Not great, not terrible! I think this one has a bad rep because it comes after Alien Bodies, which offers a much more intriguing and complex story. Kursaal has a cool setting, at least one good side character, nice action, and a good story.

The setting, Kursaal itself, is a very cool idea: it's a planet-sized amusement park. In the first 2/3 of the book, we get to a Kursaal that's still in development. In the last 1/3 we finally get the amusement park, but it was a bit underutilized, in my opinion. Capt. Kadijk is an a**hole, but a good character, as that was point of him. Clever enough to give the Doctor trouble, but not a villain. Just an unpleasant guy doing his job as security chief of Kursaal. Saraband less a character than a plot device to get Sam involved with HALF, the space Greenpeace that is fighting to protect the indigenous life and history of the planet. I don't think the book knew what it wanted to say with HALF, the drug cartels, and the business side (whatever Gray was funding HALF for) of this story. Was this a tale about preserving nature? About preserving history? I'm not sure.

The bad guys are werewolves!!! I like werewolves. The Jax infects people (dead or alive) and turn them info wolf-like creatures. Being exposed to moonlight completes the transformation, which was a fun touch. The Doctor is furious at Kadijk for not containing the werewolves/Jax virus properly during the 15 year timeskip between acts 2 and 3 of the book, saying that the virus might have spread across the Galaxy. Made me think of 'Tooth and Claw'. But yeah, the Jax were cool.

A lot of cool moments from the Doctor in this story. Him pretending to be the pathologist in act 1 simply by using information he overheard (suck it, psychic paper), driving a shuttle like a maniac, faking a heart attack, being angsty about hospitals since he died in one last time (poor guy :()... The whole escape from the hospital sequence was also great fun. Oh, he gets injured again in this one: knocked out by a bomb, and Kadijk breaks several of his fingers with an axe. At this point, I am keeping count:

• Memory Loss:1 (in 'The Eight Doctors')
• Serious Injuries/Near Death Experience:3 (gets vampired 'Vampire Science', nearly drowns in the Thames in 'The Bodysnatchers', bomb+fingers broken in this one)
• Torture:1 (in 'Genocide')

There's some nice moments between Sam and the Doctor in act 1. Sam being pissed that he messed up their timing and arrived 5 years too early on Kursaal and got them caught in a storm. The Doctor being apologetic and giving her his coat (awww). Him trying to help her deal with the shock when they find the bodies of the first victims of the Jax. Sam teasing him when they are the theme park in act 3. They have some moments. However. Character-wise, Sam is becoming a problem. She simply does not have a well defined personality and is not used well in many of the stories so far. Vampire Science and Genocide were the best in giving her a personality, but it was not enough. I think her character really suffered from not having a proper introduction story. It's the 7th book now and I just don't care much for her because I don't know her. She's an environmentalist and wants to act tough. That's pretty much all I can say about her. We get more of her backstory here, but she spends the whole act 3 of the book possessed! The last time she made a choice that lead somewhere in these books was back in Genocide. That was 3 books ago! I'm begging the writers to give her something to do, give her agency, let her decide on things! The one decision she makes by herself in Kursaal is to confront Gray with the information she got from HALF (which was... Idk, a weird decision). The result is just that she gets infected and possessed. Like, c'mon, give her a moment. You know, like when Rose tries to save the Dalek, like when Amy frees the space whale, like when Clara... hell, Clara has about 23049 moments!!! At least Sam's still thinking about the Tractite she killed in 'Genocide'; I like that this is being given some importance, because it should weight on her. That's why their last scene was very good. She killed people when she was possessed, and he decided he's not gonna tell her to protect her. At the same time, she still hasn't told him about when she killed the Tractite. Good. This can (hopefully will) drive her character to an interesting place if she finds out he's keeping things from her, and can lead to some conflict between them.

Oh, I must also comment on how weird some of the dialogue is. Weird swearing, characters say some strange things that just don't sound believable, etc.

Finally, there's a character called Cockaigne and I honest to GOD have no idea how to pronounce that name except as 'cocaine'.