Shroud of Sorrow

"No one will ever smile again."

Writer: Tommy Donbavand
Format: Novel
Released: April 2013
Series: NSA 53

Featuring: Eleventh Doctor, Clara

Synopsis

23 November, 1963.

It is the day after John F. Kennedy's assassination and the faces of the dead are everywhere. PC Reg Cranfield sees his late father in the mists along Totter's Lane. Reporter Mae Callon sees her grandmother in a coffee stain on her desk. FBI Special Agent Warren Skeet finds his long-dead partner staring back at him from raindrops on a window pane.

The faces begin to talk and scream and push through into our world as the alien Shroud begins to feast on the grief of a world in mourning. Can the Doctor dig deep enough into his own sorrow to save mankind?

Verdict

Shroud of Sorrow was a brilliant novel! I really loved this novel from start to finish and I think the initial setting and aftermath of the JFK assassination had a big part to play in that. It was used very well and I loved the playing with the date and Doctor Who's initial broadcast that came with it. I really enjoyed that. This story is slightly contradicting of The Last Day at Work as the policeman seen in An Unearthly Child gets a little bit of a backstory but that just shows how bonkers this show is as that character, barely seen, now has two alternations! That's quite staggering. The pairing of the Eleventh Doctor and Clara worked perfectly in their only full-length prose together and the characterisation was sublime. Their relationship was so fantastically captured on the page and that just made for delightful reading. It was hugely impressive and just a joy to read. There was the right amount of innuendo and humour which was pleasing. Them being joined by Mae and Warren made a great team and I really liked their respective reactions to the TARDIS and the truth concerning the Shroud. The way this enemy feasted on grief was brilliant and the horror of it showing people their dead loved ones was awful. It showed them in the weirdest places though like a coffee stain or raindrops on a window and that just added to the fear factor for me. It made it more real somehow. I thought General Keating was a humorous character as he was so convinced the faces being seen were a result of the Russians and it was nice that his subordinates realised that he was a liability. The paragraph at the end of the book with him being convinced into retirement was a nice touch. The analogies in this story were good, helpful and humorous which is a great mix! I loved the Doctor just commandeering Warren's sock and cutting a whole in the un-holed end. Warren wasn't too pleased with that! The Doctor and co venturing through what they thought was a wormhole to Semtis, the previous planet the Shroud tortured, was intriguing and seeing them deal with other people's memories was quite something. Them being greeted by a band of Wanters before being introduced to the Clowns was good. They, particularly Flip Flop and Wobblebottom, were fascinating and I loved how much they pleased the Doctor by helping those who had been left a Wanter or Rager or what not by the Shroud. When he saw it in action, he couldn't help but admire them which was terrific. I thought the nod to the Brigadier was wonderful and seeing that many incarnations of the Doctor attended his funeral was extremely fitting. I thought it was quite humorous too when he imitated him pretending to be a Colonel. The use of the Once More With Feeling throughout the latter stages of the book was superb and I think the moments where the Doctor was luring the Shroud in on his grief was simply incredible. It was one of the most heart-wrenching pieces of prose I've ever read and just imagining all of the Doctor's torment going back to stories like The Dalek Invasion of Earth, The War Games and Voyage of the Damned was just magnificent. The Doctor seeing Astrid as his face was an interesting choice by the writer but I absolutely loved the Doctor's own description of the events of that episode. Clara's reaction was very good. I also thought it was lovely that the Doctor rediscovered his recorder! The use of the fast return switch and the group of people with Penelope that we met at the start of the book was decent and whilst a little more clarity may have pushed this novel to perfection, I thought it was fitting that the Shroud was literally tangled and basically put into a time loop of its own making. Overall, a superb novel!

Rating: 9/10