An 8th doctor with Anji and Fitz novel. The Doctor visits New Orleans and immediately encounters a murder victim. This leads to participation in the police investigation as well as the local witches and sorcerers. This is one of the supernatural stories rather than scientific or even pseudo-scientific. The Doctor nearly gets sacrificed to a demon, Anji finally goes on a date and Fitz goes grave-robbing.
re-read 2/15/2024. . ( )

This is another Eighth Doctor Adventure from the era where he was traveling the universe with amnesia, accompanied by Fitz and Anji. Here he lands in near-future New Orleans and tangles with dark magic. I realized while reading it that this is the third book of this era I've read in a row... and all three of them have been written by women. Like Jacqueline Rayner and Kate Orman, one of Rose's high points is her characterization.

I really like how the Doctor comes across here: recognizably Paul McGann, but a different McGann than we might get in the audios. He's got the Doctor's insight and enthusiasm; what he lacks is the Doctor's self-confidence and certainty. After all, he doesn't know who he is. There are lots of good lines here. Rose does okay by Fitz, too, and I particularly liked her Anji. Anji comes in for a lot of stick in online discourse around the EDAs, but I've found her to be a strongly delineated, enjoyable character in each of the three books I've read with her.

I will admit I didn't entirely follow the turns of the plot here, but this is the kind of book that 1) has enough good stuff going on that you don't care, and 2) is good enough otherwise that you kind of trust that it does all work out if you want to follow it. (Plus, I read it in fits and starts between other books, and I'm sure it wasn't meant to be read across a couple months!) There's a lot of atmosphere, strong characterization, a neat sense of history, and a good sense of magic. The villain became a little obvious too quickly, but other than that, I enjoyed the journey a lot even when I didn't understand it. I remember really liking Lloyd Rose's other EDA, Camera Obscura; now I will have to track down her third and final Doctor Who novel, The Algebra of Ice.

http://nhw.livejournal.com/987730.html

I got this simply because it is the highest-rated Doctor Who novel of any epoch by LibraryThing users, and I wanted a) to assess whether LibraryThing ratings can be considered a reasonable guide to quality and b) if it is worth giving the BBC series of Eighth Doctor Adventures another go, having been underwhelmed by my previous samplings.

Well, the answer to both questions seems to be a reasonably firm Yes. The setting of the story in Who continuity is unfamiliar to me - the Doctor is suffering from partial amnesia for some reason, and I have read nothing else with either of the two companions, Fitz and Anji. But the portrayal of the Eighth Doctor (amnesia apart) is consistent with the Big Finish audios, and I thought Anji came across well as an interesting character (Fitz rather less so).

I also felt initially suspicious about the setting, among occultists in New Orleans. Indeed, there is no scientific hand-waving anywhere in the book to explain away the magic - spells and summonings work, and elementals are real. Yet in the end I was satisfied; there are plenty of sf stories (indeed, many Doctor Who stories!) where there is detailed technobabble to explain what is going on, but the means and motivation of the bad guys remain unconvincing, and this is not one of them. Also the New Orleans setting was well sketched out (I suppose - I've never been there), and the plot had some genuine surprises - Lloyd Rose clearly has a good knack of misdirection. Plus the Doctor actually, possibly, maybe, has an intimate encounter, discreetly described.

I'd have enjoyed it more if I'd read more of this series, but if this is the best then some of the others must be pretty decent too.

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http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2220618.html

enjoyed it well enough as effectively a standalone novel; I liked it even more as part of the series, having got to know companions Fitz and Anji rather better over the last few months of reading. In particular, the intense description of New Orleans as a setting really does stand out as an exceptionally good evocation of place. Good to return to it. ( )