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Eighth Doctor Adventures #6
Doctor Who: Alien Bodies
On an island in the East Indies, in a lost city buried deep in the heart of the rainforest, agents of the most formidable powers in the galaxy are gathering. They have been invited there to bid for what could turn out to be the deadliest weapon ever created.
When the Doctor and Sam arrive in the city, the Time Lord soon realises they've walked into the middle of the strangest auction in history - and what's on sale to the highest bidder is something more horrifying than even the Doctor could have imagined, something that could change his life forever.
And just when it seems things can't get any worse, the Doctor finds out who else is on the guest list...
When the Doctor and Sam arrive in the city, the Time Lord soon realises they've walked into the middle of the strangest auction in history - and what's on sale to the highest bidder is something more horrifying than even the Doctor could have imagined, something that could change his life forever.
And just when it seems things can't get any worse, the Doctor finds out who else is on the guest list...
313 pages, Paperback
First published November 24, 1998
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October 31, 2011A startling reminder that, before he was a ranting man on the internet, Lawrence Miles wrote startlingly good Doctor Who. You can see why a man might be bitter, though, when he came up (in the space of this one book) with the Time War, a human female TARDIS, and a story in which the Doctor's corpse is the starting point...
But then, some of the stuff he doesn't like is here too. For all that he complains about Moffat's overuse of the Doctor's reputation as a weapon in itself, or the tendency to upgrade the Doctor into an all-round superhero, this is the story of the great powers of the galaxy (and some less celebrated parties trying to get on to that level) gathering to bid on a relic of great and unspecified powers. That relic being...the corpse of a future Doctor, whose adventures in the meantime have left his biodata even more valuable than it already was. Who, even in death, can mess with events. And so forth.
In other words: this is excellent. So's the new series. They're clearly the same Doctor Who, whatever anyone might say to the contrary. Why can't people just get along?
But then, some of the stuff he doesn't like is here too. For all that he complains about Moffat's overuse of the Doctor's reputation as a weapon in itself, or the tendency to upgrade the Doctor into an all-round superhero, this is the story of the great powers of the galaxy (and some less celebrated parties trying to get on to that level) gathering to bid on a relic of great and unspecified powers. That relic being...the corpse of a future Doctor, whose adventures in the meantime have left his biodata even more valuable than it already was. Who, even in death, can mess with events. And so forth.
In other words: this is excellent. So's the new series. They're clearly the same Doctor Who, whatever anyone might say to the contrary. Why can't people just get along?
March 12, 2015
Looking back at that gap between televised Doctor Who that listed between December 1989 and March 2005, it is sometimes hard for me to understand how it could be called the “Wilderness Years.” There was one book after another virtually every month, Big Finish audios coming out monthly from 2000, a new issue of Doctor Who Magazine coming out every month and so forth. Then again, I came into Doctor Who in 2007 when the New Series had established itself and the Wilderness Years were well and truly over. That time period though produced some extraordinary and influential tales including this 1997 novel from Lawrence Miles, a book I've spent years trying to track down at an affordable price and one that I've finally managed to read at last.
Those readers familiar with the New Series, especially its most recent seasons under Steven Moffat, will likely find themselves experiencing a bit of deja vu. There's the idea of a war in the Time Lords future, the Doctor encountering his own future dead body, a companion whose revealed to have multi-time lines (or sets of bio-data as its referenced to here) and a sequence early in the novel where someone jumps into the TARDIS as it sits parked on the side of the building to name just a few examples. Anyone even vaguely familiar with the New Series will see the influences on The Last Great Time War that has dominated much of its back-story as well as the influences on several Moffat stories including Impossible Astronaut/Day Of The Moon and Name Of The Doctor especially. There's more to it than that though.
Alien Bodies also features pre-echoes of the New Series in style as well. There's the way for example that Miles reinvents one of the most maligned monsters of the old series echoes some of the more successful reintroductions of recent years. Also, while Miles is writing for the eighth Doctor and certainly captures Paul McGann's Doctor, his dialogue especially echoes that of Matt Smith's Doctor. Indeed once one moves past the prologue, it feels like a New Series two-parter expanded upon to fit the novel's page count with the last scene of the novel easily being a final scene with some voiceover and a Murray Gold score on top of. In the end then I can't help but feel that, for all Miles rails on his blog against the New Series, in this one novel he invented so much of it in the space of 313 pages
Moving on from its influences on the New Series, Alien Bodies is just a damn good book. In a way it's interesting to compare Alien Bodies with its immediate predecessor in the EDAs, John Peel's ill-regarded War Of The Daleks. Both books make strong use of the show's then 35 year continuity with references from it sprinkled throughout, interludes between large chunks of the narrative and large cast of characters. Miles manages to do all of that and he does it more successfully than Peel. Why? Because unlike Peel he doesn't become a slave to continuity and is also more than capable of poking fun at the same time that he's rehabilitating a much maligned monster. His interludes are connected to the main story, helping to fill in chunks of what got the characters to where they are at the novel's beginning rather than be inconsequential cutaways just to bring in a random piece of continuity. While I would argue that Peel did well with his characters in War of The Daleks, the ones that Miles presents feel more tangible, more real (possibly because they're not all Thal soldiers or Daleks).
It also helps that Miles has a wonderful writing style. His prose flows rather nicely and he handles the ever shifting tone of the narrative deftly as he goes from serious revelations (those “cliffhanger moments” of the classic series) to Douglas Adams style moments of whimsy to explosions and character moments without the narrative ever getting lost. This is also the book that introduced Faction Paradox and the aforementioned war in the Time Lords future against “the Enemy” that would come to dominate much of the range for years to come. It's easy to see this book as being to the EDAs what I think Paul Cornell's Timewyrm: Revelation was for the New Adventures: where they really began.
For all that, and for so much more, Alien Bodies might be the best Doctor Who book you've never read. Now I'm sure the majority of you reading this review have read it but for fans such as myself, who came in after the party that was the Wilderness Years had given way to the New Series, it's a book that we might never get the chance to read. It's certainly the kind of book that we're unlikely to ever see Doctor Who produce again. So if you can find it and can afford it once you have, get it.
Those readers familiar with the New Series, especially its most recent seasons under Steven Moffat, will likely find themselves experiencing a bit of deja vu. There's the idea of a war in the Time Lords future, the Doctor encountering his own future dead body, a companion whose revealed to have multi-time lines (or sets of bio-data as its referenced to here) and a sequence early in the novel where someone jumps into the TARDIS as it sits parked on the side of the building to name just a few examples. Anyone even vaguely familiar with the New Series will see the influences on The Last Great Time War that has dominated much of its back-story as well as the influences on several Moffat stories including Impossible Astronaut/Day Of The Moon and Name Of The Doctor especially. There's more to it than that though.
Alien Bodies also features pre-echoes of the New Series in style as well. There's the way for example that Miles reinvents one of the most maligned monsters of the old series echoes some of the more successful reintroductions of recent years. Also, while Miles is writing for the eighth Doctor and certainly captures Paul McGann's Doctor, his dialogue especially echoes that of Matt Smith's Doctor. Indeed once one moves past the prologue, it feels like a New Series two-parter expanded upon to fit the novel's page count with the last scene of the novel easily being a final scene with some voiceover and a Murray Gold score on top of. In the end then I can't help but feel that, for all Miles rails on his blog against the New Series, in this one novel he invented so much of it in the space of 313 pages
Moving on from its influences on the New Series, Alien Bodies is just a damn good book. In a way it's interesting to compare Alien Bodies with its immediate predecessor in the EDAs, John Peel's ill-regarded War Of The Daleks. Both books make strong use of the show's then 35 year continuity with references from it sprinkled throughout, interludes between large chunks of the narrative and large cast of characters. Miles manages to do all of that and he does it more successfully than Peel. Why? Because unlike Peel he doesn't become a slave to continuity and is also more than capable of poking fun at the same time that he's rehabilitating a much maligned monster. His interludes are connected to the main story, helping to fill in chunks of what got the characters to where they are at the novel's beginning rather than be inconsequential cutaways just to bring in a random piece of continuity. While I would argue that Peel did well with his characters in War of The Daleks, the ones that Miles presents feel more tangible, more real (possibly because they're not all Thal soldiers or Daleks).
It also helps that Miles has a wonderful writing style. His prose flows rather nicely and he handles the ever shifting tone of the narrative deftly as he goes from serious revelations (those “cliffhanger moments” of the classic series) to Douglas Adams style moments of whimsy to explosions and character moments without the narrative ever getting lost. This is also the book that introduced Faction Paradox and the aforementioned war in the Time Lords future against “the Enemy” that would come to dominate much of the range for years to come. It's easy to see this book as being to the EDAs what I think Paul Cornell's Timewyrm: Revelation was for the New Adventures: where they really began.
For all that, and for so much more, Alien Bodies might be the best Doctor Who book you've never read. Now I'm sure the majority of you reading this review have read it but for fans such as myself, who came in after the party that was the Wilderness Years had given way to the New Series, it's a book that we might never get the chance to read. It's certainly the kind of book that we're unlikely to ever see Doctor Who produce again. So if you can find it and can afford it once you have, get it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 15, 2013
If I could give a book zero stars, this one wouldn't even get one. {Actually, having read comments by the author, I'd love to give this book *negative* stars. Arrogant douche. But I'll try to confine this review to the book itself.}
Okay, so this book introduces giant new plot twists to the Eighth Doctor Adventures, in the form of a Time War set somewhere in Gallifrey's future from the Doctor's perspective. This is an incredibly ambitious idea, and in the hands of a good author, I am sure the story would be highly entertaining. Lawrence Miles is not that author. The actual result was a preposterous train wreck. I truly never thought I would read a worse story than The Icewind Dale trilogy [something I regret even admitting to have read, even if I was sixteen or seventeen at the time], but this one takes the cake. I truly have never read a worse novel than this, and I hope never to read one worse still.
