Dave Rudden

This moderately interesting collection of Doctor Who stories, all themed (sometimes very loosely) around Christmas or midwinter, rarely fully landed for me. I'm likely still thinking of the level and variety of short stories we used to get in the BBC and Big Finish's Short Trips books, and the combination of this being a single writer, and produced by the Children's arm of a publisher, means I probably should have lowered my expectations. It's a lovely, chunky (400-page) hardcover with a beautifully designed cover in a limited color palette, which makes you think you're going to read something with a huge "Wow!" factor. Yet there were more than a few times I felt like I was reading content rather than stories.

One of my biggest criticisms is that you can't really "hear" the individual Doctors in the stories, with perhaps the exception of the Ninth Doctor in "A Day to Yourselves." Fully half the stories seem to be set more or less in the Eleventh Doctor's era, but he only shows up twice, and fairly generically. The same thing happens with the Tenth- and Twelfth-centric stories, as well as a cameo appearance by the Fifth Doctor. One story focuses on a Seventh Doctor who calls characters "my dear," but the Thirteenth Doctor gets at least a little of her typical phrasing in. And that's it - a seemingly strange choice to rarely focus on the Doctors or what makes each one unique, although possibly guided by the success of Rudden's last Who collection, which was all villain-based tales.

The two best stories are the aforementioned "A Day to Yourselves" and "Christmas with the Plasmavores," both of which have a great sense of comic timing. Unfortunately, the actual concepts in some of the others, such "We Will Feed You to the Trees," are often more interesting, but they're just too simple and tidy, and without a laugh or two that becomes much more obvious.

I'm sure a child of 9 to 12, as the book was intended for, would enjoy this collection. However, particularly if that reader would be interested in any of the older Doctors, there are simply better and perfectly appropriate alternatives available, at least if you're willing to buy a used book.… (mehr)

3.5 Stars

Well that was a great action fantasy novel!

I am thrilled to have stumbled upon this as I am on a mission to find engaging books with high school aged male protagonists. These seem to be few and far apart. There are a bunch of well known and well loved ones, but not too many beyond that list. The main character is 13 so this is suitable for NZ Y7 - Y9.

The story is not new, however, it feels quite a bit darker than the likes of Harry Potter. There is a great balance between action and character development and some 'edge of seat' type tension in some places. Excellent addition to our library!… (mehr)