Book Review - The Time Bike by Jane Langston

Friday, July 16, 2010

I picked up The Time Bike by Jane Langton at Beth's Books in New Orleans. I was on a mission for books to fulfill my current reading challenges though this is the only book I found it was a good find. The Time Bike is the sixth novel for children in the Hall Family Chronicles. I haven't read any of the others but having previously worked in a book store I had heard of them when I found The Time Bike on the shelf and knew it was a time travel series and so perfect for the Time Travel Reading Challenge.
In this novel we follow Eddy and his sister Eleanor as they travel through time on a magical bike that was sent to Eddy mysteriously when his regular bike was stolen. This book would make a great introduction to the world of time travel and fantasy. Although I could tell there were some things that had happened to Eddy and Eleanor that I wasn't privy to having not read the other books in the series I was easily able to follow the story.
Now I am on a new mission to find the other titles in the series, more Eddy and Eleanor adventures await.



This takes care of another requirement for the Time Travel Reading Challenge hosted by At Home With Books

Book Review - Doctor Who Forever Autumn by Mark Morris

Saturday, June 19, 2010

I picked up Doctor Who: Forever Autumn by Mark Morris at the library to take care of two reading challenges, The Doctor Who Reading Challenge and the Time Travel Reading Challenge and also just because I want to read it. I really love Doctor Who and the more novels I read the more I fall in love with him and the whole mythology to The Doctor. The novels definately add to the whole Doctor experience so do yourself a favor and read one, or two, or three....

Product Description:
It is almost Halloween in the sleepy New England town of Blackwood Falls. Autumn leaves litter lawns and sidewalks, paper skeletons hang in windows and carved pumpkins leer from stoops and front porches. The Doctor and Martha soon discover that something long-dormant has awoken in the town, and this will be no ordinary Halloween. What is the secret of the ancient chestnut tree and the mysterious books discovered tangled in its roots? What rises from the local churchyard in the dead of night, sealing up the lips of the only witness? And why are the harmless trappings of Halloween suddenly taking on a creepy new life of their own? As nightmarish creatures prowl the streets, the Doctor and Martha must battle to prevent both the townspeople and themselves from suffering a grisly fate...

Book Review - Doctor Who and the Revenge of the Cybermen by Terrence Dicks

Monday, May 24, 2010

First let me say I am sorry for the cut and paste here but my sentiment is the same for the last three Doctor Who books I read.


Doctor Who: And the Revenge of the Cybermen is another novelization of the television series with Tom Baker. Again I say reading these really helped me appreciate the show and The Doctor even more. Although the story is recycled and reads a bit like a script I much enjoy exploring the world of The Doctor in a way I just can't seem to do with the older television series.

If you know Doctor Who you can probably piece together the gist of this story but for everyone's bennefit let me say lives are in danger from Cybermen and the Doctor kicks their butts. You'll just have to read (or watch) to find out how.


And knock another one off these challenges:

Book Review - Doctor Who and the Loch Ness Monster by Terrence Dicks

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Doctor Who and the Loch Ness Monsteris another novelization of the television series with Tom Baker. Again I say reading these really helped me appreciate the show and The Doctor even more. Although the story is recycled and reads a bit like a script I much enjoy exploring the world of The Doctor in a way I just can't seem to do with the older television series.

For anyone who watches or reads Doctor Who all you really need is the title to tell you the premise but here it goes. Something is killing people, The Doctor and his companions show up, turns out to be an alien plotting to take over the Earth doing the killing, here's the change up it all ties into the legend of the Loch Ness Monster.

I must admit I like the original stories in book form better but overall this was an entertaining read.

This book knocks off one notch on three different reading challenges:

1. Food

2. Plant

3. Title

4. Place Name

5. Body of Water

6. Music Term

Book Review - Doctor Who and the Genesis of the Daleks by Terrance Dicks

Saturday, May 1, 2010

I picked up Doctor Who and the Genesis of the Daleks by Terrance Dicks at the library not too long ago. One of the differences between this title and the other Doctor Who novels I've read so far is that this one isn't an original, in other words it's just a novelization of one of the Tom Baker television series.
That doesn't make it any less appealing to me however since I have a hard time paying too close attention to the old episodes so even though I've seen them playing in the background while my husband was watching them I couldn't tell you what actually happened until I read this book.
This book shows us the beginning of the Daleks. Where they come from, who invented them and why and what The Doctor does to try to stop it all from happening.
Although it was a little script-like in the reading it was just as easy to get into the story as all the other Doctor books I've read. This read had an extra bonus of being able to brush up on my important Doctor history in a way I just couldn't with the television show.

