Doctor Who: New Series Adventures - The Stealers Of Dream Review

The final Ninth Doctor book held promise through its concept before I even opened it up.

The Doctor, Rose and Jack end up on a world in Humanity’s future where fiction of any kind is banned.

Very Orwellian and a strong start. But maybe too strong.

Reading the first few chapters of this book told me that Steve Lyons, its author, was more set on the idea he had for the story rather than making it a Doctor Who novel.

The characters are here but their insight is gone. Sure they’ll chime in with a thought or two on what’s happening but don’t expect any of them to have their characters explored in the same depth that the previous novels have done.

It’s a shame too as a concept that’s introduced around the midway point could’ve played with the memories and personalities of our heroes in a really cool way.

I think this disappointed me primarily due to this being the last Ninth Doctor novel for this series. Not exploring the fun ideas thrown around in this book mixed with a post war Doctor feels a bit of a missed opportunity.

Regardless I was still glued for a good portion of this book.

Vibes of John Carpenter’s They Live are littered throughout and for myself that’s a great sign. There are moments where the story really plays on the paranoia everyone’s getting. I think what makes it better is how it eases the reader in.

We start right in the midst of another adventure with Doctor and Co only for curiosity to take over and race more intensely until it becomes chaos.

The tone is the main selling point here and whilst other novels so far have been great with their atmosphere I don’t think they’ve nailed it quite as well as this one, especially at its peak.

The way the actual narrative plays out along with the development the characters receive is where this novel unfortunately falls short.

As stated before, Team Doctor receive no development like in the previous books and that goes for the majority of our cast. Someone shows up, you learn the reason for why they’re there and that’s it. Sure, they’ll react to the situation they’re in but never to the degree that it makes them anymore interesting.

We get a lot of shock tactics to try and keep the reader engaged and whilst it works for the most part it doesn’t mean I can’t see the pattern throughout.

Well... with the exception of the amazing third act.

Being carried by a casually paced story, it’s only at the midway point where the book started to drag me in with its beautiful creativity and then the third act happened.

The phrase “stick it out ‘till the end” couldn’t be more appropriate for this novel as the final chapters contain some of the best story beats this series of books has had yet.

Side characters are finally fleshed out, not a great deal but enough to know their motivations, and a tale asking us to believe the impossible gives us an answer that not only fits but sort of works.

I won’t lie when I say that the grand reveal to what’s actually going on is a little bit of a cop out but when the bar is set so high and the execution is done just right I don’t mind. Sure there’s plenty to poke holes at but this is one of those stories that is just good enough to overlook them.

I’m aware that Steve Lyons has written other novels past this and if they are anywhere half as imaginative I look forward to reading them!

8/10