Don’t really Review much outside of the VNAs, I can’t even begin to speak about how good this story is without going into personal Territory , but it’s a story that definitely near touched my soul ❤️

Wow… this book is a tough one to read and talk about, mahonys prose alone is enough to fill this review to the brim, it’s random, it’s fluid, and at times it’s difficult to read and trying to understand it is what makes this book so intruiging, each sentence describing something being so chocked full of vivid imagery that it makes the book hard to put down, had I not had exams I would have read this book so much faster and likely within fewer sittings.

the characters are the highlight of this book in my opinion, it’s a piece where everyone suffers, Bernice , Ace and the doctor are tortured throughout the book by the sadistic Gabriel and Tanith, they’re interesting conceptually as the personification of all the death and suffering caused by time travel, given form by the cathedral, the consequences of time travel, the doctors and many others children given form coming in to , in a sense , punish the doctor , there are so many passages here where I found myself genuinely wishing the book would move on (in a good way) as it hurt to see characters like Bernice degraded morally and physically like this.

I think plot wise this book gets confusing and I wouldn’t blame someone for putting it down, my one critique of it would be that at times the plot moves a bit slow, as good as mahonys descriptions are there comes a point where it’s being over descriptive and later parts of the book in the cathedral suffer from this, cutting the pacing and making it a bit slower to read

every character is characterized perfectly, Ace has to come face to face with her violent nature in the form of Jane and is forced to confront her feelings of having become this violent person, seeing how her and the doctor react to Bennys “death” as well is painful, genuinely some of the most depressing passages in the book, the doctor doesn’t get to be a hero here, while he is party responsible for the suffering here, he does not get to do anything essentially…. Most of the plot is reliant on outside forces to move forward the tardis team just desperately fighting to survive, it’s a horror show, written as I saw in another review, as an answer to Marc platts ghostlight in a sense and one adventure that will stick with me for how disturbing it is! Definitely up there as one of the better VNAs so far!! Loved it!

After a month break after getting halfway through the NAs with first frontier… I am saddened that the second half of my journey starts off with such a whimper as well… mark gatiss fall off needs to be studied, there isn’t anything inherently wrong with this book, except that it’s antagonists feel flat and 2d , Ace and Bernice are given a few good lines of characterization… but that’s all the positives, the story feels so dull, the prose feels so stagnant, it was a hard read (I mean it took me a month to read it on and off) though it’s finally over so I can move onto what’s hopefully some good books! The setting of this book is boring tbh, I am really saddened to see the author who wrote nightshade , an amazing NA fall off like this… it’s saddening , but it is what it is…. I don’t really want to, nor do I think i really can go more in-depth here, as I said before ace receives a few good moments and it questions why she’s thinking of leaving the doctor and Benny but it’s not enough to carry this sludge of a book… so yeah not a great start, hopefully onto better things!

i hate this show man , 13th doctor scene and the pre regeneration scene carried this, jodie my glorious goat, curious to see where the show goes from here though, but man... i am ruined ill miss you ncuti gatwa i wish for your success in hollywood because you deserve it king.

are we serious? i like juno dawson but this is the most out of touch doctor who has been in years.

im interested in the rani stuff for next ep but this episode? are we serious

I really wanted to like this book… truly I did, i was intruiged at the start but because of the PDF format and how dull… this book feels I just couldn’t enjoy it, reading it felt like a pain even when the plot was interesting… this book is carried to 2 stars by the master and ace  and doctor interactions and those only come in the second half of the story which is fine.. because the first half is decent but similar to Shadowmind it just takes a leap into boredom in the second half… it felt like I was pushing myself to finish this… maybe mcintees books aren’t for me … but it’s a shame I have to finish the first half of the NAs with this… and start the second half with what I’ve been told is also a bad book…. It’s a shame the NAs have been on such a fun run since birthright… and this just shuts it back down.. alas at least it’s over… I don’t wanna review or talk about this book anymore… hopefully sanctuary is better..

