Lloyd Rose

This is another Eighth Doctor Adventure from the era where he was traveling the universe with amnesia, accompanied by Fitz and Anji. Here he lands in near-future New Orleans and tangles with dark magic. I realized while reading it that this is the third book of this era I've read in a row... and all three of them have been written by women. Like Jacqueline Rayner and Kate Orman, one of Rose's high points is her characterization.

I really like how the Doctor comes across here: recognizably Paul McGann, but a different McGann than we might get in the audios. He's got the Doctor's insight and enthusiasm; what he lacks is the Doctor's self-confidence and certainty. After all, he doesn't know who he is. There are lots of good lines here. Rose does okay by Fitz, too, and I particularly liked her Anji. Anji comes in for a lot of stick in online discourse around the EDAs, but I've found her to be a strongly delineated, enjoyable character in each of the three books I've read with her.

I will admit I didn't entirely follow the turns of the plot here, but this is the kind of book that 1) has enough good stuff going on that you don't care, and 2) is good enough otherwise that you kind of trust that it does all work out if you want to follow it. (Plus, I read it in fits and starts between other books, and I'm sure it wasn't meant to be read across a couple months!) There's a lot of atmosphere, strong characterization, a neat sense of history, and a good sense of magic. The villain became a little obvious too quickly, but other than that, I enjoyed the journey a lot even when I didn't understand it. I remember really liking Lloyd Rose's other EDA, Camera Obscura; now I will have to track down her third and final Doctor Who novel, The Algebra of Ice.… (more)

The first Doctor Who book I have read in a while, this was the 68th BBC Past Doctor Adventure by Lloyd Rose (a pen name of Sarah Tonyn) and starred the seventh doctor and Ace (two of my favourite characters). The supporting cast was very small including Ethan, a geeky maths boy and love interest of Ace's and Molecross, a Sci-Fi blogger/journalist . Essentially the baddies were mathematical entities looking to reverse, deny or stop entropy, but of course the Doctor outwitted them and everything was okay. This is actually a cracking read, well written and the story skips along. There is a minor (and completely unnecessary) role for UNIT in the story. I do own many of the PDAs and EDAs and will definitely be reading more of them this year, and I hope they are as good as this one.… (more)