“Hullow” 🐯

If I could sell you on one of the best Doctor Who books of all time in a few words, they would be as follows…

Doctor Who and the Silurians except the Doctor sides with the Silurians. And the Silurians are tigers.

If I could sell you on one of the best Doctor Who books of all time in a few more words, they would be as follows…

- Negatives 🐯

• The title. I keep misremembering it as “The Year of THE Intelligent Tigers” or “Year of the Intelligent Tigers”. I feel like a better title would’ve been just “The Year of the Tigers”. Boom, simple.
• Not really a criticism, just a bit of advice for newbies. While this book is very good for beginners, there are a few bits that are enhanced if you’ve read some previous EDA’s (or at least know some appropriate context). A lot of the Doctor’s frustrations in this book come from his amnesia, which he got at the end of The Ancestor Cell. Over the course of six books and over one hundred years, the Doctor was a wandering amnesiac (this is where the two “breaks” in the book take place) . It's not required reading (I still haven’t read the very important EDA’s myself) but it does help to know. I mean I didn’t know anything when I read this for the first time and I still loved it so what do I know?

+ Positives 🐯

• God, Kate Orman and Jonathan Blum just GET the Eighth Doctor. This is, to me, the perfect portrayal of this incarnation. I hold all other Eighth Doctor media up to this book because of how much it gets him right. The Doctor is just full of equal boundless enthusiasm and brooding melancholy. He wants to fit in with this world of outcasts so badly but he just can’t. He’s so old at this point that he can’t stand to see another Silurian-like incident go the exact same way. Again. He’s a Doctor who can rip a group of selfish humans to shreds in a matter of seconds, and earnestly play with some tiger kittens the next.
• One of our key members of the supporting cast is Karl Sadeghi. And he and the Doctor are, so the kids tell me, hella gay (happy pride month btw). Seeing the Doctor form such a genuine connection to him during the early chapters is so goddamn wholesome. You really get the sense that the Doctor is, for once, trying to fit in and has found companionship with someone. So if anybody tells you “Uh, I can’t believe that Fifteen had a gay kiss, the Doctor isn’t gay”, friendly reminder that this book was written in 2001, was also released in June of that year, intended for the relationship to be 100% homosexual, and that plenty of the EDA’s (before and after) can get far, far gayer.
• The book's structure is quite unique. Instead of parts, the book is broken up into sections named after music terminology. First verse, first chorus, solo, second verse, etc. You’ll get what I mean if you look it up on the wiki. Normally, I’m not a huge fan when the EDA’s shake up their chapter structure (my mind immediately jumps to The Taint) but this one just works, and helps emphasise the musical theme of the whole book.
• Speaking of which, the way this book goes about describing music, playing music and what music can do is genuinely ethereal. You can tell that either Kate Orman or Jonathan Blum have such a deep passion for music as an art form as it just shines through the prose. It’s something I can’t really describe, you just have to read it for yourself. What I’m saying is, get Kate Orman or Jonathan Blum to write the inevitable target novelisation of The Devil’s Chord.
• One of this book’s big claims to fame was its premise. That being a subversion of the typical Silurian/Sea Devil story. What if the Doctor (who has seen this situation go the same way a dozen different times) said “sod it, fix the problem yourself, I’m siding with the other lot”. That alone is a fantastic hook. Most Silurian stories are good, but let’s face it, if you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all. The Silurians are hostile, the Doctor tries to broker peace, the humans attack at the worst moment, the peace plan goes up in flames, the Silurians follow suit and the human race gets a good talking down too. A good formula, but an overdone formula. The Doctor, by this point, is sick of the scenario playing out the same way. He’s finally clocked onto the fact that the human race might just not be worth it sometimes. But over the course of the novel, the premise is expanded on and deconstructed. Is it right for the Doctor to try at all? That technically counts as interfering with history? Does the Doctor have the right to broker peace? He doesn’t live on this planet, yet he decides what’s best for everyone is sharing it with another species. That angle from the book and the levels of depth it goes to is fascinating. And it’s what I always love in expanded media; taking a Doctor Who trope we know and completely flipping it.
• I dare not spoil how this book ends. But it is simply electric to read. And the final “gotcha” moment when it comes to subverting a Silurian esc story. The Doctor is going to save this world, whether they like it or not.

+ Stripey Positives 🐯

• Yes the tiger content is so good, they get their own section. So the Doctor goes to live with the tigers for a bit. OK, more than a bit, ⅔ of the book. And it’s here we meet the tiger sidecast, and the mystery surrounding them.
• First we have the leader, Big. If we use Doctor Who and the Silurians as an example, Big is effectively the Okdel of the novel. The wise old leader who instigates the plan, but doesn’t necessarily want there to be bloodshed. What I love about Big is that, despite his name, he’s not a big lumbering brute who has to be convinced to take the peaceful route. His reasons for his plan are fascinating (and deeply linked to the mystery, which I won’t spoil) and you almost want him to succeed. It’s simply that; he’s a tiger. And the way he went in executing his plan could’ve been better if he had just, ironically, communicated better. He’s also just surprisingly charming, laidback and funny. While reading, I was constantly thinking “this guy absolutely sounds like Shere Khan” But slightly nicer.
• If Big is the Okdel of the story, then Longbody is the story’s version of Morka. While Big wants a peaceful solution and wants to understand things, Longbody just wants to kill. Which you’d think would make her a boring character to follow. But she really isn’t. Not to spoil too much, but Longbody pretends to be a dumb animal for the first third of the book, before revealing her true nature and returning to the wild. And we get plenty of insight into her thinking with several thoughtracks. Longbody prides herself on being able to act so stupid that no one would notice her. But the problem is, she is actually not very intelligent. While many of the tigers want to learn and grow, Longbody couldn’t be less interested. She sees no point in wanting to make peace or learning anything, because she’s completely apathetic to nearly everything that isn’t tiger like. Longbody is effectively an idiot who thinks she’s this super smart tiger pretending to be an idiot. But the book doesn’t immediately present Longbody as an antagonist, if anything, she’s surprisingly likeable and funny early on. But you slowly clock onto the fact that she doesn’t really care about anything and how dangerous that is. All leading to the tailend of the second act, which is an undeniable page turner.
• In a book full of emotional blowouts, character deconstructions and big bold questions, you need some form of levity. And fortunately, the book presents this in the form of Bounce. She’s the first tiger to “meet” the Doctor when he leaves the humans. And rather than kill him, she observes him. And the two start a genuine friendship. Now, Bounce really isn’t that important to the book's proceedings. She doesn’t really plan anything or oppose anyone or really do anything significant. But she is just so damn wholesome. She’s just fascinated by everything around her and, in complete contrast to Longbody, is excited by the prospect of learning new things. She’s just a cute bundle of joy who almost, considering Anji and Fitz are helping the humans, acts as the Doctor’s surrogate companion. Bounce is the wilderness years companion we never got, there I said it. Could you imagine if the Doctor just had a talking tiger for a companion? One that effectively acted like Jo but could also kill you in an instant? That’d be so cool.

Conclusion: 🐯

This is, simply put, one of the best Doctor Who books I’ve ever read. A small cast that is pushed to the limit, with fantastic language and prose, a spectacular subversion or a tried-and-tested trope, a beautiful setting, tigers, and in my eyes; the definitive version of the Eighth Doctor. Please please please, if this review has piqued your interest, if you have even the slightest interest in the EDA’s, I implore you to read this masterpiece.