Jonathan Blum

This is the second EDA but (so people say) the first one worth reading. The Doctor and his new companion, Sam, fight vampires in 1990s San Francisco. I enjoyed it: it's a good mash-up of the sensibilities of the NAs with those of the 1996 television movie. It gets a little violent at times in ways I don't see as very eighth-Doctory, but outside of that it captures his character very well: there's a big emphasis on the sleights of hand he did in the TVM, and how his whole way of operating show more might itself be a sleight of hand. What's trickier: having a complicated plan like the seventh Doctor, or not having a complicated plan like the seventh Doctor... but everything still working out in the end? This isn't quite the eighth Doctor that Paul McGann would end up playing in the audio dramas (which didn't start for another four years), but this is a legitimate extrapolation of how he played it in the movie. It gets a little bogged down in vampire stuff at times, but it usually has a good sense of humor about it. (I was surprised to realize it was published four months after Buffy began, because it feels like Buffy must have been an influence, and yet it could not have been.) I remember liking Sam in the later Orman/Blum EDAs I've already read (Unnatural History and Seeing I), and that was true here as well; they give her that Rose-esque sense of someone who wants to do something in the world that the Doctor enables, but often feels overwhelmed by the realities of the universe. show less

A solidly entertaining entry in the series, Unnatural History finds the Doctor, Sam, and Fitz in late '90s San Francisco, dealing with some of the fallout from the manner of Eight's regeneration—ones which threaten both the city and Sam's sense of who she is. You can really see here how the writers of the rebooted TV series robbed out some ideas from the books (spoilers!), and I did enjoy how Orman and Blum both attempt to reconcile some of the contradictory parts of the series canon show more (biodata!) and kind of shrug their shoulders and say "but do the plot holes matter if the characters don't care about them?" (meta!) I did find some of the plotting a bit muddled and murky, and Fitz has yet to fully grow on me in a way that I know he has for others (for all that he's from the '60s, he's a very '90s character type), but the set pieces were enjoyable and this was a fun read. Some lovely moments of observation about the Doctor. show less

A very enjoyable Doctor Who novel, featuring the Eighth Doctor fighting vampires in San Francisco. Blum and Orman did a good job showing the differences and similarities between the immortal vampires and nearly immortal Doctor; the Doctor's compassion and empathy count for a lot, but the authors do point out that his behavior can have catastrophic consequences for those around him.

https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3075825.html

This is a rather good collection of three novellas telling the story of Benny, the Draconians and the Mim, the last of these being a race capable of metamorphosis and mass reproduction. The particular issue is the destiny of a large number of infant Mim, captured by the Draconians in a recent conflict, at the same time as Benny and Jason are recomciling and thinking about having their own child (hitherto glimpsed as an alternate future possibility). show more The Whoniverse doesn’t always do big issues like parenting and relationships all that well; this is one of the better efforts in that direction, with plenty of plot to keep all three novellas going. I liked all three very much; maybe I can single out Kate Orman’s introductory piece, which sets the tone by observing human life (especially sex) from the point of view of a non-human. show less