First of all, forget the story. The *format* of the book was awful. I have to imagine that this idiot is a fan of the Silmarillion, the way he keeps skipping to idiotic character backstories *literally every other chapter*. He does this to create false cliffhangers and as a time travel gimmick -- each subsequent backstory is a piece of the Relic's story, only told in reverse. The problem is, they're stories about characters that we just don't goddamn care about. He literally spends an entire chapter in the current story telling us who worthless and laughable the Krotons are -- and seriously, of all the monsters-of-the-week he could resurrect from the original series, he picked KROTONS?! -- just before launching into the Kroton backstory chapter, wherein he goes into significant depth about the biology and society of the Kroton race. I nearly threw the book across the room at this point. So freaking terrible. I can't begin to comprehend this. {Incidentally, this is what I referred to in my review of War of the Daleks. People complained about the interludes in that book, but there were *three times* as many interludes in this book. At least that book only threw one in in-between major sections of the book, serving to split the story up in a fashion not-unlike the original series' serials. This book's interludes being every other chapter just served to jumble the story more, weakening an already weak tale. But I digress.}
As for the story... again, in better hands, such a concept could have been intriguing. The Doctor shows up at an auction for "the Relic", a weapon desired by several opposing factions in the aforementioned future Time War. The mystery is kind of silly, since it becomes quickly apparent what that Relic is, long before Miles' intended reveal. The mystery of the various factions is only slightly more interesting, but quickly becomes absurd: Miles decided to delete the Celestial Intervention Agency from reality, and rename them "Celestis" in their outside-of-reality-but-not-really new home. I'm sorry, if you shorten "Celestial" to "Celestis", then that i still has the sound of a long E in my head... which makes their name utterly ridiculous sounding.
Also, how far are we supposed to swallow the splintering of Gallifreyan culture. There's the original Gallifrey, the Celestis, Faction Paradox [which is both silly and also originally Gallifreyan] and now "the Enemy", an unnamed future antagonist in this future War of Miles'. We meet a member of the Enemy in the Celestis' home at the end of the story... and he's described as wearing Gallifreyan garb. So basically every faction making serious bids on the Relic [not counting, you know, the Krotons and the still-not-time-aware humans] are all Gallifreyan, and every last one of them at odds with each other. The fact that the Celestis want to pretend to neutrality and the fact that Faction Paradox adopts members of all races does nothing to change that fact.
In short, Lawrence Miles set out to write the most ambitious book in the history of Doctor Who... and failed miserably. {And then wondered why no other authors wanted to use his plot elements. *sighs* The sole light in this darkness is that somebody eventually did, and in doing so wiped this future War nonsense out of existence. Causing Lawrence Miles to pout, take his toys and go home. Sadly I have to suffer through more Miles before I get to that glorious point, but I will revel when I get to that story.}
Okay, so this book introduces giant new plot twists to the Eighth Doctor Adventures, in the form of a Time War set somewhere in Gallifrey's future from the Doctor's perspective. This is an incredibly ambitious idea, and in the hands of a good author, I am sure the story would be highly entertaining. Lawrence Miles is not that author. The actual result was a preposterous train wreck. I truly never thought I would read a worse story than The Icewind Dale trilogy [something I regret even admitting to have read, even if I was sixteen or seventeen at the time], but this one takes the cake. I truly have never read a worse novel than this, and I hope never to read one worse still.
First of all, forget the story. The *format* of the book was awful. I have to imagine that this idiot is a fan of the Silmarillion, the way he keeps skipping to idiotic character backstories *literally every other chapter*. He does this to create false cliffhangers and as a time travel gimmick -- each subsequent backstory is a piece of the Relic's story, only told in reverse. The problem is, they're stories about characters that we just don't goddamn care about. He literally spends an entire chapter in the current story telling us who worthless and laughable the Krotons are -- and seriously, of all the monsters-of-the-week he could resurrect from the original series, he picked KROTONS?! -- just before launching into the Kroton backstory chapter, wherein he goes into significant depth about the biology and society of the Kroton race. I nearly threw the book across the room at this point. So freaking terrible. I can't begin to comprehend this. {Incidentally, this is what I referred to in my review of War of the Daleks. People complained about the interludes in that book, but there were *three times* as many interludes in this book. At least that book only threw one in in-between major sections of the book, serving to split the story up in a fashion not-unlike the original series' serials. This book's interludes being every other chapter just served to jumble the story more, weakening an already weak tale. But I digress.}
As for the story... again, in better hands, such a concept could have been intriguing. The Doctor shows up at an auction for "the Relic", a weapon desired by several opposing factions in the aforementioned future Time War. The mystery is kind of silly, since it becomes quickly apparent what that Relic is, long before Miles' intended reveal. The mystery of the various factions is only slightly more interesting, but quickly becomes absurd: Miles decided to delete the Celestial Intervention Agency from reality, and rename them "Celestis" in their outside-of-reality-but-not-really new home. I'm sorry, if you shorten "Celestial" to "Celestis", then that i still has the sound of a long E in my head... which makes their name utterly ridiculous sounding.
Also, how far are we supposed to swallow the splintering of Gallifreyan culture. There's the original Gallifrey, the Celestis, Faction Paradox [which is both silly and also originally Gallifreyan] and now "the Enemy", an unnamed future antagonist in this future War of Miles'. We meet a member of the Enemy in the Celestis' home at the end of the story... and he's described as wearing Gallifreyan garb. So basically every faction making serious bids on the Relic [not counting, you know, the Krotons and the still-not-time-aware humans] are all Gallifreyan, and every last one of them at odds with each other. The fact that the Celestis want to pretend to neutrality and the fact that Faction Paradox adopts members of all races does nothing to change that fact.
In short, Lawrence Miles set out to write the most ambitious book in the history of Doctor Who... and failed miserably. {And then wondered why no other authors wanted to use his plot elements. *sighs* The sole light in this darkness is that somebody eventually did, and in doing so wiped this future War nonsense out of existence. Causing Lawrence Miles to pout, take his toys and go home. Sadly I have to suffer through more Miles before I get to that glorious point, but I will revel when I get to that story.}
January 30, 2014
I’ll be honest, I used to sneer at spin-off books of TV shows/films. Whether they be Doctor Who or Stark Trek or Star Wars (or ‘The Dukes of Hazzard’ or ‘The A Team’), I’ve always looked at the spin-off books as hack work. There for some author to churn out quickly and make a quick buck, while the franchise it's linked to was still popular. I am realising though, as I get older and wiser, there are writers who are truly inspired to do great work in the fictional universes they inherit. Writers who aren’t just content with churning something out, but writing excellent books that just happen to be based in pre-existing universes. In science fiction that’s doubly true, as in novels there is no limit to special effects or locations: any panorama is open, any place is time or space is possible. That’s why I’ve finally decided to explore the ‘Doctor Who’ novels (and maybe even ‘Star Trek’ and ‘Star Wars’ somewhere down the line). It’s a chance for further adventures, a chance of brand new worlds. I am opening my mind, people. Although, if I’m honest, I’ll probably still steer clear of any ‘Dukes of Hazzard’ or ‘A-Team’ spin-off novels I find.
It’s easy to see why Lawrence Miles’s ‘Alien Bodies’ is so well regarded in Doctor Who circles. Clearly its influence stretches far into the new series. We have The Doctor himself as a fetish object who is feared and hunted by the rest of the universe (‘The Pandorica Opens’); we have the Doctor’s bodily remains being a power unto themselves (‘The Name of the Doctor’); we have a character falling out of a window and into the Tardis which is parked on the side of the building (‘The Day of the Moon’) and in the character of Sam, a girl whose timelines have been manipulated to put her in front of The Doctor, we surely have Amy Pond. That’s before we get to the bits about The Time Lords losing a war to a race who are similarly time active. It’s all in this book and even though Lawrence Miles has never written for it, and indeed holds a large grudge against it, ‘Alien Bodies’ gives a much deeper understanding to Nu-Who.
So, how good is ‘Alien Bodies’? Well it’s a mix of gothic fantasy, science fiction and Douglas Adams, with its own pixyish charm. There are characters who do blood rights whilst wearing skull masks, there are spaces constructed entirely in mathematics and there are jokes that Adams would have been proud of – for example, the authors of the various reference books quoted. It’s a book which stacks ideas on top of ideas and is clearly more than a little in love with its own intelligence. And that for the most part is great, as the book is intelligent and I appreciate the witty little gags there just to show off its cleverness. But, it seems to me that Miles loses control of these ideas. So many are introduced and they are piled so high, that it becomes frustrating when the whole thing starts to topple over and various ideas are just left scattered on the floor. And at that point the cleverness in tone of the book becomes a hindrance, as clearly it’s not as clever as it thinks it is.
The Doctor finds himself at an auction in the South Pacific, with various shady emissaries. The lot they’re bidding on is The Doctor’s own dead body. Whichever way you look at it, that’s a hell of a good set-up. For the most part it deliver on the promise of that opening, and I was thrilled reading it. Ultimately though, as entertaining as it is, the book just slips away from the author.
It’s easy to see why Lawrence Miles’s ‘Alien Bodies’ is so well regarded in Doctor Who circles. Clearly its influence stretches far into the new series. We have The Doctor himself as a fetish object who is feared and hunted by the rest of the universe (‘The Pandorica Opens’); we have the Doctor’s bodily remains being a power unto themselves (‘The Name of the Doctor’); we have a character falling out of a window and into the Tardis which is parked on the side of the building (‘The Day of the Moon’) and in the character of Sam, a girl whose timelines have been manipulated to put her in front of The Doctor, we surely have Amy Pond. That’s before we get to the bits about The Time Lords losing a war to a race who are similarly time active. It’s all in this book and even though Lawrence Miles has never written for it, and indeed holds a large grudge against it, ‘Alien Bodies’ gives a much deeper understanding to Nu-Who.
