Sky Pirates wasn't that great but I still enjoyed many parts. I enjoyed seeing parts of this book that probably influenced the show and other doctor who media. I remember a mention of a time war and a reality bomb on the same page somewhere at the beginning of the book; I'd find it hard to believe that Russell T Davies didn't read this book. The last couple of chapters have a lot to do with timelords and how they treated the rest of the universe which I found interesting. Also, the premise of a weird and silly galaxy was really fun and the explanation for it was pretty cool. My biggest issue with this book was its pacing and info-dumping. Initially, the first 50 or so pages failed to hook my interest and I felt like I was reading page after page of words. Then some things started coming together and I was interested enough to continue reading. Unfortunately, every page after that started to feel like word vomit. There's lots to appreciate in this book and I knew there was stuff I was missing while reading it, but there was so much over-explanation that I wasn't able to appreciate the world-building. I'm also failing to recall a lot of the book because even when I tried to reread things to understand what was going on, it would seem like nothing was actually happening. Then later I'd feel like there's something I'm missing. The book isn't confusing by any means, the plot seemed pretty simple and things came together pretty well in the last chapter, it's just the over-explanation that took me out of the story. Also, Chris and Roz are basically taken out of the plot and given their own little side plot where they get captured and spend the whole book either captured or escaping capture. Even now, I'm still struggling to recall everything I read, even my favorite part, which was how progressive this book is. Solan is a trans man. He's a villain but that's still pretty cool to see a trans man in a Doctor Who book from the 90s. Also, while this is probably for world-building purposes and not political reasons, the sloaths go by it/hir which made me much more interested in them. Benny also directly commented on how primitive homophobia and racism are.

'And you'd be right to think so,' said the Doctor. 'Myths tend to be one part truth, two parts metaphor and five parts corruption, and patriarchy had always been a particularly vulgar form of corruption. The actual truth of it would have been something far different, probably, if truth there actually was. I'd concentrate on the central metaphor if I were you - and particularly how it relates to limits and aspects, and how the mind must react to the truly horrifying if it wants to survive.' He smiled, reminiscently. 'Zeus had the unfortunate habit of blowing everybody's head off wherever he went, but Dionysus had few problems getting on with everybody, as I recall.'
One of my favorite Doctor Who novels of all time. Also possibly one of the best Doctor Who novels of all time, though this is more debatable. The tale of a fetch quest across a dimension of sheer comedy and tragedy reveals a sublime genius at its center. The ending is one of the best within Who.

spent much of my time reading this alternate wildly between "hey this is a cool idea" and "i cant take much more of this". still couldnt put it down. Stone thanks Fritz Leiber in the first pages of this book and man, you don't have to tell ME twice. feels a lot like the later Lankhmar books, in that it lavishes in the completely off-the-wall worldbuilding, the prose is totally self-indulgent, and it often leans into the realm of self-parody, and in much the same way and for many of the same reasons you may or may not be able to stomach this book.

i did have fun! at first i was worried this book was going to fall into certain characterizations of the Doctor that i find interesting enough, but tedious, but in the final act it pulls a couple reveals that totally turned all of that around. i think the lean into cosmic horror that happens here is a lot of fun and very well executed. it could have easily gotten overcooked and over explained, but i think Stone knows right where to stop in this respect. although maybe not in many other respects.