New-ish Doctor Who books

[Catsmate]

The official (as opposed to fan made) novelisation of "City of Death" is out, not bad so far.

The next batch of Twelfth Doctor books will be out in July:
    Big Bang Generation by Gary Russell (this sounds rather good)

...imagine everyone’s dismay when they are followed by a bunch of con artists out to spring their greatest grift yet.
This gang consists of Legs (the sexy comedian), Dog Boy (providing protection and firepower), Shortie (handling logistics), Da Trowel (in charge of excavation and history) and their leader, Doc (busy making sure the universe isn’t destroyed in an explosion that makes the Big Bang look like a damp squib).

    Deep Time by Trevor Baxendale
    Royal Blood by Una McCormack

As will The Drosten's Curse by A. L. Kennedy, based on her short story The Death Pit in Time Trips.

[misterharry]

May 20, 2015 14:21:58 GMT Catsmate said:

The official (as opposed to fan made) novelisation of "City of Death" is out, not bad so far.

I'm looking forward to this. Incidentally, for anyone in London tomorrow (21st May), there's a signing at Hatchards on St Pancras Concourse, 6:30-7:30pm.

The next batch of Twelfth Doctor books will be out in July:
    Big Bang Generation by Gary Russell (this sounds rather good)

...imagine everyone’s dismay when they are followed by a bunch of con artists out to spring their greatest grift yet.
This gang consists of Legs (the sexy comedian), Dog Boy (providing protection and firepower), Shortie (handling logistics), Da Trowel (in charge of excavation and history) and their leader, Doc (busy making sure the universe isn’t destroyed in an explosion that makes the Big Bang look like a damp squib).

    Deep Time by Trevor Baxendale
    Royal Blood by Una McCormack

I've seen one or two mentions that these three are linked under an overarching title of The Glamour Chronicles.

As will The Drosten's Curse by A. L. Kennedy, based on her short story The Death Pit in Time Trips.

From what I've heard, this is more a continuation of The Death Pit than an expansion of it. Apparently The Death Pit forms the first chapter or prologue or whatever at the start of the novel.

I enjoyed The Death Pit - it had the Douglas Adams humour from Season 17. So I'll definitely be giving The Drosten's Curse a go.

[Catsmate]

City of Death is good, better than the fan one. The Big Bang Generation sounds like it has the Paternoster Gang.

[misterharry]

May 20, 2015 19:25:38 GMT Catsmate said:

City of Death is good, better than the fan one.

That's good to hear. It's been announced that James Goss will also be novelising Douglas Adams' one remaining TV story, The Pirate Planet, for publication in 2016.

[Catsmate]

Yeah I've been unable to finish City of Death yet due to work getting hectic. I've read the fan adaption of The Pirate Planet and I hope Goss's version will be as good as his work on City of Death.
It's interesting about The Drosten's Curse being a continuation, rather than an enlargement; I wonder how she plans to do it given the ending of The Death Pit.

The blurb for The Big Bang Generation really intrigues me; where did the Doctor get his gang? They do sound rather like Strax and company will be joining him and Clara...

[misterharry]

May 21, 2015 15:52:19 GMT Catsmate said:

The blurb for The Big Bang Generation really intrigues me; where did the Doctor get his gang? They do sound rather like Strax and company will be joining him and Clara...

Legs (the sexy comedian) - Jenny Flint? Not sure about the comedian bit.
Dog Boy (providing protection and firepower) - Strax, obviously.
Shortie (handling logistics) - Clara?
Da Trowel (in charge of excavation and history) - by a process of elimination, this is presumably Vastra.
Doc (busy making sure the universe isn’t destroyed in an explosion that makes the Big Bang look like a damp squib) - this one has me stumped!

[Catsmate]

That was my take on the gang too.

[misterharry]

May 21, 2015 16:00:22 GMT misterharry said:

May 21, 2015 15:52:19 GMT Catsmate said:

The blurb for The Big Bang Generation really intrigues me; where did the Doctor get his gang? They do sound rather like Strax and company will be joining him and Clara...

Legs (the sexy comedian) - Jenny Flint? Not sure about the comedian bit.
Dog Boy (providing protection and firepower) - Strax, obviously.
Shortie (handling logistics) - Clara?
Da Trowel (in charge of excavation and history) - by a process of elimination, this is presumably Vastra.
Doc (busy making sure the universe isn’t destroyed in an explosion that makes the Big Bang look like a damp squib) - this one has me stumped!

It's being strongly rumoured that Big Bang Generation features Bernice Summerfield. If correct, the above list probably needs a little reshuffling:

Doc - The Doctor
Da Trowel - has to be Benny
Shortie - presumably Clara
Dog Boy - still sounds like Strax
Legs - hmm, uncertain but it could still be Jenny - in which case, where's Vastra?

