This was a decent bit of self-insert fanfiction. It was not a good book.

There's almost no room to breathe and get to know our main character before he's thrust directly into the plot. A lot of characters are introduced in rapid succession with very little to tell them apart, and then that entire plot is dropped within a handful of chapters, and an entirely new story begins.

For a book that advertises itself as a multi-Doctor story, we spend drastically different amounts of time with different incarnations, and a disproportionate amount of time with previous Doctors' companions and villains. The Eighth Doctor has very little interaction with any Doctor other than the Sixth. It feels as though the author wanted to place himself in Eight's place and spend some time with all the other Doctors.

The amnesia is severely under-utilised. I didn't get the sense that there was anything actually wrong with the Doctor.

Even the multi-Doctor plot is disjointed. Each of the longer parts individually would make very good epilogues, and the characters are very well written - the author clearly knew how to write them - but a bunch of good epilogues do not a good novel make.

The part with the Sixth Doctor was by far the best, and the only part of the book that actually felt like a novel. The Gallifreyan plot was weaved into the rest of the book and came to a satisfying conclusion (even if the inclusion of the Master was somewhat gratuitous). I enjoyed the politics and the worldbuilding.

The ending is just as jarringly short as the beginning, and Sam's transition into a companion is severely lacking.

It's possible I would have enjoyed this book more if I was more familiar with the other Doctors. As it stands, I had only reached the Third Doctor's era before reading this, and I didn't feel that his part was particularly relevant, even if it was good.

There's also the matter of formatting: any digital version of this I could find had the same strange errors where lines would cut to a new paragraph in the middle of a sentence. Practically every line had this issue. I got used to it, but I can't say it made for a particularly pleasant reading experience.

Potentially an intriguing premise, but an ultimately botched execution. Slapdash and confusing, I remember several scenes vividly, but couldn't explain the overarching plot for love nor money, possibly because there wasn't one. Attempts to introduce every previous Doctor as Eight travels back to meet them in a series of vignettes that ranged from fascinating to perplexing to downright tedious in a manner that I can only compare to CATS! (2019). I would accept it on AO3, but as the start of an official BBC-licensed series? Downright execrable.

Oh, Sam's here too. Hi, Sam. This really wasn't a good place for you to come in, Sam.

[cross-posting from my goodreads]

is this a good book? not particularly.
did i get very happy, blushed, and said “OMG IT’S YOU, HIIII” every time any of the Doctors and companions showed up? yes, yes i did.

the story does hold, although it’s not very inspired. the same goes for the writing. but it’s only the first book of the series, the mise en place, so to speak. it was enjoyable enough, so i’m hyped for the rest of this series.

No spoilers in paragraph one; yes spoilers in paragraph two.

So, finished my first EDA! It did not disapp- well, actually, that's a lie. It very much disappointed. I found it dull for the most part, with little emotional depth. Had I not, yano, consumed other eighth doctor media, I would not have cared for the character at all. It often felt like reading a script with a lot of stage directions, rather than a novel. It's a real shame, as I know Terrance Dicks was an absolutely prolific novelisation writer and TV serial writer, but I just could not enjoy this novel. There were a few moments that made me laugh, and a couple interesting tidbits lore-wise that aren't original to the novel, but that I hadn't heard before. Those funny moments brought the book up a little for me, but not enough to give it three stars.

Good things about the novel - Sam Jones. At the beginning, the part with the drugs felt too much like Terry was trying to be "down with the kids", using as much slang as he could get in there. This took away from my enjoyment of the character. However, the part right at the end, Sam's introduction to the TARDIS? That was funny, witty, and a great introduction to the character. If only we'd seen more of her, I think I would have enjoyed the book more. I am very chuffed that I get more of her in the next book, which I've heard amazing praise for, so, very excited for Vampire Science! The other thing about The Eight Doctors that I thought was interesting was the Seventh Doctor's depression. I really hadn't expected this novel to go into mental illness, and so it certainly surprised me when we got to that part! I liked that Terry tried to deal with the Doctor's depression and loneliness, as that's not something that's often said in those exact words in Who. We see the effect of it, but we rarely hear people go "The Doctor has clinical depression". I wish that the section had been longer, with more time to explore the effect of the Doctor's illness on his life.

Alright, that's all for now!

A bit of a jumble, narratively. The central conceit is actually not a bad way to start a range, a sort of “best of” to familiarize newcomers with what’s come prior is actually quite sensible. Cracks only start to show when considering the range’s titular character. The Eighth Doctor feels distinctly like a nonentity, rattled to and fro in a cosmic game of pinball without much volition. He’s a permanent victim of circumstance, perpetually going through the motions.

The Sixth (“a big, powerful fellow with a tendency to put on weight”) and the Seventh (described as “[s]mall, dark and not particularly handsome”) Doctors randomly catch several strays, which, though funny, felt oddly out of place. I understand this was to differentiate each incarnation, I just found it particularly jutted out to me in comparison to every other description.

I would consider this an unnecessary entry, if you’re not like me and you don’t feel the need to go for completion, I’d say to skip it entirely, as it doesn’t set any real expectations nor points of interest for the following books.