Strange England is one I went into with zero to no expectations… I’d heard only bad things so imagine my surprise when I read this book within 2 days and found it brilliant, strange England is a very atmospheric piece, very elicit of the story ghostlight (at least at the beginning) it is also very brutal and horror focused, there are some really gory and just straight violent moments, the second half of the book is even crazier and you don’t really get any solid answers till the last 20 pages, honestly that made me like the book a lot more, it always kept me on my toes , always kept me wanting to read more and there was never a slow moment, Simon messingham really hits hard with his first doctor who novel. I’ve seen people complain that the characters are 2D and we shouldn’t care about them and I feel like people miss out that, that’s kind of the point, these are “people” becoming people, learning what it is to be human. The moral debate of Whether the doctor and co are really doing good in the universe comes about again, bigger than ever when considering the whole affair is caused by the doctor and his crew landing inside Galahs Tardis Universe, and Bernice rightfully questions the doctor on this, the doctor and galahs ideals about what “good” is was also very interesting to read, overall a very divisive novel which I believe is severely underrated in the VNA reader community, it isn’t amazing or anything super crazy good but an enjoyable story non the less that has some really interesting ideas

Say what you will about uncle Terry, fella knows how to make a story entertaining, his simple and very easy to read prose makes this book fly by, the plot is interesting, I found the 2 split sides of the adventure (the Vampire world and Chicago) to be fun, each time we’d switch perspective I’d be excited to get back to the other while still enjoying the one I was on, the issues with this novel stem from the really … stupid decisions the antagonist makes? And the very devs ex machina ending, don’t get me wrong I love a good Gallifrey story and it was nice, but man…. It just felt so rushed and weird. Overall a very easy read which I can’t say about most VNAs!

I’m a sucker for 2 things when it comes to the NAs, interesting meta/narrative framing and character work, this story nails the first one, seeing the story from Watsons and Bernice’s perspectives from diary entries or just in general from the first person perspective is so much fun, this book is structured in the sense that it is an Andy lane Book wrapped around a Sherlock Holmes novel and while I have not read to deeply into the Sherlock Holmes canon I was quite happy seeing the cameos of moriarty and what not. Holmes and the doctors relationship in this book is brilliant, they mirror each other but getting to see Sherlock Holmes realize that the doctor is kind of … well not kind of but very much above his league is cool, seeing the doctor from Watsons perspective makes the character seem so much more mysterious, we’re used to seeing the doctor and his schemes from the perspectives of people like ace, and Benny who know the doctor well but seeing a total new comer in Watson notice things about the doctor, how alien he is was very fun…

this book combines lovecraftian and Indian Mythology with Sherlock Holmes and adds doctor who in there… what more can I say , it’s a fun read and definitely worth a check out if you have time!

“I will show you death in an hour glass”

what a book, Justin Richard’s first doctor who novel is an absolute banger, this book was my first experience with the character of Irving braxiatel outside of zagreus and he is an absolutely charming fella, his mirroring of the 7th doctor being this manipulative person on the inside but outside shows a more bureaucratic demeanor is brilliant, Benny also shines very highly in this book, her sections are the most fun to read and while ace and 7 are also great, 7 in particular getting a brilliant Monologue about the passing of time , Benny is truly the star here, her initial sections before 7 and ace get involved are so much fun and it shows that Benny can stand on her own as a character without needing another lead. Richard’s prose at times is a bit iffy but his story crafting is absolutely brilliant, the twists and turns this book takes will leave you agape constantly, the foreshadowing from the Quotes and Files at the beggining of each chapter will leave you constantly guessing and I admire deeply the story that Richard’s has created here as well as his writing of braxiatel. As someone who is not a big Shakespeare guy I can still respect the homages to him as well as the classic theatre presented in this book. Definitely a great book and im glad that the NA range has been staying consistently good since the Alternate universe arc!

Legacy is a fun whodunnit by Gary Russell who goes all out with his continuity references, this story made me really like the ice warriors, they are so cool here, lord savar and sskeet are really nice additions to the cast and I’m interested to see how Benny changes as a person as she goes to live with them for the next 3 months… the book is a love letter to Brian Hayles Peladon duology and it’s really beautiful in the way it does that, the exploration of Peladons deep history, a few little cameos from Mr Braxiatel….. this story is just a blast to read from beginning to end. While this book does pretty clearly show Russell didn’t really know what to do with ace as she gets pretty significantly sidelined for a solid 5/6ths of the book I still think her sections are fun if not funny… can’t wait for next book to formally introduce Irving!

Disclaimer, any praise I give this book is directed only towards the writing and not the author himself , thank you!

tragedy is a weird one to review, coming after the alternate history cycle the main trios relationship has very much healed to a point where they’re all buddy buddy with eachother again, which makes this a really fun read, GRoberts uses his witty dialogue and Douglas Adam’s esque writing to make this book a really enjoyable romp which made me really laugh at times, the ending was kinda… weird, with how the supreme one suddenly falls for Bernice, in a um… interesting let’s say way, but the rest of the book is enjoyable as it can get, the stuff with the friars of pangloss is kind of shoved in and them being villains in the end was kind of unnecessary? i DIDNT like it and thought it made the plot a bit all over the place but this book was a nice little breather after the really intense and dark last few books. Overall okay, I think it’s  better than highest science but sits at just alright for me as a kind of filler , but fun read

