Review: Doctor Who: Royal Blood by Una McCormack

Doctor Who: Royal Blood by Una McCormack

My Rating: 2.5/5 TARDISes

Series: Doctor Who: The Glamour Chronicles

Date Published: September 8^th, 2015

Publisher: Broadway Books

Pages: 240 pages

Source: Purchased

Links: Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Synopsis: An original adventure tying in to the ninth season of Doctor Who, the spectacular hit series from BBC Television, featuring the new 12th Doctor as played by Peter Capaldi.

“The Grail is a story, a myth! It didn’t exist on your world! It can’t exist here!”

The city-state of Varuz is failing. Duke Aurelian is the last of his line, his capital is crumbling, and the armies of his enemy, Duke Conrad, are poised beyond the mountains to invade. Aurelian is preparing to gamble everything on one last battle. So when a holy man, the Doctor, comes to Varuz from beyond the mountains, Aurelian asks for his blessing in the war.

But all is not what it seems in Varuz. The city-guard have lasers for swords, and the halls are lit by electric candlelight. Aurelian’s beloved wife, Guena, and his most trusted knight, Bernhardt, seem to be plotting to overthrow their Duke, and Clara finds herself drawn into their intrigue…

Will the Doctor stop Aurelian from going to war? Will Clara’s involvement in the plot against the Duke be discovered? Why is Conrad’s ambassador so nervous? And who are the ancient and weary knights who arrive in Varuz claiming to be on a quest for the Holy Grail…?

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This is a spoiler-free review.

As I’m sure you know or can tell, I am a massive fan of Doctor Who, and I find the book series to be so fun, especially when waiting for new episodes. As soon as this particular novel was released, I was immediately intrigued by it. I love stories dealing with politics and conspiracy within a kingdom—particularly anything set in a medieval or medieval-esque time period. Unfortunately, I ended up feeling very disappointed by this novel. While it is a quick and light read, there are many, sometimes glaring, issues that are impossible to ignore.

In this novel, the Doctor and Clara find themselves in the land of Varuz where tensions are high, war is on the horizon, and secrets are profuse. Aurelian, the duke of Varuz is struggling to keep his city from falling apart completely. His enemy, Duke Conrad, is eager to capture the city for himself, and Aurelian is contemplating making Varuz’s last stand against the waiting army. After The Doctor’s path collides with Duke Aurelian’s men, he is mistaken for a holy man, and he and Clara are taken to the court of the duke. Aurelian is eager to receive The Doctor’s opinion on the decision, and the pair plan to leave as soon as he has given one. But The Doctor and Clara are soon enraptured by the fate of Varuz and the potential treason going on behind-the-scenes.

Even though I finished this novel a few months ago and have spent time thinking through it, I’m still finding the majority of the plot somewhat baffling. I’ll start off by saying that one of the biggest problems pertaining to the actual text itself is the massive amount of typos and grammatical errors. Frankly, I am stunned that they were so prevalent—you can find at least one spelling or sentence structure issue on every single page. It is as if no one bothered to proofread before publishing the book. This ended up being quite distracting, and made the lack of polish of story as a whole even more prominent.

After reading the synopsis of this book, I was very intrigued—it sounded like a story or episode of the show that I would have adored, and I wanted so badly to enjoy it. I love reading the novels about the Twelfth Doctor, especially ones containing Clara as I think she is a strong and intelligent protagonist. The interplay between the two is always enjoyable—they have so much chemistry and make a fantastic pair, balancing each other well. This is what I was hoping to find in this tale of their adventures, but I came out feeling very lukewarm about absolutely everything.

The plot just did not live up to it’s potential, and this could have been such a wonderful one in so many ways. It promised mystery and drama and suspense, but proved to be lacking all three. Too many facts are revealed too rapidly, and then it is essentially a slough to the end. Personally, I think it was a mistake to write this storyline in first-person in general, but even more so because of the character McCormack chose to be the main narrator. This choice ruins all of the enigmatic nature of the plot, the primary element on which it is heavily riding. We also spend a far too short amount of time focusing on The Doctor himself, a pitfall that the novels in this series sometimes run in to.

McCormack’s writing is sufficient, but definitely mediocre and much weaker than I was expecting. There are a number of aspects of the various settings in the novel that are depicted with a reasonable amount of detail, however, the world-building is quite wholly inconsistent. For me, there were times where I found it challenging to imagine what the city of Varuz, and the outside environment in general, looked like. This adds another challenge when trying to become immersed in the world.

