Doctor Who: Big Bang Generation by Gary Russell

Doctor Who: Big Bang Generation Reviews

• 
  N

  EDIT: I've updated this review to reflect my changed views on the subject matter. Have come to realise that Sam Smith actually rocks.
  
  "Jack was using his amazing eyesight to see better than the others in the dark [...]"
  
  I have so many questions about this book. So, so many questions.
  
  To start with. Who on earth is supposed to be the target audience for this story? It's not suited for long-time fans of Bernice Summerfield, because the narrative spends an inordinate amount of time introducing her and her pals, shoving entire chunks of exposition into the main text instead of actually letting them speak for themselves. It's not for people who are unfamiliar with Benny either, since the book casually spoils pretty much every big plot twist in the Big Finish audio series — not even as part of the story, but just randomly, in big honking paragraphs. And for both of the above reasons it's certainly not written for fans like me, who are slowly getting into Benny's adventures and who have been enjoying the books and audios at a leisurely pace. Gary spoils several entire seasons of audios here. Presumably to meet word count.
  
  Next question. Why? Just in general? Why did any of this happen? Why do Ruth and the gang spend their precious time sending vague postcards and shoving guns into the Doctor's back and talking about pizza when the entire world is at stake? For "fun", is the explanation the novel offers. To me, fun would be contacting the Doctor directly, telling him that the universe needs to be saved, and having him and Benny reunite happily and without getting sidetracked by all this ridiculous fuckery. Instead, the Doctor spends an excessive amount of time fiddling around with phone apps, pink alligators, Keri the Pakhar (whom I love, but who serves no purpose to the plot here whatsoever), references to Shona (who should be a returning TV companion instead of a throwaway line) and terrible punctuation. The only interesting new character, Kik the Assassin, randomly ends up falling in love with Peter after he farts on her (I'm not making this up) and would apparently give up the universe just to spend a heartbeat's worth of time with him. I don't even know.
  
  Yes, there were some great bits. The Doctor muses on the various White Rabbit pubs throughout the universe, neatly tying this novel into Big Finish's Forge arc and the BBC Torchwood audios. The narration mentions the Generational Professorial Candy clones, explaining how said Professor can appear in Benny's books and audios, Steven Moffat's "Continuity Errors" short story and TV's "Let's Kill Hitler" as several different persons. There's a shout-out to Rob Shearman's "Deadline" that made me grin from ear to ear. And even the Crinis from the Doctor Who Experience get a mention. I love that — that's how you do sneaky little references to canon. But so very much of the novel was a load of pointless wank that all those nice little bits just couldn't save it.
  
  Just for example, Peter spends the entire novel walking around in a hoodie that apparently is low enough to cover his alien nose, but allows him to see just fine — physics be damned — whereas at the same time, the rest of the gang use a Shimmer device to change the appearance of their clothes, their surroundings and even entire buildings. Why doesn't Peter simply use the Shimmer? Because this book makes no sense. The editing is extraordinarily shoddy, the narration switches from objective third-person to familiar chit-chat in the middle of sentences, the wrong words appear in places because apparently no one could be arsed to properly proofread this mess, and the random gratuitous German is inexcusably bad. And on top of all that, every sort of exciting bit in the novel had already been done before in other Who stories.
  
  As for Benny... she's at her very blandest here, her motivations are all over the place, and whenever she's off-screen (so to speak) her brain just seems to switch off until she's part of the action again. Also, the Doctor angsts to her for a bit about the Time War and about being unable to find his family again. At which point I expected at least one of them to just call up Braxiatel and ask if he's seen Gallifrey anywhere recently, since he gets mentioned incessantly and gratuitously throughout the novel anyway. But no, that would make sense.
  
  I do love some of Gary Russell's other work, and I imagine that some fans are delighted with this novel. It's just... really not for me.
• 
  Yzabel Ginsberg

  [I received a copy of this novel through Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.]
  
  1.5 stars
  
  I don’t know where to start, because this one was all over the place. Ambitious, with a plotline that could be awesome and tie a lot of things together, yet… didn’t in the end, not really. I mean, the plot got its ending, but I still have no idea where it all fits within the Glamour series, except for the name being thrown in, and the Ancients bit just made me wonder what/who exactly they were, and what was their purpose? (Not much, considering how they were presented.)
  