Steven Moffats second story of the RTD2 era is a banger, it may not be his best Christmas special let alone story but it sure is a hell of a good one to go out on, there are issues with this but Moffat nails 15s characterization , you can also tell that Ncuti is really in his stride here , like damn he’s good, he really feels like the doctor (not that he didn’t before) it really felt that Moffat was going for a mix of 7 and 12 here (more 7) and I really liked that, the use of a bootstrap paradox to show a year of the doctors life passing, joy becoming a star, one made of the hearts of life to bring joy and peace to earth, was absolutely beautiful, it’s a banging start for Season 2 of this era and with that fantastic trailer, I can only look forward for what’s more to come!

Well to start off I should say that my experience with this novel was weird, unfortunately due to getting busy I read this novel over a scattered period of days which led the narrative flow of the book not being as smooth for me as well as me not being able to remember many plot points at times, however I will say, character/prose wise this was amazing, it’s definitely Cornell’s worst of the 3 NAs he’s done so far but that’s not fair to say when his other 2 were my top 2 of the range, no future is still great, letting us feel bad for the monk, satisfyingly wrapping up the Alt universe cycle (although the books plot feels a bit all over the place) as well as emotionally wrapping up all the character arcs of the last few books letting our tardis team finally be happy, finally be able to accept eachother , ace is able to manipulate the doctor beat him at his game, the doctor goes from warrior to healer and he accepts ace has grown and is different, they embrace eachother and their future relationships, Benny also comes to terms with both of them, she can’t and won’t leave the doctor. And I can’t wait to see this new friendlier dynamic explored.

“'It's only the same as your TARDIS!

'How do you know about that?'

Mel thought for a moment. 'Sorry,' he said finally. 'Continuity error. You never did tell me that, did you?' This is getting just a little out of hand, I think.

Best to end it all now.”

This novel was fantastic, I love the style in which it’s told, through the master of the land of fiction, the prose and creative use of narration in this book make it one of the most enjoyable intriguing NAs so far, arguably the most fun I’ve had reading a virgin new adventure, when the twist was finally hit that the crew were in the land of fiction I was genuinely shocked! The meta stuff was great, I’m not sure how to explain what I mean by that but take one look at the quote above and you can kind of tell, this story was crazy and when they do meta stuff well it just works , and Steve Lyons gets it, I’m sorry if I’m repeating myself but the plot and the medium through which the plot is told is just brilliant , it’s not a super emotional book, there are some good character moments (and some bad but we’ll get into that in a minute) but you’re more so reading this book for a whacky mystery novel that’s quite brutal at times. The bad parts however come from the characterization of ace, I think there are some good scenes between her, Benny and the doctor (together and separately) however at times ace just acts extra cruel for no reason and kind of out of character, though I like how we really get to see into the relationship between her and the doctor, as well as Benny and the doctor, I’m ready for them to start healing their relationships than their relationships constantly being shattered over and over, and I hope no future as I’ve been told by others starts to let them heal and make them feel like friends or at least pals again. Overall great book! Can’t wait for Lyons next novel and sequel, Head Games!

Easily the best of the alternate universe cycle so far, Kate orman makes her doctor who novel debut and comes in with a BANG, if this is supposedly her worst book I look forward to see how her future books are like, this book is a bit rough around the edges with the flow of the prose sometimes being a bit jump starty and perspectives changing to quick with no indicator as to when it occurred (this could also be a PDF error but I don’t think so) and if this is fixed I cannot wait to see ormans more character oriented stories (The room with no doors….) as the character stuff is amazing here, we get a really nice look and introspective into the status-quo of each of the tardis team and their relationships with each other, the trust between the doctor and ace is deteriorating rapidly and Benny is stuck in the middle of that unsure if she should leave, but can she leave the doctor and ace on their own? Ace feels connected to the doctor, like they’re one in the same but their actions and personalities differ so much to the point it causes strife between them, Benny puts it well when she says “'I guess you can't stuff three personalities this strong into a phone booth and not have some conflict.” The dynamic between the three of them is great and while I like the fact that these issues have been addressed in a clearer way than any other book with this trio so far has, I would 1) like to see more of Benny as much as she’s a player in this one I still feel that she’s sidelined compared to ace, and 2) is like to see a conclusion to this, we don’t need to solve the doctor and aces complex love for eachother yet but I’d like to see them come to some sort of getting along (similar to how they all were at the beggining of shadowmind) so the team doesn’t feel as toxic, or if not at least expand on it more like this novel… overall this is great, a great plot, setting and character work from orman. Can’t wait to read more!

