Scan barcode
writingwwolves's review against another edition
5.0
Rating: 4.5
I really wish I could read every book I pick up in one sitting like I did with the Good Doctor because it makes the stories so much better! Even if I hadn't read this in one sitting though I would've loved it. This novel tied in really well with the last episode of Doctor Who & has really helped to build up the character arcs of 13 & her companions. I massively recommend this.
Extended Review: https://wp.me/p8MbIo-2E3
I really wish I could read every book I pick up in one sitting like I did with the Good Doctor because it makes the stories so much better! Even if I hadn't read this in one sitting though I would've loved it. This novel tied in really well with the last episode of Doctor Who & has really helped to build up the character arcs of 13 & her companions. I massively recommend this.
Extended Review: https://wp.me/p8MbIo-2E3
ellieb13's review against another edition
5.0
I loved this book! Fantastic Thirteen story. Came to this after Redacted and definitely going to be checking out Juno Dawson's other works.
thoroughlymodernreviewer's review against another edition
4.0
With every new season of Doctor Who comes a new set of tie-in novels featuring the current Doctor. As season 11, the first season to feature Jodie Whittaker as the Thirteenth Doctor, just recently premiered, it's time for the tie-in books to be released. The first of these, The Good Doctor, was released October 26 and was written by the New-to-Who author, Juno Dawson. It's a novel that explores the impact the Doctor's visits can have on a world and how religions might spring forth from them. It's a pretty darn good book.
I love the idea of the Doctor inadvertently being the central figure of a religion. It only makes sense that someone who gets involved in the affairs of so many different civilizations would end up being a part of a religion or two. Former showrunner, Steven Moffat, briefly flirted with this idea during the Matt Smith Era (as it's hinted that the Doctor has become a legendary, mythological figure in lots of cultures and also basically ended up being a central figure in the creation of the Church of the Silence - a church literally created to make sure he never says his name to the Time Lords on Trenzalore), but there's never really been any meaningful exploration of the idea - in New-Who, at least - until now. Juno Dawson's novel is a remarkable exploration of how the Doctor's actions could influence a society to create a religion based around her, and then for that religion to get several facets of the Doctor completely wrong. I don't want to go into any real detail as to just how this religion gets these facets of the Doctor wrong, but let's just say that they get a lot of it pretty majorly wrong and that ends up fueling much of the conflict of the book.
The other major part of the book is a pretty typical Doctor Who plotline where there are two groups of people with differing ideologies for how their society should be run fighting against each other and the Doctor has to step in and sort it all out. The Temple, the main religious rulers who were inspired by the Doctor's acts on the planet six hundred years earlier, is in charge and rule with a pretty big authoritarian fist while an underground group of rebels, made up of Lobos (anthropomorphic dog-like beings) and humans who don't agree with the Temple's rules, are plotting ways to take down the Temple and give equality to all beings of the planet. Naturally, the Doctor, Ryan, and Graham end up getting captured by the Temple while Yaz is captured by the rebels and this separation of our core group is what ultimately brings these two warring sides together in a climactic clash.
Juno Dawson does a remarkable job at capturing the feel of Jodie Whittaker's Doctor and this new era of Doctor Who. This whole story feels like an episode we could see in this season and the Doctor and the companions all sound and feel exactly like they do in the series. Dawson perfectly captures and replicates the voices of the characters while also exploring and developing them some. We get a glimpse in this novel at how much Graham does care about Yaz, something we haven't really seen in the show as of yet. We get a sense that the four of them have been traveling for a while, so it's likely set some time after Arachnids in the UK. The novel trods along at a nice pace, never dawdling too much but also spending a good amount of time on each scene and allowing the story the room to breathe sometimes.
I love the idea of the Doctor influencing a planet so much that they develop a religion around her. I love the idea of that planet's religion getting much of the Doctor fundamentally wrong. I love how Dawson explores this idea. I love how this horrible religion based around the Doctor has ended up being a terrible thing for many of the inhabitants of the planet. I love how the Doctor reacts to this religion and how it propels her through the novel to set things right. So much of this book was definitely great. My one complaint would be its length. I wish it was longer and had a bit more time to explore the Doctor's relationship to religion and show us more of how the idea of her being the central figure of a religion actually impacts her on an emotional level. That's a very small complaint, though, as these novels aren't designed to be all that long and the authors who write them just don't have the room in the novels to explore themes like this as much as I'd like. For what it's meant to be, this novel is great. It explores this central idea in a really interesting and impactful way. It captures the spirit of this new Doctor and her companions perfectly and it gives the audience a new, interesting story that feels right at home with what they're watching on TV. It's great reading for anyone who loves this new Doctor!
