Borrowed Time

"We all have a bad morning sometimes."

Writer: Naomi A. Alderman
Format: Novel
Released: June 2011
Series: NSA 48

Featuring: Eleventh Doctor, Amy, Rory

Synopsis

"You want more time Mr Brown, of course, you do. We all want more time. Let me make you an offer..."

Andrew Brown never has enough time. No time to call his sister, or to prepare for that important presentation at the bank where he works. The train's late, the lift jams. If only he'd had just a little more time. And time is the business of Mr Symington and Mr Blenkinsop. They'll lend him some – at a very reasonable rate of interest.

Detecting a problem, the Doctor, Amy and Rory go undercover at the bank. But they have to move fast to stop Symington and Blenkinsop before they cash in their investments.

Verdict

Borrowed Time was an excellent novel! I really enjoyed this one from start to finish and I had a good feeling that would be the case from the synopsis alone. I'm a big fan of stories that deal with time and whilst Doctor Who obviously has a considerable relationship with it, there aren't that many adventures actually about time itself. That's where this came in quite wonderfully. Andrew Brown served as a good common character along with Sameera at the Lexington International Bank. I thought they worked really well together battling for the same promotion and as the story developed, it was obvious that they would get together by its conclusion. It was nice to see those elements threaded out. Mr Symington and Mr Blenkinsop were terrific characters and their persuasive manner in selling time was fantastic. The chemistry that came when those two were written on the page, particularly in the first half of the novel, was magnificent. I really enjoyed them. I thought the Doctor, Amy and Rory's beginning to the adventure being in 51st century Earth was a lot of fun and the use of the Super Lucky Romance Camera to slow down time on the outside world was really good. I wasn't expecting it to get so much use in the book! The moments where it was running out of battery just when it was needed most were very humorous. It was clear to see here just how much Amy meant to Rory as he was quite angry when his holiday was cut short, although I did think his outburst when Amy wasn't really enjoying three hours of sunset was unwarranted. The 2007 setting worked really well as it was pretty much the present from the perspective of the companions and fitted in nicely with the global economic collapse that would come just a year later. What I really loved about this adventure was the concept of borrowing time and how Symington and Blenkinsop were offering it in the form of a watch. I work in finance as a research analyst, but even I will admit that things got a little complicated when the Doctor tried to explain compound interest with a cake icing analogy. That didn't quite seem like the best example to use, but the overall message was there in that the interest was way, way more than five minutes in the hour. I really liked that Amy ended up borrowing time herself and took way more than just the initial hour she wanted so she could answer urgent calls from both the Doctor and Rory. She ended up driving to Leadworth to spend a night with her parents! That was nice to know though and it was clear she was using her extra time wisely. The Doctor instantly knowing that Amy had borrowed time was excellent and I thought the characterisation of Matt Smith's incarnation was outstanding. Some of the best ways he's been written in prose thus far. The revelation that it was actually Joyce, the PA, and not Vanessa as being the head Time Harvester didn't have too much of an impact whilst still being a good surprise. The nature of the enemy being all one organism with Symington and Blenkinsop having numerous versions was fantastic. I loved the idea of the original ones seeing Amy or Rory for example resulted in all of them seeing them because they remembered from their own past. It was a great use of the timelines. The idea of storing time was intriguing and a little challenging to comprehend, but I really enjoyed the Millennium Dome storage facility. The miniaturisation was a lot of fun with the cockroach as well! The way the Doctor ended up paying off the debts without death being the result was pretty clever and I liked that the camera bubble was used in the conclusion to destroy the time source that Joyce had relied upon from the Time Market, another fun addition to the story that perhaps deserved longer. The story with Nadia was quite emotional seeing how damaging borrowing time could be, but I did feel that the swapping of fates with an aged Sameera at the end was a bit too coincidental. Overall though, this was a thoroughly enjoyable novel!

Rating: 9/10