i am currently reading my way through the eighth doctor adventures, a series of novels which lasted from 1996 after the release of the tv movie, until the beginning of the new series in 2005. they are known for being slightly more adult in themes than the show - while not explicitly sexual, in many cases they show subversions of cishet expectations, as well as being darker & heavier than much of the show. they generally have complex & long story arcs and are more space-operaey in style than other novels. the edas & the eighth doctor audios were insturmental in provding the framework for much of nuwho, as well as providing many of the most imaginative stories across the doctor who extended universe.

i am currently on book number:

16 / 73

the scarlet empress - paul magrs - 9/10

legitimately one of my new favourite edas this was really really cool they really just put anything in here. good sense of whimsy that is often lacking from these as well & some really cool stuff. imaginative & fantastical (even bordering into fantasy in a few places) and IRIS WILDTHYME !! really really cool use of unreliable narrator & changing perspectives & they just jump straight into psychoanlaysing the doctor from the very first page i was underlining so much stuff its just oughhghghghghghnhghghgn very very good i LOVEEEEEEE the way thsi was written like really there was just anything & everything in here & there was the implication of so much moreeeee augahgaia aoaauaagah aouaoaahuaoahahhunangh

vanderdekens children - christopher bulin - 7/10

going to be so honest here. when sam got turned into a kid & they had to zap her back i though oh okay so thats foreshadowing then & where the title is going to come from and then i was Barely mentioned again. idk maybe its a metaphor i wasnt quite getting BUT oh my god this was so beautifully written it was realllyyy slow to get going but in a good way very atmospheric & the massive spaceship was awesome & time loop yippee! it was good i really liked it :) lost track of the worldbuilding a little bit but it was generally pretty good

placebo effect - gary russel - 1/10

look how they mischaracterised my girl & my boy also like oh my godddddddd why was everyone in this book so annoying?? literally absymal book so so badddddddddd like howwwwww did this veer get published. they do not talk like that they do not act like that no one thinks like that thier stupid fucking creationist argument sam would notttt have started agreeing she's smarter than that they all fucking suckkkk in thsi godddddddd if i wasnt reading them all i would have just stopped this after like 20 pages it sucks so so bad. like ajsnhanushausoaun she would not think like that she would not say that she does not act like that free my girl sam jones also it was using an alien from a 70s serial and i didnt recognise it for agessss like ? ive seen that episode lol. & he added another r to wirrrn which was a bit silly like. who caressssssss at least dont tell us youre doing thst

seeing i - kate orman & jonohan blum - 8.5/10

damn okay nothing like some psychosexual tension to make your accidental exile on a different planet more interesting. this was really good though jon blum kate orman number one sam jones understanders. also the doctor carrying around a teddy bear for his three year prison stay is so funny he's so pathetic lol ALSO. ANSWERS AS TO THECLOTHES the tardis has a fancy washing machine that fixes your clothes. & he went to go get his tv movie outfit made up in actual fabroc instead of a stolen fancy dress costume AFTER TWELVE BOOKS he so pathetic i love him but OHHHH MY GOD SAMMMMMMMM !! SAM JONES !!! SAMANTHA JONES I AM OBSESSED WITH YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU they understand her so well & know how to write her

dreamstone moon - paul leonard - 6/10

THEY WERE SO CLOSE RAHHHHHHHHH like i know why for plot reasons they couldnt just find each other really easily BUT THEY WERE SOOOO SO SO CLOSE they could have leaned harder into sam's guilt & doubt i think but pretty good writing of her so oh well. not quite sure what was going on with some of the worldbuilding but it was kinda vibey :). like they sort of adressed sam's feelings but i just wishhhhh she got more focus. it was cool when they had her guilt over her assumptions vs her morals even if it was a tad heavy handed because like yeagh that does feel like a realistic thing for her to do

legacy of the daleks - john peel - 8/10

SUSAN EXPLODES THE MASTER WITH HER MIND. AND TURNS HIM CRISPY. WITH HER MIND. GOOD FOR HER. LITERALLY I SUPPORT WOMENS WRONGS HELL YEAGH SUSAN anyways yeah i liked this one:) well written not pointlessley violent dalek story for once & susan! i love u susan :) & really really good post-apocalyptic writing & the knight character was cool i liked her she should have gotten to destroy some people with her mind too actually. some of the setting kind of reminded me of a book i read called Salt Lick with the sort of empty rural britain thing going on. this was pretty good esp. for a dalek story i think cos even though daleks are the Point, theyre not the Main Big Bad like the big bad here is creepy men

longest day - micheal collier - 4/10

i was so excited for time distortion i love it when this happens but this one was Very gorey and kinda miserable AND if they'd just waited like two minutes at the end or like taken the doctor with them they wouldve lowkey avoided what i suspect may be the plot of the next three books but oh welllllllll sam jones i love you you deserve better writing and also better plot points raghhhhh. like honestly this one was abjectly miserable & had very few redeeming points & was really long and they seemed soooooooo set of focusing on sams attraction to various guys like shut upppppppppppppppppppppppppppp

option lock - justin richards - 7.5/10

the first half of this book could have been written for me specifically hehe when the thing about bloodlines came with NAME LINGUISTICS !! you better believe i was clapping & cheering. i was figuring out all the name stuff myself by the end it was so fun lol.honestly could have leaned a lot more into the Gothic Castle Bits than the potential nuclear war bits but oh well i still really liked it. so funny in retrospect how the end of the world is stored on a floppy disk & is only pulled off because of screen width errors. buy YEAHHHHHHH the first half was vibing so so so so hard gothic castle tortured painter the whole lot hehe