I also found the character depiction in this story to be very hit or miss, particularly with the Doctor and Clara. Early on, McCormack does a decent job of replicating the personalities of the characters we already know and love. However, she soon slipped up, and they began to come across the wrong way. Their personalities are in constant instability—one moment things are matching up and then they suddenly talk or act in ways that are completely uncharacteristic of the characters from the show. The side characters in the narrative are, for the most part, very bland and one-dimensional. They are not built up well enough for the reader to feel any sort of connection to them.

While I generally judge these types of books on a bit of a different scale due to the simple and fun nature of them, this particular installment had a greater quantity of weaknesses than I typically find. With this all being said, it is still an interesting enough novel, and makes for a light, quick read. Despite its flaws, the imperfections do not make it so difficult that it is impossible to understand. And while this should not be entirely the job of the reader, one’s imagination and inner editor can easily fill in the gaps and make corrections when needed. As always though, the books from the Doctor Who literature series are always nice to have around when the show is in between seasons.

Review: Doctor Who: The Way Through the Woods by Una McCormack

Doctor Who: The Way Through the Woods by Una McCormack

My Rating: 4/5 TARDISes

Series: Doctor Who: New Series Adventures #45

Date Published: April 28^th, 2011

Publisher: BBC Books

Pages: 241 pages

Source: Library

Links: Goodreads | Amazon | Book Depository

Synopsis: ‘As long as people have lived here, they’ve gone out of their way to avoid the woods…’

 Two teenage girls disappear into an ancient wood, a foreboding and malevolent presence both now and in the past. The modern motorway bends to avoid it, as did the old Roman road. In 1917 the Doctor and Amy are desperate to find out what’s happened to Rory, who’s vanished too. 

But something is waiting for them in the woods. Something that’s been there for thousands of years. Something that is now waking up.

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This is a spoiler-free review.

I have been a Doctor Who fan for a long time now, but I have only discovered this series of novels that connect to the show within the last year or two. Suffice it to say, finding them made me quite excited, particularly because it was during a hiatus between seasons. A few of these stories come out along with each new season and star the current Doctor and companion at that time. Now that I have read through quite a few of these novels, I will say that they definitely tend to be quite hit or miss, most likely due to the multiplicity of authors writing them. However, I am very pleased to say that this one fell into the “hit” category.

Though the Tenth Doctor is my favorite from the television series itself, the Eleventh Doctor novels tend to be my favorites, and this one was no exception. The Way Through the Woods was an incredibly fun read. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I sped right through it; it is definitely one of my favorite Doctor Who books I have read so far. This is one of the few instances where, as a reader, you truly want a novel to be reminiscent of another work. Since it is based off an already established collection of characters and stories, you do not want it straying too far from what you know and love. I felt that the plot itself was very characteristic of Doctor Who with just enough of the author’s personal touch to make it very satisfying.

I am always a bit wary when the authors of these stories split up the Doctor and his companion(s); this is something that is extremely easy to execute poorly. Not having a good balance between each character’s storyline and the contribution they make to the overall plot can completely ruin a novel. For the most part, I felt that McCormack did a fairly decent job of balancing each character’s time in the limelight, though I do wish that the Doctor himself had played a slightly bigger role.

I liked the intrigue of the plot; it kept me guessing and wanting to know more. There was a very mysterious and sometimes eerie tone and atmosphere in the story that I found to be quite good. The fact that this took place in multiple time periods while retaining a closely connected set of characters was another interesting aspect of this story and added to the overall mystery. I also really enjoyed McCormack’s writing style and the imagery that she produced. I had a very clear picture of all the locations visited by the Doctor, Amy, and Rory, particularly the woods and the location that Amy ends up in near the end.

The author did an excellent job of capturing the Eleventh Doctor, Amy, and Rory individually as well as the interplay between the threesome. McCormack also created a great supporting cast of characters to complement them, and her portrayals of their interactions with the main three were done very well. Of course, one of the most important parts of any Doctor Who story is the alien or aliens causing havoc, and in this novel, I personally thought that the alien was fantastic.

This book was very well crafted, with solid writing and a concept that was very imaginative and creative. Apart from a few instances of awkward dialogue and interaction and an ending that didn’t particularly blow me away, it had a very strong plot. I would have absolutely loved to see this as an actual episode of the show.

I must say, I do tend to rate and review the books in this series on a much different scale than I would with other books, primarily because I do not expect quite as much from them. While these novels are not the greatest works of literature, they are extraordinarily fun to read, and I would highly recommend giving them a try if you are a Doctor Who fan.