter, Maggie).

I love Steven and Christopher Marlowe here. There is something so tragic about the two in this story. I was rooting for them both, especially after Christopher kept saving Steven's neck time and time again, but I felt sorry for Steven in the end after what happened to Marlowe.

I loved the symbolism of Cardinal Bellarmine standing before the aliens in the convention. I think that's a painting Brax probably has done somewhere.

I would write more, and at later date, but right now, my brain is too tired.

And having the finishing chapter of Brax collecting Shakespeare's works and giving him his memory back was a fitting end.

Everybody needs to go and read this book. I implore you.

10/10 would recommend.

[Danny Welch · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Virgin Missing Adventures is a range I do feel is often overlooked by the New Adventures and also the BBC books that came after them, despite the fact that four of the books have been adapted into Big Finish audios. But it's actually a really neat range with a ton of interesting stories to be found within. The Empire of Glass is one of its most popular so I wanted to give it a go.

After helping The Timelord's out with The Omega Situation, The Doctor, Steven, and Vicki are sent to Venice by a mysterious individual who needs the timelord's help. Meanwhile, in Venice, Irving Braxiatel is putting together a convention between warlike races to help preserve the universe from any devastating effects. But things are about to get very complicated, three famous historical figures have come into town and if things go wrong the very fabric of history might be at stake, let alone the entire universe.

Andy Lane's novel is one that is incredibly well-researched both in terms of historical facts and theories that people have come up with about William Shakespeare's life and how he might very well have been a spy for King James. It's a beautifully put-together novel with incredible world-building and terrific characterization. The story is well put together and it's fun reading a pseudo-historical for the 1st Doctor. I also love how we get to see The Doctor and Irving Braxiatel actually interact for a good portion of this novel, since this is something that we very rarely get, despite the connection the two have.

Overall: It's an incredible novel that's filled with action, tension, fan wank, and a beautiful sense of style to its prose. Despite it being a pseudo historical it still perfectly captures the vibe of this era and it's characters fantastically. 10/10

[Chaitra · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved, loved, loved this book so much! This was my first ever book of Doctor Who! It is so phenomenally beautiful and adventurous. Although I haven't seen the Classic Who and this book made it satisfiable. The characters of William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlow are my most favourite. It's gripping and awesome too.

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Empire of Glass , by Andy Lane, is another of the free ebooks of classic Doctor Who novels available for downloading on the Doctor Who site. This one's First Doctor, with Steven and Vicki as his Companions, and turned out to be a lighter read than I was expecting for a First Doctor story--perhaps because of having my expectations set by The Eleventh Tiger. Yet, it stands up pretty well overall, and upholds what I'm coming to expect as a common trait of a Doctor Who novel: throwing you several seemingly disparate plot elements in one big initial burst, and then spending the rest of the novel tying it all together.

This one's got a whole bunch of seemingly very disparate elements, as well as a plethora of historical personages: the mystery of the vanishing Roanoke colonists in the New World, William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, and the political situation going on in 16th-century Venice. The presence of Shakespeare in particular was kind of amusing and weird, given that ol' Will shows up in a Tenth Doctor episode--and this novel references an encounter he had with the Fourth Doctor as well. It does make me begin to wonder how many times the Doctor has shown up to hassle any given historical personage, and when any of them start to keep track. ;)

Companion-wise, I think I like Ian and Barbara and Susan better for First Doctor stories so far; Vicki still remains mostly a non-entity to me, and at least in the first part of this book, so does Stephen. He gets a little more interesting as he develops a strong bond with Christopher Marlowe towards the end, as well as a change in his relationship with the Doctor... but I suspect I'd need to see more of his episodes before I'd really have a feel for him. (I did, however, grin as Marlowe shamelessly hit on Steven right and left. Hee.) As for the Doctor himself, he's pretty typically portrayed in this story. But there's one interesting bit where he opens up to Vicki a bit about missing Susan, which really does rather resonate with that Seventh Doctor episode I'd read earlier this year, when he was still missing Susan.

