The Book Report #98
Episode #97
Doctor Who – Snowglobe 7 By Mike Tucker
The Book
My copy of the book is a 2nd edition hardback. This book was published by BBC Books in 2008. BBC Books is an imprint of Ebury Publishing, which is a division of the Random House Group Ltd.
The novel contains 258 pages with acknowledgements and advertising for other books in the series.
What Did I Think?
Global warming is wreaking havoc with the weather and causing massive damage to major cities worldwide. The governments of the world have to come together to help protect the Earth and research ways to save our planet. Eventually, the plan is to build enormous globes and place chunks of ice and snow from the poles to help preserve them.
The problems aren’t known until much later, when they uncover ancient drawings found on old rock walls. This awakens the last of the alien race trapped in hibernation for hundreds of thousands of years.
This race is not interested in civilised partnerships. All it wants is to consume and breed. How does it breed? By using the remains of the skulls, turning them into eggs that spread a dust that, when inhaled, will slowly create a new being in the brain of its next victim.
Our Heroes
The Doctor and Martha are on their way to a small vacation. They have been travelling and having non-stop adventures: the Doctor thought he would treat them both to a little beach holiday.
But that, of course, would be boring for us readers. And so we are sent into the dangerous world of something close to the film franchise Alien.
I don’t believe this story would have ever been made into a TV episode. But anything is possible.
This book is worthy of horror status. You have a bit of everything with this book: horror, politics, adventure, and science fiction. We even get somewhat of a redemption story until they changed their mind; it was more beneficial to move on.
However, the start of this story was to save Snowglobe 7, which was losing money, and a buyer was in the works until they weren’t.
The twists and turns of this story were written brilliantly. And I actually felt the tension of the horrors that were emerging from the different situations occurring.
Mr Tucker, good job!
This story takes a different path where the danger and tension feel a lot more real and darker than the usual Doctor Who stories.
The Doctor seems to feel the risks are higher, as if any move or wrong decision he makes could actually end them both.
The telepathic element is probably the only way he was able to save the day; otherwise, it would have gone the way the army wanted it. And to a point, it still sort of did. But as it was in this case, there is just no helping some people or aliens.
There is also a new element to human history as another race of aliens arrives on Earth, asking for sanctuary, and has to eventually learn to integrate with human life, and things become trickier when they find out they are telepathic. I also believe this is an alternate timeline, as the story is set in the near future, and with the most recent storyline in the Doctor Who universe, which is closely related to ours, the ice caps are slowly disappearing.
Would I Recommend?
I would definitely recommend this book if you would like a darker Doctor Who story.
Would you like to purchase your very own copy?
You could try these online stores: Amazon UK/USA. Waterstones. AbeBooks UK/USA, Barnes & Noble, or eBay UK/USA.
Alternatively, you could try your local bookshop or even your local library.
