Royal Blood

"There's no honour in self-sacrifice, and no honour in sacrificing others with you, throwing away lives in a battle that can't be won..."

Writer: Una McCormick 

Format: Novel

Released: 10th September 2015

Series: NSA 55

Featuring: Twelfth Doctor, Clara 

Synopsis 

"The Grail is a story, a myth! It didn't exist on your world! It can't exist here!"

The city-state of Varuz is falling. The capital is crumbling, and its enemies are poised to invade. Duke Aurelian is preparing to gamble everything on one last battle. So when a holy man, the Doctor, comes to Varuz from beyond the mountains, Aurelian asks for his blessing in the war. 

But all is not what it seems. The city-guard have lasers for swords, and the halls are lit by electric candlelight. Aurelian's wife and his trusted knight seem to be plotting to overthrow their Duke, and Clara finds herself drawn into their intrigue...

Will the Doctor stop Aurelian from going to war? Will Clara's involvement in the plot be discovered? Why is the enemy's ambassador so nervous? And who are the ancient and weary knights claiming to be on a quest for the Holy Grail...?

Verdict 

Royal Blood was an excellent novel to kick off the brand new Glamour Chronicles trilogy of adventures with the Twelfth Doctor and Clara! The brand new books have come out at just about the perfect time to wet the appetite for the new series starting next week. I like the idea of having the three novels connected by the mysterious Glamour and it gives an order in which to read the novels. I thought this novel was magnificent from start to finish and I was hooked pretty much all the way through on my usual train journey up to mid-Wales. I finished it within a day with ease which is always a good sign! This was my first experience of an Una McCormick novel and I was really impressed with her style. I really liked her storytelling method and her pace was pretty good to be fair. She really impressed me with her characterisation of the Twelfth Doctor and Clara. She really did capture the likeness of Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman very well which was a pleasure to read. Clara seems to be a difficult character to characterise but I'm not really sure why. Jenna is so good but thankfully it seems the female writer (of such there should be a whole lot more) captured her likeness to a tee. I thought the plot was very interesting with quite a lot going on whilst everything was interconnected. There were a lot of good relationships formed with the guest characters and I loved Una's style of partial narration from Bernhardt at a place after the events of this story has unfolded. That was unique for me in a Doctor Who novel and it was so much better than full on narration as was seen in The Blood Cell. I thought Bernhardt was a good character and his story with Guena was superb. She was the Duchess of Varuz but he loved her. Thankfully for him, the feeling was mutual. I found it even more intrigue that the Duke himself knew about that and didn't actually seem too bothered by it! The history of Varuz seemed a lot richer than at present with technology seemingly getting downgraded over the years. The people of Varuz used to walk amongst the stars but now their lands were sickened and the only advanced technology and had been scavenged from their ancestors. You could be forgiven for thinking the cover of this book was actually for a novelisation of Robot of Sherwood, but the story wasn't really much the same. I mean there were similarities in the fact that myths were seemingly true, but other than that it just seemed that Clara was wearing something similar. Even without seeing her, just based on the description of her appearance it was obvious Clara looked delightfully stunning! The relationship between the Doctor and Clara was captured perfectly and I like how this definitely had a post Last Christmas feel. The way the Doctor seems to ignore his companions is brilliant and I loved how once again wasn't on board about the whole idea of hugging. I must say though, there should be a vacancy at BBC Books for proofreading these novels because there were quite a few mistakes which isn't nice to see in a published novel. I'd be more than happy to do it free of charge! Surely somebody should be checking things over before the final draft is sent for publication though. The story of Emfil was a very good one and I liked how Clara was toying with him. I like that she knows how attractive she is and she definitely should use it to her advantage! The scene where she went to his room was fantastic. But once the pair was banished and the truth about him was revealed, and despite the fact he stole her pendant, they ended up getting along nicely. I have a lot of respect for the fact that he was a collector and like him I would never think of selling any part of my collection of Who stuff likewise he with his hobby interest of basically cool things and how they work. The way he'd ended up being the ambassador was fantastic. The arrival of Lancelot and his Knights in search of the Holy Grail was quite a shock I must say! Here we were on another planet and we had stories from the time of King Arthur arriving! The Doctor wasn't too pleased and immediately quashed any assumption that the myth was actually true. However, a far greater myth was the true subject of the search. Only the difference with this one was that it did exist. The concept of the Glamour was very interesting and I like how it changes depending on who's looking at it. It was subject to the eye of the beholder and even if you acquired you couldn't be sure you had it in your possession, as was demonstrated beautifully near the end of the novel. It really was quite the enigma. The revelation that Lancelot himself was the Glamour certainly answered questions regarding how a myth could come to be in Varuz, but why were the Knights who followed him looking for the Glamour when they were following it. They didn't know they had and I guess that was the mystery. I really am looking forward to seeing the Glamour furthered in the next two novels of Deep Time and Big Bang Generation. I like how the story didn't solely focus on that and the issue of war was much the focal point. Mikhail was a good character and I liked how he almost seemed to be on both sides! He was a traitor in siding with Conrad and taking the city, but at least he get Guena get away. He sympathised at least. The death of the Duke wasn't expected but that was to be the price of war. The Doctor had worked out that the use of technology was making the lands sicker and sicker but Conrad would see to those being destroyed. Overall, this was a great novel full of lots of twists and revelations. The stones have certainly been planted for the next two stories in regards to the Glamour and I can't wait to see things unfold. A very good start to the brand new trilogy! 

Rating: 9/10