The Many Hands

"The dead are here to drag us down to Hell."

Writer: Dale Smith
Format: Novel
Released: April 2008
Series: NSA 24

Featuring: Tenth Doctor, Martha

Synopsis

Edinburgh, 1759.

The Nor' Loch is being filled in. If you ask the soldiers there, they'll tell you it's a stinking cesspool that the city can do without. But that doesn't explain why the workers won't go near the place without an armed guard.

That doesn't explain why they whisper stories about the loch giving up its dead, about the minister who walked into his church twelve years after he died.

It doesn't explain why, as they work, they whisper about a man called the Doctor.

And about the many hands of Alexander Monro.

Verdict

The Many Hands was an excellent novel to conclude my adventures with Martha Jones in full original prose! It has taken me a very long time to get around and I still have plenty of Tenth Doctor books to get through, but I think I have become accustomed to the pairing of the Tenth Doctor and Martha so the next book with this incarnation will be quite different. Anyway, onto the novel at hand and it was a terrific read! It started off very fast paced with the Doctor and Martha involved in a stagecoach chase with a fight occurring on top! It worked well starting things seemingly mid-venture and that pace didn't really seem to slow down throughout the book. I loved the setting of Edinburgh in 1759 and it worked so well with the idea of the story. With the threat of death very much real and a theme of horror in a number of chapters, there was something about the Scottish capital that just seemed perfect. This book was released some twelve years ago, but I'm very glad I have waited until now to read it because I actually went on holiday to Edinburgh last year so I was able to recognise a lot of the sites mentioned with fondness. There was a lot of chasing around the city with a firm focus on Edinburgh Castle which was magnificent. The concept of the hands was a very disturbing one and I initially felt that the use was actually superior to that of The Hand of Fear. However, as the story advanced I retracted my thoughts there as the hand became a much bigger extension which was still great. The story behind Alexander Monro was very intriguing and the chapter conclusion where it was revealed that Alexander and Monro were not actually father and son but actually the same person was very unexpected! I didn't see that coming at all so it was a wonderful surprise. The science behind it was also brilliant and it was a bit refreshing to have that happening by a method other than time travel. The difference in the two versions of Alexander Monro was palpable and I liked how that was played upon throughout the book. McAllister was another brilliant character as the Captain in command and his arrest of the Doctor was excellent. He always wanted to remind the Doctor of that fact which worked really well and it was great to see how their relationship developed throughout the novel. Once it was clear that the Doctor was the one with the answers to defeat the threat, McAllister calmed down on the threat of hanging him. Martha was really good as the companion in this one and her relationship with the elder Monro was really nice. The humour that came with the Doctor's continued distain at the medical curriculum that Martha went through was really good and their relationship throughout was terrific. They're a very underrated pairing in my eyes. The references to the likes of Gridlock and The Lazarus Experiment were good and I also loved that the Doctor referenced Jamie. The story fitted in very nicely with Series 3 and I liked that the Doctor apologetically warned Martha that a TARDIS protocol may refer to her as Rose. The passages inside the church were good and even though I am quite against religion, the description of the church and the meaning behind it was outstanding. One of the most sublime paragraphs I've read in Doctor Who prose, it was honestly that good. The return of McVicar to his church twelve years after dying was a good moment and the imagery of all the dead coming back to life was great. Them literally just being dead people was interesting and the use of the hands on their hearts to animate them was very intriguing. The hands all being the same hand was a good revelation and the description was just creepy. The whole book had an eery feel which is definitely a positive. The arrival of Kith in taking over Alexander and being the entity behind the science was good and it probably worked well that he came very late into the adventure. There wasn't any more needed. His desire to escape death was fantastic and the Doctor offering his Time Lord DNA to save the city of Edinburgh was brilliant. I was a big fan of that and Martha's reaction was good as she quickly offered herself up instead. She didn't have Time Lord DNA though! Kith leaving the Doctor and instead wanting the TARDIS was a good plot twist and his craving for immortality made him a good villain. The way everything tied with electricity, lightning and the visit of Benjamin Franklin to Edinburgh was superb and a really emphatic way to be rid of Kith once and for all whilst returning Alexander Monro. His efforts to revive his father were in vain, but he was still alive. Overall, a fine novel.

Rating: 9/10