Gareth
@garferty.bsky.social
Fan of Doctor Who and the like. Keeper of pet ratties. He/him. I have thoughts, these are them.
The original editor of the New Adventures returns with Independence Day. It’s one of those that wobbles between doing something interesting and… not. neilisthebestdalek.blogspot.com/2025/12/doct...
Doctor Who: The BBC Books #80 – Independence Day by Peter Darvill-Evans
Doctor Who: The Past Doctor Adventures #36 Independence Day By Peter Darvill-Evans The prodigal editor returns! As you probably know, Peter ...
neilisthebestdalek.blogspot.com
December 12, 2025 at 11:28 AM
The original editor of the New Adventures returns with Independence Day. It’s one of those that wobbles between doing something interesting and… not. neilisthebestdalek.blogspot.com/2025/12/doct...
Wizard, cheers. Still morbidly curious what’s up with it.
December 8, 2025 at 7:22 PM
Wizard, cheers. Still morbidly curious what’s up with it.
Paul Leonard’s The Turing Test is a mostly brilliant exercise in storytelling and asking difficult questions. If it stumbles, it’s over the rather odd treatment of Turing. neilisthebestdalek.blogspot.com/2025/12/doct...
Doctor Who: The BBC Books #79 – The Turing Test by Paul Leonard
Doctor Who: The Eighth Doctor Adventures #39 The Turing Test By Paul Leonard Paul Leonard is one of those Doctor Who writers that sticks to...
neilisthebestdalek.blogspot.com
December 8, 2025 at 12:08 PM
Paul Leonard’s The Turing Test is a mostly brilliant exercise in storytelling and asking difficult questions. If it stumbles, it’s over the rather odd treatment of Turing. neilisthebestdalek.blogspot.com/2025/12/doct...
The first novel by Jonathan Morris, Festival Of Death is a time travel puzzle that’s lots of fun to solve. It holds up. neilisthebestdalek.blogspot.com/2025/11/doct...
Doctor Who: The BBC Books #78 – Festival Of Death by Jonathan Morris
Doctor Who: The Past Doctor Adventures #35 Festival Of Death By Jonathan Morris For a show about time travel Doctor Who is surprisingly shy...
neilisthebestdalek.blogspot.com
December 8, 2025 at 12:06 PM
The first novel by Jonathan Morris, Festival Of Death is a time travel puzzle that’s lots of fun to solve. It holds up. neilisthebestdalek.blogspot.com/2025/11/doct...
#70: Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson. Riproaring Scottish adventure full of action. The Scots history can be a bit dense but the context just about makes sense. www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Gareth's review of Scholastic Classics
4/5: Fans of Treasure Island ought to enjoy Kidnapped, which has a similar hell-for-leather pace. The story of recently orphaned David Balfour seeking his inheritance sees him shanghai’d aboard a boat...
www.goodreads.com
December 8, 2025 at 11:39 AM
#70: Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson. Riproaring Scottish adventure full of action. The Scots history can be a bit dense but the context just about makes sense. www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
#69: The Turing Test by Paul Leonard. A smartly written epistolary featuring three famous narrators. It puts the amnesiac Eighth Doctor in an interesting place. www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Gareth's review of Doctor Who
4/5: Reread 06/12/2025 3.5 The amnesiac Eighth Doctor is put to his most interesting use yet: he’s obsessed with finding some runaway aliens and stopping the “bad guys”, but his judgement isn’t what ...
www.goodreads.com
December 8, 2025 at 11:37 AM
#69: The Turing Test by Paul Leonard. A smartly written epistolary featuring three famous narrators. It puts the amnesiac Eighth Doctor in an interesting place. www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
#68: Sleepless In Hollywood: Tales from the New Abnormal by Lynda Obst. This insider account of early 21st century filmmaking challenges is conversationally written, which helps and hinders it. www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Gareth's review of Sleepless in Hollywood
3/5: This is an interesting insider’s view of where Hollywood was at between the early 00s and 2014. It was a difficult period thanks mainly to the writers’ strike and the decline of DVD sales, which ...
www.goodreads.com
December 8, 2025 at 11:34 AM
#68: Sleepless In Hollywood: Tales from the New Abnormal by Lynda Obst. This insider account of early 21st century filmmaking challenges is conversationally written, which helps and hinders it. www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
#67: Festival Of Death by Jonathan Morris. Witty and complex, but not hard to follow. A good bit of time travel fun. www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Gareth's review of Festival of Death
4/5: 3.5 This is a rare-ish example of a Doctor Who story that makes time travel the focus, with the Fourth Doctor and Romana chasing their tails trying to stop a zombie catastrophe where they’ve alr...
