Royal Blood by Una McCormack, Big Bang Generation by Gary Russell, Deep Time by Trevor Baxendale
Hardbacks by BBC Books, £6.99 each
NOT one, but three new novels featuring the Twelfth (or is it Thirteenth) Doctor, as played by Peter Capaldi.
Gathered together under the story arc of ‘The Glamour Chronicles’, this trilogy of new stories follows The Doctor on his quest to find The Glamour – a mysterious, and the most desirable artefact in the universe.
But it also the most dangerous.
The first story, ‘Royal Blood’, finds The Doctor and Clara in the city-state of Varuz and the ruler – Duke Aurelian is gearing up to face an invasion from the Duke Conrad.
In a mix of the future and medieval, the plot is full of political intrigue as The Doctor gets involved, along with a group of knights on a search for The Holy Grail.
‘Big Bang Generation’ is set at Christmas 2015 in Sydney when a time portal opens up and a pyramid appears beside the iconic Harbour Bridge.
Then a gang of con artists arrive, led by ‘Doc’ and the plot becomes ‘Dr Who meets The Hustle’.
Things get more complicated when someone awakens The Ancients of the Universe which, as Doc thinks, wasn’t the wisest of actions.
Even though Clara is absent here, Doc gets help from an old friend – an archaeologist.
The trilogy ends with The Doctor and Clara joining an expedition to travel through a wormhole to seek The Phaeron.
His fellow travellers include a richer-than-rich man who put the expedition together, archaeologists, engineers and pilots.
Each of them has their own reason for being on board, and not all of them with the same intentions as the others.
Once trapped on a planet subject to occasional time-tremors, The Doctor finally comes face to face with The Glamour.
These are the first three novels featuring Peter Capaldi’s Doctor and we couldn’t have hoped for a better start to his literary adventures.
All the authors are seasoned Dr Who writers and it shows, as they get to grips with the character of the new Doctor with skill.
The slower pace of a novel, as opposed to a TV episode, helps the suspense build throughout the reading and makes the experience of a written adventure more pleasurable.
One thing though, it would have been a good idea to let us know the order in which we should read the books, because if you go by the ISBN numbers, you’ll be reading them in reverse order.