So, how good is ‘Alien Bodies’? Well it’s a mix of gothic fantasy, science fiction and Douglas Adams, with its own pixyish charm. There are characters who do blood rights whilst wearing skull masks, there are spaces constructed entirely in mathematics and there are jokes that Adams would have been proud of – for example, the authors of the various reference books quoted. It’s a book which stacks ideas on top of ideas and is clearly more than a little in love with its own intelligence. And that for the most part is great, as the book is intelligent and I appreciate the witty little gags there just to show off its cleverness. But, it seems to me that Miles loses control of these ideas. So many are introduced and they are piled so high, that it becomes frustrating when the whole thing starts to topple over and various ideas are just left scattered on the floor. And at that point the cleverness in tone of the book becomes a hindrance, as clearly it’s not as clever as it thinks it is.
The Doctor finds himself at an auction in the South Pacific, with various shady emissaries. The lot they’re bidding on is The Doctor’s own dead body. Whichever way you look at it, that’s a hell of a good set-up. For the most part it deliver on the promise of that opening, and I was thrilled reading it. Ultimately though, as entertaining as it is, the book just slips away from the author.
May 8, 2012
Where, oh where to begin?
Well, for one thing why was I not informed that this book is absolutely hilarious? I think it was suggested that it was rather witty, but I think that understates the case somewhat, this is a side-splittingly funny novel. Quite reminiscent of Douglas Adams, with it’s wheeler dealers in outer space, and it’s Raston Cybernetic Lapdancers, But also reminded me of Robert Anton Wilson’s Schrodinger’s Cat Trilogy, particularly the layers of conspiracy, and the bizarre Bureaucracy of UNISYC. Over all though, however much it may remind me of other SF humor, it is definitively a Who story. A glorious waltz through three decades of continuity and in-jokes. Not the leaden, clunky, ponderous mess of The Eight Doctors. Nor the forced, cobbled together trite of War of the Daleks, but a loving commemoration of so much that had gone before. If it reminded me of any particular era in the classic series then it would be the Tom Baker days, it’s a very Gothic-esque novel (if not a Gothic novel per se), and the Time Lord intrigue along with the comedy definitely gave it that sort of mood.
Oooh and that intrigue. Isn’t it just so intriguing, hehehe. This is the start of it, The Second War in Heaven, precursor to (and in my mind the First Act of) The Last Great Time War. I’ve cheated somewhat, in that I long ago read up on The Enemy, Faction Paradox, and just about every plot arc this story sews the seeds of, but since these forces are really rather mysterious even at there most understood I don’t think I spoilt them much for myself, but rather added weight to them when introduced. they are well conveyed, over all, although none of them fully developed yet. It’s fun trying to guess who represents who at the auction. Also there are some Funny Anurism Moments regarding the Time Lords’ opinion of the Daleks.
I actually found The Faction to be the least menacing in this story, but I suspect later agents will be more in their element.
Homunculette was a great character, and his sequence in London was much fun (all the little cutaway sections were wonderful, especially Laika). Pro tip, picture Homunculette as a slightly exhausted Barack Obama.
UNISYC were rather entertaining too, with all their oddball procedures, and displacer syndrome. I’m an old UNIT softy, but their sheer quirkiness won me over, even if I felt they were under used. Pro tip, picture Kortez as Freddie Mercury.
and I think that brings us to The Krotons. I was sort of expecting more Kroton-ness from Alien Bodies, it was one of the things most commented upon, this was the book with which rescues them from the villain scrap heap etc. But in fact they were rather late comers to the story, surprise guests, and when they arrived i’d gotten so wrapped up in this being a Time Lord story that i’d forgotten it was a Kroton story. Their introduction is then all the cooler for that, however I was a little concerned when they proceeded to not do much of interest, and be a little bit comically clumsy, was this the glorious rise of The Krotons? but then we get inside E-Kobalt’s head, and then we get his flashback, and then they start showing off their weapons capabilities, and by the end of it I’m utterly endeared to this proud warrior race. Also they get an awesomely logical but clever origin story.
So, lastly, Doctor et Sam watch (diddle diddle deee): for the first half we don’t get much time with The Doctor, and the story all feels a bit unrelated to him. The chess scene pokes again at the question of how much he’s altered in his latest incarnation, which I always like exploring. Then once the truth about the relic is made clear we get much more of him, and step inside his head in a way that I don’t think the EDAs have done well until here (the other two attempts really being at the start of The Eight Doctors, and The Bodysnatchers). As for asm, we don’t really get much of her, and I wonder if Miles has something against her as a character, certainly when we do get some Sam-plot it’s in the unconventional form of him suggesting that her entire sugary-sweet character has been an altered timeline, and she ought in fact to be a teen drug addict living in king’s cross. Deduce what you will from that, but I found the development to be an exiting one (even if I’d heard all about it before).
So all in all? Brilliant, a bit thinly spread, I wanted more of everything, but that’s not much of a criticism.
Well, for one thing why was I not informed that this book is absolutely hilarious? I think it was suggested that it was rather witty, but I think that understates the case somewhat, this is a side-splittingly funny novel. Quite reminiscent of Douglas Adams, with it’s wheeler dealers in outer space, and it’s Raston Cybernetic Lapdancers, But also reminded me of Robert Anton Wilson’s Schrodinger’s Cat Trilogy, particularly the layers of conspiracy, and the bizarre Bureaucracy of UNISYC. Over all though, however much it may remind me of other SF humor, it is definitively a Who story. A glorious waltz through three decades of continuity and in-jokes. Not the leaden, clunky, ponderous mess of The Eight Doctors. Nor the forced, cobbled together trite of War of the Daleks, but a loving commemoration of so much that had gone before. If it reminded me of any particular era in the classic series then it would be the Tom Baker days, it’s a very Gothic-esque novel (if not a Gothic novel per se), and the Time Lord intrigue along with the comedy definitely gave it that sort of mood.
Oooh and that intrigue. Isn’t it just so intriguing, hehehe. This is the start of it, The Second War in Heaven, precursor to (and in my mind the First Act of) The Last Great Time War. I’ve cheated somewhat, in that I long ago read up on The Enemy, Faction Paradox, and just about every plot arc this story sews the seeds of, but since these forces are really rather mysterious even at there most understood I don’t think I spoilt them much for myself, but rather added weight to them when introduced. they are well conveyed, over all, although none of them fully developed yet. It’s fun trying to guess who represents who at the auction. Also there are some Funny Anurism Moments regarding the Time Lords’ opinion of the Daleks.
I actually found The Faction to be the least menacing in this story, but I suspect later agents will be more in their element.
Homunculette was a great character, and his sequence in London was much fun (all the little cutaway sections were wonderful, especially Laika). Pro tip, picture Homunculette as a slightly exhausted Barack Obama.
UNISYC were rather entertaining too, with all their oddball procedures, and displacer syndrome. I’m an old UNIT softy, but their sheer quirkiness won me over, even if I felt they were under used. Pro tip, picture Kortez as Freddie Mercury.
and I think that brings us to The Krotons. I was sort of expecting more Kroton-ness from Alien Bodies, it was one of the things most commented upon, this was the book with which rescues them from the villain scrap heap etc. But in fact they were rather late comers to the story, surprise guests, and when they arrived i’d gotten so wrapped up in this being a Time Lord story that i’d forgotten it was a Kroton story. Their introduction is then all the cooler for that, however I was a little concerned when they proceeded to not do much of interest, and be a little bit comically clumsy, was this the glorious rise of The Krotons? but then we get inside E-Kobalt’s head, and then we get his flashback, and then they start showing off their weapons capabilities, and by the end of it I’m utterly endeared to this proud warrior race. Also they get an awesomely logical but clever origin story.
So, lastly, Doctor et Sam watch (diddle diddle deee): for the first half we don’t get much time with The Doctor, and the story all feels a bit unrelated to him. The chess scene pokes again at the question of how much he’s altered in his latest incarnation, which I always like exploring. Then once the truth about the relic is made clear we get much more of him, and step inside his head in a way that I don’t think the EDAs have done well until here (the other two attempts really being at the start of The Eight Doctors, and The Bodysnatchers). As for asm, we don’t really get much of her, and I wonder if Miles has something against her as a character, certainly when we do get some Sam-plot it’s in the unconventional form of him suggesting that her entire sugary-sweet character has been an altered timeline, and she ought in fact to be a teen drug addict living in king’s cross. Deduce what you will from that, but I found the development to be an exiting one (even if I’d heard all about it before).
So all in all? Brilliant, a bit thinly spread, I wanted more of everything, but that’s not much of a criticism.
April 1, 2021
The Eighth Doctor's first meeting with the time travelling, voodoo cult known as Faction Paradox - what more could you possibly ask for?
I read this circa 2002 and have to say that this book was the catalyst for not only getting me back into classic Doctor Who but also getting me hooked on the continuing adventures of the Paul McGann Doctor through the EDA range of novels. So much so that I now count the Paul McGann Doctor as one of my favourites even though his screen time was limited to one outing, the much maligned American TV movie. It was such a shame that he wasn’t given more of an opportunity to flesh out the role via a TV series but on the flipside due to the Big Finish Audios and the EDA novel range the Eighth Doctor has been given a distinct voice that very much makes him a part of Doctor Who canon.
Definitely one of my favourite EDA’s and recommended to any Doctor Who fans as a good starting point for getting on board with Paul McGann’s Doctor.
Very much overdue for a reread of this one as well…
I read this circa 2002 and have to say that this book was the catalyst for not only getting me back into classic Doctor Who but also getting me hooked on the continuing adventures of the Paul McGann Doctor through the EDA range of novels. So much so that I now count the Paul McGann Doctor as one of my favourites even though his screen time was limited to one outing, the much maligned American TV movie. It was such a shame that he wasn’t given more of an opportunity to flesh out the role via a TV series but on the flipside due to the Big Finish Audios and the EDA novel range the Eighth Doctor has been given a distinct voice that very much makes him a part of Doctor Who canon.
Definitely one of my favourite EDA’s and recommended to any Doctor Who fans as a good starting point for getting on board with Paul McGann’s Doctor.
