Nicholas Briggs

The Daleks have had to learn the hard way that humans can't work 24/7 without respite. They need food, rest, and hope. The latter of these items is provided through the inspirational speeches of Susan "Suz" Mendes, known throughout the Dalek empire as the "Angel of Mercy". Meanwhile, Alby, whom she thought was dead following the Dalek invasion of Vega VI, is alive and well and confused as to why the woman he loves appears to be collaborating with the agents of their destruction.

This was a show more solid second installment in this Dalek Empire arc. I thought the Daleks sounded more intelligible than in the first one. The Dalek emperor was a hoot, with his deep voice and his mannerisms that were similar to the Cyber Leader from Earthshock -- "Excellent!" will always crack me up when a Doctor Who baddie says it in a robot voice. Overall the sound design was good, although I thought the spaceships landing totally sounded like passenger jets :) The levels were a bit hard to balance as well; the Daleks were really loud but the people were quiet, so I was having to juggle the volume a fair bit.

Story-wise, this had some good moral complexity built into it: doing what it takes to live another day and biding your time for a bigger payoff, or going out in a blaze of glory? And the ending had a really good cliffhanger. Looking forward to the third installment! show less

To the Eleventh Doctor, the Sunlight Worlds might as well be in a parallel universe -- apparently these 400-odd planets are run by the Daleks, who are seen as *saviours* by the human population. What is their game? No Dalek has ever been known to do something good without a nefarious scheme behind it, and the Doctor intends to find out what it is.

This turned out to be a great read. Nicholas Briggs, as the voice of the Daleks on the show, has devised a thrilling, heart-sinkingly tense story show more that I read in only a couple of sittings. I even liked the children whom the Doctor takes under his wing; usually I find children in Doctor Who stories to be obnoxious or uninteresting, but these three kids have their own distinctive personalities and do not fall victim to Excessively Cute Syndrome. And the Daleks are properly chilling as well, speaking in standard case (as opposed to ALL CAPS, which they have done in other stories) and having all eventualities covered when carrying out their plan.

I would recommend this if you are a fan of Eleven or the Daleks. show less

This is one of the worst Doctor Who novels I've ever read, and I regret buying and reading it. Fortunately, I wasted only a dollar--it was on sale at Goodwill. Why someone would get rid of it...I can't imagine.

The current series of Doctor Who novels are poorly written and embarrassingly lightweight in content. So different from the old Doctor Who New Adventures and BBC Eighth Doctor novels. All the three previous titles therein which I've read--The Blood Cell, Tales of Trenzalore, and show more Engines of War--were similarly uninteresting.

If it were just that the book is boring, I might have given it away like the previous owner. But it was something else that made me mad. In trying to unravel and expose the Dalek plan in this story, the Eleventh Doctor tries to convince a populace that the Daleks are evil, and is then arrested and charged with...hate crimes. Inciting hate. The Daleks have turned crybully. Whether satiric or in earnest, this intrusion of a shameful aspect of contemporary society as a plot element was not entertaining, only offensive; and for that, this book dropped into my recycling bin where it belongs.

An unpleasant waste of my time. show less

The Dalek Empire novels are pretty consistently 3-star reads for me. In this volume, the Daleks seem to be suspiciously helpful in the face of a plague known as NFS, being willing to deploy a cure. The action takes place on a sort of wildlife sanctuary planet called Graxis Major with a very Judi Dench-sounding commander who suffers no fools. David Tennant also has a small, mysterious role in this set of novels. I was grinning my face off when he spoke. Hee hee!