Book series : From Eccleston onwards

nothing

I just started to work my way through the Dr Who books, starting with The Clockwise Man, which was quite enjoyable. I finished the Torchwood series of books a few weeks ago, and I have to say the standard of writing in the Torchwood books is much better than the Dr Who books. Though I assume the Dr Who ones are aimed at children, since my 11 year old sister has read them all.

Anywho.... has anyone else read the books? Do I have some good ones to look forward to? I own them all from The Clockwise Man to the latest one (Snowglobe 7, The Many Hands and Martha in the Mirror).

ixoy

I've actually read none of the Ecclestone-onwards books because they're pitched at a younger audience. However, I've got hundreds (literally hundreds) of the novels prior the show's return. Some of them were excellent and, not burdened by having to follow a show, they could really let loose with some excellent ideas.

I'd strongly recommend the old Virgin New Adventures featuring the Seventh Doctor - very dark at times and it really expanded the character of the Doctor. It culminates (kinda) in the magnificent "Lungbarrow" - there's 61 books in total I think

The Eighth Doctor adventures, published by BBC, are also worth checking out - I loved the Faction Paradox stuff they introduced and wish that RTD would dump his flatuent aliens for the meaty stuff of the time-travelling voodoo cultists

nothing

Sweet, thanks. I have literally a couple of other Dr Who books, one is a collection of short stories and the other is a novel. Gotta get through what I have before I buy more though.

ixoy

nothing wrote: »

Sweet, thanks. I have literally a couple of other Dr Who books, one is a collection of short stories and the other is a novel. Gotta get through what I have before I buy more though.

No bother. If you live in Dublin, Chapters on Parnell Street have a number of Doctor Who titles going very cheaply in their sci-fi department.

pixelburp

The "New Adventures" titles published by Virgin, were as Ixoy said, quite dark in tone & tried to expand on the McCoy Doctor that appeared a little colder and darker near the end of the shows original TV run. I'd go so far as to suggest you ended up hating the man; you certainly saw him lose a lot of companions because of his actions. Having said that, there were still plenty of books featuring a lighter, more Doctor'ee Doctor. Most of the readers identification was through an archaeologist from the future named Bernice Summerfield, who got her own line of books & audio adventures.

The quality of these titles was slightly variable; some were quality & well written by some decent writers (including New Series contributors like Russell T Davies, Mark Gatiss, Matt Jones et al). Other titles were pure tripe & obscenely adolescent at times (gratuitous swearing, sex & violence could be rife).

The 8th Doctor titles abandoned the dark Doctor (to an extent) and tried to expand upon the Paul McGann version we saw in the TV movie. Again, quality was quite variable. In this series however, they expanded on the massive fanwank that you saw in the last of New Adventures (chiefly "Lungbarrow"). Basically, think of a sacred cow or standard by which the show was recognised (The TARDIS, timelords, etc) & these books happily destroyed them, warped them or were ladled with fanwank. So much so, the book line effectively pressed a reset half way through the run simply because so much had happened by then.

They're definitely worth reading though. From what I recall, Lance Parkin was one of the better writers. I can't recall any other names unfortunately.

nothing

Thanks pixelburp.

Just finished the second in the series, The Monsters Inside, flew through it last night and this morning. Reckon I'll have the ones I have finished in a month or so, might pop in to Chapters then.

flazio

So where is a good spot to find all the Doctor Who books? I live in the midlands and I've never seen them in Easons Athlone, or any book shop in Galway. Seriously does anyone know if any store ANYWHERE outside of Dublin carries the BBC Books range?