Very much overdue for a reread of this one as well…
April 8, 2020
Doctor Who EDA Books #6 - Alien Bodies.
Clearly, the best EDA Book out of the six I've read so far in the EDA marathon reading. It got better and better as the book progressed. pages: 1/100 (8/10) pages 101/200 (9/10) pages 201/313 (10/10)
The plot is very simple, collective powers around the universe come together for an auction. We see Humans, Timelords, The Faction Paradox and some other interesting faces come into the scene. Get a bit of Daleks Master Plan vibes of different collective powers all meeting, but for a completely different reason: To place a bid for the relic. What the item or artifact is; well, that's for the reader of course. Qixotl is the one setting it up, and him and the Doctor have an interesting history.
I would say out of every single Doctor Who book I've read, this is the best put together Dr Who novel I've read. It does rely on heavy exposition to move the characters stories/intentions along, but I don't see it as a bad thing at all. I enjoyed hearing their parts. Some complain about it? I don't know why, it was executed very well to bridge the cliffhanger sections. Similar to War of the Daleks interludes, but done SO MUCH BETTER here.
I was thinking Nightshade is potentially in trouble of being knocked off the thrown as my all time favourite Doctor Who novel; short answer: no it didn't. Nightshade is still No.1. But, damn isn't this novel fucking amazing. My favourite part I'd say is when everybody found out about the Doctor's identity in the auction, and everybody turned and freaked out causing complete anarchy and chaos; this eventually, leads into a dark but awesome confrontational moment of The Doctor and Qixotl; never seen or witnessed the Doctor (especially the 8th incarnation) so pissed off.
Besides The Faction Paradox, and The Shift, we have a very surprising villain here. I think originally it was suppose to be The Daleks as referenced, but perhaps War of the Daleks made the change; who knows. Again, that's for the reader to find out; I wouldn't of guessed them ever being in a book like this.
Alien Bodies as we all know it starts off a lot of plot strands, events and arcs in the EDA range:
1. The Faction Paradox & The Grandfather Paradox (As discussed in the loose prequel: Christmas on a Rational Planet)
2. The War in Heaven arc
3. The Celestis
4. The Shift & it's "employers"
5. The "Enemy"
and some other small stuff, but that's the big juicy stuff to focus on.
Id give Alien Bodies a 9.5/10. It's exposition galore and does rely on it to move it forward, and I expected this to go down that path to establish certain things and set things up for the progression
of the range.
Next is Kursaal, and would appreciate something more "light" after the heavy arc set up novel but awesome book none the less which is Alien Bodies; easily one of the best Doctor Who books I've read.
Clearly, the best EDA Book out of the six I've read so far in the EDA marathon reading. It got better and better as the book progressed. pages: 1/100 (8/10) pages 101/200 (9/10) pages 201/313 (10/10)
The plot is very simple, collective powers around the universe come together for an auction. We see Humans, Timelords, The Faction Paradox and some other interesting faces come into the scene. Get a bit of Daleks Master Plan vibes of different collective powers all meeting, but for a completely different reason: To place a bid for the relic. What the item or artifact is; well, that's for the reader of course. Qixotl is the one setting it up, and him and the Doctor have an interesting history.
I would say out of every single Doctor Who book I've read, this is the best put together Dr Who novel I've read. It does rely on heavy exposition to move the characters stories/intentions along, but I don't see it as a bad thing at all. I enjoyed hearing their parts. Some complain about it? I don't know why, it was executed very well to bridge the cliffhanger sections. Similar to War of the Daleks interludes, but done SO MUCH BETTER here.
I was thinking Nightshade is potentially in trouble of being knocked off the thrown as my all time favourite Doctor Who novel; short answer: no it didn't. Nightshade is still No.1. But, damn isn't this novel fucking amazing. My favourite part I'd say is when everybody found out about the Doctor's identity in the auction, and everybody turned and freaked out causing complete anarchy and chaos; this eventually, leads into a dark but awesome confrontational moment of The Doctor and Qixotl; never seen or witnessed the Doctor (especially the 8th incarnation) so pissed off.
Besides The Faction Paradox, and The Shift, we have a very surprising villain here. I think originally it was suppose to be The Daleks as referenced, but perhaps War of the Daleks made the change; who knows. Again, that's for the reader to find out; I wouldn't of guessed them ever being in a book like this.
Alien Bodies as we all know it starts off a lot of plot strands, events and arcs in the EDA range:
1. The Faction Paradox & The Grandfather Paradox (As discussed in the loose prequel: Christmas on a Rational Planet)
2. The War in Heaven arc
3. The Celestis
4. The Shift & it's "employers"
5. The "Enemy"
and some other small stuff, but that's the big juicy stuff to focus on.
Id give Alien Bodies a 9.5/10. It's exposition galore and does rely on it to move it forward, and I expected this to go down that path to establish certain things and set things up for the progression
of the range.
Next is Kursaal, and would appreciate something more "light" after the heavy arc set up novel but awesome book none the less which is Alien Bodies; easily one of the best Doctor Who books I've read.
September 15, 2023
Alright, alright, quit torturing me and I'll confess! Yes, it's true: I don't get on with Lawrence Miles. He's just... too much.
To recap for newcomers: Miles is something of a cult figure in Doctor Who fandom. As a very young man, he made his name writing several novels for the range, at a time when prose was the main medium for the series, and thus highly important. Although he went on to write plenty of sci-fi novels and other works during the 2000s and 2010s, and thus I'm sure considers himself to have made a considerable achievement in the world of letters, he never got what many of his comrades received: TV fame. Many of the (slightly older) luminary writers of the novels and short stories - among them Russell T Davies, Paul Cornell, Mark Gatiss, Chris Chibnall, Steven Moffat, Gareth Roberts - went on to be heavily involved in the TV program, not to mention now noted speculative fiction writer Ben Aaronovitch. Lawrence Miles had a different journey in mind.
Miles' view of what Doctor Who could be (should be?) is markedly different from Davies and Moffat in particular. They envision a family-friendly program, focused (to a certain extent) on standalone hours of television which are fan-inspired but can appeal to grandma or your lunkhead cousin. Miles wants the program to be more along the lines of those old sci-fi series like Farscape or Babylon 5: dense, complex sci-fi stories, deliberately plotted over multiple seasons, even though they will languish on cable channels and be ever at the brink of cancellation. The fact that Davies views Who as a modern drama in the soap opera mould and Moffat sees it as a fairytale without the need to dig deep into character or science especially galled dear Lawrence. He was boisterously, savagely critical of what he perceived to be the former's faults, but was - dare I say - venomous and rancorously unpleasant about the latter. (As it happens, I share ol' Larry's view about Moffat, although I also recognise he made an entertaining program that delighted millions. Conversely I think that Russell produced some of the best Who in its history. So, there.)
How does this impact Alien Bodies? Well, Miles had already written numerous books but this was his first for the new Eighth Doctor range, where he had more opportunity to influence the world-building and broader concepts of the series. And, my goodness, he went broad. There are a heckuva lot of ideas on display here. A putative future in which the US (or at least a Republican-controlled part of a Balkanised former US) invaded Canada. In which the military organisations at the heart of the series for decades were broken up and replaced. In which science has found a way to bio-engineer leopards whose visual and aural memories are passed through their urine, allowing people with the right technology to "read" those memories from puddles of the stuff. In which a species is able to exist as a type of mental parasite, inside your head and communicating with you by manipulating your mind to read their words in newspapers and signs. In which a dead man shows up to an auction, and it's a perfectly normal part of his species. Not to mention the expansive editions to the program's own mythology: semi-sentient TARDISes from the Doctor's future! A military-industrial complex that has been trying to find ways to assassinate the Doctor for three hundred years! A Time War taking place well into the Doctor's future which could destroy his people! Not to mention an age-old cult of Time Lords who thrive on tearing apart the rules of time.
You see what I mean? It's a lot.
Now, there are two schools of thought here. One would say that Miles' approach is simply "not Doctor Who". Every framework should be malleable but there are limits to what can be part of a series and what can't. (I think of those Murder, She Wrote episodes from the show's middle years where Angela Lansbury was overworked and so a completely unrelated detective would investigate a completely unrelated case for an entire episode. Multiple times a season. Was it really MSW or just a way to sell some ads?) If you need to rewrite vast tracts of what we've known for thirty-five years and disorient the physics and history of the world we've come to understand, have you in fact just created your own program under someone else's banner? The other viewpoint is that this is the very reason Who stagnated in the 1980s and, indeed, into the novel range. It had been playing it safe, Who by numbers, and it was time to tear down the fabric and start weaving it again.
Ultimately, I'm in the first camp. I agree that the program could play it safe, and I have found several of the other novels dissatisfying for this reason. Indeed, given that it's clear that Davies and Moff stole or absorbed or coincidentally latched on to several of Miles' ideas (I suspect all of the above, as some of them - like the sentient TARDIS - are clearly lingering in the air in fandom) for the TV series, Miles is not completely out of the realm of possibility. But there are just so many ideas all the time. He wants to make the world weird and conceptual and Douglas Adamsy, and as someone who doesn't enjoy Adams and rather likes his stories to make some level of sense, this isn't for me. There are some phenomenal moments, and I admire that he rehabilitated the Krotons. And I'm sad to make this complaint because, as I say, I am broadly anti-Moffat. I want my stories full not empty, I want my stories to have ideas not just plots. But this just made me tired. And it's not merely the concepts that annoyed me; there's a level of pretention to the approach which I couldn't endorse. The 25-year-old author has a confidence in his own abilities which isn't always matched by the output. Take for himself his occasional interruptions into the narrative voice ("It was a Kroton thing; they wouldn't understand") which strive for for playful but read as juvenile. Of course, the range's editors bear some responsibility for this. The cute allusions to popular sci-fi of the time (Twin Peaks, The X-Files, etc) are the kind of "clever" elements I would have included in my story ideas of my early 20s, so I see what Miles was going for. But we're a long way from that period now, so they help to date the book dramatically. (Not in itself a fault; authors don't tend to write books for consumption 25 years later, and nor should they. And this has been a problem with most authors of this range. But it stings nevertheless.)