  I liked the sense of a con, or several cons going on, at the same time, or at different times. I liked the postcards bit, because in general I’m fond of such devices (cliché as they are) to “gather the posse together and prepare for the big heist”. Only it stayed at that level, and I didn’t get later the feeling I got from the book’s blurb, which hinted at something more exciting.
  
  A lot of things made no sense, to be honest, in how the characters behaved, in their plans, in how they interacted with each other. There was banter (good Capaldi-like lines, for sure) but they felt disjointed from the plot. The characters weren’t as far as witty as they were meant to be. Incoherences thrown in now and then didn’t help (I think they have some time of veiling/cloaking technology, yet Peter has to hide his face under a hoodie?).
  
  The random interest Kik showed for Peter was a big WTF series of moments for me. It just came out of nowhere, and made as little sense as the rest. Their interactions were somewhat fun at first (dog fart in her face to make her throw him away—it’s 100% dumb, but hey, whatever works, also I’m positive it’s the kind of stunt I’d pull in a pen & paper RPG session)... but they didn’t tie at all into “prospective love interest territory”. The badass assassin never projected that aura of badassery I expected from her, Jaansen was just a bumbling idiot, Globb never lived up to his reputation as a conman, Ruth… I don’t even know what she was supposed to do here, apart from being that other guy’s fiancée. I probably missed a few things here. I’m fine with lots of characters… only please develop them more, make them look and smell and feel “real”, otherwise I won’t care much.
  
  And that’s another of the issues I have with this novel. I didn’t get a lot of the references (although I enjoyed the ones I got), my knowledge of the series being mostly the 2005+ seasons and a handful of novels. However, I kept wondering if there wasn’t too much information about Bernice and what she shared with the Doctor, in that now I feel I know a lot without never reading anything about her (or listening to anything—if I’m not mistaken, that was all about audio episodes?). It’s as if the novel hints at too many things for someone who doesn’t know much to the Whoverse, while at the same time recapping too many things as well for those who know a lot and don’t care about, well, many recaps. As a result, there was paradoxically a lot of padding in a novel still too short for its (potentially) complex plot.
  
  Definitely a weird and soon-to-be-forgotten read, unfortunately.
• 
  Michael

  When a pyramid from another world appears in Sydney Harbor, the Doctor begins to investigate how it got there and what can and should be done about. Also hot on the trail is a familiar time-travelling archaeologist, though as the cover warns you, it's not necessarily the one you were expecting.
  
  In his afterward, Gary Russell says that the reason he decided to use Benny Summerfield instead of River was because series runner Steven Moffat nixed the idea. Russsell goes on to say that Moffat suggested bringing Benny back because he'd always liked the character and that then novel turned out to be better because of it.
  
  I'm glad Gary thinks the novel turned out better than he originally imagined. Because this reader found the novel a pretty big disappointment.
  
  Russell does a fine job of capturing the Peter Capaldi Doctor on the printed page and I have to admit that I was really looking forward to seeing the new Doctor and Benny interact. Unfortunately, those interactions fizzle rather than sizzle. A lot of this can be put at the feet of an abundance of continuity surrounding Benny that this reader wasn't aware of. I will admit I haven't followed every twist and turn in Benny's story once the New Adventures ceased publication. So the various characters in her entourage who presumably come from her Big Finish audio line were all mystery to me. Having no investment in any of them, I found myself rapidly wanting to skip the sections that involved these unfamiliar characters and get more into what I'd hoped to get when I picked up the novel.
  
  And that was a good story from Russell. In the past, I've been impressed with many of Russell's Doctor Who offerings -- probably more so than many of my fellow Whovians. But Big Bang Generation is a misstep by Russell and a dud.
  
