“Eleven Doctors, Eleven Stories”
by Eoin Colfer, Michael Scott, Marcus Sedgwick, Philip Reeve, Patrick Ness, Richelle Mead , Malorie Blackman, Alex Scarrow, Charlie Higson, Derek Landy, Neil Gaiman
Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Science Fiction
Source: Library
Summary from Goodreads:
The Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Anthology is the perfect collection of adventures for Doctor Who fans.This print edition is the culmination of a year-long series of ebooks to celebrate fifty years of Doctor Who. Eleven Doctors, eleven stories, eleven unique interpretations of the Doctor, his terrifying alien enemies and his time-travelling adventures.
The First Doctor: A Big Hand for the Doctor by Eoin Colfer
I’m surprised at how cold this book felt. There was no magic for me. It almost bordered on boring. Maybe it’s because I don’t know the first Doctor? I don’t think I’ve watch any of his episodes. I did like the reference to J. M. Barrie at the end. That was fun.
The Second Doctor: The Nameless City by Michael Scott
This feels more like the Doctor I know. He doesn’t like violence and defeats the enemies in a creative way. This time with bagpipe and reed music!
The Third Doctor: The Spear of Destiny by Marcus Sedgwick
Humor, close encounters, adventure, history, myths, and time travel. Just how I like my Doctor Who stories. This was also my first encounter with the third Doctor. I like him!
The Fourth Doctor: The Roots of Evil by Philip Reeve
A wooden, treelike spaceship thing! That’s exciting, right? I loved the timey wimey wibbly wobbly stuff in the story. The Doctor has been there before but it’s his future and their past. He’s not exactly sure what happened but he’s not really responsible for that right? Interesting ideas to ponder.
The Fifth Doctor: Tip of the Tongue by Patrick Ness
Of course Patrick Ness would write one of my favorite stories of the collection. There was very little of the Doctor in this story but it really worked. Much in the way that the Blink episode worked. It felt almost like an episode of the Twilight Zone with the weirdness.
The Sixth Doctor: Something Borrowed by Richelle Mead
Interesting choice to use a companion as the narrator. I’m not sure I totally loved the choice but it was interesting. I haven’t ‘met’ the Rani but it was easy to pick up that she was a Doctor Who villain from the series. It was also interesting to see another Time Lord curious about Time Lord physiology. She didn’t go about things the right way of course but I liked seeing the interest in science.
The Seventh Doctor: The Ripple Effect by Malorie Blackman
I really like when time travel books explore the idea of different universe that are only a bit different. This story explores an alternate universe where the Daleks are good and want to share their knowledge with the rest of the universe. This is a huge change from the Daleks we know. I also liked playing with the idea of staying in that universe because good Daleks are something worth having around and what it would mean to the rest of the timelines to stay in thew ‘wrong’ universe. All in all, an interesting story!
The Eighth Doctor: Spore by Alex Scarrow
Nice twist to have no companion in this story. Yes, the Doctor teams up with Captain Chan in the story but she’s not a traditional companion. The story wasn’t bad but it didn’t capture my attention. Alien spores could have been really interesting but the shortness of the story worked against any interest from me.
The Ninth Doctor: The Beast of Babylon by Charlie Higson
Cool choice to use an alien as the companion. I am disappointed that there was no Rose though. The story was simply okay. Nothing special. I wanted more sass from the Doctor.
The Tenth Doctor: The Mystery of the Haunted Cottage by Derek Landy
I love the idea of stepping into a book so this was a fun idea. Then there was the layer of figuring out of this was the fictional world or a planet that looks like the fictional world. Can I go to the Land of Fiction? Because it sounds really awesome. The alien behind everything was interesting to ‘meet’.
The Eleventh Doctor: Nothing O’Clock by Neil Gaiman
This was the first story that I felt was too short. The Kin was a really interesting creature. I’d love to see it on the show someday. Unfortunately Amy wasn’t used as well as she could have been
The bottom line? The stories jumped a bit all over the place but overall it was a pretty solid collection.
The Cheap Reader 
I need to get around to reading this, especially now I know it features the Land of Fiction in a chapter. Great review!
I know you’d love this Aidan! It was fun to see a YA take on Doctor Who.
I haven’t watched much Dr. Who, but this still sounds fun to me 🙂
What! This sounds so cool! And Patrick Ness of course wrote the one for the fifth doctor! Of course he did! The fifth doctor is my favorite from the old school Doctor Who. Peter Davison <3.
You and this book are meant to be, Jenny!
Gimme! hehe How did I not know about this? That list of authors is certainly impressive! Nine with no sass? I so need this book!
This book is fantastic for fans of Doctor Who and YA.
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