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Larks in space - or [[Cakes in Space by Philip Reeve and Sarah McIntyre]] even - can be had with this book, or any connected to anybody involved in the collection at hand.
 
Larks in space - or [[Cakes in Space by Philip Reeve and Sarah McIntyre]] even - can be had with this book, or any connected to anybody involved in the collection at hand.
  
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Revision as of 14:03, 24 November 2014


Doctor Who: 12 Doctors 12 Stories by Malorie Blackman, Holly Black and others

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Buy Doctor Who: 12 Doctors 12 Stories by Malorie Blackman, Holly Black and others at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com

Category: Confident Readers
Rating: 4.5/5
Reviewer: John Lloyd
Reviewed by John Lloyd
Summary: A great collection of short, all-ages Doctor Who stories, that make a fitting celebration of his twelve regular incarnations.
Buy? Yes Borrow? Yes
Pages: 560 Date: October 2014
Publisher: Puffin
ISBN: 9780141359885

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How long do you keep your birthday presents for? A week, a month, a year – or life? Is that time-scale different, perhaps, when you're nearly a thousand years old? I only ask because Doctor Who is, of course, both 51 (in our earthly, televisual representation) and 900 and more in human years as a character. In 2013 we were given a great book that gave us a story for every Doctor Who we've seen on TV, in honour of the 50th birthday proceedings. But now is a year on, and we're a further Doctor down the line. And so what was 11 Doctors, 11 Stories is now 12 Doctors, 12 Stories. So while many of us would have cherished and kept said birthday present, the only addition is the last, which like the rest was available as an e-book. So it's worth revisiting what I said about the book last time, then chucking in the (what might only be temporarily) concluding story at the end.

Eoin Colfer might be seen to be drawing the short straw with the first Doctor, but certainly has a big name to launch the book, with a darling little tale that feels completely appropriate (with the exception perhaps of the Doctor swearing D'Arvit!) and makes you think 'did they really never do that particular story before?!'. Michael Scott gets to 'follow that!', and does very well, with a tale regarding an unfortunate Jamie bringing the Necronomicon into the very core of a broken-down TARDIS. Another classic element of fantasy, the Spear of Destiny, is given us by Marcus Sedgwick, who goes against his literary grain with a snappy, dialogue-heavy work that takes us from Bessie pootling through London to snowy Norse mythology. The fact this tale is so short in paragraph length can only remind us of the literacy-encouraging short novels I have often enjoyed, as it has to be said they've been of a consistent high standard over the years, and this fits that bill too, of a collection of works that are amenable to all ages and yet not condescending or inferior for any.

The fact these works are all so small – forty to fifty pages – means not many authors have to do what the writers of the full novels had to, which includes coming up with new ways to describe the TARDIS sound effect, or describe the Doctor in detail. Philip Reeve takes the Tom Baker incarnation onto an orbiting tree, although it's soon clear the Doctor is known of old to the inhabitants; Patrick Ness uses his time to take us to Wartime USA, with an unusual alien invasion, but whereas his story is very much from the point of view of the locals and not the Doctor and Nyssa, the Time Lord's character is still there, as was Reeve's Tom Baker, even if you get the feeling Ness would have preferred a meatier hero.

Indeed, after that, the book proves it shares so much DNA with the television version that the weaker, middle-era Doctors that were eminently low on character, prove to be just the same on the page. Richelle Mead even uses Peri to narrate her story, an encounter with one of the TV version's baddies in a sort of alien, feudal Las Vegas. Malorie Blackman doesn't really go into her Doctor's character much either, but provides one of the better efforts here, a dazzling story where the Doctor and Ace pop from one nasty circumstance to another, yet come across the most unusual – kindly, educative and pleasant Daleks. The fact that both this franchise and this author have delighted in the past by presenting the topsy-turvy makes this a match made in heaven.

Drawing the short straw of that-doctor-who-did-it-once-and-that-was-enough, Alex Scarrow provides us with a richly detailed look at another small-town USA alien invasion, one that again has shadows of the Doctor's past in it. Charlie Higson is on hand, however, to pick up the pace for the final leg, with the more recent Doctors. His 9th Doctor story feels slight, and relies too much on a novelistic twist unavailable to the TV people, although it still feels perhaps like one of the more literary efforts. He catches the character succinctly, and manages to cram his story into a very recognisable beat of the TV mythos.

The best Doctor is gifted to Derek Landy who really gets that character's zippy dialogue onto the pages of his story, about a story. Sort of. It reminds you of Neil Gaiman in a way, and this man – the only one of these authors to also write for the TV series – returns to the Matt Smith version, and Amy, facing a multi-faced, multi-faceted nasty, in a fun manner.

And so we come to the new episode, from the pen of Holly Black. The mundane exercise of buying coffee is turned on its head when the pilot of a cargo ship the Doctor has had some experience of before now, meets with misfortune while still in the barista's queue. If you've lapsed in your viewing of the TV series this might not quite be enough of a standalone, but this book is generally a gift for the converted.

And certainly for them, if nobody else, this collection is superb. Sometimes the quality is nearer a four star rating than five, but the mass of talent and writing shows everyone taking the task to hand in a strong way, and putting their all into fitting into the franchise with intelligence and respect. So many people writing for an established series try and do on the page what can't be afforded or managed on screen, and that doesn't happen here, but that's down to the short format and the fact that Doctor Who has always managed in one manner or another to show us the incredible. These fantasies at their best are fantastic, however, and take us from the early Who, when the black and white episodes (and the science in them) wobbled, to the gloss of current days, when the timey-wimey stuff still wobbles. This itself is a glossy, and most fitting, keepsake for any fan, unless perhaps you remembered getting the same present last year.

Larks in space - or Cakes in Space by Philip Reeve and Sarah McIntyre even - can be had with this book, or any connected to anybody involved in the collection at hand.

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Buy Doctor Who: 12 Doctors 12 Stories by Malorie Blackman, Holly Black and others at Amazon You can read more book reviews or buy Doctor Who: 12 Doctors 12 Stories by Malorie Blackman, Holly Black and others at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
Buy Doctor Who: 12 Doctors 12 Stories by Malorie Blackman, Holly Black and others at Amazon You can read more book reviews or buy Doctor Who: 12 Doctors 12 Stories by Malorie Blackman, Holly Black and others at Amazon.com.

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