I didn't particularly get much out of the farcical subplot involving Cardinal Bellarmine (yet another historical personage in the story, apparently) being mistaken for the Doctor. But I did like the major other mover and shaker in the plot being another Time Lord, a character the author borrowed from another Doctor Who writer; it was neat to see a plot involving another Time Lord who wasn't actually a villain. All in all, three stars.

[Ken · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Doctor, Steven, and Vicki arrive in Venice during 1609, where they meet a host of major historical figures including Galilei and Shakespeare.

An enjoyable ‘Missing Adventure’ set between The Time Meddler and ‘Galaxy 4’ but also ‘The Three Doctors’ from The First Doctor’s point of view.

It’s a typical historical romp as an alien influence is trying to change history.

[Alex Sarll]

For this year's anniversary*, I grabbed the earliest (in the Doctor's timeline) unread book I had, and then found out it fitted more neatly than I could have imagined, following directly from two of the TV stories that have been given new framing sequences (though I wish they had in-character commentaries too) for Tales Of The TARDIS. On the back it says that it comes after The Time Meddler, which it does, sharing some of that story's format too, by having one of the Doctor's people causing trouble in a historical setting. And having just rewatched that story brings home how well Lane has captured the leads, tying the companions' characters (Steven's exasperated impatience, Vicki's tendency to pick up much more than she lets on) to their backgrounds in a way the revived show would have hammered into the ground but which in the sixties was very much subtext. And the Doctor too, of course: "Sometimes, just sometimes, it occurred to [Steven] that the Doctor possessed a laser-sharp intelligence that he chose to hide in vague mutterings and abrupt changes in mood and conversation, but most of the time he just thought that the Doctor was a senile old fool." Crazy to think that Hartnell was only five years older for Time Meddler than Tennant is now.

But part of the First Doctor's forgetfulness here isn't his fault, because within the opening pages he's snatched away for The Three Doctors, and coming back without his memories of what's happened is a big part of the plot's motor. Although I say that as if there's just the one, when really Empire Of Glass is verging on overstuffed. The setting is 17th century Venice, with Galileo getting into trouble while he tries to interest the Doge in his new spyglass, but while Lane demonstrates a firm grasp of the Serene Republic's baroque politics and easy violence, he also has assorted extraterrestrials in the mix (my favourite, obviously, was the Ice Lord called Ssarl). On top of which there's that classic device where the Doctor has landed somewhere he has a double; Lane sees a further, ingenious opportunity to fold this around, and give it perhaps the funniest execution I've seen. But where things threaten to go a little too far is adding Shakespeare to the mix as well, a plotline which initially feels like it could easily have been dropped altogether, though by the finale it comes to dominate. Even once the question of relevance is addressed, though, there's a sense that Lane has a less sure hand on his material here, possibly because he admits in the acknowledgements to drawing on a book with the concerning title of The Shakespeare Conspiracy. Not, thank goodness, that he buys into any of the damnable authorship heresies, but I'm not sure Will as Jacobean zealot engaged in a shadow war with the sinister Ralegh is much more plausible, and while Lane admits to fudging the date of the Scottish play's first performance by shifting it to 1609, that doesn't explain how John Dee could have been present at Hampton Court for it when he was very much out of royal favour, and quite possibly dead. It's a shame, especially when the only false note in the Venetian stuff is that I'm not sure wine would have been so uniformly coming in bottles with corks quite yet.

Still and all, it's not like The Time Meddler was an exemplar of historical fidelity either (horned helmets!). And if nothing else Empire Of Glass is enormous fun, understanding the appeal of the era of the show within which it places itself, while also taking full advantage of the liberty afforded by Who's early nineties golden age. There are elements here I'm not sure the show could afford to realise on screen even now, like the flying island full of various aliens, and others it wouldn't dare to - I'm sure there must have been Doctor Who books of this vintage that didn't include sex, gore and hangovers, but if so, this wasn't one of them. Indeed, part of me wondered if Lane wasn't engaged in a little gentle self-mockery by [SPOILER] having cyborg Marlowe constantly hitting on Steven, while a giant flying crab declares its love for Vicki. Ah well, at least nobody contracts a sentient STD.

