0.5/5

I wasn’t sure if I wanted to even write a short review for this book really – 30 books into the series and this is the only one that I actively wouldn’t ever want to re-read.

Many events in this book carry themselves with an undeserved self-importance that is utterly cringeworthy and a struggle to read through. Main characters are entirely out of character throughout, while side characters are cliché roles with little personality.

Aside from there being very little of interest in this book, the worst thing about it actually is its actual construction; scenes and chapters do not flow into each other and reading it ends up feeling like watching a film with poor editing that makes the characters look like they’re teleporting round, appearing in places randomly to do things with no motive, or seemingly doing important things but in a cut segment only.

It was such a struggle to grasp what was happening scene to scene, page to page, in some sections that even on several re-reads of a paragraph or page things still wouldn’t be clear. In the last quarter of the book, I had stopped re-reading most scenes that weren’t clear to me, I just desperately wanted to finish the book so I could move onto something else.

At times I genuinely felt like this book was somehow gaslighting me into questioning my own literacy. I have read no book quite like this before.

4/5

Solid plot with a bit of a horror element. Uses its main characters well too. This is definitely one to read from the 9th Doctor NSAs – not amazing or revolutionary but very solid. Very little that I want to criticize from this book.

3/5

Very interesting premise, plot and opening, but leaves me wondering why Jack was included in this story as he is side-lined for much of the story – although his role seems appropriate, it’s disappointing he doesn’t have more to contribute, especially with only appearing in three of these early new series adventures.

When remembering this book though, my first thought is always of some mild but strange decisions, mostly later in the book, that to me gave it an air of immaturity that I just don’t particularly think works.

Very interesting premise let down by its tone and how it treats its main characters.

3/5

I struggle to remember too much from this story; it’s certainly less interesting than other entries in the series, but makes decent use of its main characters, including Jack (who isn’t sidelined as in Only Human).

Still a decent read, with the main draw being solid characterisation for the main characters, who all have something to do in the limited plot.

3/5

Quite a grim and interesting plotline in this book that’s gripping at times, due to the horror involved in several scenes (especially for what you might think for the new series). However I feel like this book carries some level of juvenile misogyny to it, which is mildly off putting at points (although this isn’t uncommon among sci-fi books in general and more specifically, I have experienced this feeling with other Doctor Who books, even a few others in the new series adventures).

3/5

Interesting set-up with historical characters and an alien/tech-based mystery, but just ends up a quite average adventure, solid, but nothing that stands out really. Maybe a few out of character moments later on, but not egregious/continuous.

There is more interesting books in the series, but its perfectly readable still.

4.5/5

This book is the highlight of the Nine and Rose NSAs.

Interesting story that gives a real feel that the characters are having to struggle to sort anything out, and quite darker and serious in places than I particularly expected from the new series books.

Along with several other books in the series, this made me preferentially look out for stories by Jacqueline Rayner.

5/5

At time of writing this review I have read around 50 Doctor Who books: Fallen Gods is my favourite, easily.

Strong dialogue and imagery, plenty of action, interesting setting, characters, character dynamics, moral dilemma and conflict, and most importantly for my opinion of this novella, such a well-rounded characterisation of The Eighth Doctor. While of course one single (shorter) story can’t capture every single aspect of a character (especially one so complex) and their accompanying themes, this novella captures so many aspects of the character that it basically might as well do. Definitely a book I would recommend to fans of the EDAs (especially those already fond of Orman and Blum’s contributions) and also people new to The Eighth Doctor, as with such a comprehensive portrayal of The Doctor, I believe it would make a great introduction.

If this story was in a less obscure series than the Telos Novellas, it would be at least as popular as Vampire Science, Genocide, Alien Bodies, Seeing I etc.

2/5

The subject of this book is possibly more interesting to others, and I certainly did enjoy the odd scene early in the book. Aside from the odd moment early on though this book was just boring really: side characters as nothing more than templates, main characters having little real contribution to the story, long sections of events repeated from multiple perspectives but with no new insight that the alternate perspectives might have given, and sections of story that seem to bear no relevance to anything else in the book in particular.

There’s better stories and more interesting Dalek stories out there.

4.5/5

Truthfully this is a book that I struggled to decide on a score for; it’s a fairly average story really with nothing revolutionary going on, possibly deserving of a 3-3.5 rating *however* I don’t think I have experienced another book that does ‘mid-series average story’ in such a well-rounded manner.

