Sick Building

"Get back to your family. But even there you won't escape. There is no escape. Not from what's coming."

Writer: Paul Magrs 

Format: Novel

Released: September 2007

Series: NSA 17

Featuring: Tenth Doctor, Martha

Synopsis 

Tiermann's World: a planet covered in wintry woods and roamed by sabre-toothed tigers and other savage beasts. The Doctor is here to warn Professor Tiermann, his wife and their son that a terrible danger is on its way. 

The Tiermanns live in a luxury, in a fantastic, futuristic, fully-automated Dreamhome, under an impenetrable force shield. But that won't protect them from the Voracious Craw. A huge and hungry alien creature is heading remorselessly towards their home. When it arrives everything will be devoured.

Can they get away in time? With the force shield cracking up, and the Dreamhome itself deciding who should or should not leave, things are looking desperate...

Verdict 

Sick Building was a very good novel and continues the trend of this score in regards to ratings lately and also ensuring that the run of Tenth Doctor and Martha novels is maintaining a very high standard. Ever since reading Sting of the Zygons on the usual train journey home a few months back I've been hooked to this pair in prose reading the next four books in the series in relatively quick succession. When I've decided to read a novel, which has been more frequent lately, I've always leaned towards this pairing lately. I don't know what it is but they just work wonderfully for me in print. I loved them on screen and I've blogged every episode they did together so maybe it's getting new stories to fit in between those that makes me enjoy them so much. They're a breeze to read and the format isn't like the Classic era novels. The word count is certainly a lot lees which makes for a more relaxed read (not that a longer novel is bad in any way) and I think it's clear that the New Series Adventures are more for the family whereas I would argue the Classic novels were aimed at the adult audience. I don't mind either way! Just look at my last novel in Island of Death which scored higher than this so it's clear I have no preference of era. Though, it's come to my attention recently that granting full marks for a novel is an extreme rarity and I'm not sure why! My last was for The Crawling Terror which must be a year ago now with the new Twelfth Doctor novels released later this week. I hope I stumble upon a full marks story sooner or later. This didn't really get close but it secured its rating with ease. I loved how the start and finish was based around the sabre-toothed tiger. The Doctor's communication with the animal whilst in serious danger was superb. It amazed Martha how he could be so calm in life or death situations. I guess he's full of experience of them by now. I really liked Paul Magrs' style and the novel was really pacy which made the read easy but I did think he was borderline in regards to silliness on times. I loved the barminess of the Doctor being helped by a vending machine and sunbed when he was sent to the depths of level minus thirty-nine, but the belching resolution was a major reason this story couldn't get higher than what it did. The story of the Voracious Craw was intriguing and I found it quite interesting that the Doctor was almost excited by its presence. I loved the scenes in the TARDIS where he barely seemed to be paying attention to Martha. Is he really still missing Rose? Martha must be the unluckiest companion in terms of timing. Rose would be a tough act to follow but for me Martha exceeds her! She even references Rose, and humorously the Time War, in the story when Ernest claims that the Doctor doesn't know what it's like to lose things close to you. I think he knows more than anyone actually. There were some magnificent references in this story with mentions of The Daleks and The Monster of Peladon really putting a smile on my face. Classic story references in New Series Adventures novels is something I really do appreciate. This story is set some time into Martha's run as companion judging by the 42 reference. Smith and Jones and Gridlock also got great mentions as well which was nice. I really liked Solin and the way he just blurted out to Martha that he thought she was attractive was excellent. He was about as subtle as a bullet from a gun, but it was a great moment. He wasn't exactly wrong, was he? The Dreamhome was a very desirable place by all accounts as literally anything could be done for you! The bath even talked to Martha! The Servo-furnishings were quite the invention it had to be said. However, the Domovoi was not. She'd gone quite mad it had to be said and she was pretty much possessed with serving people. She didn't want the family to leave despite the impending danger of the Craw. The moment the Doctor rhymed the alien beast's name was pure magic. A proper Doctor moment. There was a lot of action which was good and I liked how once the crew eventually got to the TARDIS following Amanda's death, the Doctor still went back for Ernest despite the fact he'd left him. Of course he'd go back. The climax wasn't the best with the belching being pretty pathetic in my opinion, but thankfully the rest of the novel was very good and still secured a great rating. 

Rating: 8/10