  In the interest of full disclosure, I received a digital ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
• 
  Daniel Kukwa

  Oh Gary Russell...what happened? You get a hammering from some quarters of fandom, but I've always thoroughly enjoyed your literary contributions. In fact, your previous novels for the 10th & 11th Doctor demonstrated an ability to put real substance & emotion into the new format that "Doctor Who" novels have embraced since its return in 2005. However, "Big Bang Generation" is disappointing for its actual lack of substance. It just breezes by, trying too hard to be witty and funny, and trying too hard to pack in continuity that introduces Benny Summerfield back into the novel...but where's the meat? Where's the depth of detail? Where's the character development? It's almost as if Mr. Russell was given a weekend to write this book, Terrance-Dicks-style. It needs the depth & care that was present in Mr. Russell's previous works. The return of the greatest literary creation in "Doctor Who's" long literary history deserved so much...more. I'm disappointed...and I'm disappointed in having to be disappointed.
  
• 
  Meagan

  I read the endnote at the back of the novel and how the author wanted River Song. THANK GOD HE DIDN'T/COULDN'T it would've made this book even more intolerable. I normally like Gary Russell adaptations but this one I didn't like. He couldn't seem to grasp Twelve all that much and it showed when he had more characters rather than The Doctor be the focus.
  
  The book in itself was confusing. It took until almost the middle of the book to actually understand what was going on. Even in the end I'm still not 100% positive what exactly happened.
  
  I liked that we got Bernice Summerfield. I hadn't read anything about her except just that I knew of her so it was interesting to see her. Couldn't tell if her characterization was off or not but she was enjoyable. Probably one of the only few good things in this novel.
  
  It any thing, it should show how much this book was a struggle that it took me three weeks to read. I can finish Doctor Who books in days. I'm so disappointed.
  
  
• 
  F.R.

  The first point to make is that this is certainly better than ‘Royal Blood’.
  
  The Doctor finds himself in Sydney at the end of 2015, dealing with an ancient pyramid from another world that’s suddenly appeared in the harbor. Elsewhere there’s an old western-style frontier town on a neglected planet, as well as an intergalactic conman with a hit-woman in tow. Most importantly though, there is the return of Bernice Summerfield – without question the most important companion to never appear on the TV show: one who debuted in Paul Cornell’s ‘Love and War’ and now returns to written word Doctor Who to aid and torment a whole other Doctor.
  
  As the above suggests this is a messy and baggy book, one which needs a whopping great deus ex machina to sort it all out. I’ve never actually read any Gary Russell before, but I’m aware of his reputation for over-indulging in fan-wank – and certainly that’s a criticism which could be levelled at ‘Big Bang Generation’ (at one point I thought it was just going to list every single companion in order, either just for the hell of it or to waste a couple of pages), but it’s a hell of a lot of fun. An irreverent science-fiction romp with lots of joke and great supporting characters, and although it doesn’t hit the heights of Douglas Adams it’s aiming for, it’s a noble failure.
  
  Perhaps the more austere Twelfth Doctor isn’t the best incarnation for such a ludicrous plot – I think it would have worked better with the Eleventh – but even though the finished book misses as much as it hits, it still left a big old geeky smile on this Whovian’s face.
• 
  Kayla

  I am a huge Whovian. I love anything and everything Doctor Who related. When I saw that there was a Doctor Who book available for review, I jumped at the chance, even though it featured my least favorite doctor. I'm glad I did. I really enjoyed it.
  
  When I first requested Big Bang Generation, I was a bit skeptical about whether I would enjoy it or not. As I previously stated, Peter Capaldi is my least favorite doctor. There's just something about him compared to the others that makes him meh (at least to me). Well, I didn't have to worry at all. I really enjoyed this story. It was unlike anything done on the television show before, which kept me interested. I was captivated until the very end, wanting to know how the doctor and his "gang" were going to fix things. The book redeemed Twelve in my eyes, and made me want to give him a second chance. I will definitely be rewatching some of his episodes with a more open mind.
  
  Even though I'm not a big fan of Twelve in the TV show, I loved him in this book. I can't wait to read the rest of the trilogy to see what happens next. I recommend this trilogy for Doctor Who fans everywhere. Whether you like the classic episodes, or the newer ones; love Twelve or hate him, I'm sure you'll enjoy Big Bang Generation.
• 
  Ken

  I can't help but feel that Russell was at a disadvantage when he's initial plan of having River Song in this book was blocked, as they had plans for her to return in a televised Christmas special.
  
