The Resurrection Casket

Doctor Who novels, as with Star Trek, Star Wars, and other books based in on-screen sci-fi universes, tend to be very hit or miss depending on both the era, author, or other factors. As far as that goes, this book is very... okay. I don't typically know what to expect with Justin Richards' line of Doctor Who novels because both the writing and story tend to be in one direction or the other.

Going into this book with the description, I pretty much expected a Doctor Who-style retelling of Treasure Island, and while it starts off that way, it goes in its own direction pretty quickly which abandons the similarities early on. Regrettably, this means the exclusion of Doctor Who's version of a steam-powered Pigaloo Tribe in outer space is a show more missed opportunity. At least it's fun to imagine.

Speaking of steam-powered, the themes of the book seem to mix pirates, space, and steampunk in a way that works surprisingly well. I wish there was a little more depth to the story and more of a chance to explore the planet of Starfall before the claustrophobic second half. Typically I find the tenth Doctor funny, but he was written to be more annoying than usual in this one, and he takes his time figuring out the obvious. The ultimate solution to the Resurrection Casket will feel very familiar from an episode, but it's interesting to see a character who appears in the show at a much later point be so similar to the idea written in this book first. Still a creepy idea, and I still love it.

Aside from a few typos involving the character names and characters overusing the phrase "No prizes for guessing-", it was easy to look past these issues just for the sake of a fun story. Overall, it's not as good as some of Richards' other work, such as The Clockwise Man, but it's an enjoyable space pirate adventure with steampunk elements, and not much more than that. It is what it is, and if that's your thing, it's worth a go. show less

The Doctor and Rose have landed on the planet Starfall, which is in the middle of a “zeg” — a zone where most technology doesn’t work, leading people to develop steam-powered machinery. This is a problem because the Tardis doesn’t run on steam. So how do they get off the planet? Perhaps by hitching a ride on an expedition to find the lost treasure of Hamlek Glint, including the legendary “Resurrection Casket”.

I read this as an abridged audiobook about 10 years ago, and when I read the print version I may as well have been reading it for the first time, for all I remembered of it (which was to say nothing). So obviously this isn’t a particularly memorable book, which is a shame because David Tennant and pirates are a show more great combination. It does its job, which is to provide quick entertainment, but it’s not my favourite Doctor Who novel. show less

It's a steampunk Treasure Island story with the Doctor and Rose. The audiobook is read by David Tennant. I had exactly as great a time with it as you'd expect based on those two facts.

The combination of pirates, steampunk, and space opera did not work here. The twist on Robert Louis Stevenson's black spot is ingenious but it was lost in the clumsy pastiche of established stereotypes. The monster, for example, is the love child of a Wookie and the Vogon guard.

Ninth of the new series Doctor Who novels. Ten and Rose get stuck in a dead spot of space, a place where high tech (including the Tardis) doesn't work because of the high concentration of plot-devicium. Cue steampunk robots and space pirates, as sundry interested parties go hunting for the titular MacGuffin in an utterly shameless Treasure Island/Doctor Who crossover. Silly but fun.

*Spoiler alert - if you've not read this book and you want to, there are some spoilers in the following review.*

D’you like pirates? Then this is the book for you! Like stories set in space with spaceships and robots? This is the story for you too! Yes, this story has both pirates and robots in space. And where else would you get that interesting mix but from Doctor Who. This novelisation has the Tenth Doctor and Rose Tyler stranded on a planet because there’s a zone of negative something or other which renders the TARDIS unusable. But that’s okay because there’s pirates and robots and treasure to find!

I really enjoyed this book, it’s very entertaining and I did like the nice little twist of a usual pirate story by making them show more space pirates. There’s several twists along the way, some of which I didn’t see coming at all which always makes for a nice change. There were also some very good characters. The Doctor and Rose were well done, Jimm was well written and I loved Kevin. He was brilliant. The idea of a monster who doesn’t like being a monster is not a new thing but it was quite well done here. The bit about what a monster does when he’s not off busy ripping people’s heads off was rather amusing, especially when he’s then apologising for the mess! I did like the twist on the Black Spot thing from more traditional pirate stories to the Black Shadow that resulted in him too. The robots were a bit kind of eh. I mean, they were suitably menacing, but there was very little reason to believe they’d carry out their threats.

I thought there were a lot of loose threads that didn’t get tied up or quite satisfactorily explained, such as McCavity’s wife –did she run off with someone else or not? I got a bit confused about that part. Also what was Dugg writing in his notebook? I also wasn’t really sure what had happened to Glint when it was getting towards the denouement and at one point I thought the human part of Salvo was Glint. Luckily I did manage to figure it out before too long but yay for Slow Rose needing to check with the Doctor that she’d got it right; I think that was put in there primarily to make sure that the reader understood it too. I think the ending was a bit untidy though, it seemed rather disjointed and didn’t really explain things in a good way so it was unfortunate that Slow Rose was needed. But what a brilliant use of the psychic paper though. I had wondered how the Doctor was going to get out of that although I did think it was a bit unlikely that Jimm was able to slip the paper in McCavity’s pocket as well as swipe the medallion in such a short space of time. Bit too much for a ten year old to manage.

All in all, a good book and definitely one of the better ones. Quite engrossing and a good read to boot. show less

Doctor Who: The Resurrection Casket is an interesting story that is a fast and enjoyable read. The Doctor and Rose get stuck in a technological dead zone where neither the TARDIS nor modern technology works. As a result, Starfall’s residents rely on steam power for daily tasks and even space travel. I guess they have a lot of water. Soon after landing the Doctor and Rose realize that something is wrong. I found the pseudo-bad-guy seriously absurd. Aside from that, the story is very good and the banter between the Doctor and Rose is fantastic. The ending is a bit predictable but nevertheless rewarding.