(I amend this review to note that I recognise some of the circumstances which led to this. The BBC had reclaimed the novels from Virgin Publishing, had set about without much initial guidance in order to get the series going and, allegedly, had an editor who didn't really care at the time. Miles took what he saw as a dull companion and a bland focus and determined to knock it on its head. For that he can be commended, and I'll be intrigued to see whether the novels fight back or if they accept this new direction. I suspect not.)
I don't feel great about criticising Miles for his ambition or his iconoclastic nature, but sometimes these things must be said. Grand ideas can be positive; I recently read Paul Leonard's Venusian Lullaby which does a wonderful job of bringing several challenging approaches into the standard Doctor Who framework. "Everything and the kitchen sink too" can also be a valid approach; I've enjoyed every one of Gareth Roberts' novels, and he's never one to leave any passenger behind. Uniting those two approaches though proves to be an aggressive combination, at least for this naive millennial reader.
To recap for newcomers: Miles is something of a cult figure in Doctor Who fandom. As a very young man, he made his name writing several novels for the range, at a time when prose was the main medium for the series, and thus highly important. Although he went on to write plenty of sci-fi novels and other works during the 2000s and 2010s, and thus I'm sure considers himself to have made a considerable achievement in the world of letters, he never got what many of his comrades received: TV fame. Many of the (slightly older) luminary writers of the novels and short stories - among them Russell T Davies, Paul Cornell, Mark Gatiss, Chris Chibnall, Steven Moffat, Gareth Roberts - went on to be heavily involved in the TV program, not to mention now noted speculative fiction writer Ben Aaronovitch. Lawrence Miles had a different journey in mind.
Miles' view of what Doctor Who could be (should be?) is markedly different from Davies and Moffat in particular. They envision a family-friendly program, focused (to a certain extent) on standalone hours of television which are fan-inspired but can appeal to grandma or your lunkhead cousin. Miles wants the program to be more along the lines of those old sci-fi series like Farscape or Babylon 5: dense, complex sci-fi stories, deliberately plotted over multiple seasons, even though they will languish on cable channels and be ever at the brink of cancellation. The fact that Davies views Who as a modern drama in the soap opera mould and Moffat sees it as a fairytale without the need to dig deep into character or science especially galled dear Lawrence. He was boisterously, savagely critical of what he perceived to be the former's faults, but was - dare I say - venomous and rancorously unpleasant about the latter. (As it happens, I share ol' Larry's view about Moffat, although I also recognise he made an entertaining program that delighted millions. Conversely I think that Russell produced some of the best Who in its history. So, there.)
How does this impact Alien Bodies? Well, Miles had already written numerous books but this was his first for the new Eighth Doctor range, where he had more opportunity to influence the world-building and broader concepts of the series. And, my goodness, he went broad. There are a heckuva lot of ideas on display here. A putative future in which the US (or at least a Republican-controlled part of a Balkanised former US) invaded Canada. In which the military organisations at the heart of the series for decades were broken up and replaced. In which science has found a way to bio-engineer leopards whose visual and aural memories are passed through their urine, allowing people with the right technology to "read" those memories from puddles of the stuff. In which a species is able to exist as a type of mental parasite, inside your head and communicating with you by manipulating your mind to read their words in newspapers and signs. In which a dead man shows up to an auction, and it's a perfectly normal part of his species. Not to mention the expansive editions to the program's own mythology: semi-sentient TARDISes from the Doctor's future! A military-industrial complex that has been trying to find ways to assassinate the Doctor for three hundred years! A Time War taking place well into the Doctor's future which could destroy his people! Not to mention an age-old cult of Time Lords who thrive on tearing apart the rules of time.
You see what I mean? It's a lot.
Now, there are two schools of thought here. One would say that Miles' approach is simply "not Doctor Who". Every framework should be malleable but there are limits to what can be part of a series and what can't. (I think of those Murder, She Wrote episodes from the show's middle years where Angela Lansbury was overworked and so a completely unrelated detective would investigate a completely unrelated case for an entire episode. Multiple times a season. Was it really MSW or just a way to sell some ads?) If you need to rewrite vast tracts of what we've known for thirty-five years and disorient the physics and history of the world we've come to understand, have you in fact just created your own program under someone else's banner? The other viewpoint is that this is the very reason Who stagnated in the 1980s and, indeed, into the novel range. It had been playing it safe, Who by numbers, and it was time to tear down the fabric and start weaving it again.
Ultimately, I'm in the first camp. I agree that the program could play it safe, and I have found several of the other novels dissatisfying for this reason. Indeed, given that it's clear that Davies and Moff stole or absorbed or coincidentally latched on to several of Miles' ideas (I suspect all of the above, as some of them - like the sentient TARDIS - are clearly lingering in the air in fandom) for the TV series, Miles is not completely out of the realm of possibility. But there are just so many ideas all the time. He wants to make the world weird and conceptual and Douglas Adamsy, and as someone who doesn't enjoy Adams and rather likes his stories to make some level of sense, this isn't for me. There are some phenomenal moments, and I admire that he rehabilitated the Krotons. And I'm sad to make this complaint because, as I say, I am broadly anti-Moffat. I want my stories full not empty, I want my stories to have ideas not just plots. But this just made me tired. And it's not merely the concepts that annoyed me; there's a level of pretention to the approach which I couldn't endorse. The 25-year-old author has a confidence in his own abilities which isn't always matched by the output. Take for himself his occasional interruptions into the narrative voice ("It was a Kroton thing; they wouldn't understand") which strive for for playful but read as juvenile. Of course, the range's editors bear some responsibility for this. The cute allusions to popular sci-fi of the time (Twin Peaks, The X-Files, etc) are the kind of "clever" elements I would have included in my story ideas of my early 20s, so I see what Miles was going for. But we're a long way from that period now, so they help to date the book dramatically. (Not in itself a fault; authors don't tend to write books for consumption 25 years later, and nor should they. And this has been a problem with most authors of this range. But it stings nevertheless.)
(I amend this review to note that I recognise some of the circumstances which led to this. The BBC had reclaimed the novels from Virgin Publishing, had set about without much initial guidance in order to get the series going and, allegedly, had an editor who didn't really care at the time. Miles took what he saw as a dull companion and a bland focus and determined to knock it on its head. For that he can be commended, and I'll be intrigued to see whether the novels fight back or if they accept this new direction. I suspect not.)
I don't feel great about criticising Miles for his ambition or his iconoclastic nature, but sometimes these things must be said. Grand ideas can be positive; I recently read Paul Leonard's Venusian Lullaby which does a wonderful job of bringing several challenging approaches into the standard Doctor Who framework. "Everything and the kitchen sink too" can also be a valid approach; I've enjoyed every one of Gareth Roberts' novels, and he's never one to leave any passenger behind. Uniting those two approaches though proves to be an aggressive combination, at least for this naive millennial reader.
November 18, 2021
HEY THIS BOOK WAS INSANE!
And clearly right up my alley, too. I love the sort of sci-fi Miles was going for here, and I love how well he executed it. He really, really nailed the concept of cosmic horror. He also wrote with more self awareness and wit than I've seen in a Doctor Who book before. Really, really top notch writing. Let it be said that he's also more creative with his sci-fi concepts and worldbuilding than any other DW writer I've read.
I'm so fascinated to see where the next writers take the plot he laid down with Sam. I feel like if it had been done just a smidgen less well, with the emphasis on slightly different things, I would hate it, but the way he framed it is so good and so interesting that I'm kind of on board, actually. I also can't wait until his next books in the EDA range.
There was an undercurrent not of outright racism but of some uncomfortable negative stereotyping which definitely keeps this book below a five star rating.
And clearly right up my alley, too. I love the sort of sci-fi Miles was going for here, and I love how well he executed it. He really, really nailed the concept of cosmic horror. He also wrote with more self awareness and wit than I've seen in a Doctor Who book before. Really, really top notch writing. Let it be said that he's also more creative with his sci-fi concepts and worldbuilding than any other DW writer I've read.
I'm so fascinated to see where the next writers take the plot he laid down with Sam. I feel like if it had been done just a smidgen less well, with the emphasis on slightly different things, I would hate it, but the way he framed it is so good and so interesting that I'm kind of on board, actually. I also can't wait until his next books in the EDA range.
There was an undercurrent not of outright racism but of some uncomfortable negative stereotyping which definitely keeps this book below a five star rating.
April 3, 2024
A hugely creative early entry in the Eighth Doctor Adventures launches all sorts of weird concepts that might crop up again later, as well as some big reach stuff that won’t like the Doctor’s eventual death. (Or is it?) The whole thing centres around an auction full of bizarre characters, and although there isn’t a huge amount of plot, there’s a ton of colour as we explore each aspect of this world. Somehow the whole thing also has a light touch, so it’s often funny or nerdy or both. I can see why many have it high in their ranking; it’s a weird, special book, only held back (in my humble opinion) by a lack of direct characterisation for the two leads.
August 28, 2020
Chess games spanning decades and lifetimes, an auction for a mysterious body, and TARDIS models disguised as humans. I loved it.
June 1, 2023
ALIEN BODIES is probably one of the most frustrating Doctor Who books I've read in a long time. Frustrating because it contains some of the best concepts and ideas that the Doctor Who line has had in years, yet utterly fails to do anything remotely interesting with them.
October 20, 2020
For a pretty thick book (313 pages) the plot is sort of straightforward it’s just you will come across sections of the book that are Flashbacks to Specific people in the story telling a bit of their history and explained why they came to Qixotl’s Auction. I don’t want immediately jump right to it as I do have something to say about the starting point. So the story really started off on very emotional tone, not that much, but enough for this section to gently pull your Heart Strings especially if you have the Love for Dogs.