This book also takes care of one of my selections for the Doctor Who Reading Challenge and one for the Time Travel Reading Challenge.

Book Review - Doctor Who: The Pirate Loop by Simon Guerrier

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

I love these Doctor Who novels so much I have been getting them back-to-back from the library and just devouring them. My most recent novel is Doctor Who: The Pirate Loop by Simon Guerrier. I really liked this one, actually I think it's my favorite of the Doctor and Martha books I have read. This is the first one I would love to see as part of the series, maybe in a different form now that David Tennant has moved on from The Doctor and Martha probably isn't coming back as the new Doctor's companion but still. It's also the first one I truly wanted to be a part of, the rest of them are fun reads and I love the characters but I never really wanted to be part of the story until The Pirate Loop.

Description from Amazon:

"The Doctor's been everywhere and everywhen in the whole of the universe and seems to know all the answers. But ask him what happened to the Starship Brillant and he hasn't the first idea. Did it fall into a sun or black hole? Was it shot down in the first moments of the galactic war? And what's this about a secret experimental drive? The Doctor is skittish. But if Martha is so keen to find out he'll land the TARDIS on the Brilliant, a few day before it vanishes. Then they can see for themselves... Soon the Doctor learns the awful truth. And Martha learns that you need to be careful what you wish for. She certainly wasn't hoping for mayhem, death, and badger-faced space pirates!"

You can't hate anything that has "badger-faced space pirates" and they forgot to mention regenerating hors dourves. Also this satisfies one of my requirements for my Doctor Who Reading Challenge and the Time Travel Reading Challenge, double header again.

Currently "Reading":
Book - The Adventures of Doctor Who. Omnibus comprising: Doctor Who and the Genesis of the Daleks; Doctor Who and the Revenge of the Cybermen; Doctor Who and the Loch Ness Monster by Terrance Dicks
E-Book - Logan And The Magic Fish by Otto Scamfer
Audio - Count Karlstein by Philip Pullman

Book Review - Snowglobe 7, Doctor Who Novel by Mike Tucker

Thursday, March 11, 2010

The Doctor Who novels are just as good as the television series. The Doctor lends himself perfectly to the crossover novel because he has so many wonderful adventures that simply can't all be packed into the television show so why not put them in a book, this is why I started the Doctor Who reading challenge to get into the books behind The Doctor.
I randomly picked Doctor Who: Snowglobe 7 from my local library but it turned out to be a perfect choice. See my husband spent two weeks in Dubai last month and Snowglobe 7 is set in Dubai. Turns out with global warming and such the earth is getting hotter and humans have built these snowglobes to preserve the arctic then moved them all around the globe. Two of them end up in Dubai, they were all supposed to be used for research but over time they have to give in to tourism to get enough money to stay afloat.
Inside one of the few snowglobes still used strictly for research an ancient and deadly alien is uncovered in the ice. This is where The Doctor and Martha come in to save the day. It's classic Doctor and it is great.
Also on a side note there is a real snowglobe type thing in Dubai. Inside one of their huge malls there is a ski slope. Hubby saw it but did not go skiing. I am sure that the author knew about the ski mall in Dubai before writing this book but wouldn't it be crazy if it were the other way around?

This book is a double header, it knocks off one of my required books for my Doctor Who Reading Challenge and one for my Time Travel Reading Challenge, go me!

Time Travel Reading Challenge

Friday, January 1, 2010

The rules to this reading challenge hosted by At Home With Books are simple:
Decide how many time travel books you want to read and then read them before the end of 2010 - that's it! (The challenge goes from January 1, 2010 to December 31, 2010.)

I really like the time travel genre as well, I'm not sure if it can really be called it's own genre maybe it is a sub-genre. Well, whatever it is I like it and so I am looking forward to joining this challenge. I don't have a set list of books I am going to read for this challenge yet but I do have a set number that I want to read and that number is 10.

The reason I am choosing to put my goal so high is because if I complete my Doctor Who challenge then I would complete this challenge at the same time since all the Doctor Who books are about time travel. Fitting one challenge completely inside another just didn't seem right so I am setting my goal for this challenge higher than the number of books i have left on my Doctor Who challenge which will force me to pick at least two time travel novels that don't star the Doctor. Man, I hope that didn't confuse anyone.

Anyway, if you are interested in joining this challenge you can sign up over here on the At Home For Books Blog also she has a great list of time travel books to help get you started.