[Catsmate]

Jul 28, 2015 11:41:12 GMT misterharry said:

May 21, 2015 16:00:22 GMT misterharry said:

Legs (the sexy comedian) - Jenny Flint? Not sure about the comedian bit.
Dog Boy (providing protection and firepower) - Strax, obviously.
Shortie (handling logistics) - Clara?
Da Trowel (in charge of excavation and history) - by a process of elimination, this is presumably Vastra.
Doc (busy making sure the universe isn’t destroyed in an explosion that makes the Big Bang look like a damp squib) - this one has me stumped!

It's being strongly rumoured that Big Bang Generation features Bernice Summerfield. If correct, the above list probably needs a little reshuffling:

Doc - The Doctor
Da Trowel - has to be Benny
Shortie - presumably Clara
Dog Boy - still sounds like Strax
Legs - hmm, uncertain but it could still be Jenny - in which case, where's Vastra?

That's interesting, won't that be the first appearance of Benny in a directly sanctioned BBC work?
Hopefully it'll be better than The Drosten's Curse, I found that book pretty meh.

[misterharry]

Jul 28, 2015 13:08:58 GMT Catsmate said:

That's interesting, won't that be the first appearance of Benny in a directly sanctioned BBC work?
Hopefully it'll be better than The Drosten's Curse, I found that book pretty meh.

Yes, it's Benny's first appearance in a BBC publication so far as I can remember - if the rumours prove to be true, of course.

As for The Drosten's Curse, I'm listening to the audiobook at the moment. I'm almost two hours in and still within the section that was previously published as The Death Pit short story, which I've already read and really enjoyed. I'll be disappointed if the rest of the book doesn't live up to that, but I'm getting the impression that it's polarising opinion. I just hope I'm in the "love it" camp.

[misterharry]

It's just occurred to me that "Dog Boy" also fits the description of Benny's son, Peter Summerfield, who's half-Killoran (on his father's side, natch!). But I suspect it would be a step too far for the BBC to have to include a lot of back story about Benny, who a lot of their readers won't even have heard of before.

[misterharry]

Jul 28, 2015 11:41:12 GMT misterharry said:

It's being strongly rumoured that Big Bang Generation features Bernice Summerfield.

Hmm, it seems that the rumour was started on the basis of the blurb mentioning an archaeologist and Amazon listing Lisa Bowerman as the reader of the audiobook version. Hardly compelling evidence.

[Catsmate]

Jul 29, 2015 13:57:39 GMT misterharry said:

Jul 28, 2015 11:41:12 GMT misterharry said:

It's being strongly rumoured that Big Bang Generation features Bernice Summerfield.

Hmm, it seems that the rumour was started on the basis of the blurb mentioning an archaeologist and Amazon listing Lisa Bowerman as the reader of the audiobook version. Hardly compelling evidence.

The power of fandom and the internet to add 2 + 2 and get 14,908 strikes again. Oh well...

[misterharry]

Turns out the rumours are correct! Paul Cornell has tweeted a confirmation that Benny does indeed feature in Big Bang Generation.

[Catsmate]

Aug 27, 2015 6:07:23 GMT misterharry said:

Turns out the rumours are correct! Paul Cornell has tweeted a confirmation that Benny does indeed feature in Big Bang Generation.

Excellent! I'd rather expected the return of River Song instead. And the book is out in a couple of weeks.

[Catsmate]

I've picked up the three new books (Royal Blood, Big Bang Generation, and Deep Time) and I've skimmed BBG; Benny does indeed appear, along with her son Jack and a couple of other from the Benny audios (Ruth and Jack). Also appearing is Keri (Ker'a'nol) the Pakhar journalist who appeared in a few NAs.

(I assume this doesn't count as a spoiler.)

Da Trowel = Benny
Shortie = Ruth
Dog-Boy = Peter
Legs = Jack

‘This is my team,’ Bernice said. ‘This is Shortie, she’s my logistics expert. That’s Dog-Boy, my personal security. Over there is Legs, he’s a comedian and good with things that go “bang”. And they call me Da Trowel, cos I’m good at diggin’ up information.’
...that is the man wanted on every civilised world for cons and grifts of the highest order. This is the leader of us all, this is the brains of this outfit – surely you’ve heard of the legendary Doc Tardis?’
All the Doctor could do was take yet another of those deep breaths that Bernice provoked in him, and count to ten. Slowly.

Really stupidly IMO the books, the 'Glamour Trilogy', don't come with a reading order, and in fact the proper sequence is opposite to that suggested by their ISBNs.)

[koloth]

Gary Russel on the BF website said that the Big Bang Generation has no link to his previous book The Glamour Chase.

[Catsmate]

Sept 15, 2015 21:31:47 GMT koloth said:

Gary Russel on the BF website said that the Big Bang Generation has no link to his previous book The Glamour Chase.

It's not linked in a plot sense, it uses the same Glamour technology featured there and in Ghosts of India.