I sought out this Doctor Who novel in the Virgin New Adventures line after enjoying [b:The Face of the Enemy|882838|Doctor Who The Face of the Enemy|David A. McIntee|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1507472009s/882838.jpg|868115] and [b:The Time Travellers|74472|Doctor Who The Time Travellers|Simon Guerrier|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1387743133s/74472.jpg|72030] in the Past Doctor Adventures series, the plots of both of which also involved alternate timelines in the Who universe. It was my first VNA novel, and unfortunately it will probably be the last, as it just wasn't as good as the PDA books I've read. Part of this may be attributable to elements unique to Jim Mortimore’s writing, or perhaps to the fact that I just didn’t warm to the characters of Bernice Summerfield and the more warrior-like Ace in the VNAs. Or perhaps it was because the story wasn't resolved within the novel, as the events in it proved part of some overarching contest between the Doctor and some unnamed Big Bad whom he would face again in the next novel. But with so many Doctor Who novels out there to choose from and only a finite amount of time available to read, I think I will invest it in other series that seem truer to what it is I enjoy most in a Doctor Who novel. ( )

This book is part of a series of books that was written to initially give Doctor Who fans their monthly dose of Doctor Who. The series (The Virgin New Adventures) follows the adventures of the Doctor after the series was first cancelled, while another series (The Virgin Missing Adventures) was written around the previous Doctors and are set between many of the older episodes. These books did add a new dimension to Doctor Who in that they were able to be set in locations other than English Quarries, and they also created a more complex universe. However whether these stories are cannon or not is debatable.
This is the first of what I have learnt is a seven book story arch where the Doctor and his companions travel to alternate universes where a previous adventure resulted in the Doctor dying rather than defeating his enemies. In this book the Doctor was killed when the Silurians (the original inhabitants of the Earth) first awoke from their slumber. As with all of the Silurian adventures, the Doctor is attempting to act as a peacemaker between two sides that he does not believe should be fighting.
This is a bit of a tired concept, especially after two serials, and now a book. The writers keep on saying that the Silurians are a peaceful race, however it is clear that they are invaders. In this book they have succeeded in their invasion and have turned Earth into a tropical paradise and dinosaurs now roam the land and humanity has fled into caves to hide. All that remains is the remnants of UNIT who are attempting to regain control of the Earth from the rule of their new masters the Silurians.
I originally found the cover quite interesting, with a Silurian riding a Tyrannosaurus Rex. In the back is what looks like a moss covered Capitol building, however the story is set in England and not the United States. That is when I discovered that the dome is not the Capitol, but St Peter's Cathedral. There really isn't much more I can say about this book, it was okay, and it was a good waste of time, but in the end while reading it is good because being able to read is beneficial, I would hardly call this (or any of the Doctor Who books) literature. ( )

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What if the Silurians had killed the Third Doctor in the 1970s and taken over the earth, leaving the Brigadier and Liz Shaw as leaders of a hunted and dwindling human resistance? Jim Mortimore brings the Seventh Doctor, Ace and Benny to a parallel universe to find out. It was particularly interesting to read it soon after listening to a slightly different alternate timeline for Liz (The Sentinels of The New Dawn) and also the Ace-in-devastated-England stories, Project: Destiny and A Death in the Family, which Big Finish did last year. Mortimore writes engagingly and I kept turning the pages, but I was not totally convinced by some of the details - the use of the Tardis to sort things out at the end, or the Jo Grant time line, or the plausibility of two decades of human resistance (including a functioning nuclear submarine). Still, a pleasing read, with the ending setting up (I suppose) a story arc for the next few novels. ( )

Tons of action. Chase scenes, gunfights, dinosaur attacks, aerial combat... you name it. It may not be the most poetic or literate novel in the NA series, but when it comes to heart-pounding action and adventure, Blood Heat is damn near perfect.

The NA series had gone on a bit of a rough stretch up until Blood Heat was released. A few of the books weren't bad, but from the previous six novels you had Deceit, which was drab, Shadowmind, a complete disaster, and Iceberg, a tad boring with a slightly out of character Doctor. Leave it to Jim Mortimore to get things back on track with the start of a great story arc that would run for the next five books.

The action starts on page one and doesn't let up until the bitter, bitter end (and I do mean bitter). The TARDIS dies, Bernice is flung into the time vortex, and the Doctor and Ace crash land on Earth, 1993... although judging by the dinosaurs roaming around outside, not the Earth as they remember it. What a great way to start a Doctor Who story! There's no silly prologue, no waiting around for the regulars to show up -- Mortimore gets straight to the business at hand, and I love it.

There are plenty of references to the 3rd Doctor and the Pertwee era throughout Blood Heat (the 7th Doctor even aquires his alternate self's sonic screwdriver and TARDIS before the adventure is complete). This novel channels influence from Inferno (one of my all-time favorite serials), Invasion of the Dinosaurs, The Sea-Devils and naturally (given the baddies in this story), Doctor Who and the Silurians. Like Inferno, this story takes place on an alternate Earth. However, the returning characters we encounter are not outright evil, eyepatch wearing fiends -- they're simply the product of a world gone wrong. In this Earth, the 3rd Doctor was permanently killed twenty years prior. Liz Shaw, the Brigadier, Benton, Jo Grant, Harry Sullivan, et al -- all had to go on without the Doctor in an ongoing battle against the Silurians. The Brig in particular, is characterized so well, it's frightening. He's both a bloodthirsty, revenge-seeking madman and a loyal, brilliant hero at the same time. In fact, it's almost more of a Lethbridge-Stewart novel than a Doctor novel. ( )

This was a recent re-read. I remember loving this when I was younger - my second-ever New Adventure at that time. Maybe it was because I was a lot younger and used to the Target novels, but the epic nature of the story left me reeling, but in a good way! Picking it up now, I didn't feel the same. It just seemed a bit depressing, with characters moping about their situation. Ace is getting to be pretty unlikeable too, and the Brigadier is totally unrecognisable form the one we saw on TV. Maybe that was intentional - after all this Brig has been through a lot, but it did jar slightly with this reader. ( )