For a moment there I was considering giving this 4 stars (bear in mind I gave the original audio 0.5), before remembering that the writing really isn't good enough to support that. Too many synonyms for "said" and, much like the audio, the book doesn't always manage to create a sense of setting.

Still, the novelisation is head and shoulders above the original. Some of the lines get reworked - no bad thing - and Spurling fixed the part in the audio where Dean just vanished and everyone seemed to forget about him. We also get to spend much more time with Lucy as a character in her own right which means everything that happens to her feels less like fridging - the idea that female characters tend to suffer worse and more permanent fates than male characters for said male character's plot, with no acknowledgement of how it affects the female character - and more like the sort of terrible thing that can happen in a sci-fi story. Even Pivor gets a few moments

Genuinely: if someone ever mentions to me they're going to listen to The Rani Reaps the Whirlwind, I'm going to recommend they just read it instead