  Instead insteps Bernice Summerfield, an archeologist who traveled with The Seventh Doctor in the Virgin New Adventures range.
  
  I've not read any of these, I'm aware of 'Benny' but for the younger audience that these books are aimed at I can't imagine they would know who she is.
  
  I felt that I was missing all the references which in turn made for a frustrating read.
• 
  Vendea

  Další skvělý příběh z Univerza DW. Vážně mě mrzí, že neznám blíže Benny a její tlupu z audioknih, protože mě vážně bavili. Stejně tak Capaldi, kterého mám bez společníků snad ještě radši. Narážky na Ace jsem moc nepobrala, protože Classic, ale nevadí. Bavila jsem se.
  
  4/5*
• 
  ChatterBooks

  Leider fand ich es sehr platt. Der Schreibstil war nicht meins, man kam bei den Personen und einzelnen Handlungen gar nicht so schnell hinterher und das Finale war auch... gähn. Schade eigentlich
• 
  Conan Tigard

  Doctor Who: Big Bang Generation is a story that brings back a companion from the 7th and 8th Doctor. Professor Bernice "Benny" Summerfield returns to travel with the Doctor from the 27th century to the 21st. She is accompanied by her son, Peter - half-human, half-Killoran, Jack - a Kadeptian with knees that bend the opposite way and gives him the ability to jump very far, and Ruth - the daughter of a super-rich royalty, but not so nice parents.
  
  I started watching Doctor Who with the 9th doctor, so I had no idea who Benny was until I was about halfway through the book and finally Googled her. This caused me quite a bit of confusion in the first half of the book, which, in turn, made me not like it very much. Part of the reason for this was my confusion was the multitude of the main characters and the different time centuries that this story takes place in. Once I did some research on Benny, I started enjoying the book more. This is not to say that I loved the book. Rather, it took me out of my distaste for this story and made it somewhat palpable.
  
  As for the storytelling of Gary Russell, I found it to be choppy and not my favorite writing style. Maybe it is a British thing, as I could see what he was going for having watched many, many British television shows over the years (my first love was the Goodies). But , for me, it doesn't work for Doctor Who. This was also supposed to be a story about Glamour, and, yes, there was a stone in the story, but it didn't really focus on what Glamour is, other than part of a pyramid that mysteriously appears in the Sydney harbor. Nothing was mentioned about how deadly Glamour could be to the person that has it, or if it was, I missed it.
  
  As for the other characters, we get to know Kik the Assassin more than Cyrrus Globb and Professor Horrace Jaanson. I would have liked to have learned more about each one, after my initial confusion at the beginning of the story. My main with the story was that during the first half of the book, the Doctor is not the main character. This story seemed to be more about Benny than anyone else. I guess I wanted a Doctor Who story all about the Doctor and Clara, not all of these other characters.
  
  Overall, Doctor Who: Big Bang Generation is a decent Doctor Who story that could have been much better. There are too many main characters, too many different centuries, and not a great storyline. Having greatly enjoyed most of the other Doctor Who stories I have read, I found myself disappointed by this effort by Gary Russell. But, if you love Bernice "Benny" Summerfield, then this is the story for you. If you want a great Doctor Who story starring the 12th doctor and his companion Clara, you won't find it here.
  
  I rated this book a 6½ out of 10.
• 
  Ally Web

  I wasn't sure what to expect with this book. I have previously read the other two books in 'The Glamour Chronicles' series, and I had mixed reviews. I loved one and very much disliked the other. This was a combination of the two. I got really excited in the beginning because the author made is seem like my favorite Doctor Who character was going to appear. The character never did, but he did explain it why in the endnote. One of my main issues was that I felt the story jumped around a bit much. I didn't think a lot of the side stories needed to be told. It was nice to see an older character even though it wasn't the one I wanted. She was my favorite part of the book. I would also like to add that Clara wasn't in this book; I wasn't upset by that as I'm not a huge Clara fan. I would give this book 3/5. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great.
  
