(Taken from my Goodreads Review | Read: April 2022)

I find myself having a love/indifferent relationship with the BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures. First of all, they're hard to get my hands on. Being out of print, I have to rely on my library's Inter-Library Loan program to acquire them. So far, I've been lucky enough to aquire seven of the first eight. I really enjoy Paul McGann's Eighth Doctor having enjoyed the TV Movie despite its faults and followed his adventures from Big Finish. These novels, released after the TV Movie and before Big Finish have had varied results with the first six relying on aspects of Doctor Who past to drive the stories (with the exception of the sixth novel Alien Bodies, which simply has an aspect of the past appear as just one cog in an already massive plot). I've actually enjoyed more than I've hated. Not counting the book I couldn't acquire (Genocide), I've only not finished one of these (Kursaal) and thoroughly enjoyed five of the first eight.

In this story, the Doctor and Sam Jones arrive on an English Estate whose owner is a part-time hypnotist who consults with the military. In the library is the Philosopher's Stone, a marbled orb that glows mysteriously. As the Doctor investigates the manor's history he discovers a secret society that has endured through the centuries. And all the while, the threat of nuclear war hovers over the adventure.

This was a fun read that works as a political thriller coupled with a sci-fi/secret society mystery. It's relatively fast-paced and read quick. I'm enjoying Sam, though she still doesn't seem super defined for me (part of it is that she's not a TV or Audio companion who has a distinct voice I can hear in my head). Because I enjoy political thrillers and the Eighth Doctor, this just breezed through for me. The alien plot is revealed well, and resolved in an enjoyable manner. And with the best of this genera, there's a nice coda after everything's wrapped up. This was fun and a worthy inheritor of the Doctor Who mantle.