Interesting premise and characters, lot of fun to read, a couple of standout scenes later on and ultimately no specific criticisms while reading. I have given this book a 4.5 rating, but ultimately, I suppose, it’s dependent on how each person views review score, either as a scale of how well the book meets its objective (of being a fun mid series story with established characters) or how interesting/enjoyable was the book in the context of other stories.

If you asked me for the best or most interesting Doctor Who books, The Resurrection Casket probably wouldn’t get a mention; but if you asked me for fun revival Doctor Who stories – this would be the first book I send you to.

2.5/5

While the story itself is a decent romp through Arthurian legend with great chemistry between our main characters, The Doctor and Donna have remarkably little agency in their travel: simply following along the story that’s unfolding for them for almost the entire length of the book until something happens.

Enjoyed the book for some time, until it clicked that the main characters just weren’t actually doing anything, and would continue to ride the ebb and flow of the legends.

Probably still a decent read for anyone looking for a bit of fun.

4/5

Really just a competent and fun book with interesting characters and plot.

I felt this book to be a breath of fresh air where it is in the series. After the recent run of books, I had been left questioning: ‘why are these people travelling, what is actually in it for them to compensate for all the torture and abuse they get from the universe?’. While I am not averse to the EDAs having a fairly grim outlook on the universe, many books seem to forget to make some attempt to balance this with the idea that these characters are actually having fun in some way; Demontage doesn’t forget this and shows the TARDIS team travelling for fun, doing things because they can, because they want to and then encountering the violent side of the universe while in the context of an actually fun adventure for the team.

Definitely a one to read if the almost grimdark tone of some of the entries to the series starts to weigh.

2.5/5

Option Lock is, I thought, a very interesting book, with a competent complement of characters; certainly, a strong thriller entry into the Doctor Who expanded universe.

My lower rating then, comes from the fact that at around the midpoint of this book I realised that the main characters so far have had very little agency in the run of events and that the villains seemed to be lenient to them, for the sake of keeping the heroes in the plot. From then on, I was on the look out for the main characters having anything meaningful to do that affects the plot and ended up feeling like this never occurred.

The plot however is still interesting, and it feels clear that the author has a talent for the cold war thriller genre – in a rare turn for a Doctor Who book, I feel like the plot is hampered by the presence of The Doctor and all the sci-fi elements he brings with him. I wish I could read a version of this book that wasn’t a part of the Doctor Who universe.

I probably would give this book a slightly higher rating if I read this again, after all it is a competent exercise in its genre, I was just so dejected while reading by the perceived lack of agency of the main characters that I can’t currently give it a higher rating.

2.5/5

Many people will tell you to skip this book if you ask them about the best way to start the EDAs, and while they probably aren’t wrong, I believe that this book is more entertaining than most will give credit for.

The main fault of this book is its structure. Having a novel structured like a collection of linking short stories, when it’s the first book in your series isn’t an amazing choice as the reader is unable to settle with a single complement of characters, or a single environment in which more can be gleaned from how the new main characters for the series interact with it; a structure like this may have fit in more later in the series when it isn’t an immediate priority to flesh out new leading roles. However, even if this book had been written to fit in later in the series the structure of it would still result in a fairly low rating (from me at least, but I’m sure many would still feel the same also) as some compartments of the story are just too small and feel rushed in to have anything particularly meaningful or noteworthy within. As for other general criticisms of this book, odd dialogue and character choices aside, the story feels as if it happens independently of the characters almost – again reducing the agency and freedom of the main character in the first book of their own series is certainly not a great choice.

There are parts of this book I want to defend, with several of the larger sections actually being quite fun, with quite a few interesting moments and character decisions. Without including spoilers, it is hard to explain why I liked several excerpts from this book, but I will say while having a negative opinion of this book after finishing it, months later I would still find myself idly thinking about certain scenes and what they mean for the personalities of the characters involved (or just how fun they were).

Overall, I would probably agree that readers who aren’t committing to reading the full EDA series should probably skip this as it takes momentum out of the start of the series, and there is little within that is of great importance later in the series (I am writing this review while 30 books into the series). It is a book I wish could be restructured with a few little story tweaks; to eliminate the main weaknesses of the book and keep in the interesting segments.