Comments | who_at_50: 22 Weeks to 50: The City of the Dead

hammard in who_at_50

22 Weeks to 50: The City of the Dead

Jun 22, 2013 22:08

We're almost into the top 20 of my 50th Anniversary countdown of aggregated poll results for Doctor Who Books, TV Serials & Audio Dramas, reaching number 22:

( #22 Behind Cut )

50 years of who, eighth doctor, books, poll-of-polls countdown

Comments 14

ponygirl72 June 23 2013, 03:54:26 UTC

Ha, ha-- I read this as City of Death at first, and was shocked that it wasn't higher. Now, I'm surprised that an EDA is listed this high. I don't think I've read this one; I think I'll track it down and give it a look-see.

hammard June 23 2013, 08:47:14 UTC

I would say it's definately one of the best EDAs.

Out of curiousity which ones have you read?

ponygirl72 June 26 2013, 19:15:39 UTC

I got as far as Beltempest with a few omissions. Then I read The Shadows of Avalon (which I loved) and finally, The Gallifrey Chronicles.

I'm more of a Virgin NA/MA girl, myself. :-)

hammard June 27 2013, 08:41:30 UTC

So essentially you left just before they started to get good :)

I'd definitely recommend giving a go to some of the novels between The Burning and Time Zero, it's a much better run of stories. The early ones I always struggle with, particularly compared to the VNAs. However in the later period over half of them are written by Virgin era writers (and the new ones like Morris and Rose are very impressive), the 8th Doctor gets his personality restored and (best of all) Sam gets replaced by Fitz and Anji.

Thread 7

a_phoenixdragon June 23 2013, 09:50:16 UTC

Ohhh, need this one!!

jjpor June 23 2013, 21:23:29 UTC

I know I have read this one, a long time ago, but don't actually remember too much about it. Some of those later EDAs tend to blur together for me a bit. Oh well, time for a re-read, perhaps? ;)

hammard June 24 2013, 07:13:23 UTC

This is a novel I know I enjoyed but I couldn't remember much of what happened before I wrote this. Going back was a great experience (even if it gets pretty weird by the end)

swordznsorcery June 24 2013, 13:17:39 UTC

I love this book. A real favourite. Lloyd Rose writes beautifully about New Orleans, and although the amnesia storyline annoyed me, she dealt with it well. It's my favourite EDA, and possibly only just beaten to first place Who book over all by Mark Morris's "Deep Blue". It's a close thing, though. Glad to see it rated so high.

hammard June 24 2013, 14:48:14 UTC

Always good to have other Lloyd Rose fans around, such a shame she hasn't done more.
I've never actually read Deep Blue, I was not a big fan of Body Snatchers or Forever Autumn but really liked Ghosts of India, so I may have to check it out.
Interestingly it doesn't do well in fan polls (ranking between Warriors of the Deep and Love and Monsters).

swordznsorcery June 24 2013, 20:50:58 UTC

I seem to end up recommending "Deep Blue" to everybody at some point! I love the setting. I love that it's the Fifth Doctor, but in the Third Doctor's usual era. It's fun to see him dashing about with UNIT. Tegan and Turlough have good subplots, and Mike Yates is used well. Plus it has this central conceit that really appeals, where the books is very carefully written to be a four part adventure. You can practically hear the theme music come in at the end of each section! It's not deep or meaningful I suppose, but it is jolly good fun.

And yes, Lloyd Rose is a terrific writer. "Camera Obscura" was good as well, although I do prefer "City Of The Dead". Such a shame she hasn't written more books. She writes for American TV nowadays, apparently. Probably pays a lot better, so I can't say as I blame her!

clocketpatch June 30 2013, 05:10:17 UTC

I did enjoy this one. I read it in a few days despite my copy being in a really weird format where I had to zoom in on the pages individually. The identity of the main baddie kept me guessing right up until the end and was a genuine shock when it was revealed; but not a, 'you really pulled THAT' out of left field kind of shock, more of a, 'oh, OH, OH! Why didn't I see that sooner?!?' kind of shook.