www.goodreads.com
December 8, 2025 at 11:30 AM
#67: Festival Of Death by Jonathan Morris. Witty and complex, but not hard to follow. A good bit of time travel fun. www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
#66: Money by Martin Amis. A compellingly unpleasant satire, but also a little long. Amis might not be for me. www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Gareth's review of Money
3/5: This is the first book I’ve read by Martin Amis so I had little idea what to expect, although I read it because it had appeared on a list of Funniest Books Ever, so there was that. Money is a de...
www.goodreads.com
December 8, 2025 at 11:29 AM
#66: Money by Martin Amis. A compellingly unpleasant satire, but also a little long. Amis might not be for me. www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
#65: Casualties Of War by Steve Emmerson. Ghoulish and enjoyable story about shell shock (in zombie form). www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Gareth's review of Doctor Who
3/5: Reread 14/11/2025 I’ve read Casualties Of War twice, first all at once and then again over several weeks. I’ve found that it’s a book you need to gobble up as fast as you can. Steve Emmerson’s t...
www.goodreads.com
December 8, 2025 at 11:27 AM
#65: Casualties Of War by Steve Emmerson. Ghoulish and enjoyable story about shell shock (in zombie form). www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
I’ve read Casualties Of War twice, first all at once and then again over several weeks. I can confirm it’s a book you need to gobble up as fast as you can. Visceral and emotive stuff. If you pause and think about it though… hmm. neilisthebestdalek.blogspot.com/2025/11/doct...
Doctor Who: The BBC Books #77 – Casualties Of War by Steve Emmerson
Doctor Who: The Eighth Doctor Adventures #38 Casualties of War By Steve Emmerson This is another of those books that I’ve read before. A few...
neilisthebestdalek.blogspot.com
November 16, 2025 at 4:31 PM
I’ve read Casualties Of War twice, first all at once and then again over several weeks. I can confirm it’s a book you need to gobble up as fast as you can. Visceral and emotive stuff. If you pause and think about it though… hmm. neilisthebestdalek.blogspot.com/2025/11/doct...
#64: The Chicken Soup Murder by Maria Donovan. Beautifully observed story from a child’s point of view, concerning friendship, grief and a possible murder. It’s brilliant and highly readable. www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Gareth's review of The Chicken Soup Murder
5/5: Maria Donovan’s debut novel The Chicken Soup Murder is a hugely readable and quietly devastating story from a child’s point of view. Michael lives with his nan — something happened to his parent...
www.goodreads.com
October 27, 2025 at 11:46 AM
#64: The Chicken Soup Murder by Maria Donovan. Beautifully observed story from a child’s point of view, concerning friendship, grief and a possible murder. It’s brilliant and highly readable. www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
#63: Imperial Moon by Christopher Bulis. A jaunty Victorians-on-the-moon comic book-style adventure. www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
Gareth's review of Doctor Who
3/5: The Fifth Doctor encounters Victorians on the moon in this spirited nod to Jules Verne and H.G. Wells, mostly by way of Terry Nation when it comes to advancing the plot. The whole thing is treme...
www.goodreads.com
October 27, 2025 at 11:44 AM
#63: Imperial Moon by Christopher Bulis. A jaunty Victorians-on-the-moon comic book-style adventure. www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
It’s time for another trip around the genre houses with Christopher Bulis, this time taking off Jules Verne in Imperial Moon. It would have made a natty comic book. neilisthebestdalek.blogspot.com/2025/10/doct...
Doctor Who: The BBC Books #76 – Imperial Moon by Christopher Bulis
Doctor Who: The Past Doctor Adventures #34 Imperial Moon By Christopher Bulis There’s something almost endearing about the Past Doctor Adven...
neilisthebestdalek.blogspot.com
October 26, 2025 at 9:31 AM
It’s time for another trip around the genre houses with Christopher Bulis, this time taking off Jules Verne in Imperial Moon. It would have made a natty comic book. neilisthebestdalek.blogspot.com/2025/10/doct...
The Eighth Doctor Adventures start again with The Burning, a continuity-shy jumping on point with a Doctor still in progress. It’s a Gothic romp. neilisthebestdalek.blogspot.com/2025/10/doct...
Doctor Who: The BBC Books #75 – The Burning by Justin Richards
Doctor Who: The Eighth Doctor Adventures #37 The Burning By Justin Richards We’re a little over three years into The Eighth Doctor Adventure...
neilisthebestdalek.blogspot.com
October 26, 2025 at 9:29 AM
The Eighth Doctor Adventures start again with The Burning, a continuity-shy jumping on point with a Doctor still in progress. It’s a Gothic romp. neilisthebestdalek.blogspot.com/2025/10/doct...
