Now we’re talking. 

In terms of plot, this is just incredible. Every single concept introduced here (and there are like 20) is Cool as Hell. Humanoid TARDIS? Cool. Faction Paradox? Cool. Biodata as access codes to things and places? Cool. The Celestis and their undead underlings? Cool. The list goes on. The plot is not the easiest to follow, but everything falls into place surprisingly well at the end. I’d recommend reading this fast, before you forget what was going on in one of main threads the book follows: Qixotl, Homunculette & Marie, Trask, the Shift, Faction Paradox, UNISYC, and Kroton. In terms of writing, it’s also very engaging. We get to see the POV of every character at some point, and the style is very dynamic and pretty entertaining.

Going into more details. The whole thing with the biodata was super super cool. There’s some DW stories where the Doctor really is a more or less normal person, apart from being a genius with a time machine. There’s some where his alieness is more important, like his understanding of time, his biology, etc. But I don’t think I’ve ever seen him as “super powered” as in this story. My guy has the specialest biodata in the universe (courtesy of his travels, but specially of being an ex-President of the High Council) and he will use it. He’ll make the City’s security accept him and Sam, he’ll break into Mictlan. And of course, the whole plot of the book revolves around an auction for his dead body, which has such crazy biodata it’s pretty much a super weapon. This being a book, we also have access to stuff going on inside his head, like his whole ‘fight’ with the Shift, and the conversation with his ‘psychosis’/telepathic dead body. He was at his alien-est here, I think. Not just in terms of abilities, but in behaviour as well. He was very much in “Mystery Solver” mode for 80% of the story. There’s a Time Lord from the future there, Faction Paradox is there, Gallifrey is at war, and the Doctor shouldn’t be there, should not receive this information about the future. The cherry on the cake, of course, is Qixotl telling him it’s his body they’re auctioning. It’s a mystery he cannot solve because he cannot get involved, but he also feels tremendous responsibility over what each of these people are going to do to the universe if they get the Relic. He doesn’t know the story, cannot know the story, so can’t trust any of them, not even the Time Lords.

I don’t know if I felt that because the story is so unique, but I could not guess what the Doctor was gonna do next. He was shushing and ignoring Sam a lot; he seemed less caring in general, towards the others. Difficult to say things like that for a character like the Doctor, but some parts didn’t feel much like the Eight of the past 5 books to me. Idk, maybe I felt that because, since there was so much going on, we got little time with the “I’m here to have fun” Doctor and the “Out of my way, I have to save my friends” Doctor. “I’m here to have fun” Doctor is there at the beginning, in that fantastic scene with his chess game with the General, and when they’re still F-ing Around in the ziggurat. Once they Find Out, he pushes Sam’s existence to the back of his mind. So to the back that “Out of my way, I have to save my friends” Doctor is very nearly too late to save her from death by giant baby. 

Sam. It’s the 6th book, and I still don’t get her. I liked her in Vampire Science and in Genocide, she was very ‘meh’ is Bodysnatchers and War of the Daleks, and here she is kinda 'whatever'. She’s there, she investigates a bit, helps Lt. Bergman with the immense culture shock of meeting aliens, then almost dies. The main thing going on with her here is the revelation that she has two sets of biodata, two different lives: her life with the Doctor, and another where she’s never even met him and is a screw-up. She has a minor freak-out about this, but recovers so fast the Doctor finds it disconcerting. He wonders if his mere presence in the universe “created” Sam as a “perfect companion” for him, and changed her timeline. If not him, maybe another force (the enemy?) did it. Or maybe it’s something else altogether. But my point is, Sam the person, Sam the teenage girl, doesn’t get a chance to do much, and at this point I just think she has a weak characterization. I hope the rest of the series doesn’t go too ‘Impossible Girl’ on me with this dual timeline thing. 

Bottom line: amazing concepts, amazing new things to look forward to, maaaany amazing questions left unanswered.