• 
  Rebecca

  Another exciting Doctor Who story that I really enjoyed reading! There was a lot going on and it was little confusing, as Doctor Who often can be, but working it all out was part of what made the story so interesting, and it made it a great mystery and adventure!
• 
  Jack Adams

  This book was dreadful.
  I like doctor who, but this is just written badly, the story is bad and everything is bad.
  It cost me $2 and I feel sad I paid it.
• 
  Caiden

  I haven't read any of the Virgin New Adventures, but I'm sure this book gives off their vibe. Big Bang Generation is interesting and difficult to put down. The characters in it are well fleshed out and their actions and reactions create an excellent story. It brings ties to Series Six and the Papal Mainframe as well, but you don't need to know what those are to enjoy this book. Still, you should read Royal Blood first if you want information on the Glamour.
  
  7 out of 10. Very short
• 
  David

  3.5 stars really. The plot starts out making no sense but then slowly starts to come together. Still not the most interesting book, though.
  
  But putting Bernice and the Capaldi Doctor together pays huge dividends. The writing of these two is marvelous
• 
  Aidan

  The second in the Glamour Chronicles trilogy and I feel as though I actually know what the Glamour is now! (Even if it did slightly contradict the previous book)
  
  I'm still unsure just how I feel about this one. For a start, there was a lot going on. And I mean A LOT. Gary Russell's prose oozed personality from the outset and that could be both a good thing and a bad thing. The good allowed for the book to have a lot of wit and character and always told the story in a fun way. The bad meaning that it jumped around a lot and made itself needlessly complicated. For the first half of the book, I hadn't a clue what was actually happening. But once all storylines converged on Australia and it became a big heist story, that's when I started to enjoy it. After that, it could refer back to its high concept fantasy elements and weave them into the story in a way that actually made sense. I'd have much preferred for the story to be clearer earlier on to keep me engaged throughout. I'm still none the wiser on what the titular "Big Bang Generation" actually is.
  
  I have been working my way through various Big Finish audios for the past two years, and never has that paid off as much as it did reading this. For a start, 𝘉𝘪𝘨 𝘉𝘢𝘯𝘨 𝘎𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯's inclusion of Bernice Summerfield and her audio entourage immediately sets this up as a great expansion of audio lore moreso than TV. Perhaps the greatest example of this is that Clara is totally absent from the story. Instead the Doctor travels alone and meets with Professor Summerfield and recounts their various adventures together in his 7th incarnation from past audio and book adventures. This, I feel, is the biggest alienating factor with the book as it is not readily apparent what much of the story is referencing. It mentions Killorans a lot throughout the story but never really explains who or what they are. Thankfully I do know due to their appearance in 𝘈𝘳𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘞𝘢𝘳, but this was yet another factor that added onto the story's confusion. In the endnote, Russell discusses wanting to use River Song but being denied permission by Steven Moffat. I would say that is evidently clear as Bernice is far sassier than I have ever experienced her. That being said, the time dedicated to getting to know Bernice and her crew did actually pay off and I came to really enjoy them. I may some day delve into their audio spin off to learn more about them.
  
  This was also the first 12th Doctor BBC New Series novel that truly felt like the 12th Doctor since James Goss' 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘉𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘊𝘦𝘭𝘭. Though the dialogue in this still did not quite reach the accuracy of the aforementioned title, I could still "hear" Capaldi's voice for many of the lines. The same goes for Bernice Summerfield. Despite the character debuting in the Virgin New Adventures novels, I know her more from her audio appearances as portrayed by Lisa Bowerman and I could hear her reading all of her given lines.
  
  The action sequences are great, the comedy lands, the heist section is fun, and the Ancients of the Universe mystery is trippy and weird. There was plenty I enjoyed here, but overall felt it too confusing and slightly underwhelming at times. There was just something off about it. Even though it could be fun, the story itself was so unnecessarily complex that I could never truly connect with it. Despite there being lots going on, there was also little to comment on. I wish Goodreads would do half stars so I could give this ⭐⭐½ as two simply seems too low but three seems too high. Maybe my rating will change after the next novel, as I finish off the Glamour Chronicles trilogy...
• 
  Joel Kirk

  This was a chore to read.
  
