WORLD EXCLUSIVE: DW Death Riders/Heart of Stone Review

With the long break inbetween each series of Doctor Who, it's up to BBC Books to bridge the gap with new adventures for the Doctor, Amy and Rory, and in no better way can they do this than with the new range of 2-in-1 novels starting in February with Death Riders/Heart of Stone. I've read this 400-page package, and can confirm it captures the sci-fi brilliantly in its two unique stories. Death Riders takes the TARDIS to an intergalactic theme park, where the time travellers have to save visitors from a hidden creature lurking beneath the new 'Death Ride'. It's a standard-Who premise, but author Justin Richards uses this to his advantage by creating a tale very similar to a television episode, building in scale throughout and eventually to an epic climax which will have readers on the edge of their seats! Meanwhile Heart of Stone is a more subtle piece by Trevor Baxendale, set in a rural area of British countryside as the Doctor deals with a monster made of moon rock terrorising a small farm. Once again, Baxendale uses this peaceful setting to suit his adventure, adding real depth to each of the small group of characters the Time Lord meets so that when the TARDIS departs readers will be sad to leave this realistic family behind. Both authors manage successfully to veer away from continuity issues, not even trying to come up with reasons why the Doctor takes Amy and Rory to these locations and only fitting in the series time-line by mentioning that the Ponds are married and on their honeymoon. This approach works for the better, pretty much sticking to the mantra "It's a time and space machine, the crew can go anywhere they want!", and I hope the next books in the range keep to this. Overall, Doctor Who: Death Riders/Heart of Stone is an awesome start to the new range of 2-in-1 novels, and when it arrives on the 3rd of February I'd encourage fans to get this book that feels like a novelised continuation of the Doctor's adventures before he returns to screens next Spring! For a look at this and many other great Doctor Who books, check out www.doctorwhochildrensbooks.co.uk!