The Silurian Gift

This was my first look at a "Quick Read" and it wasn't terrible, to be honest.  I was expecting something entirely geared towards kids and instead I got a short story about a new fuel source discovered in Antarctica, featuring Sea Devils, Mykra, and the Silurians all going up against the American Navy.  It is quite the adventure with a lot of ideas packed into a very short word count and in spite of that, I still found parts a little too boring, other parts a little too simplistic, and lots of elements left undeveloped.  Looking into it - this is kind of the intention of the publication.  Quick Reads are designed to get adults who don't normally read a chance to do so, and from that angle I can see how something like this might be effective.

The characters have potential.  The villain of the story really is a character named Pelham, a sort of standard business guy that really seems to regret his actions after his assistant is killed late in the story.  That's pretty interesting in the wide world of Doctor Who villains but we really barely scratch the surface with him, the Silurians, or even the one-off companion Lizzie that works with the Doctor here.  You would think that the unique setting of the South Pole would be a creative challenge for the Silurian faction, given their weakness to cold, but it really comes across as trivial because, like everything else, these ideas are largely left unexplored.

It's alright.  I don't think I'd recommend it, but hey, at least it's not the worst Silurian story!