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Alien Bodies

By Lawrence Miles

Book review by Paul Scoones

This is an extremely difficult book to review because most of what I want to say about its strengths will spoil the major plot twists. Discovering this book's revelations unexpectedly is one of the key elements that makes Alien Bodies such a great read - which is all the more surprising given that the author's two previous novels, Christmas on a Rational Planet and Down, were nothing to get excited about.

Fans of Marc Platt's vision of a Gallifreyan society driven by dark powers and enigmatic individuals will appreciate this novel immensely. The glimpse into the future of Time Lord society is both welcome and rather shocking. Most spooky of all is the sinister Faction Paradox with its Clive Barker-esque blood sacrifices and occult rituals.

The engrossing plot, involving an auction for a powerful artefact attended by representatives of several races - and the Eighth Doctor and Sam - is already thoroughly engrossing when the author involves one of the most unexpected of all returning monsters from the television era of the show. Then there's the revelation about the artefact itself that is guaranteed to disturb and thrill even the most hardened of readers.

The BBC Books range is barely under way and already it has produced a novel to rival the very best that ever emerged from Virgin's stables. At over 300 pages of closely set type, Alien Bodies also equals the New Adventures for length. [5/5]

This item appeared in TSV 53 (March 1998).

Index nodes: Alien Bodies