  As I typed out this review, I found myself trying to remember what I was just read. I did recall Bernice Summerfield from the 7th Doctor novels and I did remember the Doctor looking for the Glamour introduced in the previous novel "Royal Blood," and I also remember not liking the previous entry in this trilogy because of bad writing; bad storytelling.
  
  Basically, this novel did not improve on the lack of characterization and story in the last entry.
  
  I felt there were too many characters, where many become talking heads that are just unneeded (e.g. Bernice Summerfield's 'brood' which includes her half-human son). The action wasn't immersive; it was confusing how certain events were related to the reader. Not too mention, I wondered if there was a simpler solution to finding this Glamour rather than going through time just because this is a novel in the Doctor Who universe.
  
  Also, I vaguely recall stating in my review of "Royal Blood" that I didn't get the significance of the Glamour in the previous novel, and "Big Bang Generation" still doesn't explain or give a sense as to why it's important.
  
  I didn't really care for the characters or care why they were going for this Glamour. I may read the next entry probably because the beautiful Clara returns, but that won't mean I am going to enjoy the novel - e.g. "Royal Blood." However, I did think the writer did a good job of capturing the demeanor of the 12th Doctor, although I did think at times he was a bit too joyful (he and Bernice) to be in the middle of a plot that may destroy the Earth and/or universe.
• 
  Mel

  This was enjoyable. At first I was VERY excited as I thought Benny was having a conversation with River which is something I've wanted to happen for YEARS. But no it was Benny with herself, which did eventually make sense, but was a bit confusing at first. It was fun to see Bernice back and interacting with the 12th Doctor in a very "new series" story. I was less keen on her friends as the Ruth, Jack and Peter, as their time on legion I felt to be some of the weakest in the long series of Bernice audios. I think it was probably too many new characters for people who hadn't heard those adventures (which is probably the majority of the people reading a Peter Capaldi novel). I think it might have worked better just having Bernice without the entourage, as with them, the two assassins, and the Doctor it was a very full cast very quickly. The story was quite good, bit artefact threatens to destroy the universe. And quite nicely showed how the scale of things has changed between Benny's time and Capaldi's. There were lots of amusing asides about life in Australia (though I feel it appropriate to point out that Americans also call them thongs!). I expected to read this in a day but it ended up taking several. Not Gary's best but really great to see Benny and Capaldi interact, there was one particularly wonderful moment that brought tears to my eyes when Benny reminded him of what he'd said to her in the past. It was exactly the thing that Peter's Doctor needed to be reminded of with his odd attitude in the first series. It was a bit weak in places but still enjoyable.
• 
  Jim C

  A book based on the television series. This one has the twelfth Doctor and no current companion. In this one, someone has interrupted the timeline and as a result a huge pyramid has appeared in the middle of Australia. This incident could lead to the destruction of the universe.
  
  I did not care for this novel as I have other Doctor Who novels for a variety of reasons. The first one was the portrayal of the Doctor. He was a little off as sometimes he was a little jokey. But I believe the main reason I did not care for this book was the minor characters. The author decided to bring back a previous companion and for fans who have been introduced to this series from the new run, this companion did not work. I do imagine fans for all the Doctors will like this. The other minor characters were a swing and a miss for me also as everyone seemed to be all jokes and trying to be clever with them. Most of the time these jokes did not land since they had a British concept to them. I did like the story arc and when this book concentrated on the development of the story is when I enjoyed this book.
  
  This book is probably the book I liked the least from this trilogy. There are better books from this universe so my recommendation would be pass on this one unless you are reading everything that pertains to this world.
• 
  Kribu

  Eh. Too many characters, none of whom (apart from the Doctor who only got any noticeable page time a couple of times during the book) I cared about or wanted to care about, lots of .. er, I supposed vaguely amusing writing, very little plot (and what there was of it, was pretty confusing for most of it).
  
  Just .. a lot of flashy words with no real substance, really. I liked bits of it, but other than the last fifth or so, I struggled to really even keep my attention on it.
  
  Sigh.
  