*I do find it slightly pathetic the way the Yanks keep trying to steal Who's thunder on this holiest of days, acting out by shooting the President or eating their Christmas dinner early. We've even got international broadcast sorted these days, chaps; there's really no need for this behaviour, you can watch it soon enough.

[Hidekisohma · Rating 3 out of 5]

Welp, another foray into world of the first doctor. People can't seem to normally write for this doctor, but by god i'm going to read all of them. and this is my 7th one. Was this author able to write a good story for him? Well I gave it a 3. What do you think?

This story takes the 1st doc, Steven, and Vicki to 1600's Venice where people are getting killed randomly as per usual and there's a floating island. Believe me it sounds far more interesting than it actually is.

As per usual novel fashion, the three of them get split up. They try split the narrative between the three different stories, and i honestly see what they were trying to do, but really, it gets too muddled as they're not only switching between these 3, but also Gallileo, Shakespeare, and Irving Braxiatel (another time lord who's trying to do good). Apparently Irving is a reoccurring character in the Doctor who universe but this is the first time i've come across him myself.

The issue i have with this book is that the general IDEA is good. have a floating city in ancient Venice that has a bunch of aliens having a peace talk. it's a cool idea. but the execution just wasn't very good. This is also one of those books where they kinda stop in the middle to talk about being atheist for a few pages and it just really grinds the book to a halt. Like, if you have those views fine, but it doesn't belong stopping the plot of my floating city crab monster people book.

There's an issue with this book that i want to discuss but i will have to have a bit of a spoiler so

*Spoiler Warning*
Early in the book we see a random lady from the lost Roanoke colony randomly show up back in Europe. Her leg gets crushed but she gets up and runs away. we find out this is because those in roanoake were kidnapped by aliens and implanted with stuff including the ability to regenerate from fatal injuries. We learn that one of the characters Christopher Marlowe was at Roanoake but then ran away. So, it leads to believe that when Marlowe gets fatally wounded later, that magical healing is going to save him. But it doesn't. They literally never bring up the magical healing that they spent a chapter setting up with him. I'm like "then...then why'd you INVENT a magical healing system, tell us that he was in the place where the people GOT the magical healing system, but then just abandoned that and he dies? I was SO confused with this. it's like Andy forgot what he wrote in the first two chapters by the end. It was a REALLY weird forgotten plot element that turned into a red herring and felt like Chekhov's gun just sat there for the whole play and did nothing.
*End Spoiler Warning*

The doctor, by far and large was in character. He was in a fair amount, although i do wish he had been in more. Vicki was fine, although of course she got kidnapped because.....you know it's a female companion in doctor who, and Steven was a bit grumpy, but he kind of was in this early part of the series so that's pretty accurate.

This book already had Galileo so i don't know why all of a sudden it felt like it had to throw Shakespeare at us too. Seemed a tad overkill if you ask me.

This book definitely overstayed its welcome as i found myself starting to zone out by about page 160. they tried to squeeze in WAY too much. But it wasn't too much in a fun way like Paul Magrs, it was more just confusing too much.

When i first picked up this book, i thought it started all right and i really wanted to give it like a 4. then it became a 3.5, and now finally it's a solid 3. I just lost interest after a while.

Still searching for that perfect 1st doctor book, but i gotta say, in terms of that, the future isn't looking the brightest.

So, that said, it's an even 3 out of 5.

[Brayden Raymond · Rating 4 out of 5]

My friend was spot on with a 4 star rating. This was a great and adventurous tale, I owe much of that to the competent writing of Andy Lane, though I much prefer him writing about the first Doctor as opposed to the 7th. The highlight of this novel is Stevens arc and his relationship with Marlowe by far. I wish it could have been more for the two of them.

