The boringest!!!! HOW can a book that has the Master, the Daleks, and Susan be so boring? Because it should be impossible. But this book does it. I honestly did not like anything in this story, but I'll highlight some things:

The Doctor is... strange in this. In the beginning, he's wondering whether he should go after Sam or not. Excuse me??? What did he think happened at the end of 'Longest Day', that Sam saw his dead body, gave him one last hug, shrugged and left the base happily? Of course she needs him to find her! She's 17 alone in space, impossibly far from home, ffs. I also didn't like the emphasis they put on the "the Doctor needs a companion because he needs an audience to his brilliance, plus he gets bored if he's alone" idea. I do believe that is part of why he has a companion, but that is far from the main reason! These people are his friends! He should want Sam back because she's probably lost and in danger, it's his fault, and he likes her, not because he's lonely and bored. He misses his friend!!! "If he really got bored this time he could always find someone else. Anyone else, really. TARDIS-fodder." What on Earth... On top of this, he felt off to me through the entire book. Telling Donna all about himself after just meeting her, like he was reading out of "What you should know about the Doctor before watching Doctor Who" article or something. He doesn't do anything overly OOC, but the voice was wrong in a way I can't pinpoint. And also boring. Cardinal sin right here, making the Doctor boring.

Susan's here, and for all they do for her, she would be better off not being here at all. Her marriage troubles with David make sense, but on God why did the author feel the need to say that she makes David forget about it by seducing him with her sexy forever young body? When the Master kills David, she gets revenge by torturing him, pretty much killing him, and stealing his TARDIS. Yes, exactly what I wanted from a "the Doctor goes back to visit Susan" story: kill her husband and make her kill the killer in revenge. Great. What 99.99% of people would actually want was for Susan to have a meaningful conversation with her grandfather, but they do not get a single scene together. Nothing! And he doesn't go after her once she gets the Master's TARDIS (nor does he go after the Master). Maybe he can't trace her, and that'd make sense, but he doesn't even try. Neither does she, because she thinks he's dead. Which makes no sense, because he got shot by 01 bullet: he would regenerate even if it had been fatal. So yeah, I felt very cheated.

The Master here is Delgado!Master (yes, we're breaking the laws of time a little bit), and thus has a silly Delgado-style 'destroy humankind, rule the universe' plan. Which is okay, his plan is very on par with the expected, but again, he's boring. Very few interaction with the Doctor, does not know who Susan is until the very end, doesn't even interact with the Daleks all that much. Waste of Master.

The Doctor's one-off companion here is Donna (hehe), a almost-princess turned knight. And guess what, she was violently abused and raped by one of the villains of the story. Not to worry though! Like Susan, she gets to kill the man who hurt her, and all is well. She then marries a less evil guy and gets to be queen!

The best word to describe both the character writing and plot of this book is 'amateurish'. Everything is presented like the author had to try real hard not to write it as bullet points. Feelings and reactions are over simplified and at the same time over-explained. The plot is not the riveting political drama it seems to think it is. The immense potential for character interactions between the Doctor, the Master, and Susan is wasted. We get the origin story for the crispy Master: Susan killed him. Yay?

Oh, the list, how could I forget:

• Memory Loss:1 (in 'The Eight Doctors')
• Serious Injuries/Near Death Experience:5 (gets vampired 'Vampire Science', nearly drowns in the Thames in 'The Bodysnatchers', bomb+fingers broken in 'Kursaal', electrocuted in 'Longest Day', gets shot and suffers from severe blood loss in this one)
• Torture:1 (in 'Genocide')