This book is kinda weird to me, it feels like a nothing burger, it’s not a boring book but at the same time does nothing interesting, Aces rising tension with the doctor and her trying to figure him out are cool and Benny wanting to leave due to rising tensions between ace, 7 and even herself at points are nice, there are a few cool scenes scattered throughout (specifically the bar scene with 7 in the Q4) But other than that this book just kinda feels lackluster and forgetable, I don’t see myself really looking back on this book or remembering much from it in the next few weeks let alone when I’m done with the NAs

Iceberg while definitely a step down from birthright is still a pretty neat story, Banks gets the cybermen in ways that not many other writers do, the doctor only really shows up halfway into the book but Ruby and the rest of the cast are interesting enough to warrant the first half a decent read, the vivid gory imagery presented in this book is everything you’d want out of a cyberman story and while it’s not the best thing ever, it’s still an enjoyable book albeit it one I won’t remmeber much about by the time I post this review , the cyberman lore stuff was a bit confusing timeline wise as I haven’t read banks book on it (not that you need to) but it didn’t take away anything from the story for me, Ruby and the doctor are really great together and it’s honestly sad that she ended up not being able to travel with him , the idea of the dehumanization is used brilliantly here but in a way which almost makes the cybermen sound right? It’s weird, not their facist views but more the idea that survival is needed, no matter the cost and humans are heading in the same direction, but yeah overall its just okay, a fun cyberman romp which offers some cool quotes!

“Alone with his choice, the Doctor began to reprogram the console.

You win this round, whoever you are, he thought. But watch the shadows.

And don’t slip for a moment. Because when you do, I’ll be there, and I’ll bring you to book. For Earth. For the children.

He touched the function execute switch.”

Wow what a book, mortimore goes to some extremely dark places and really does an in-depth look into the concept of war through the eyes of not only the innocents but also Both sides, the parallels between chtall and the brigadier are brilliant the conflicting ideas of war and peace between the hardcore UNIT people and the doctor/Morka are also great, mortimore also puts Jo and Benton through hell, and the twist at the end, the doctor making the choice to end the alternate timeline by time ram… puts a nail on the coffin, the doctor is mad now, whoever this mysterious villain is has completely shattered the barely healing bond between ace and the doctor as well as forced his hand to do something terrible, and the doctor is out for revenge, it’s some great set up as well as just a great story in general, while I’m a bit upset Benny wasn’t used more (she feels like, except for the last chapter, more of a second violent ace with the scenes on the submarine) and it’s getting to the point now where I can’t make excuses for authors not knowing how to characterize Benny or use her as we’re now 10 books in with her! That being said this story is still fun regardless, some parts were hard to visualize but other than that it was brilliant, the character stuff with Benny, ace and 7 in the epilogue being my favorite part!

This story was pretty good , from the shocking death of the doctor and Helen being wiped from existence to the strange reveal of the companion of the story being MR James, it’s a rollercoaster of a ride that feels like shada for some reason (university setting probably) with professor Snape from Harry Potter as the antagonist with its own unique big finish twist, while I did enjoy the story I kind of wish this episode focused a bit more on Helen and her grandfather, I know we got a focal Helen story in what lies inside with albies Angels but I really wanted to explore more of her family history and how that affects Helen as a character. Liv was great in this story she shows a real streak of independence here earning the standout character for this story. As we near the point where she will leave the doctor and Helen I wonder how they will all say goodbye. Overall this story is a fun time bending and shocking adventure, I’d put it at about equal to the last story (bird song) it’s fun! And a pretty decent one.

This is an interesting story, an interesting mystery makes this a fun and at times a bit creepy as we don’t know who to trust. The cast is brilliant as always . This story gives Helen some good characterization, and as the next story is likely to focus on her even more I’m excited to see how this set continues to develop her, her being able to have such a healthy relationship with liv that even though they disagree they can still make up easily and talk past their differences is really nice to see. This story also really suggests that we’re gonna be having solo Helen and 8 adventures once Liv leaves and I’m excited to see how Helen fairs as in this story it’s explicitly said that she kinda relies on liv as an emotional rock , she’s glad she’s there and as much as she loves the doctor she needs liv to really ground it all (that was my interpretation at least). The plot twist in my opinion is alright, I certainly didn’t see it coming but the flipping of Myra isn’t real too the real bex was alive in the ship felt kinda quick paced.

finally, the final scene showing bexs death as liv and Helen sing the birdsong is beautiful , I think the doctor using the sound of the birds to signify that the planet is safe is really sweet too, overall fun story! Nothing amazing but certainly a fun story with a fun team