Alex Kingston

In The Ruby’s Curse: A River Song/Melody Malone Mystery, Alex Kingston crafts a tale of the Doctor Who character she made most famous, River Song. The story goes meta quickly, with River writing a new Melody Malone story as a way to generate income for her parents, who have been living in 1939 New York City since the events of “The Angels Take Manhattan.”

While using the quiet of Stormcage for writing, she meets a fellow inmate who found a sentient machine that sought to eradicate all show more life. The inmate, named Ventrian, successfully deposited it on a world with no life or technology, thereby limiting its power, but fears that someone might find and use it. The device, a McGuffin of sorts, reminds River of the McGuffin in the story she’s writing: a ruby famed to have come from Cleopatra’s tomb. She shares stories from history with Ventrian, so that when some criminals break into the prison to capture Ventrian in the hopes of finding the weapon, he uses River’s vortex manipulator to hide it in the history of Cleopatra and Cesar, leaving clues so that she can find and destroy the device. He also adds clues within the novel River’s writing, titled “The Ruby’s Curse.”

Without giving away spoilers, the result is a fantastic tale for fans of River Song that revels in metatextuality. Kingston works in many subtle references, including foreshadowing her own future in “Silence in the Library” and “Forest of the Dead” (pg. 25) as well as the Land of Fiction from “The Mind Robber” (pg. 200) and “Kill the Moon” (pg. 249). All of these are naturally in addition to the more necessary references, such as the aforementioned “The Angels Take Manhattan.” Finally, she offers a way for River to meet – if only psychically – the Thirteenth Doctor (pgs. 252-253). A delightful, adventurous story blending the best of history, science-fiction, and hi-jinks that River Song’s fans have come to expect of the character! show less

Doctor Who's Alex Kingston brings us a novel about her fictional alter ego River Song, and River's own fictional altar ego, Melody Malone. It starts off alternating River's adventure with chapters of the novel she's writing, but as the story goes on, the two turn out to be inextricably entwined.

It's a fun romp, featuring a cursed jewel, a reality-warping doomsday device, ancient Egyptian history, hardboiled detective action complete with murder mystery, time travel paradoxes, space show more gangsters, and lots of River being River. Most of it is probably completely ridiculous if you stop to think about it for two seconds, but why would you when you can just sit back and enjoy the ride? Especially as a certain level of complete ridiculousness is surely only appropriate both for Doctor Who and for 1930s pulp detective pastiche. show less

https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3771569.html

Great piece of spinoff writing, with Alex Kingston's name on the cover but Jac Rayner's on the inside, and very true to the spirit of the character of River Song; lots of side notes to the TV stories, but also a reasonably standalone plot which follows several timelines and parallel versions of River Song and her alter ego Melody Malone simultaneously, and manages to keep them all in balance. Lots of action and snappy dialogue. Fun stuff.

River Song is the perfect choice for a spin-off series, as this first story proves. The Boundless Sea has her at a 1927 archaeological dig, the female Indiana Jones we always knew she could be, but when even stranger and more exciting adventures. River needs no Doctor, just a gun and her sonic trowel to fight off a typical Doctor Who monster -- a thing that starts off pure HP Lovecraft but is really a product of sci-fi, or at least science fantasy. And she gets the best dialogue: "I have show more exactly no time for zombie snakes." That's right, zombie snakes. Zombie scorpions, too. Pulpy goodness! show less