Mike Tucker lets Robert Perry sit this one out for Prime Time, a sort of Vengeance On Varos for the 90s. Better than you’d think. neilisthebestdalek.blogspot.com/2025/10/doct...
Doctor Who: The BBC Books #74 – Prime Time by Mike Tucker
Doctor Who: The Past Doctor Adventures #33 Prime Time By Mike Tucker I’ve read this one before, years ago along with all the other Mike Tuck...
neilisthebestdalek.blogspot.com
October 26, 2025 at 9:28 AM
Mike Tucker lets Robert Perry sit this one out for Prime Time, a sort of Vengeance On Varos for the 90s. Better than you’d think. neilisthebestdalek.blogspot.com/2025/10/doct...
The Eighth Doctor Adventures tie off (aka bin) a lot of plot lines in The Ancestor Cell: a curious, cobbled Lawrence Miles tribute act that seemingly can’t wait to be over. neilisthebestdalek.blogspot.com/2025/10/doct...
Doctor Who: The BBC Books #73 – The Ancestor Cell by Peter Anghelides and Stephen Cole
Doctor Who: The Eighth Doctor Adventures #36 The Ancestor Cell By Peter Anghelides & Stephen Cole Here we are then: the season finale of The...
neilisthebestdalek.blogspot.com
October 26, 2025 at 9:26 AM
The Eighth Doctor Adventures tie off (aka bin) a lot of plot lines in The Ancestor Cell: a curious, cobbled Lawrence Miles tribute act that seemingly can’t wait to be over. neilisthebestdalek.blogspot.com/2025/10/doct...
Despite rejecting Jim Mortimore’s batty Campaign, BBC Books seemed okay with Dave Stone’s similarly bonzo multi-Doctor-well-sort-of Heart Of TARDIS. It’s, um, definitely the work of Dave Stone. neilisthebestdalek.blogspot.com/2025/10/doct...
Doctor Who: The BBC Books #72 – Heart Of TARDIS by Dave Stone
Doctor Who: The Past Doctor Adventures #32 Heart of TARDIS By Dave Stone Look up there — what’s that light in the sky, above Gotham Police H...
neilisthebestdalek.blogspot.com
October 26, 2025 at 9:25 AM
Despite rejecting Jim Mortimore’s batty Campaign, BBC Books seemed okay with Dave Stone’s similarly bonzo multi-Doctor-well-sort-of Heart Of TARDIS. It’s, um, definitely the work of Dave Stone. neilisthebestdalek.blogspot.com/2025/10/doct...
Richards and Lane dusted off an old draft for The Banquo Legacy. It’s not hard to see the joins, but it just about works, even if it’s another book not very interested in Compassion. neilisthebestdalek.blogspot.com/2025/10/doct...
Doctor Who: The BBC Books #71 – The Banquo Legacy by Andy Lane and Justin Richards
Doctor Who: The Eighth Doctor Adventures #35 The Banquo Legacy By Andy Lane & Justin Richards At last, we’re getting somewhere. After severa...
neilisthebestdalek.blogspot.com
October 26, 2025 at 9:22 AM
Richards and Lane dusted off an old draft for The Banquo Legacy. It’s not hard to see the joins, but it just about works, even if it’s another book not very interested in Compassion. neilisthebestdalek.blogspot.com/2025/10/doct...
Justin Richards (very probably) rush-wrote this Gothic horror for a deadline, but Grave Matter is quite good fun anyway. neilisthebestdalek.blogspot.com/2025/10/doct...
Doctor Who: The BBC Books #70 – Grave Matter by Justin Richards
Doctor Who: The Past Doctor Adventures #31 Grave Matter By Justin Richards Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s Write Novels Quickly Man! W...
neilisthebestdalek.blogspot.com
October 26, 2025 at 9:20 AM
Justin Richards (very probably) rush-wrote this Gothic horror for a deadline, but Grave Matter is quite good fun anyway. neilisthebestdalek.blogspot.com/2025/10/doct...
Mods meet rockers… IN SPACE in Steve Lyons’s The Space Age. I wish it was madder. neilisthebestdalek.blogspot.com/2025/09/doct...
Doctor Who: The BBC Books #69 – The Space Age by Steve Lyons
Doctor Who: The Eighth Doctor Adventures #34 The Space Age By Steve Lyons Right then. Time for another exciting instalment of “the Doctor, F...
neilisthebestdalek.blogspot.com
October 26, 2025 at 9:19 AM
Mods meet rockers… IN SPACE in Steve Lyons’s The Space Age. I wish it was madder. neilisthebestdalek.blogspot.com/2025/09/doct...