New releases from BBC Books
More information has become available about the December DW book releases from BBC Books:
Beautiful Chaos by Gary Russell
Donna Noble is back home in London, catching up with her family and generally giving them all the gossip about her journeys. Her grandfather is especially overjoyed - he's discovered a new star and had it named after him. He takes the Doctor, as his special guest, to the naming ceremony.
But the Doctor is suspicious about some of the other changes he can see in Earth's heavens. Particularly that bright star, right there. No, not that one, that one, there, on the left . . .
The world's population is slowly being converted to a new path, a new way of thinking. Something is coming to Earth, an ancient force from the Dark Times. Something powerful, angry, and all-consuming . . .
The Eyeless by Lance Parkin
At the heart of the ruined city of Arcopolis is the Fortress. It's a brutal structure placed here by one of the sides in a devastating intergalactic war that's long ended. Fifteen years ago, the entire population of the planet was killed in an instant by the weapon housed deep in the heart of the Fortress. Now only the ghosts remain.
The Doctor arrives, and determines to fight his way past the Fortress's automatic defences and put the weapon beyond use. But he soon discovers he's not the only person in Arcopolis. What is the true nature of the weapon? Is the planet really haunted? Who are the Eyeless? And what will happen if they get to the weapon before the Doctor?
The Doctor has a fight on his hands. And this time he's all on his own.
The Story Of Martha by Dan Abnett, with David Roden, Steve Lockley and Paul Lewis, Robert Shearman, and Simon Jowett
For a year, while the Master ruled over Earth, Martha Jones travelled the world telling people stories about the Doctor. She told people of how the Doctor has saved them before, and how he will save them again.
This is that story. It tells of Martha's travels from her arrival on Earth as the Toclafane attacked and decimated the population through to her return to Britain to face the Master. It tells how she spread the word and told people about the Doctor. The story of how she survived that terrible year.
But it's more than that. This is also a collection of the stories she tells - the stories of adventures she had with the Doctor that we haven't heard about before. The stories that inspired and saved the world...
* * * * * *
Now obviously I am utterly thrilled about The Story of Martha - it sounds really good and it'll be fab to have a semi-canonical story about the YTNW.
But what really, really interests me about these releases, is the first one - the fact that BBC Books are bringing out a Donna-centric story, nearly six months after her character leaves the show, is a departure for them: Rose didn't feature in any of their books after the September batch after she left the show... I'm probably being stupidly optimistic, but I can't help seeing it as a positive sign that they're not ditching Donna from the book range straight away. (Yes, I know the 2008 Storybook features Donna - but that's slightly different as it comes out in August, so they were bound to do a Donna-centric one this year, after doing the Martha-centric one last year and the Rose-centric one the year before...)
So, am I being stupidly optimistic (again) or is it significant? Of course, it could just be a marketing thing - since BBC Books took the decision not to release any Ten & Donna books until September (in order to give the books' authors a chance to get to know the S4 version of Donna before writing her).
I also think it's interesting that one of them is a Doctor-only story...
Beautiful Chaos by Gary Russell
Donna Noble is back home in London, catching up with her family and generally giving them all the gossip about her journeys. Her grandfather is especially overjoyed - he's discovered a new star and had it named after him. He takes the Doctor, as his special guest, to the naming ceremony.
But the Doctor is suspicious about some of the other changes he can see in Earth's heavens. Particularly that bright star, right there. No, not that one, that one, there, on the left . . .
The world's population is slowly being converted to a new path, a new way of thinking. Something is coming to Earth, an ancient force from the Dark Times. Something powerful, angry, and all-consuming . . .
The Eyeless by Lance Parkin
At the heart of the ruined city of Arcopolis is the Fortress. It's a brutal structure placed here by one of the sides in a devastating intergalactic war that's long ended. Fifteen years ago, the entire population of the planet was killed in an instant by the weapon housed deep in the heart of the Fortress. Now only the ghosts remain.
The Doctor arrives, and determines to fight his way past the Fortress's automatic defences and put the weapon beyond use. But he soon discovers he's not the only person in Arcopolis. What is the true nature of the weapon? Is the planet really haunted? Who are the Eyeless? And what will happen if they get to the weapon before the Doctor?
The Doctor has a fight on his hands. And this time he's all on his own.
The Story Of Martha by Dan Abnett, with David Roden, Steve Lockley and Paul Lewis, Robert Shearman, and Simon Jowett
For a year, while the Master ruled over Earth, Martha Jones travelled the world telling people stories about the Doctor. She told people of how the Doctor has saved them before, and how he will save them again.
This is that story. It tells of Martha's travels from her arrival on Earth as the Toclafane attacked and decimated the population through to her return to Britain to face the Master. It tells how she spread the word and told people about the Doctor. The story of how she survived that terrible year.
But it's more than that. This is also a collection of the stories she tells - the stories of adventures she had with the Doctor that we haven't heard about before. The stories that inspired and saved the world...
* * * * * *
Now obviously I am utterly thrilled about The Story of Martha - it sounds really good and it'll be fab to have a semi-canonical story about the YTNW.
But what really, really interests me about these releases, is the first one - the fact that BBC Books are bringing out a Donna-centric story, nearly six months after her character leaves the show, is a departure for them: Rose didn't feature in any of their books after the September batch after she left the show... I'm probably being stupidly optimistic, but I can't help seeing it as a positive sign that they're not ditching Donna from the book range straight away. (Yes, I know the 2008 Storybook features Donna - but that's slightly different as it comes out in August, so they were bound to do a Donna-centric one this year, after doing the Martha-centric one last year and the Rose-centric one the year before...)
So, am I being stupidly optimistic (again) or is it significant? Of course, it could just be a marketing thing - since BBC Books took the decision not to release any Ten & Donna books until September (in order to give the books' authors a chance to get to know the S4 version of Donna before writing her).
I also think it's interesting that one of them is a Doctor-only story...