4.5 out of 5 wands
I love the idea of the Doctor inadvertently being the central figure of a religion. It only makes sense that someone who gets involved in the affairs of so many different civilizations would end up being a part of a religion or two. Former showrunner, Steven Moffat, briefly flirted with this idea during the Matt Smith Era (as it's hinted that the Doctor has become a legendary, mythological figure in lots of cultures and also basically ended up being a central figure in the creation of the Church of the Silence - a church literally created to make sure he never says his name to the Time Lords on Trenzalore), but there's never really been any meaningful exploration of the idea - in New-Who, at least - until now. Juno Dawson's novel is a remarkable exploration of how the Doctor's actions could influence a society to create a religion based around her, and then for that religion to get several facets of the Doctor completely wrong. I don't want to go into any real detail as to just how this religion gets these facets of the Doctor wrong, but let's just say that they get a lot of it pretty majorly wrong and that ends up fueling much of the conflict of the book.
The other major part of the book is a pretty typical Doctor Who plotline where there are two groups of people with differing ideologies for how their society should be run fighting against each other and the Doctor has to step in and sort it all out. The Temple, the main religious rulers who were inspired by the Doctor's acts on the planet six hundred years earlier, is in charge and rule with a pretty big authoritarian fist while an underground group of rebels, made up of Lobos (anthropomorphic dog-like beings) and humans who don't agree with the Temple's rules, are plotting ways to take down the Temple and give equality to all beings of the planet. Naturally, the Doctor, Ryan, and Graham end up getting captured by the Temple while Yaz is captured by the rebels and this separation of our core group is what ultimately brings these two warring sides together in a climactic clash.
Juno Dawson does a remarkable job at capturing the feel of Jodie Whittaker's Doctor and this new era of Doctor Who. This whole story feels like an episode we could see in this season and the Doctor and the companions all sound and feel exactly like they do in the series. Dawson perfectly captures and replicates the voices of the characters while also exploring and developing them some. We get a glimpse in this novel at how much Graham does care about Yaz, something we haven't really seen in the show as of yet. We get a sense that the four of them have been traveling for a while, so it's likely set some time after Arachnids in the UK. The novel trods along at a nice pace, never dawdling too much but also spending a good amount of time on each scene and allowing the story the room to breathe sometimes.
I love the idea of the Doctor influencing a planet so much that they develop a religion around her. I love the idea of that planet's religion getting much of the Doctor fundamentally wrong. I love how Dawson explores this idea. I love how this horrible religion based around the Doctor has ended up being a terrible thing for many of the inhabitants of the planet. I love how the Doctor reacts to this religion and how it propels her through the novel to set things right. So much of this book was definitely great. My one complaint would be its length. I wish it was longer and had a bit more time to explore the Doctor's relationship to religion and show us more of how the idea of her being the central figure of a religion actually impacts her on an emotional level. That's a very small complaint, though, as these novels aren't designed to be all that long and the authors who write them just don't have the room in the novels to explore themes like this as much as I'd like. For what it's meant to be, this novel is great. It explores this central idea in a really interesting and impactful way. It captures the spirit of this new Doctor and her companions perfectly and it gives the audience a new, interesting story that feels right at home with what they're watching on TV. It's great reading for anyone who loves this new Doctor!
4.5 out of 5 wands
ceasg's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
gen_wolfhailstorm's review against another edition
4.0
This was for some reason surprisingly even more enjoyable than I had expected. It felt like a true epsidoe of Doctor Who as everything was done really well. I could just imagine the characters saying all of this!
It was really humorous as well; at one point they mentioned eating and it made me chuckle cause I always wonder, during their adventures on the show, aren't they hungry?! Especially with all that back and fo-ing in time... I'd be super hungry!
It was even funnier still when they actually made a passing comment about Bradley Walsh (who plays Graham) on his game show, The Chase! Does that count as a paradox?! XD
Once I realised the Loba were some sort of dog like creature all I could think of was very strong furries... I mean, it certainly made it easier to visualise, that's for sure.
Unfortunately there were a lot of typos that I couldn't ignore and that sort of thing irritates me when I'm reading, even as small an issue as it is. I also wasn't keen on the fact that when a character that was a Loba was talking they were often referred to just as their species... That wasn't done with the human characters so why was it written that way for them? Couldn't help but pick up on it as the fact of specism/rascism was one of the main themes and that felt a little hypocritical to the whole point.
Despite this... hiccup? I've just got to say how much I love this series of Doctor Who, and in extension this book, because they often bring up topics to do with inequality and having a diverse main cast allows us further exploration of these issues, which is even more interesting when it's translated to the struggles of alien species. I love that this book also questions religion, not rudely, but in a respectfully curious way.
This was very entertaining, a quick read, but certainly packed a punch!
Pick it up, give it a go and enjoy! >(^_^)<
Gén
It was really humorous as well; at one point they mentioned eating and it made me chuckle cause I always wonder, during their adventures on the show, aren't they hungry?! Especially with all that back and fo-ing in time... I'd be super hungry!
It was even funnier still when they actually made a passing comment about Bradley Walsh (who plays Graham) on his game show, The Chase! Does that count as a paradox?! XD
Once I realised the Loba were some sort of dog like creature all I could think of was very strong furries... I mean, it certainly made it easier to visualise, that's for sure.
