I am also a member of a book group at work. Most recently, we read After the Crash by Michel Bussi. While I wasn't bored by it, I found it a little obvious, especially when it's been hailed as "extraordinary". I much preferred the eerily beautiful dystopian novel,
Station Eleven:
My other discovery of 2015 was Josephine Tey's Inspector Grant mysteries. I came to The Singing Sands via The Man in the Queue and I admired them both for their elegance, wry humour and intricacy.
But of course, as you're probably aware, my consumption of fiction finds its largest representation in audiobooks, especially when travelling by train (as I will again, next week).
I recently finished listening to The House of Winter by George Mann. This is the second of BBC audio's quartet of original stories in the Tales of Winter sequence for the Twelfth Doctor.
The Doctor and Clara are summoned by the Winter family card to an isolated house on a small moon, where they encounter Harrison Winter, his android companions and insects that feed on blood. This is a very standard DW audio adventure: not terrifically memorable but the reading by David Schofield is vigorous and entertaining, He gives Clara Lancastrian vowels and his exaggerated John Laurie voice for Capaldi is comical but oddly engaging. (2/5)
However, the Big Finish audios, while often erratic in terms of quality (and plays rather than readings) are generally superior to the original audiobooks. I caught up with Shield of the Jotunn and All-Consuming Fire in the last fortnight.
Jotunn is written by Ian Edginton, who has also worked on Blade, Wolverine, X-Force and 2000 AD. It is directed by Louise (Leela) Jameson, also playing a distinctive cameo role and the third play in this trilogy for Miranda Raison's Mrs. Constance Clarke
A Viking burial site is unearthed in Arizona, 2029, where climate change is being combated with nanites. Of course, if you've seen the Thor movies, you've already guessed that a tribe of alien "frost giants" will hijack that technology.
This is a very trad Who story with rather "stock" characters; I was surprised to hear that they really were American. I thought they were "doing" accents. But for all that it is ( probably unsurprisingly) very "comic book", Constance's Keep Calm demeanour is effective and likeable. Perhaps tv's next "Dr. Who Girl" should be posh. (3/5)
All-Consuming Fire by Andy Lane is the latest audio adaptation of a Virgin New Adventures novel and one from 1994 that I had a recollection of enjoying slightly more than most. It was a range which I drifted in and out of, only really becoming an enthusiast as the McGann movie approached. Again. I'd give the audio 3/5.
It's basically Sherlock Holmes in an exciting adventure with Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos. Big Finish chief Nicholas Briggs is a distractingly recognisable Holmes; the performance kept taking me out of the story, so familiar am I with his anecdotes about war movies and spectacular lunches.
I enjoyed the scenes between Dr.Watson and Bernice Summerfield and the atmospheric scenes set in India. But I had to wonder: what's it for? It wan't doing anything the Jago and Litefoot series hasn't been doing with reasonable popularity for some five years.
I would also have liked to hear the dramatic theme Big Finish used for RTD's Damaged Goods as it was an effective signifier of the Virgin approach to DW, I have to say I think there are other, more deserving Virigin novels to adapt.
In fact, the list I made surprised me: Blood Harvest, Terrance Dicks' vampire adventure in prohibition-era Chicago; Kate Orman's epic and hallucinatory Aztec god horror, The Left-handed Hummingbird; and a box set of Andrew Cartmel's near-future mutant/psionic saga Warhead, Warlock and Warchild.
Of course, I have to respond to yesterday's showrunner announcement in this morning's post. If somehow you haven't heard, Steven Moffat is stepping down and Dr. Who will be helmed by Chris "Broadchurch" Chibnall. In one sense, I'm relieved it wasn't pasticheur Mark Gattis. I've also argued for a move towards less complex plotting and a broader appeal but this might be a case of Be Careful What You Wish For, None of Chibnall's scripts have been much more than vanilla sci-fi and while he is probably a safe pair of hands in tv terms, I wonder if he will be able to innovate to the extent that Moffat has. In any case, he has a couple of years to prepare since Moffat's final season will be broadcast in 2017.
I hope to see at least one more season with Capaldi but in the words of John Nathan-Turner, I'm tempted to say Who Knows.
Coming soon: The Diary of River Song. Plus: it's a rat trap and you've been caught
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