Beautiful little book

A pleasant addition to the Doctor Who library. If like me you grew up after the 'classic' series ended and are still working your way through the back catalogue, the villain loses something of its punch but this part of the premise still stands alone reasonably well.

The story is very sensitive to the regular characters involved - Tenth Doctor, Donna, Wilfred Mott, and Sylvia Noble. Bernard Cribbins' narration is a joy to listen to, with understated but well-pitched versions of all the regular characters besides his own, including a surprisingly good interpretation of Tennant's Doctor. Wilf, of course, is a spot-on delight as usual, both in writing and delivery.

The sub-plots are tenderly written and very moving, exploring the background of Donna's family and the relationship between Wilf and his new friend Nettie, a bold and worthy one-off character. This does steal quite a lot of runtime from the main plot about Chaos bodies and M-Tecs and conveniently-Italian-but-for-some-reason-not-evil kiddiwinks, and I'm not sure I followed the whole of the sci-fi thread. There may have been slightly too many auxiliary characters to hold together for a story of this length. But for all that, it ticks along nicely, and the emotional underlay has you caring about the rest of the story enough to make up for any other elements that don't quite satisfy. There is plenty of danger and excitement, and it wouldn't feel out of place in the Tenth Doctor's era on TV - but would you expect less from Gary Russell?

The ending reminds me most strongly of an earlier episode of the Sarah Jane Adventures, and I mean that in the best possible sense. Russell takes a potential risk in the resolution of the plot in a way that fits well with the Tenth (and possibly Seventh and Eleventh too) Doctor but it pays off beautifully, and not a dry eye in the house.

Loved it.

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1 person found this helpful

Great story and reading.

Bernard Cribbins is perfectly matched with this story, which is very intelligent in its portrayal of Nettie and Altzheimers, not deminishing her in any way. Loved the return of Mandragora energy too, a nice piece of continuity with the classic series.

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Beautiful Chaos

If you love Doctor Who this book is brilliant. Bernard Cribbins has a great voice and enhances the strong storyline. Will certainly be buying others that he narrates. Storyline is easy to follow but enough to keep you listening

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Brilliant

Bernard Cribbins was an amazing narrator, and told the story really well. He was fantastic.

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