The Pirate Loop

Another Doctor Who novel, this time featuring the Doctor in his Tenth incarnation with Martha. In this book, Martha persuades the Doctor to land on board the legendary Starship Brilliant, legendary because it disappeared and no one knows why.

It got a bit confusing from the word go, what with Martha being dead one chapter and alive the next, but once the reason for that was given, it made a lot more sense. There was a great deal of timey-wimey-ness in this book which meant that I did have to concentrate in some parts to keep up with when things were happening and how it all fitted it. It was very cleverly done though and certainly something different to most other Doctor Who books. The badger-faced space pirates struck me as bit a bit show more too silly initially, especially with their accents as well, but they were well written and quite cute considering. They're quite typical Who baddies in that respect: silly but loveable. A lot of this book reminded me in some ways of Douglas Adams because it was both clever and silly in equal parts, with lots of humour and sciency bits.

The characterisations of the Doctor and Martha are very good, the Doctor is twinkly and manic and brilliant, while Martha is clever and actually got to take part in a lot of the action. The secondary characters are well written as well, and several of them actually grow throughout the book which is impressive considering how short it is. It's a very enjoyable and quite pacy read, certainly more so than the previous Doctor Who book I'd read. The only thing I didn't like was the ending, it seemed to be a little too serious compared to the rest of the storyline and felt a bit heavy-handed, like a moral had been forced upon it. It wasn't too bad and certainly not worth avoiding the book for. show less

A Doctor Who novel featuring the Tenth Doctor and Martha, who have decided to go find out what happened to a spaceship that famously -- and mysteriously -- disappeared. It's decently written, with very good character voices and some entertaining timey-wimeyness. Although it also includes the universe's stupidest and most naive space pirates, who are clearly meant to be comic at first and then endearing and sympathetic later on, but who I mostly just found a bit annoying. Also a story element or two that really don't get as much attention and development as they should. So, imperfect and a bit silly, but still fairly enjoyable. Which I suppose does also describe a fair amount of the TV sow.

I borrowed this from the library 3 weeks ago (it's due tomorrow!) and hadn't planned on actually reading it... for some reason, I just couldn't muster the courage to pick up a book based on the beloved show, because I didn't want to waste my time with some cheap, contrived version of Doctor Who. Also, I tend to have a strict policy against reading books based on TV shows (okay, fine... I admit I've read some Star Trek & Star Wars books... so sue me!). Then, I read on someone's thread (I can't remember who, augh! Sorry!) that they had just read several Doctor Who books and enjoyed them. "Hmmm", said I, "Perhaps I'll give it a go after all."

Well, read it I did, just this afternoon in a few hours. It was a quick, fun read that made for an show more entertaining diversion from the work I should have been doing. Oops. But I couldn't put it down! I thought the writer did an excellent job of capturing the Doctor (Tennant's version) and Martha, with their signature phrases and personality traits and all. Even the ending sort-of made sense, in the Doctor Who-y sort of way that we've all come to love and cherish.

Needless to say, I was surprised and very pleased to have enjoyed this one so much. I'll definitely be on the lookout for more. show less

I loved this one, I must say. The story was fun, quick-moving, and cleverly written.

The Doctor and Martha were characterized quite true to their TV counterparts, I felt. What I *really* liked was that in this story Martha actually got to take action - in a lot of books, I've noticed, she tends to just be along for the ride. Here she actually takes an interest in the situation and *does things.* For example, when the spaceship that she and the Doctor land on is boarded by pirates, with the Doctor nowhere in sight, she takes control of the situation and tries to resolve it instead of just waiting around like a helpless bit of set dressing. Guerrier also gives us little insights into what her home life was like before she met the Doctor; show more it really helps to deepen the character and I quite liked that.

For the plot, I felt the pacing worked well, which can be difficult in stories with temporal anomalies. The prose was very good, and I found myself giggling at some of the cleverer bits. I also really liked the aliens that the author created.

Quite an enjoyable read; I'd definitely recommend this one! show less

Cheeky sci-fi with some goofy bits (e.g., badger-human pirates) that I enjoyed slightly more than watching an episode on TV.

This was the greatest example of a Doctor Who "EVERYBODY LIVES" story. That's not even a spoiler it happens so often here.

In this book, the Doctor and Martha seek out a missing-in-space cruise ship to learn it's story. When they arrive and learn that an experimental drive has tweaked the reality around it, and that pirates are coming to steal the drive, the Doctor attempts to hold off the pirates and save Martha as well. The ship is caught in a time loop, where things keep getting reset, but leave it to the Doctor to figure things out and make it all better.