[Allen]

I have to call the reading short because of the physical copy of the book's binding starting to fall apart and I don't want to have be worst as it already is, but as far I have gotten into this, I was enjoying reading this book, does feel like First Doctor era story

[Jake · Rating 1 out of 5]

Its not like I'm expecting some literary masterpiece when I sit down to read a Doctor Who novel but I may just have to face the fact that, well... these things are just pretty bad. Empire of Glass has a lot of problems. A lot. These problems are really sort of small, but they add up. As far as plot, the book is too full of twists, with at least one of them being figured out by the Doctor even though he has no evidence or leads to go on. It just bursts out of his mouth fully formed almost in non sequitur fashion.

Being an historical adventure, there are real figures that pop up. And pop up some more. And then more. By the end, Lane is just name dropping for the hell of it, even though it adds nothing. Speaking of historical figures, the Doctor and Vicki run into James I and IV with the king not recognising them at all, despite having already met them in The Plotters, wherein he tries to get with Vicki the entire time. Screw continuity I guess. The best parts are the small asides by the Doctor's companions. In these they reminisce about their lives before they appeared in the show, which gives a nice bit of depth and makes them feel a bit more real. Unfortunatly these are short and few in number. Overall, this one can just be skipped unless you really want to meet Braxiatel, who I believe shows up in some of the other media.

[Ffion Horrell · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Empire of Glass is a first doctor novel with Steven and Vicki set in Venice in 1609. I found this book to be a fairly easy read, with a lot of plot threads. However, a lot of plot threads are underdeveloped (such as the Greld's plot) or forgotten about until need the end (such as the actual Cardinal). I also found quite a few of the twists to be either very predictable or completely out of the blue with little explanation or reason given after.

The absolute saving grace of the novel is how the characters are written. There are some lovely character moments, specifically between Vicki and the Doctor. For the most part the other characters are written well too, particularly Galileo, Braxiatel, and Marlowe. There are also some nice references to other doctor who characters, such as previous companions (Susan, Ian and Barbara), other incarnations of the Doctors, and other monsters such as the Daleks, Ogrons and Sontarans.

I did enjoy the book while reading it; however, there are quite a few plot holes/threads which I was still thinking about after finishing the book that annoyed me.

[Elvis Walters · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was one of the better First Doctor novels that I have read so far. I would definitely recommend re-watching the 1972 TV serial, The Three Doctors (or at least the parts of it with the First Doctor in it) to get a sense of where the Doctor was before the events of the novel. A very quick read, I was immersed in the world of 1600s Venice and didn't want to put it down. I actually found myself laughing out loud in the scenes where the Venetian Cardinal Bellarmine was presiding over the aliens and quoting scripture - which fit perfectly not only with the aliens' description but with their weapons of war as well. There were a lot of concepts and characters in this book but somehow Andy Lane managed to fit them all together in a sometimes-witty, sometimes-serious, and always-interesting book.

[Noel Thingvall · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful screwball farce of various plots colliding to a grand climactic escalation. One can absolutely debate the historical accuracy of how Shakespeare, Marlowe, and Galileo are used, but within the confines of this story, they're great characters with inventive arcs. This is my introduction to popular tie-in character Braxiatel, and it does a great job of establishing him without explaining all his facets, so I'm very much looking forward to crossing paths with him again. The main cast is well explored, with Steven still in his initial skeptic mode only to be shoved into various plots he has to adjust to, and Vicki's youth making her the most clever and aware of the team. There's murders, and aliens, and mistaken identities, and a big convention. It's a fun read all around.