Now to the Plot point is that Representatives of each Species have been invited by Qixotl who have quite of a history with the Doctor, to his Auction, the Representatives are Human, Time Lords, and Yes... Faction Paradox. There is one more representative but I don’t want to spoil the fun.
Long story short, Qixotl is selling an Item which is known simply as The Relic and everybody wants to get their hands on it as it looks upon as a perfect Weapon. The Doctor soon learns the horrifying truth about it.
So What I think about this story, Well I can see why it’s so popular, It really introduces a lot of Concepts to Doctor Who, But the thing that bothers me is... well it seems like Biology plays a big role in this story but the fact that this is titled “Alien Bodies” so what to suspect, I must of thought way completely different of the meaning of that title.
Anyway, the pacing?, Like I said the plot does feel straightforward but I think what throws it off are the Flashbacks, To me, it feels like that these Flashbacks are just exposition, pure exposition, I mean, like I said earlier it just exploits the other Characters and explains why they came to the Auction.
I say that be it. I rate this Story. 9.5/10
Now to the Plot point is that Representatives of each Species have been invited by Qixotl who have quite of a history with the Doctor, to his Auction, the Representatives are Human, Time Lords, and Yes... Faction Paradox. There is one more representative but I don’t want to spoil the fun.
Long story short, Qixotl is selling an Item which is known simply as The Relic and everybody wants to get their hands on it as it looks upon as a perfect Weapon. The Doctor soon learns the horrifying truth about it.
So What I think about this story, Well I can see why it’s so popular, It really introduces a lot of Concepts to Doctor Who, But the thing that bothers me is... well it seems like Biology plays a big role in this story but the fact that this is titled “Alien Bodies” so what to suspect, I must of thought way completely different of the meaning of that title.
Anyway, the pacing?, Like I said the plot does feel straightforward but I think what throws it off are the Flashbacks, To me, it feels like that these Flashbacks are just exposition, pure exposition, I mean, like I said earlier it just exploits the other Characters and explains why they came to the Auction.
I say that be it. I rate this Story. 9.5/10
December 21, 2017
So many elements of this story now feature heavily in NuWho, especially Matts era.
October 27, 2021
‘Alien Bodies’ is well known for being the first book of many story arcs that a lot of the later EDA books focus on. Taking this into mind, the book doesn’t really spend much time on a lot of arc stuff to the point it is essentially very atmospheric window dressing. All the arc stuff (aside from Faction Paradox) is mostly kept to the incidental background chapters which you could very easily just skip (but they are some of the highlights of this book so you should totally read them).
The rough plot involves an auction which is very much not what it seems. For the sake of spoilers I can’t really say too much, but there are plenty of twists that (for the most part) keep the ongoing narrative fresh. There are also the background elements such as Gallifrey becoming part of a war and (what i’m pretty sure is) the proper introduction to faction paradox.
The characters were one of the best things about this book. Specifically Qixotl and how broken and sorry he acts throughout. It shifted between me being sympathetic towards him and also just laughing at how incompetant he is at times. Trask and The Shift were also both very enjoyable, the plot with the celestis very much kept me thinking. It’s some surprisingly high concept stuff for Doctor Who but it’s conveyed in a very digestible manner.
What holds this book back for me is what feels like a bit of padding. Not necessarily a specific chunk of the book but one of the subplots, specifically the one where some of the characters piss around and try to steal the relic. It comes across as being quite tacked on and also doesn’t have much to do with the rest of the plot, unless I missed something which is entirely possible. Adding onto this I can't help but feel the ending came off as a bit rushed but I can't decide if it was intentional or not.
Overall - If you can find a copy of this book at a reasonable price you should totally give it a read. It’s a shame this book can go for quite a bit of money now, especially considering how it is required reading for a lot of other books to be coherent. Thankfully with my intense research I can confirm if you know where to look you can find it at a good price. Still waiting to find Miles’ other works fairly cheap but that might be a bit more difficult...
The rough plot involves an auction which is very much not what it seems. For the sake of spoilers I can’t really say too much, but there are plenty of twists that (for the most part) keep the ongoing narrative fresh. There are also the background elements such as Gallifrey becoming part of a war and (what i’m pretty sure is) the proper introduction to faction paradox.
The characters were one of the best things about this book. Specifically Qixotl and how broken and sorry he acts throughout. It shifted between me being sympathetic towards him and also just laughing at how incompetant he is at times. Trask and The Shift were also both very enjoyable, the plot with the celestis very much kept me thinking. It’s some surprisingly high concept stuff for Doctor Who but it’s conveyed in a very digestible manner.
What holds this book back for me is what feels like a bit of padding. Not necessarily a specific chunk of the book but one of the subplots, specifically the one where some of the characters piss around and try to steal the relic. It comes across as being quite tacked on and also doesn’t have much to do with the rest of the plot, unless I missed something which is entirely possible. Adding onto this I can't help but feel the ending came off as a bit rushed but I can't decide if it was intentional or not.
Overall - If you can find a copy of this book at a reasonable price you should totally give it a read. It’s a shame this book can go for quite a bit of money now, especially considering how it is required reading for a lot of other books to be coherent. Thankfully with my intense research I can confirm if you know where to look you can find it at a good price. Still waiting to find Miles’ other works fairly cheap but that might be a bit more difficult...
October 14, 2020
There’s time lords, but there’s also the faction paradox , a renegade faction who want to let multiverses take their course without the web of time. There’s the doctor , but there’s also his dead body from the future which is being auctioned to give the faction the bio data they need . There’s Sam Jones , the generic companion created to find him , but there’s also her rewritten after ego .
Using several ideas later picked up by the tv show, this is a series hitting its stride.
Using several ideas later picked up by the tv show, this is a series hitting its stride.
Read
May 15, 2018This book has a lot of really wild ideas in it, many of which I'm fairly impressed by. I think I generally enjoyed reading it and the book contains a lot of genuinely funny prose, but the book also makes a lot of weird decisions that seem to plague the wilderness years Doctor Who novels in general.
May 12, 2024
Holy shit what an experience this book was. I’ve been looking forward to this novel for a long time and now that I’ve finally read it, I have to say that this book is as nutty as a fruitcake.
The plot itself is actually really interesting and although it took me a little longer to read than most (not because of the length of the book, but just life getting in the way) I still really enjoyed it on the whole. There are some truly wacky and wonderful characters in this book. Even the plot is wacky and wonderful at times.
There’s even a surprising returning villain from the 1960’s era which I never would have guessed would feature in an EDA. They’re given quite a lot of development here and we even get to see some of its origins.
I thought Mr Qixotl was a great character in the book with some very witty lines of dialogue. The two members of the faction paradox (the faction being originally featured in Christmas On A Rational Planet) are also interesting characters however I would’ve liked to have seen more of them. The Doctor himself is fantastic in this book and he gets some fantastic interactions near the end of the book. Once again the companion Sam featured very little here and although she is a lot better than she was in War of the Daleks she is still very underused.
Overall this was a very enjoyable book with a great plot and great characters. My main issue with the book is that there mostly scenes of just characters talking and not much action which is why I’d only give this book 4/5 stars. Still a bloody good read mind you.
The plot itself is actually really interesting and although it took me a little longer to read than most (not because of the length of the book, but just life getting in the way) I still really enjoyed it on the whole. There are some truly wacky and wonderful characters in this book. Even the plot is wacky and wonderful at times.
There’s even a surprising returning villain from the 1960’s era which I never would have guessed would feature in an EDA. They’re given quite a lot of development here and we even get to see some of its origins.
I thought Mr Qixotl was a great character in the book with some very witty lines of dialogue. The two members of the faction paradox (the faction being originally featured in Christmas On A Rational Planet) are also interesting characters however I would’ve liked to have seen more of them. The Doctor himself is fantastic in this book and he gets some fantastic interactions near the end of the book. Once again the companion Sam featured very little here and although she is a lot better than she was in War of the Daleks she is still very underused.
Overall this was a very enjoyable book with a great plot and great characters. My main issue with the book is that there mostly scenes of just characters talking and not much action which is why I’d only give this book 4/5 stars. Still a bloody good read mind you.
July 13, 2016
The best Eighth Doctor book to date, and right up there with the best books from the Virgin series as well. It's terrific to finally see the BBC series pulled out of the mediocrity of action-filled retreads of TV shows!
Part of this book's success is that Lawrence Miles fully engages with the science-fiction genre in a way that few Doctor Who writers do. This book is full of gonzo science-fiction ideas as well as a sophisticated and dense understanding of time travel.
The number of great ideas it introduces is really amazing. From the War to the Celestis, from a new make of TARDIS to the Faction Paradox. Apparently, many of these topics recur in the later adventures (and in Miles' own novels) and I'm not surprised, because they're pretty terrific.
Beyond that, this is a very well-written book as well. Miles gives us a great look at a number of interesting characters, and bases the entire book largely upon their interactions.
Overall, an extremely strong novel and one that gives me hope for the Eighth Doctor Adventures, a hope that previously had been waning.
For a longer discussion of this book, read my thoughts at RPGnet, as part of a thread covering the entire Eighth Doctor series.
Part of this book's success is that Lawrence Miles fully engages with the science-fiction genre in a way that few Doctor Who writers do. This book is full of gonzo science-fiction ideas as well as a sophisticated and dense understanding of time travel.
The number of great ideas it introduces is really amazing. From the War to the Celestis, from a new make of TARDIS to the Faction Paradox. Apparently, many of these topics recur in the later adventures (and in Miles' own novels) and I'm not surprised, because they're pretty terrific.
Beyond that, this is a very well-written book as well. Miles gives us a great look at a number of interesting characters, and bases the entire book largely upon their interactions.
Overall, an extremely strong novel and one that gives me hope for the Eighth Doctor Adventures, a hope that previously had been waning.
For a longer discussion of this book, read my thoughts at RPGnet, as part of a thread covering the entire Eighth Doctor series.
