Doctor Who: The Target Storybook (Dr Who) Kindle Edition

As an avid reader of Whovian fiction, I wasn’t sure what to expect with this book. The “Short Trips” stories have, unfortunately, been dead for years due to copyright issues. However, this is the start of a new era in short form Doctor Who fiction! “Short Trips” veterans Jacqueline Rayner and Stephen Cole return in this book, two names which should be very familiar to you if you know the “Short Trips” series. This in itself is, to me, a mark of quality, that they appeared as authors in this compilation.Readers are graced with 15(!) new Doctor Who short stories, two of which were written by Colin Baker (6th Doctor) and Matthew Waterhouse (Adric). The 5th and 9th Doctors are not featured in any stories, however, the War Doctor is, which is a rare and long overdue treat. Each story full of characters and Doctors you know and love, and most stories have a great twist at the end. The entire book is paced quite well, with the majority of stories being in chronological order in respect to the Doctor themself (i.e. 1st Doctor, the. 2nd Doctor, etc.)I don’t want to give any spoilers on the stories themselves, but the stories about the 1st and 3rd Doctors were specifically a treat to read, at least for a classic Whovian. The 13th Doctor’s story was quite strong and was a wonderful introduction of her to the short form. Other Doctors continued to translate well, and some proved their ability to carry a short story as the protagonist. None of the stories fell completely flat with me.I can only find one downpoint to this book, and it’s the fact that none of the stories feature Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart or Sarah Jane Smith (Although one story mentions her in a very flattering way, which new and classic Whovians alike will enjoy.) These two legacy characters, along with Ace, are a staple in any “Short Trips” book of yesteryear, so their presence was missed.I really hope that a second book like this is released, even if it’s digital only. Bringing the classic short form Doctor Who story format into the modern era was one of the greatest ideas they’ve had at the BBC recently! Stories like that are sorely missed by fans, and allow a variety of authors to showcase work about a vast world of companions and Doctors, which continues to grow. With a show so large, stories like these are almost a necessity.

El paquete llegó en perfecto estado, aunque no tenía una gran protección a comparación de otros productos que e comprado. Se tardó aproximadamente unos dos meses y medio en llegar pero sin ningún daño ni rasguño, el libro es justamente lo que estaba buscando y llegó apenas para Navidad. Una excelente experiencia de compra, recomendado.

Short story collections are always a little hit or miss. Given the often-large number of stories collected in a volume, the likelihood of every single story being amazing, or even good, isn't very high. While every story in The Target Storybook isn't an amazing, home run of a story, all of them are pretty darn solid. There's not a bad one in the bunch and each of them does a really good job at capturing the essence of their respective Doctor's eras within a short amount of time. Every genre of Doctor Who story is represented in this collection - there's Classic Who-style historicals, space stories, alien planet stories, weird time travel stories, Earth-based stories. UNIT even makes an appearance. There's just such a wealth of Doctor Who goodness within the pages of this collection and all of it is very well-written.Some of my avorite stories include: "Save Yourself" by Terrance Dicks (2nd Doctor), "Punting" by Susie Day (4th Doctor), "Interstitial Security" by Colin Baker (6th Doctor), "The Slyther of Shoreditch" by Mike Tucker (7th Doctor), "We Can't Stop What's Coming" by Steve Cole (8th Doctor), "Decoy" by George Mann (War Doctor), "Citation Needed" by Jacqueline Rayner (11th-13th Doctors). Of this bunch, if I had to pick favorites, I'd probably go with "Save Yourself", a story set during the final episode of "The War Games" where Gallifrey's CIA makes the 2nd Doctor go on various missions for them, and "Citation Need", a really fun, yet particularly heartbreaking story where the reader is in the mind of a sentient encyclopedia as it realizes it's sentient. I also like that the stories for the 7th, 8th, and War Doctor's all revolve around the Time War. The Seventh Doctor's story confirming that the events of "Genesis of the Daleks" was the first shot of the war, the events of the Eighth Doctor's story showing how aware of the forthcoming war the Doctor was, and the War Doctor's story literally being set during a battle of the War. I just think the Time War is such a fertile ground for interesting stories, and prose might just be the best place to explore that concept and I love it when the BBC Books line leans into the Time War more. Overall, this collection was filled with some excellent stories that I can easily see myself returning to.All that being said, I didn't love every story in this collection. It's not that any of them are bad, or anything, but much like Doctor Who as a whole, there are stories I like and stories I don't; eras I like and eras I don't. Most of the stories I didn't love aligned with eras I'm not in love with, but some of the others I didn't like just didn't quite gel for me. Whether it be a pacing issue or something with the plot, there was just something that didn't quite gel. for me. A specific example being Jenny T. Colgan's story about the Meta Crisis Doctor and Rose, "The Turning of the Tide". I appreciate Colgan going a totally different direction with the Meta Crisis Doctor than Big Finish did in their audios, but I'm not really sure I like this direction. Perhaps it's realistically what might happen in this scenario, but there's just something kind of sad about it and it makes me unhappy seeing Rose and the Meta Crisis Doctor struggle so much. The story itself is really good, though, even if I'm not in love with the characterization. And that's the thing: even in those stories I didn't love, there was still something I did enjoy. None of these stories come close to being clunkers; I just didn't love them as much as I loved the others.Overall, The Target Storybook is pretty emblematic of the entire line of Target novelizations; there are some really excellent stories found within its covers and there are some stories that are less than excellent. What differentiates this book from some of the less-good Target novels is that none of the stories in The Target Storybook are bad. In fact, I'm sure that some of the ones I didn't love will be other people's favorites. This is the best aspect of The Target Collection: there is a story for every Doctor Who fan. Whether you like Classic Who or New Who, whether you only like specific Doctors, whether you like Earth-based stories or sci-fi stories or historicals. There is something in this collection for you and every single story is very well-written. It's clear that every author who wrote for this collection had a love for both Doctor Who and the spirit of the Target novelizations. I can't recommend this title enough for anyone looking for a really quick Doctor Who fix. It's solid.

Good if you pay attention to it

When I was a young Doctor Who fan, I read every Target novelization of the TV series I could get my hands on. Consequently, I probably read more Target novels than any other type of book, and more books by Terrance Dicks than any other author. This short story collection pays homage to the best of those books, which often fleshed out the characters and stories from the TV series by adding depth and background information. Many of these stories do the same, adding scenes to existing stories to give the characters some new spotlights they did not previously have.I wish this book had included some sort of introduction or something to put things into context. For one, the word "Target" in relation to Doctor Who books may not be obvious to today's young readers. Additionally, some of these stories are specifically new scenes or even complete adventures that take place during the events of previously televised stories. As a longtime fan--and an old guy--I knew what was going on. However, I am not sure how clear those stories would be to newer fans.Ultimately, however, this was a nice collection, made up of stories by Doctor Who TV writers, veteran Doctor Who novelists, actors from the show, and children's writers new to Doctor Who. I enjoyed the new scenes enhancing or adding to familiar adventures, and I generally just enjoyed seeing tales of earlier Doctors. It was a lot of fun.