It took me a long while to get round to writing this review because it took me quite a while to digest this book. What a book it is. Anyone who knows anything about the EDAs knows that Unnatural History is considered one of the greats, and I must say, I understand why. However, there was a section in the start to middle where I didn't understand why. For a second, I really thought I was going to be the only person who thought that Unnatural History was just fine rather than wow!

But I was wrong. I think part of my issue is that there are a lot of moving parts in this book. There are lots of characters to keep track of, complicated timelines and even more complicated explanations for why the time is out of wack. I think this is the kind of book that benefits from reread, from careful pondering. Which is no bad thing, especially given some of the forgettable dross the EDAs have given us to this point. Though it's hard to follow, especially at first, Unnatural History really ramps up as it passes the halfway point, and I read most of that in one go, breathlessly engaged.

The book opens with an alternative 'brown haired' Sam, harking back to the biodata shenanigans of Alien Bodies (another book whose complexity bamboozled me. I kind of want to get into Faction Paradox but I fear I have no hope of understanding it) and then proceeds to make her so, so interesting that it makes you wish Blorman had written every other appearance of Sam ever. This isn't the blonde Sam we know and, uh, love - this is edgy brunette Sam, a Sam who does drugs and has a s**t job and yells at the world. She makes blonde Sam look like the most boring person alive, and yet, despite the utter lack of characterisation our poor Sam has had over the last twenty-odd books, it is still somehow obvious that she is indeed a could have been version rather than a totally different person.

And that's why it's utterly heartbreaking when brunette Sam decides to sacrifice herself for the 'number 18'. Through the whole book, the Doctor is desperately trying to prevent the city from falling apart, and failing as he's pursued by a guy who would just love to study him like a bug, and a creepy child of the Facton Paradox. There are call-backs to the movie, and inadvertent calls-forward to New Who arcs such as the Hybrid and the Timeless Child. This is a book that seems to have grown and recontextualised itself long after publication (that, or New Who writers really need to stop poaching the EDAs for ideas).

Fitz too is again excellent in this one. Though I was at first a bit icked out when he and Sam slept together, I do think it made sense and I don't hate the decision. Poor Fitz always seems to be having the worst day ever in these books. Then again, when does any Eight companion have a good time?

So overall, yes. I thought this one started a little slow, but I have still given it a 10/10 because once I got into it, I got really into it, and by the end it slammed into me like a train. It's the kind of book where you turn the last page and go 'woah' and have to stare at the wall for a while to take it all in.