The Knight, the Fool and the Dead

"Death is the Kotturuh's gift."

Writer: Steve Cole

Format: Novel

Released: October 2020

Series: Time Lord Victorious 01

Featuring: Tenth Doctor

Synopsis

The Doctor travels back to the Dark Times, an era where life flourishes and death is barely known...

Then come the Kotturuh – creatures who spread through the cosmos dispensing mortality. They judge each and every species and decree its allotted time to live. For the first time, living things know the fear of ending. And they will go to any lengths to escape this grim new spectre, death.

The Doctor is an old hand at cheating death. Now, at last, he can stop it at source. He is coming for the Kotturuh, ready to change everything so that life wins from the start.

Not just the last of the Time Lords.

The Time Lord Victorious.

Verdict

The Knight, the Fool and the Dead was a brilliant novel to kick off the BBC Books contribution to the Time Lord Victorious range! I am starting to feel like I'm really getting into the arc now and this was definitely the meatiest of the releases I have blogged so far. I loved the placement with things clearly taking place soon after the events of The Waters of Mars with the Tenth Doctor not quite himself and going by the name of Time Lord Victorious and rewriting the rules. He was the last of the Time Lords and he could do as he please. Like take a trip to the Dark Times. I thought the setting was fantastic and following on from The Dawn of the Kotturuh, the species who decreed lifespans were well into their role in the universe and had condemned so many to death. The Kotturuh were feared and now they were here on Andalia to provide their judgement. The Doctor getting involved in the pitch for the sale of Lifeshrouds which would save a wearer from the Kotturuh and whatever lifespan they placed on your species. I thought that concept was magnificent and the way Estinee's story came full circle with the prelude and her position here with Fallomax in showcasing that the Lifeshroud did work was fantastic. Things weren't all they seemed regarding the device though as they weren't effective in bulk and it was actually Estinee who was the one immune to the touch of the Kotturuh and to death itself. The introduction of Brian the Ood to the story was fantastic and I really liked how he recalled being brought to the Dark Times by the TARDIS, the same TARDIS with a different interior design, but the Tenth Doctor had no recollection of him. That was a lot of fun and I'm intrigued to hear Brian with the Eighth Doctor once I get to the Big Finish contributions to the arc. The idea of an Ood assassin was really fun and I liked how he calmly went about killing people which was certainly not something the Doctor agreed with despite his changed attitude. The concept of the Doctor not following the Laws of Time anymore and taking the universe into his own hands is just excellent and it's such a perfect place in this incarnation's timeline to do something like this. His interactions with the Kotturuh were sublime and I liked how they knew that both the Doctor and Brian should not be in this period. Their efforts to toy with the Doctor and reveal their knowledge of the Time Lords and how they will simply decree that they have a short lifespan to spite the Doctor was wonderful stuff. I thought the little interludes that broke the novel up were terrific and the links with An Unearthly Child with Barbara telling the First Doctor about the story of Brothers Grimm and Death and how death could be cheated with a simple turn of the bed was really well done. It was fun to have the Eighth Doctor and Brian in one interlude along with the Ninth Doctor and Rose amidst the events of Monstrous Beauty. It worked very well and was a magnificent theme to have running through the book. Chalksal was a fun character as the hirer of Brian as assassin and the true nature of him and his turn worked very well. I wasn't exactly surprised by the twist that it was actually Fallomax following the Kotturuh instead of the other way around in order for him to capitalise on the fear of the impending arrival and judgement to sell her products, knowing they didn't work anyway, and picking up the scraps from the dead to then sell to the next planet. It was a disturbing process and way to go about things but I thought it was really well done despite being a little predictable. The Doctor's way of dealing with the Kotturuh and bringing death to them by reversing their mutated effect was really good and I loved that we got some sort of explanation as to how they were able to impose their judgement. The gateway to their realm and the small crack in the shield also was very good. The image of the Tenth Doctor being dressed in Time Lord robes for ceremonial purposes was outstanding and I loved his lack of remorse for the Kotturuh. Maybe if he could defeat death at its source then the universe would be better off. His dropping of the vial that offered the Kotturuh a second chance and just deciding on death anyway was telling, and the way the book ended on a cliffhanger with the Tenth Doctor being stopped and confronted by both the Eighth and Ninth Doctors with the former fronted by the Daleks and the latter with a Vampire coffin ship was just incredible and has set up All Flesh is Grass in spectacular fashion! Overall, an exciting book and a terrific read. 

Rating: 9/10