kursaal - peter anghlidies - 7.5/10

girl i really dont know how they could have made it any clearer that it was werewolves like the foreshadowing was really quite blatant but oh well it was still enjoyable. i think the bernard cockaigne character was based off like 1960s anti-nuclear activists that was the vibes i was getting which was cool. this was some of the first books where sams like. Actual Activism was used as a major plot point which was cool cos she is like that & this book understood this. also the time travel on the same planet in the same story was really interesting

alien bodies - lawrence miles - 8/10

people shaped tardises yippeeeeeeeeeeee :) i love you weird time lord lore :) also the dramatic foreshadowing in this is interesting cos are they reffering to A Made Up Event that just happens to line up really well with the time war????????? which wasnt written until like 8 years later? are they reffering to the war in heaven cos i think thats a thing that happens later in the edas?? anyways cool book. they really like uhm. flesh things in these but like i was SOOOOOOOO here for people shaped tardises. that. ahem. reproduce organically. i thought the Lore & Worldbuilding in this was really good though the plot slighty less interesting to me BUT THE LAIKA BIT. THREE BURYING LAIKA. i wrote something about that i might add here later but its teh sortof collective human guilt about sending laika into space to die and how someone wrote her getting a good burial from someone who really cares.

also SAMMMM SAM JONESSSSSSSSS I LOVE HERRRRRRRR the frickin flesh thingies that were in there that were looking like warped versions of her, her """children""" while that was messed up THE FIRST GLIMPSE !! of the whole thing with the two versions of herrrrr i was so obsessed that that like oauaauhaugauhagauhau everything she is is shaped by the doctor. i took you by that hand and have lead you to your death but almost the inverse?? anyways soooo so so excited to find out what is going on with that yay :)

war of the daleks - john peel - 5/10

its so funny in the eu when they bring in major character like davros cos like. you know they cant do anything too lasting to him cos he'll probably show up in the show later on so like yeah he gets killed but. he's coming back. idk pretty solid book overall but nothing toooo special. dalek stories can get a bit repetitive & making the thals like Tall Beautiful Warriors seemed pretty anthithetical to that first episode they & the daleks are in but likeeeee idk maybe its trying to show the longlasting effects of war or something

also if i remember correctly there was like a butch woman on the spaceship who was described as being cold to the men's advances and i was soooooooo hoping she was a lesbian but alas no

genocide - paul leonard - 6/10

it was okay. lowkey kind of predictable but i liked the tractites & how their books work on smell & taste & how the tardis translations work when one party doesnt have spoken language, how sam just Knew what was being communicated to her - one thing about me is i am a sucker for conlangs & alien languages & the earth the tractites lived on was really really cool. i dont know much about jo but she was also there. also sam's guilt over killing the tractite was really interesting in that it was one of the only details that carried over in the first like ten books its the only thing that is consistently mentioned after it happens. some of the pre-human stuff was kinda giving 2001 a space odyssey but that was probably intention. oh & the time tree that was barely explained here gets brought on later in i thiiiiink option lock? but yeah. the doctor getting starved lowkey really really sucked but they do love putting that bisexual brunette man through it

the bodysnatchers - mark morris - 7/10

the entire time i was reading this i kept thinking 'theyre in the flesh dimension' like damn everything is blood & skin & flesh & meat & rot & decay the zygon ship being Alive in a way was quite cool but almost sickening when it dies. they were returning to a setting from i think three or four's era? cant quite remember i read this one a while ago but i liked how he said that he was an acommplice of the doctor the man had alrady met, & that they all took the title of doctor that was kind of cool.

this was where i started getting Fascinated by sam i think, she has such a self awareness of hwo she wants others to percive her - readjusting how's she's standing so that she looks less scared & stuff. i love herrrrr sam jones save me

vampire science - kate orman & jonothan blum - 9/10

actually sooooo so so good, one of the most well written doctor who book I've read so far. it has everything : vampires! goths! the nineties! eighth doctor! companion described as butch! opening scene I thought was a lesbian bar for that reason although retrospectively i don't think i interpreted that right! its really really good also the cat is named mina. like mina harker from dracula hehe. theHOLD ON WAS ANYONE GOING TO TELL ME JON BLUM & KATE ORMAN ARE MARRIED OR DID I HAVE TO LEARN THIS FROM A GOODREADS AUTHOR BIO MYSELF. BWUH?? anyways, you can tellll how carolyn was supposed to be grace & i think in a way i was picturing her as grace for the entire book like. you can tell. when will my beautiful wife grace holloway return from the war (not mentioned since 1997) but yesssss vampire science really is as good as they say & the vampires are hella cool. like of course 90s vampires run a goth bar like yeah. of course. Very bloody but in a fun way

the eight doctors - terrance dicks - 2.5/10

honestly? all the people who say you can skip this one are right i'm gonna be so real here it was only worth reading in a completionist way. somehow manages to mischaracterise the doctor in his second ever appearance & sam is annoyingggggg like you can tell he did not actually like the character he had come up with. theres a really long usenet thread on rec.arts.drwho where kate orman jon blum & a bunch of others are discussing sam's character profile they were given and hoooo boyyyyyyy. like if you have contempt for the compainion youre coming up with why are you writing them like that. like. just write something else. like i only really bothered finishing this to find out how sam ends up travelling with eight and its the most lackluster tardis invitation ever

anyways this is essentially just eight going back for a greatest hits tour of the show, getting increasingly long winded as not a whole lot. actually happens. barely any character development. also the entire opening in coal hill is all KID THESE DAYS!! LOOK AT THE STATE OF OUR YOUTH !! which was obnoxious at best and actively condescending & belittleing at worst.