Doctor Who: The Blood Cell

Doctor Who: The Blood Cell by James Goss
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

When Prisoner 428 shows up at The Prison, the Governor knows he's going to be trouble. But what does Prisoner 428 have to do with the mysterious power fluctuations? And will Prisoner 428 make good on his promise to escape? Of course he will. He's The Doctor...

I got this from Netgalley.

Since I'm a dyed in the wool Whovian, I was pretty excited when this popped up on Netgalley. Should I have been? Meh...

On the surface, this had the makings of a good Doctor Who book. The prison asteroid setting had a lot of potential, as did the prisoners who were mysteriously vanishing. I even enjoyed the paranoid feel sometimes, wondering what was behind everything.

Too bad this book is deeply flawed for a Doctor Who book. First off, it's narrated in the first person by the Governor of the prison planet, making us detached from the Doctor's antics. When I read a Doctor Who novel, I want the Doctor and whomever his companion is at the time center stage, not have their exploits relayed to me by some schmoe. Secondly, it's also not really exciting. It took forever to reveal why the Doctor was in the clink in the first place and also reveal the background of the Governor, something I could have safely gone the rest of my life without knowing.

My third objection is a litty iffy. As of this writing, all we know of the Twelfth Doctor is from the seconds of footage from Day of the Doctor and his regeneration sequence from Time of the Doctor. Apart from some remarks about his age, this very much felt like the Tenth Doctor was paired with Clara.

It wasn't a terrible book but I was very ready for it to be over by the 75% mark. Two hard-earned stars.

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