Wooden Heart

"Read" as an audiobook. ( )

Ten and Martha explore a deserted spaceship and find it's not so deserted after all. The characterisations feel a bit off to me, and the plot device is far from new, but it's an interesting take on that plot device. ( )

This is a Doctor Who novel, featuring the Doctor in his Tenth incarnation along with Martha Jones. It's the third book with Ten and Martha. Whilst exploring a deserted spaceship, a forest suddenly appears in it. In the forest is a village with a mystery of its own: the children are disappearing.

I found this book to be incredibly mixed up. The idea of the deserted spaceship was intriguing enough, especially when it was revealed that it was a prison ship. When the forest suddenly appeared, it was incredibly bizarre and as the story switched between the two, I found it got increasingly mixed up. It was as though the author had two possible plot lines, neither of which was enough for a book and so decided to combine the two. They didn't match together very well at all and it made for a very disjointed and confusing read. Even when all was revealed at the end, I still didn't understand quite how the forest related to the alien. The answers are really too long in coming, I had no idea what was going on for a large portion of the book and this made it difficult to maintain an interest.

The village reminded me of Brigadoon with its sudden appearance - and I did expect there to be a similar revelation about it. However, it also seemed to be entirely populated by robots as none of the characters there really seemed to have any emotion. This could possibly be explained by the ending but it's hard to tell if the villagers were written that way on purpose or not. The characterisations of the Doctor and Martha didn't seem particularly well done either. The Doctor was part wide-eyed simpleton part rambling idiot and generally not himself. Martha was annoying and kind of smug, and as most of the book seemed to be from her point of view, it got rather irritating. It was quite a disappointing book in the end, certainly not one of the better ones. ( )

Not as good as some of the others. I can't say Martha impressed me much here. She was too negative. Then again, the Doctor seemed 'less' than he normally is too.All in all the story was interesting, but seemed to lack somehow. Had a good ending, though, of course. ( )

The Doctor and Martha land on a deserted science vessel deep in space, go through a door, and are suddenly in a forest complete with a fully inhabited village.

Pretty good story, not so great characterization. Martha was way off - the author apparently forgot that she wouldn't freak out around dead bodies or jump to wild and hasty conclusions about them. The climax was a bit short on explanation but overall it was well-paced and interesting. ( )