Unfortunately there were a lot of typos that I couldn't ignore and that sort of thing irritates me when I'm reading, even as small an issue as it is. I also wasn't keen on the fact that when a character that was a Loba was talking they were often referred to just as their species... That wasn't done with the human characters so why was it written that way for them? Couldn't help but pick up on it as the fact of specism/rascism was one of the main themes and that felt a little hypocritical to the whole point.
Despite this... hiccup? I've just got to say how much I love this series of Doctor Who, and in extension this book, because they often bring up topics to do with inequality and having a diverse main cast allows us further exploration of these issues, which is even more interesting when it's translated to the struggles of alien species. I love that this book also questions religion, not rudely, but in a respectfully curious way.
This was very entertaining, a quick read, but certainly packed a punch!
Pick it up, give it a go and enjoy! >(^_^)<
Gén
kers_tin's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
otherwyrld's review against another edition
4.0
In the world of writing TV adaptations, the hardest books to write are the ones with brand new characters because the author has little more to work with than a description of what the character should be about. The essential spark - what the actor makes of the bare bones of their written character - is missing at this early point.
It is therefore to the authors credit that this book turns out so well, all the characters in the book feel like the ones we have watched over the latest series of Doctor Who where we get to meet not only a new Doctor but three new companions as well.
The story is a pretty basic one, where The Doctor visits a place once then returns centuries later to find himself being worshipped as a god. This theme has been explored by Doctor Who in the past, most notably by the 4th Doctor in the classic story The Face of Evil (though in that case The Doctor is reviled as an evil god rather than a good one).
I deliberately used the word "he" in the previous paragraph because gender politics plays a major part on this story. In this case our new female Doctor is superseded as god by companion Graham, and women are distinctly second class (which is still above the third class status of the original natives of the planet, later colonised by humans). This idea of people deferring to the older male companion while ignoring the female Doctor is explored in the series, where for the most part The Doctor is shown to be clearly in charge and Graham is in a secondary role. The most notable exception is in the episode The Witchfinders where The Doctor expresses frustration with not being in charge. It was something of a concern for me when I first read about the cast list for the 13th Doctor, as seemed that the BBC was putting in extra companions to shore up a Doctor that they didn't have total faith in (they did the same with the 5th Doctor, who at the time was the youngest Doctor and possibly didn't have the same authority in the minds of the public as the previous older incarnations). Of course Jodie Whittaker is clearly in charge in the series, but this doesn't come across as strongly in the book.
It helps that the author has a unique perspective on how such a story might play out, given that she has previously written other books before she transitioned. I was intrigued enough by her own story to borrow a copy of her autobiography from the library.
So this is my long-winded way of saying I really enjoyed the book and I am looking forward to more stories as strong as this one.
It is therefore to the authors credit that this book turns out so well, all the characters in the book feel like the ones we have watched over the latest series of Doctor Who where we get to meet not only a new Doctor but three new companions as well.
The story is a pretty basic one, where The Doctor visits a place once then returns centuries later to find himself being worshipped as a god. This theme has been explored by Doctor Who in the past, most notably by the 4th Doctor in the classic story The Face of Evil (though in that case The Doctor is reviled as an evil god rather than a good one).
I deliberately used the word "he" in the previous paragraph because gender politics plays a major part on this story. In this case our new female Doctor is superseded as god by companion Graham, and women are distinctly second class (which is still above the third class status of the original natives of the planet, later colonised by humans). This idea of people deferring to the older male companion while ignoring the female Doctor is explored in the series, where for the most part The Doctor is shown to be clearly in charge and Graham is in a secondary role. The most notable exception is in the episode The Witchfinders where The Doctor expresses frustration with not being in charge. It was something of a concern for me when I first read about the cast list for the 13th Doctor, as seemed that the BBC was putting in extra companions to shore up a Doctor that they didn't have total faith in (they did the same with the 5th Doctor, who at the time was the youngest Doctor and possibly didn't have the same authority in the minds of the public as the previous older incarnations). Of course Jodie Whittaker is clearly in charge in the series, but this doesn't come across as strongly in the book.
It helps that the author has a unique perspective on how such a story might play out, given that she has previously written other books before she transitioned. I was intrigued enough by her own story to borrow a copy of her autobiography from the library.
So this is my long-winded way of saying I really enjoyed the book and I am looking forward to more stories as strong as this one.
zocadic's review against another edition
3.0
way too many characters in this, there’s absolutely no way to keep track of who people are
murderousscottishgremlin's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
noonanjohnc's review
3.0
Lovely stuff
This such a well written story where the characters literally leap off the page. It's certainly going to annoy a few traditional Doctor Who fans, and so it should. 😊
This such a well written story where the characters literally leap off the page. It's certainly going to annoy a few traditional Doctor Who fans, and so it should. 😊