Books: Doctor Who: Dark Horizons by Jenny T. Colgan (2012)

 

“On a windswept northern shore, at the very tip of what will one day become Scotland, the islanders believe the worst they have to fear is a Viking attack. Then the burning comes. They cannot run from it. Water will not stop it. It consumes everything in its path - yet the burned still speak. The Doctor is just looking for a game on the famous Lewis chess set. Instead he encounters a people under attack from a power they cannot possibly understand. They have no weapons, no strategy and no protection against a fire sent to engulf them all. Add in some marauding Vikings with very bad timing, a kidnapped princess with a secret of her own and a TARDIS that seems to have developed an inexplicable fear of water, and they all have a battle on their hands. The islanders must take on a ruthless alien force in a world without technology; without communications; without tea that isn't made out of bark. Still at least they have the Doctor on their side... Don't they?”

Much of Dark Horizons is a well-researched historical tale, akin to the franchises early years, but while writer Colgan brings to life the culture, community and well-realized lives of Vikings, the pacing is somewhat difficult to keep me going –hence this took me way too long to read. There are some wonderful “companions” for the 11^th Doctor to banter with, in particular Henrik and Freydis (who believes the Timelord to be Loki). There is a lot going on (including a cameo by the 4^th Doctor, Leela, and K9), but the book sort of looses the thread towards the middle and only slightly recovers towards the end. And while I appreciated a historical tale with some science fiction, and the Doctor is very well done here, a lonely god, an idiot, and both ineffectual and powerful at the same time, the book failed to make me really want to care in the end.