Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Doctor Who: Heart of Stone ~ Trevor Baxendale (earc) review [@bbcdoctorwho @PenguinUKBooks @trevorbaxendale]

Doctor Who: Heart of Stone
Penguin Books Limited
November 17/19, 2015
160 pages
add to Goodreads/buy from Book Depository/or Amazon

The Doctor, Amy and Rory are surprised to discover lumps of moon rock scattered around a farm. But things get even stranger when they find out where the moon rock is coming from - a Rock Man is turning everything he touches to stone! Can the Doctor, Amy and Rory find out what the creature wants before it's too late?

Doctor Who: Heart of Stone is a brand new* adventure starring the Eleventh Doctor, Amy and Rory, in prose form.

If you loved Matt Smith's incarnation of the Doctor this is a chance to go on a new adventure with him (and Amy and Rory)> Heart of Stone can also be, easily, read by those less familiar with the show and characters. Of the Doctor Who titles out this month from Penguin, Heart of Stone seems to give readers the most introduction and information on the characters.

As I am quite behind on the show and have not watched all of the episodes with Matt Smith's Doctor, I was pleased that these titles aren't spoilery. There are one or two things (mentions of a location/time visited or character met) or something said about the characters' relationships that may be a little spoilery, but nothing much.

The new characters, including Ralph and Jess Conway, whose farm the moon rock is on, were fun additions. I liked that Heart of Stone gave us the Doctor, Amy and Rory interactions but also split up the new characters with the 'old.' As the Doctor - with help from the others - tries to piece together what is happening and how to save everyone, different characters had to work together. There was more of Rory in this title than I remember reading (or seeing) before.

I do not think the author had a perfect grasp of the characters' personalities. At times, it was hard to keep the character it was supposed to be in mind. It wasn't that it felt like some other character or necessarily unlike this Doctor or Amy or Rory; their voices just weren't spot on.

Heart of Stone is a fast, entertaining read with a out of this world mystery that fits very well with those fans have come to know and love from the television show. The moon rock and Rock Man have that great mix of seeming goofy or funny at their introduction but then proving quite dangerous. The way the characters, the Doctor's knowledge (and unique thinking) and science play into the hoped for resolution was great.





*well, first published in the UK in 2011




digital copy received, via NetGalley, for review

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