The City of the Dead

You can download and listen to our latest discussion right here.  The penultimate month of 2012 (because we love any chance to use the word “penultimate”) brings us City of the Dead by Lloyd Rose, an Eighth Doctor BBC Books novel.  This was Rose’s first novel, before which she wrote for Homicide: Life on the Street.  After the success of City of the Dead, she was asked to return for the Eighth Doctor series with Camera Obscura and for the Algebra of Ice, featuring the Seventh Doctor, Ace, and the Brigadier.

From the back cover:

‘Nothing can get into the TARDIS,’ the Doctor whispered.  Then he realized that Nothing had.

New Orleans, the early 21^st century.  A dealer in morbid artefacts has been murdered.  A charm carved from human bone is missing.  An old plantation, miles from any water, has been destroyed by a tidal wave.

Anji goes dancing.  Fitz goes grave-robbing.  The Doctor attracts the interest of a homicide detective and the enmity of a would-be magician.  He wants to find out the secret of the redneck thief and his blind wife.  He’d like to help the crippled curator of a museum of magic.  He’s trying to refuse politely the request of a crazy young artist that he pose naked with the man’s wife.

Most of all, he needs to figure out what all of them have to do with the Void that is hunting him down.

Before it catches him.

Voodoo, hoodoo, and mystery abound in this month’s selection, which is bound to go down a lot easier than last month’s.  Be sure to grab a (cheap) copy and sit back and relax as we discuss The City of the Dead.

Please don’t forget to check us out on Facebook, email us at dwbcpodcast@gmail.com, and follow us on Twitter via @dwbcpodcast.  Also, feel free to follow Erik via @sjcaustenite and Sean via @tardistavern.

Fun links:

The City of the Dead on Amazon.  (You can afford it!)

Reviews on the Doctor Who Ratings Guide.

Synopsis on The Doctor Who Reference Guide.  (Spoilers, sweetie!)

Lloyd Rose's Wikipedia page.

For March: The Crooked World

Our polarizing review of Paul Cornell's Love and War can be found here.  Many thanks to Deb Standish of Chicks Dig Time Lords fame for doing our February reading.  Also a big thanks to Erika for participating in our recording and watching Erik and Sean clash horns.

This month we will be reading The Crooked World by Steve Lyons.  From the back cover:

The people of the Crooked World lead an idyllic existence.

Take Streaky Bacon, for example. This jovial farmer wants nothing more from life than a huge blunderbuss, with which he can blast away at his crop-stealing nemesis.  And then there's Angel Falls, a racing driver with a string of victories to her name. Sure, her trusted guardian might occasionally put on a mask and menace her for her prize money, but that's just life, right? And for Jasper the cat, nothing could be more pleasant than a nice, long nap in his kitchen — so long as that darn mouse doesn't jam his tail into the plug socket again

But somebody is about to shatter all those lives. Somebody is about to change everything — and it's possible that no one on the Crooked World will ever be happy again.

The Doctor's TARDIS is about to arrive. And when it does... That's all folks!

Wow.  Just wow.  When this one came out back in 2002, I (that being Sean) took one glance at the back cover and said, "I'm not reading this!  They need to file this away in the 'WTF Were They Thinking' drawer!"  But I've mellowed since then, and I've read many more Doctor Who novels -- some very good, some worthy of the dung heap -- and now I can say I'm really looking forward to this.  (I know, I know, I've said it before and proved myself wrong.)

Another plus is that it's written by Steve Lyons, who holds the special claim of being "Sean's Favorite Doctor Who Writer of All Time" (sorry, Gareth Roberts).  We've already read and loved Conundrum, and then there's Time of Your Life (violence!), The Witch Hunters (tear-jerking!), The Murder Game (murder mystery party!), and many more.  I could go on and on about how I would like to enter into a common law marriage with the man and how I'd love to buy him a drink, but it looks like it will never happen what with the court order.

Until you hear us next, please kick back and enjoy (hopefully) The Crooked World.

Fun links:

Steve Lyons' Wikipedia Entry
The Doctor Who Reference Guide  (Spoilers, sweetie!)
The Doctor Who Reprint Society
Cats in Sinks!