[Saoki · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one is a treat. A good story which manages to be outside the boundaries of what was possible in the TV serials without losing sight of the essence of the 1st Doctor stories. It's historical and the author pulls that Tim Powers thing with writing historical characters in such a way that you just accept the strangest things because of course Galileo would do that. It's beautiful. Okay, I do wonder how the hell anyone manages to quaff a bottle of wine, but it's generally just fun.
And there is just so much to love in this novel. The plot isn't an invasion! Marlowe and Steven! The resolution is non-violent! Braxiatel! The poor captain of the guard!
Yeah, I like this book.

[Dan Hodges · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn't sure while reading it, but it comes together quite nicely in the end. There's an awful lot going on; Galellio, Shakespeare, Marlowe, Braxiatel, an intergalactic peace conference organised above early-17th century Venice, the Doctor's return following The Three Doctors, Steven being a new companion. It's perhaps weighed down by its sheer volume of ideas and characters, but it's an undeniably fun and imaginative story that's as much nonsense as it is riotous fun. As messy as it can get, at times, I love Doctor Who books that make the most of their format to explore ideas far too mad and ambitious to ever be made for TV.

[T. Blake · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set between The Time Meddler and Galaxy 4. It's also right after the Doctor is returned to his proper time line after The Three Doctors.


I have the digital copy from Barnes and Noble / Nook. If you're considering getting it via BN, just be warned that it is in need of an update in the editing department. It can get a bit disruptive because it seems they just copy and pasted the text from another source. It can potentially feel like reading a long run-on sentence since they didn't properly separate chapters and such.

[Andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite podcasts was reviewing this book, so I decided to read along. I ended up really liking it. I am a tad unfamiliar with the TARDIS team of the 1st Doctor, Steven, and Vicki, but I felt the author did a good job of fleshing them out, so they felt like real people. The setting of 1600's Venice was well done. I thought the inclusion of real historical people was well done. The plot was a tad convoluted, but overall entertaining.

[City Mist · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Hartnell historical about Galileo and a Pertwee space opera about nuclear disarmament fail to merge into a cohesive whole in this competent page turner. Of the two stories, the Galileo historical is the more interesting.

[Arthur B · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable adventure with a mixture of swashbuckling, funny moments, and imaginative weirdness, all in an alien-haunted Venice. Full review: https://fakegeekboy.wordpress.com/202...

[Marcy Webb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Imagine the Big Finish audio adaptation starring Peter Purves, Maureen O’Brien, Miles Richardson, Dean Lennox Kelly, John Woodvine and Dan Starkey. Someone PLEASE make it happen

[Gary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great first Doctor novel

[Craig · Rating 2 out of 5]

A good job capturing the characters of the Doctor, Vicki, and Steven. I found the story to be a little lengthy and dry.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

October 2021
Maybe this is because it took me so long to read, but I'm not sure I have many strong feelings on this. It was decently entertaining, but I wasn't particularly feeling involved in any of the plot threads. Steven's stuff with Marlowe was nice, although I think I'd've liked it to be a bit more explicit. I wasn't blown away by the First Doctor characterisation, either - there's some bits that felt totally him, but equally a lot didn't really make me picture that version of the character specifically.

July 2025
3.5/5

I think this just lacks a certain something for me. I'm usually a big Andy Lane fan (his three VNAs are all highlights of the range IMO) but while there's plenty of individual stuff I like here I'm never quite as involved in it as a plot as his other books. At its best when it's focusing on a throughline of...letting go, I suppose? Or undergoing change, at least. Vicki is one of the great underappreciated Doctor Who companions and I think she's underutilised here!

[Nicholas Whyte]

http://nhw.livejournal.com/705222.html[return][return]This is one of the Virgin Missing Adventures of Doctor Who which is downloadable from the BBC website. Set in Venice and London in 1609, it gives the author a chance to bring together Galileo, Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe (not dead after all, it turns out) and the First Doctor, Steven and Vicki. The BBC presentation makes it easy to cut between chapters of the book and the author's notes, which makes reading the book rather like watching a DVD for the first time with the production team's commentary turned on. It's rather good fun, with decent treatment of Steven and several rather satisfying nods to continuity, though I don't think we find out exactly what happens to Cardinal Bellarmine.

