A Handful of Stardust

The Sixth Doctor and Peri meet Dr. John Dee, who has succumbed to an alien incubus given to him by an old enemy of the Doctor's.

It was a fast, enjoyable read.

(Provided by publisher) ( )

Read full review @ The Indigo Quill

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A Handful of Stardust is a short story in the Time Trips series from BBC books. I have taken a keen interest in these Doctor Who stories as of late. I will be doing a review on a different short story every Wednesday until the month of the premier of the new season of Doctor Who. A Handful of Stardust was the first in this string of reviews and the first Doctor Who short story I have ever read. Going into it I didn’t quite know what to expect but I found that the short story format lends itself more readily to the Doctor Who Universe because it follows the same rhythm as the episodes. Every page is action and no filler, just like a short story should be.

A Handful of Stardust follows the story of the 6th Doctor and Peri as they get pulled out of time and space by John Dee and his assistant Thomas. It doesn’t take long before he realizes there is something dark afoot in post Dark-age England. Someone has given John Dee futuristic technology and is manipulating his thirst for forbidden knowledge. Someone who is described as being in between a bachelor and a doctor... In case you hadn’t guessed, the Doctor’s old nemesis, “The Master” has come back to play and the fate of the world (as usual) is in the balance.

Jake Arnott was successful in dealing with some pretty heady issues in a very interesting way. Imperialism, human nature and even the church are some of the topics discussed. There’s an especially interesting scene where the master and Peri and Thomas (John Dee’s assistant) argue over the imperialism of England and the settling of the Americas. The Doctor and John Dee also have some lively debates that I thoroughly enjoyed. The plot itself was inventive and engaging but could have used a couple more pages of fleshing out. I know that it is difficult to do in a short story format but I would have enjoyed a little more conflict and character interaction. Over all, I would re-read this book in the future. I would recommend it to any Doctor Who fan or sci fi guru and I am looking forward to reading more in this series. ( )

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2283276.html

A mild romp round Elizabethan times with the Sixth Doctor, Peri, John Dee and the Master. It's light in some ways, but actually drills down linguistically to explain Peri's name (I don't think I'd ever seen that before) and is respectful enough of the historical setting. ( )

A Handful of Ideas

When a Doctor Dee manages to summon a mysterious blue box using forbidden dark arts, he is stunned to find it occupied by a Harlequin Jester who calls himself the Doctor. But this is only the start of his life-changing adventure.

Jake Arnott has come up with not one, but a whole range of great ideas. Unfortunately, he has tried to squeeze them into a ridiculously short story. There is enough good material here for a whole novel, but instead we get forty-odd pages of rushed plot, with almost nothing properly developed or explored.
The characters of Doctor Dee and his assistant are really good and we get just enough of them to wish we had more, while the 'villains' suffer the most from the brevity on display here; we barely meet them before matters cannon towards the ending.

These Time Trips seem to be getting shorter the more that appear, which in this case is a real shame. I can only hope Arnott will one day give us a greatly expanded version of what should have been a special story. ( )