  I'd blame the fact that I was only vaguely familiar with Benny (and haven't listened to any Big Finish audios at all) on my lack of interest on basically the entire cast of characters, but Benny and her entourage were all introduced well enough, so it's not that I was confused by them - I just struggled to figure out why I should care, as I didn't actually particularly warm to any of them. And they were the good guys. Add in a bunch of really quite sketchily drawn villains and .. mostly, I think the book just struggled because the cast of characters was simply too large for a book so brief, especially when one buys the book for the Doctor.
• 
  Joshua Martin

  A major improvement from 'The Glamour Chronicles: Royal Blood.' (After finishing the 3rd book in the Chronicles, 'Deep time,' I am editing this to say that 'Big Bang Generation' could have been a standalone tale outside of the Chronicles. It had NOTHING to do with the main plot of the Chronicle itself.)
  
  The story seemed to be a bit too big for such a small novel, BUT did pull itself together in the end.
  
  A fun blend of humorous and serious tones. I especially love the reference to Capaldi's role in the 2015 live action 'Paddington' and 'Willy Wonka and the chocolate factory.' Including many references to companions throughout Classic Who, New Who, audio dramas, and other novels. Gets a whole star just for the references.
  
  I have no experience with Bernice and her adventures with the Doctor BUT I can say I enjoyed her group and I am glad Moffat denied letting Russell use River Song. I feel that she is possibly the worst character in the "Whoniverse."
  
  Thanks to Gary Russell my faith is restored in ‘The Glamour Chronicles.'
• 
  Mariah

  While I adore Doctor Who, I was a little put off by this book. The first thirty or so pages are so confusing there's really no way to tell what's going on. The Doctor doesn't even make an entrance until almost midway through the book. There are also a lot of grammatical and syntax errors which were distracting to say the least. At some parts the dialogue was funny, but at others I found myself utterly lost. There's one part in particular that made me cringe. The Doctor introduces himself to someone, and after that someone leaves Bernice is like, "Doctor.. how did he know your name?" Gee, Bernie, maybe because the Doctor told him?
  
  Overall, I liked the idea of the book but the delivery needed a lot of work.
  
  Rating: 3/5
  
  I received this book from bloggingforbooks in return for an honest review.
• 
  David Rhodes

  The second of the Glamour Trilogy and it brings the Twelfth Doctor to Sydney, Australia to meet up with a certain archaeologist from his past.
  But not the archaeologist you were expecting!!
  As the first meeting with River is now canon in the episode "The Husbands of River Song", we meet up again with former companion Bernice Summerfield and her collection of rogues including her son.
  I have to admit that I don't know Bernice very well as, contrary to a lot of people's beliefs, I haven't read all the Doctor Who books released - far from it.
  This a good quick read of a book that travels through space & time which is exactly what you want.
• 
  Brooklyn Tayla

  Firstly, can I just say it's so weird that I'm rating this 2 stars, like I very rarely rate books below four ^_^. I hoped I would love this. The cover is amazing, and I adore 12.
  
  This book made no sense. Siriusly. I'm still not sure entirely what I just read.
  
  12 and Clara were portrayed horribly. They were written all wrong. Usually with the past DW books, I can see what I'm reading being played out in my mind, but not with this one.
  
  Though there was one paragraph I liked, very feely. That's what the second star is for. Hah.
• 
  Natalia

  Brooklyn and I have rated this book about the same.
  
  It made no sense! I was so disappointed because I am so in love with the cover. I just didn't care for it, and I didn't believe it was true to 12. It's been a LONG time since I disliked a book, and it breaks my hearts.
  
  That being said, there was only one paragraph in the ENTIRE book that I actually liked. And it was near the very end of the book.
  
  A sad day, indeed. :/
• 
  Scott Haworth

  It wasn't horrible, but it bored me. It was probably more fun for the writer to write than it was for me to read. The author's voice was intrusive in parts, and for me it failed to resonate, even when the whole city was being destroyed. I just didn't care much about the characters or what happened to them, even during the apocalypse. I kept putting this book down to read something else.
• 
  Hazel

  I found this incomprehensible and unreadable. When describing Legion Gary Russell can't decide whether it's a planet, planetoid or moon. Did it revolve around a star or not? That was just one paragraph. I gave up shortly after.
• 
  Raully

  Fair warning to all: This book presumes a knowledge of Big Finish characters, which I did not have.