[Kris · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book should not work as well as it does. Very little actually happens it, mainly it is some scheming at an arms conference, a bit of duelling and a bunch of mistaken identities. Large parts of the text are either infodumps or ruminations from the characters. The story was intended for the third Doctor and it shows. The 1st Doctor isn't really in the period he should be for his character (rather he resembles a passable fan fiction attempt at him) and there are far too many minor characters for the limited plot that happens.

It really succeeds for two reasons, firstly Andy Lane's skill at writing means that it never drags, even when reading an infodump from a crab that talks like Yoda. Secondly, the internal thoughts of Steven and Vicki help to nicely round out their characters and make it a nice addition. Not a great work but enjoyable enough.

[Jacqueline · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Doctor, Steven, and Vicki land the TARDIS in 17th century Venice, The Empire of Glass and meet Shakespeare (currently a spy for King James the First of England and Sixth of Scotland), William Marlowe who isn't quite as dead as Shakespeare thought he was, Galileo, and another Time Lord from Gallifrey who is hosting intergalactic arms limitation talks on a hidden island in Venice.
This story is short, barely over 200 pages in the e-book version, and a through romp. There are plenty of fights in bars, kidnappings, chases, mistaken identity (a cardinal looks very like the Doctor, apparently, so the two keep getting mistaken for each other by everyone), misunderstandings, and even a duel. It's a fun and quick read. Even the opening chapter describing the infamous Lost Colony is successfully tied in by the end.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book because it was just fun.

[Frank Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this First Doctor adventure. It's a bit bolder in scope than the original episodes while still maintaining the essence of those classic shows. A trip into Earth's history with alien forces pursuing nefarious activities is a familiar theme but this story excels with a variety of interesting aliens, something more easily achieved in literature and especially many years after those early episodes.

The characters were pretty spot on. I was especially impressed by the author's treatment of Vicki, who susses out a lot of what's going on without any assistance. The historical characters in this are also great, there's a fair bit of wit and humour which keeps the dialogue alive.

The ending is a bit of a fix-all reset but it's still interesting and the very last moment should surprise most of us.

[Colin Hoad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Whilst it is true that TV tie-ins can often be a poor man's novel, the same cannot be said for a number of Virgin's New/Missing Adventure Doctor Who stories. This innovative series of books allowed the character of the Doctor to endure during the TV series' prolonged absence from our screens. "Empire of Glass" is a wonderful book with a very engaging story line that skilfully weaves elements of Shakespeare, Marlowe and Renaissance Venice to create a great adventure with plenty of action and good humour. Lane also explores the first Doctor's incarnation in a way that takes him beyond the "crusty grandfather" figure of the television show, making him a far richer, more complex character as a result.

[Abby · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was an interesting book combining a list of some of my favorite historical characters. I enjoyed reading the author's notes after the end of book somewhat better I think. At times the book seems to drag a bit as there is a lot of historical content which does not lend itself well to further the plot and the author does admit that some of it was unnecessary. I do not know a lot about the 1st doctor, but from what little I have seen of some of the old episodes, his portrayal in this book is spot on. The aliens tended to remind me of characters out of Star Wars both in some of the description and in speech and sometimes that made it a little hard to follow.The beginning of the book seemed disjointed, but it was brought together and then the book flowed much more smoothly at the end.

[David Layton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have not read all the Missing Adventure books, but of the ones I have read, this is the best. Steven is among my favorite Who companions. He was rarely written well in the series, though the possibilities for him were always there. Lane handles Steven especially well, highlighting his qualities - broad mindedness, loyalty, bravery. More so than most Who companions, Steven could take care of himself and stand up to the Doctor's powerful personality. Vicki gets equally good treatment. She was often too "wet," to use an English expression, in the series. Lane characterizes her as sensitive and intelligent. The main weakness of the novel is an overly complex plot, not all of which gets effectively concluded by the end of the book. Read it for the characters.