This was one of my earliest experiences with the Eighth Doctor novels and I've always said about the books from the 90s, whether that's the Eighth Doctor books or the Virgin novels, I've said "therein lies the gateway into madness" and Alien Bodies is a prime example of this.

This will be one of my most spoilerific reviews as there's just so many talking points that can't be glossed over. The setup being the Doctor and his companion Sam gatecrashing a private auction in the middle of the rainforest that's playing host to delegates of several species. This includes the Doctor's own people the Time Lords, only this Time Lord originates far in the Doctor's personal future. The item everyone's bidding on is a casket and within that casket lies a horrible future for the Doctor, his own corpse!

Alien Bodies is one of those rare cases of a story that just completely shakes the foundations of Doctor Who. Obviously hindsight being what it is it doesn't mean anything today but in the context of 1997 when this was the successor to the Virgin novels and continued the Eighth Doctor's story from the movie prior to Big Finish becoming the franchise's banner bearer, this changes the whole game of Doctor Who in a way like no other, even per the standards of what the show's done, this still gives it a run for its money. Not only does it establish that the Doctor will one day die, but it will come about as the result of a way this Time Lord at the auction originates from far into the Eighth Doctor's future. Yes, the Time Lords are fighting a war, a war that has actually already destroyed Gallifrey and the Time Lords are living on Gallifrey XII (which goes to show how well the war's going for them). All their most powerful weapons were lost at the start of the war and only the biodata of a former Lord President can retrieve them, hence the Time Lord's mission to acquire the future Doctor's body. Accompanying him is his TARDIS, one of the most advanced models, so advanced in fact that the TARDISes of Gallifrey's future are now walking talking humanoid forms that open up and can even have sex with other TARDISes to combined weapons and technology.

The enemy the Time Lords are at war with is never named throughout the series, but rather amusingly there's a passage in this book that utterly dismisses the Daleks being capable of waging such a war, again hindsight being what it is, it is very funny reading a book written in 1997 depicting the Time War and ridiculing the Daleks being on the same level as the Time Lords, which was always my main complaint with the Time War to begin with.

Alien Bodies also introduces a new group of recurring villains called the Faction Paradox, a cult of what you might call time satanists, people from different worlds who give up their souls to commit all kinds of atrocities that go against everything the Time Lords strive to maintain, all in service of the Grandfather. To give an example of the kind of madness the Faction Paradox is all about, one of their main acolytes wears a skull for a mask, the skull is of a monstrous bat creature, but she reveals it's actually a Time Lord's skull. In their early wars against the Time Lords, the Faction was defeated but had the Time Lords lost they would've evolved into the bat creatures their acolytes wear. The Faction Paradox is the most long lasting legacy of the Eighth Doctor novels as they have their own spin off series that continues to this day!

As if this wasn't mad enough, Lawrence Miles talked about how he wanted this book to be in the spirit of Robert Holmes, and well, what better way to pay homage to the man than by featuring his very first creation, the Krotons!! The Krotons are one of the most ridiculous looking monsters in Doctor Who history, but they actually fare much better in non-visual medium where they can focus more on the unique concept behind them and what makes them so menacing without the giant refrigerator design to distract the audience. It's honestly a great twist having them involved after teasing the appearance of the Daleks for the auction.

This book excels at world building and taking risks with Doctor Who lore, presenting Earth in the far future and what the future UNIT looks like, the Time War and how it's changed both the Time Lords and Gallifrey, the Faction Paradox, the world of the Krotons and even the force behind whoever's pulling the strings during this auction. It's one of the boldest, most ambitious Doctor Who stories ever written and I highly recommend it.