January 13, 2016
I'm blown away by how creative this was. Even though a lot of the major twists were spoiled for me (what The Relic was, Faction Paradox, Sam), that didn't spoil my enjoyment of all the other surprises to be found here. This was entertaining from start to finish. Certain elements felt underdeveloped, like some of the characters, and the Sam twist, but probably because they're meant to be explored more fully later on in the series. Lawrence Miles is great with the conceptual side of science fiction.
November 30, 2013
The one problem with Alien Bodies is that it is very convoluted. The premise and plot is actually quite interesting, but it's so different from the previous Eighth Doctor adventures tales that it kind of throws you for a loop. It does introduce some interesting concepts, including the Shift and elaborates on the Faction Paradox, and uses a mostly-forgotten race from the annals of the Whoniverse (the Krotons), so that makes up for some of the muddled storytelling, and makes the tale worth reading.
December 30, 2014
Extremely fun, in a giddy way. The mystery is excellent, and the solution is even better. The quiet moments in the prologue and epilogue are also lovely. I totally loved the Doctor in this, and the book is full of very Douglas Adams descriptions, especially this:
"Every now and then, Sam found herself thinking of the Doctor as a set of responses, not a man---half-man---person at all.... A function of the universe, whose purpose was to (a) break into places and (b) break out of them again."
"Every now and then, Sam found herself thinking of the Doctor as a set of responses, not a man---half-man---person at all.... A function of the universe, whose purpose was to (a) break into places and (b) break out of them again."
June 26, 2021
Like Agatha Christie on acid.
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I think this is one of my favorite books. Ever
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I think this is one of my favorite books. Ever
August 25, 2021
#BBCEighthDoctorAdventures
BBC EIGHTH DOCTOR ADVENTURES #6: “ALIEN BODIES” di LAWRENCE MILES.
Su un'isola delle Indie Orientali, in una città perduta nascosta nelle profondità di una foresta pluviale, agenti dei più formidabili poteri della galassia si stanno riunendo. Sono stati invitati lì a fare un'offerta per quella che si rivelerà essere la più letale arma mai creata.
Quando il Dottore e Sam arrivano nella città, il Signore del Tempo presto realizza che sono arrivati nel mezzo della più strana asta nella storia – e quello che è in vendita al migliore offerente è qualcosa di molto più orripilante di quello che il Dottore avrebbe mai potuto immaginare, qualcosa che cambierà la sua vita per sempre.
E proprio quando sembra che le cose non possano andare peggio, il Dottore scopre chi altro c'è sulla lista degli ospiti.
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Ho saltato alcuni libri, che pure parevano interessanti, per poter entrare subito nel vivo delle EDA. E che questo è un libro succoso lo si capisce fin dalle prime pagine.
Lawrence Miles certamente non teme le innovazioni, e qui inizia a mettere le basi per una trama incredibilmente ambiziosa, come non si era mai vista prima di allora. Molti elementi che qui vengono introdotti sono stati inoltre “riciclati”, più o meno consapevolmente, anche nella serie nuova, mentre altre sono ancora tra le cose più originali che abbia letto.
È proprio qui che si menziona per la prima volta il Biodata, il mix di informazioni genetiche e temporali che rendono unica una persona e che sarà fondamentale per la storyline di Sam, la Fazione del Paradosso, una setta opposta ai Signori del Tempo, che venerano i paradossi così come farebbero con Satana (ricorrente nelle EDA e che si svilupperà in uno spin-off a parte), TARDIS così avanzati da avere sembianze umane e riprodursi, e le prime avvisaglie di una guerra del tempo nel lontano futuro di Gallifrey, denominata “Guerra in Paradiso”, a quanto pare combattuta contro un nemico “ben più pericoloso dei Dalek”. Se questo non bastasse per renderlo un cult, c'è anche molto altro.
Nel modo in cui il Dottore è costretto a confrontarsi con il suo futuro e la sua mortalità mi ha ricordato The Name of the Doctor. La morte, e quello che avviene oltre, è infatti un tema ricorrente, ma ad evitare che diventi troppo macabro o deprimente c'è molta azione, e anche un tocco di humor nero.
Sam rimane un po' in disparte rispetto al centro dell'azione, ma ha comunque una certa rilevanza, e qui vengono poste le basi di un mistero che la riguarda in prima persona.
A differenza di Dead Romance, l'unico altro libro di Lawrence Miles che ho letto finora e ugualmente carico di nuova mitologia riguardante i Signori del Tempo, Alien Bodies è molto più scorrevole da leggere, mantenendo viva l'attenzione del lettore dall'inizio alla fine.
La narrazione è distribuita tra molteplici punti di vista, dato che molte cose avvengono in contemporanea, alternate da flashbacks riguardanti ogni singolo partecipante all'asta e che è collegato alla storia generale.
Se le Virgin Adventures erano state introdotte come storie “troppo ampie e profonde per la televisione”, questo libro dimostra che anche le EDA non sono da meno. Per spiegare tutte le novità che vengono presentate qui, credo servirebbe almeno un'intera stagione TV o audio. Alcuni lo hanno definito fin troppo strapieno di concetti, ma secondo me non appare affatto forzato, e anzi dimostra come la creatività di un singolo autore possa dare il via a una quantità illimitata di nuovo materiale su cui lavorare, dando freschezza alla serie.
Ora non resta che vedere come altri autori hanno recepito queste innovazioni e dove ci porterà il futuro.
BBC EIGHTH DOCTOR ADVENTURES #6: “ALIEN BODIES” di LAWRENCE MILES.
Su un'isola delle Indie Orientali, in una città perduta nascosta nelle profondità di una foresta pluviale, agenti dei più formidabili poteri della galassia si stanno riunendo. Sono stati invitati lì a fare un'offerta per quella che si rivelerà essere la più letale arma mai creata.
Quando il Dottore e Sam arrivano nella città, il Signore del Tempo presto realizza che sono arrivati nel mezzo della più strana asta nella storia – e quello che è in vendita al migliore offerente è qualcosa di molto più orripilante di quello che il Dottore avrebbe mai potuto immaginare, qualcosa che cambierà la sua vita per sempre.
E proprio quando sembra che le cose non possano andare peggio, il Dottore scopre chi altro c'è sulla lista degli ospiti.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ho saltato alcuni libri, che pure parevano interessanti, per poter entrare subito nel vivo delle EDA. E che questo è un libro succoso lo si capisce fin dalle prime pagine.
Lawrence Miles certamente non teme le innovazioni, e qui inizia a mettere le basi per una trama incredibilmente ambiziosa, come non si era mai vista prima di allora. Molti elementi che qui vengono introdotti sono stati inoltre “riciclati”, più o meno consapevolmente, anche nella serie nuova, mentre altre sono ancora tra le cose più originali che abbia letto.
È proprio qui che si menziona per la prima volta il Biodata, il mix di informazioni genetiche e temporali che rendono unica una persona e che sarà fondamentale per la storyline di Sam, la Fazione del Paradosso, una setta opposta ai Signori del Tempo, che venerano i paradossi così come farebbero con Satana (ricorrente nelle EDA e che si svilupperà in uno spin-off a parte), TARDIS così avanzati da avere sembianze umane e riprodursi, e le prime avvisaglie di una guerra del tempo nel lontano futuro di Gallifrey, denominata “Guerra in Paradiso”, a quanto pare combattuta contro un nemico “ben più pericoloso dei Dalek”. Se questo non bastasse per renderlo un cult, c'è anche molto altro.
Nel modo in cui il Dottore è costretto a confrontarsi con il suo futuro e la sua mortalità mi ha ricordato The Name of the Doctor. La morte, e quello che avviene oltre, è infatti un tema ricorrente, ma ad evitare che diventi troppo macabro o deprimente c'è molta azione, e anche un tocco di humor nero.
Sam rimane un po' in disparte rispetto al centro dell'azione, ma ha comunque una certa rilevanza, e qui vengono poste le basi di un mistero che la riguarda in prima persona.
A differenza di Dead Romance, l'unico altro libro di Lawrence Miles che ho letto finora e ugualmente carico di nuova mitologia riguardante i Signori del Tempo, Alien Bodies è molto più scorrevole da leggere, mantenendo viva l'attenzione del lettore dall'inizio alla fine.
La narrazione è distribuita tra molteplici punti di vista, dato che molte cose avvengono in contemporanea, alternate da flashbacks riguardanti ogni singolo partecipante all'asta e che è collegato alla storia generale.
Se le Virgin Adventures erano state introdotte come storie “troppo ampie e profonde per la televisione”, questo libro dimostra che anche le EDA non sono da meno. Per spiegare tutte le novità che vengono presentate qui, credo servirebbe almeno un'intera stagione TV o audio. Alcuni lo hanno definito fin troppo strapieno di concetti, ma secondo me non appare affatto forzato, e anzi dimostra come la creatività di un singolo autore possa dare il via a una quantità illimitata di nuovo materiale su cui lavorare, dando freschezza alla serie.
Ora non resta che vedere come altri autori hanno recepito queste innovazioni e dove ci porterà il futuro.
September 18, 2021
So after reading the okayness that was 'War of the Daleks' it was time to jump into Alien Bodies. And what do i have to say about Alien Bodies? Um.... it was very very confusing.
This book has to do with a bunch of people bidding on an auction for a relic. 8 and Sam show up and realize what they're bidding on and have to stop them from getting it. That seems like a very straightforward story, but this book is anything but straightforward.
The biggest issue i had with this book was that because there were so many groups of people bidding on the relic, there were a LOT of characters, and the book decided it was a great idea to have a chapter dedicated to EACH AND EVERY ONE OF THEIR BACKSTORIES. And yes, they are pretty much all boring and pointless. I know that 1 of the races is important for later, but other than that, everyone else was super boring and unimportant.
Not only was it dragged out because of this, it got very confusing. The reason for wanting the relic got very convoluted and the powers each of the different groups of aliens had didn't help things as well as the defenses for the relic itself.
