http://nhw.livejournal.com/1091478.ht...

I am working through the 8th Doctor books not in order of internal continuity, but in order of popularity on LibraryThing (in the hope that I will thus discover some neglected gems towards the end). I'm afraid I didn't get a lot out of Alien Bodies. I liked the vignette of the Third Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith burying Laika at the very beginning; and I applaud Miles for bringing back and making effective the Krotons, of all unlikely Old Who baddies, half way through.

But as so often, I stumbled on the means and motivation of the villains - in this case the Celestis, with quasi-magical powers including over the afterlife, squabbling with an unlikely assortment of bidders over the Doctor's corpse (from way ahead in his own timeline). I understand that this book is the basis for Miles' own run of spinoff Faction Paradox, so I understand why he was trying to do this, but didn't quite get what he was trying to do.

Sam Jones is the initial companion in the Eighth Doctor Adventures, and this is the third novel I've read featuring her. Miles strives to inject her with some extra background and cosmic significance, rather as the Old Who writers did with Ace in the last season in 1989 (the parallel is made explicit). This looked at one point like it was going somewhere interesting, but wasn't really resolved; I hope it will be in one of the other novels.

In summary, doesn't really seem like essential reading to me, but maybe its significance will become more obvious as I work through the series. ( )

I'd decided to get back into reading my Eighth Doctor novels and figured I might as well catch up on the beginning of the story. Alien Bodies was the next of the 'Eight and Sam' novels on my bookshelf and it was...not awful. My notes on it were brief and state that it was slow in the beginning, excellent in spots and weird in others which is, on the whole, a pretty decent summation.

I believe this book was one of the first to introduce the Faction Paradox and they are just as screwed up and weird as I'd expected. I admit that I kind of skimmed over some of the blood ritual stuff, not because of being squeamish, but because it was kind of boring. I have to give credit where it's due, though, and award Lawrence Miles some serious props for trying to make the Krotons badass. He almost succeeded at it, but the scene where the Kroton is trying to explain just how menacing its incoming warship is and none of the characters will take it seriously, is highly amusing.

At any rate, the book was overall a fun read and may be one I go back to eventually. ( )