I read the last few who books in a few days. This one took me about a week. I had to keep taking breaks from this one as i zoned out a LOT. My mind would drift off only for me realize i didn't take in a word of the past page. Even having read the entire thing and finishing it today, i honestly can't remember a good half of what happened. It was very dull, confusing, and written in a way that made me lose interest.
When the doctor was on screen it was much better and i was able to keep my focus, but when it jumped to the side character, i honestly just didn't care. The villains of the story were all over the place and we went into existential territory more than once which only furthered the confusion.
The ending was okay and i wish more of the book was written like it, but by that point I just didn't really care. All in all, it had a great idea, but the execution was very lacking. This is one of, if not THE longest EDA with Sam, and you feel every page. I checked more than a few times to see if i was almost done.
2 out of 5.
This book has to do with a bunch of people bidding on an auction for a relic. 8 and Sam show up and realize what they're bidding on and have to stop them from getting it. That seems like a very straightforward story, but this book is anything but straightforward.
The biggest issue i had with this book was that because there were so many groups of people bidding on the relic, there were a LOT of characters, and the book decided it was a great idea to have a chapter dedicated to EACH AND EVERY ONE OF THEIR BACKSTORIES. And yes, they are pretty much all boring and pointless. I know that 1 of the races is important for later, but other than that, everyone else was super boring and unimportant.
Not only was it dragged out because of this, it got very confusing. The reason for wanting the relic got very convoluted and the powers each of the different groups of aliens had didn't help things as well as the defenses for the relic itself.
I read the last few who books in a few days. This one took me about a week. I had to keep taking breaks from this one as i zoned out a LOT. My mind would drift off only for me realize i didn't take in a word of the past page. Even having read the entire thing and finishing it today, i honestly can't remember a good half of what happened. It was very dull, confusing, and written in a way that made me lose interest.
When the doctor was on screen it was much better and i was able to keep my focus, but when it jumped to the side character, i honestly just didn't care. The villains of the story were all over the place and we went into existential territory more than once which only furthered the confusion.
The ending was okay and i wish more of the book was written like it, but by that point I just didn't really care. All in all, it had a great idea, but the execution was very lacking. This is one of, if not THE longest EDA with Sam, and you feel every page. I checked more than a few times to see if i was almost done.
2 out of 5.
May 2, 2021
This is a great book and probably the best Eighth Doctor Adventures (EDA) novel thus far in the series. Not that the others before this were bad, of the four I've read they were all good and for the most part fun reads. The thing with Alien Bodies, is that it sets forth what will be loose arc going through the EDAs: the "War in Heaven" between the Time Lords and the "enemy" that takes place in the Doctor's far future. It also introduces the "Dark Sam" arc which is thread through a handful of scattered novels. The final thing that this novel introduces is Faction Paradox, a time-travel voodoo cult that has apparently had a rather successful series on its own apart from Doctor Who.
The problem with reviewing this novel is that it relies on its surprises. So, I'll give a basic plot before sounding the spoiler warning. Essentially, the Doctor and Sam stumble across an alien auction taking place in late 21st century Borneo where a mysterious relic is up for auction.
This was a fun novel. It's thick, with a lot of interesting ideas, a rich cast of guest characters and a decent story. Throwing together all the auction attendees and the shenanigans that ensue are fun to read. There's a lot here, but it reads fast. The Doctor is written well here and this was just a great read. Personally, it was also one of the first Doctor Who novels I ever read.
The problem with reviewing this novel is that it relies on its surprises. So, I'll give a basic plot before sounding the spoiler warning. Essentially, the Doctor and Sam stumble across an alien auction taking place in late 21st century Borneo where a mysterious relic is up for auction.
This was a fun novel. It's thick, with a lot of interesting ideas, a rich cast of guest characters and a decent story. Throwing together all the auction attendees and the shenanigans that ensue are fun to read. There's a lot here, but it reads fast. The Doctor is written well here and this was just a great read. Personally, it was also one of the first Doctor Who novels I ever read.
June 1, 2020
This was so much fun. Alien Bodies is my first foray into the Eighth Doctor novels, and I loved it. The Eighth Doctor is calm, cool, collected, sophisticated, honest and brave. He doesn't get riled or raise his voice and solves problems rationally while being kind. Sam, his companion, is young but does her job admirably. She supports the Doctor, (both physically and metaphorically) she isn't afraid of anything and doesn't hesitate to investigate or do what needs to be done. This particular story focused on the auction of a highly sought after and powerful relic, and brought together many alien species to bid on such an item. Things go awry quickly (as they usually do) and it's up to the Doctor to prevent as many deaths as possible while also preventing the relic from falling into the wrong hands. It's fast paced and action-packed, and I had a hard time putting it down. I enjoyed all the nods to the Who fans- past places, past events, and past Doctor incarnations. That being said, the story was way more complex than it needed to be, and it wasn't necessary to put every single character's backstory into the novel. There were more than a few that I really didn't care about- so if anything was going to slow the novel down and bring it down a few pegs, it would be that. I also wish there was more of the Doctor in this- which goes hand in hand with the huge cast and unnecessary backstories. I hope there's much more of the Doctor in the next novel. I certainly wouldn't recommend this book to someone who's not a fan of Doctor Who- they wouldn't appreciate or recognize all the nods to the Whoniverse, and they'd get lost in the minutiae of the plot, when, really, it's all about the Doctor.
January 18, 2024
(spoilers) Wow! This was such a fun, bizarre, disturbing, and interesting Doctor Who story. The book famously introduces some concepts into the Who canon (Faction Paradox, War in Heaven, The Celestis) and they were all equally interesting and novel.
The actual plot is super simple, but several things help keep the book exciting the whole time. The explanation for how each member of the auction arrived at the ziggurat breaks up the pacing really nicely while also adding to the lore of The War in Heaven, the Faction Paradox, and even the Krotons! The varied cast also makes the main plot at the auction really fun to read. Each character has their own interesting and well-explored sci-fi/fantasy concept associated with them. Mr. Trask, Mr. Shift, and E-Kobalt immediately come to mind. I should mention again, this book not only made the Krotons interesting and intimidating, but it also made me feel legitimately sad for E-Kobalt when everyone ignored it at the auction table. I was not expecting to empathize with a Kroton.
The Final thing worth mentioning about Alien Bodies is that it had some legitimately disturbing imagery. Of course, everything in the vault with Sam and Bregman was bizarre and imaginative and horrific in the best way possible. But also concepts like The Shift's creation or Mr. Trask as a whole were uncomfortable and kinda scary.
Oh also, the War in Heaven is so much better than the Time War. It feels so much bigger, so much more mysterious, so much more awe-inspiring. I love the Time War but it doesn't hold a candle to the War in Heaven (at least how it's described in Alien Bodies)
The actual plot is super simple, but several things help keep the book exciting the whole time. The explanation for how each member of the auction arrived at the ziggurat breaks up the pacing really nicely while also adding to the lore of The War in Heaven, the Faction Paradox, and even the Krotons! The varied cast also makes the main plot at the auction really fun to read. Each character has their own interesting and well-explored sci-fi/fantasy concept associated with them. Mr. Trask, Mr. Shift, and E-Kobalt immediately come to mind. I should mention again, this book not only made the Krotons interesting and intimidating, but it also made me feel legitimately sad for E-Kobalt when everyone ignored it at the auction table. I was not expecting to empathize with a Kroton.
The Final thing worth mentioning about Alien Bodies is that it had some legitimately disturbing imagery. Of course, everything in the vault with Sam and Bregman was bizarre and imaginative and horrific in the best way possible. But also concepts like The Shift's creation or Mr. Trask as a whole were uncomfortable and kinda scary.
Oh also, the War in Heaven is so much better than the Time War. It feels so much bigger, so much more mysterious, so much more awe-inspiring. I love the Time War but it doesn't hold a candle to the War in Heaven (at least how it's described in Alien Bodies)
August 27, 2021
In Alien Bodies, Lawrence Miles introduces Faction Paradox, the idea of a Time War, sentient TARDISes who can look like people, and a general timey-wimeyness, elements that would wind themselves into the revived television show, in particular the Moffat era. The Doctor finds himself at an auction for his own corpse, along with an array of strange powers, including a really cool reinvention of the Krotons, and much weirdness ensues. Miles is very clever not just with the ideas, but in the prose itself, which creates various points of view and emotional states. And hey, he takes Sam's genericness and gives it value, or at least puts a question mark on it and turns it into a mystery worth revisiting. Ultimately, this is her best appearance to date - for once, we don't urgently want another character to replace her aboard the TARDIS. When I think of the Eighth Doctor Adventures, this is the kind of material I think of... probably because my first was The Taking of Planet 5, but also because it's what has had the greater legacy, both in prose and on television. A fun, inventive read. I wish they were all more like this.
June 18, 2022
And so begins the storyline that will underline the McGann BBC Dr Who books series, Faction Paradox and its consequences.
The Faction itself is well realised and rather creepy, a group of Time Lords who manipulate the past and thrive on the paradoxes created. As explained in the book, the word Paradox is as deadly to Time Lords as Satan is to humans, metaphor for total evil. Added to that the brilliant revelation of what The Relic, which is up for auction, actually is. This creates a good temporal paradox.
With all this, such a shame the book is so dull. It never gets going. Apart from the Doctor and Sam, I never cared for any of the other characters. This is a real pity as the story ideas presented here are just so good. 4/10
Scoring: 0 bad; 1-3 poor; 4-6 average; 7-9 good; 10 excellent.
The Faction itself is well realised and rather creepy, a group of Time Lords who manipulate the past and thrive on the paradoxes created. As explained in the book, the word Paradox is as deadly to Time Lords as Satan is to humans, metaphor for total evil. Added to that the brilliant revelation of what The Relic, which is up for auction, actually is. This creates a good temporal paradox.
With all this, such a shame the book is so dull. It never gets going. Apart from the Doctor and Sam, I never cared for any of the other characters. This is a real pity as the story ideas presented here are just so good. 4/10
Scoring: 0 bad; 1-3 poor; 4-6 average; 7-9 good; 10 excellent.
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