This is one of a set of unofficial novelisations produced by the Doctor Who Fan Club of New Zealand, of those stories which were never novelised by Target Books due to rights issues. This is a competent version of the story, with the dialogue almost word for word as on screen (but it is excellent dialogue, so that is not a problem), with some additional back story for most characters to add a little extra depth. As the author says in his foreword, his is the Terrance Dicks approach to a novelisation, though he rather unfairly states this is not the proper way to novelise a Doctor Who story. ( )

Thankfully, Jon Preddle adds backstory to Eric Saward's often thin and nonsensical story. Unfortunately, he seems to think this is best done by pasting great big paragraphs of history in between lines of dialogue.

http://nhw.livejournal.com/1068930.html?style=mine#cutid5

This is the last of the New Zealand fan-produced novelisations (apart from the one of City of Death which I haven't yet got hold of). Preddle says in his introduction that there are two ways of doing these books, the right way and the Terrance Dicks way, and he is conscious of having gone for the latter option. This isn't really fair on Terrance Dicks, who is a more than competent writer when on form, or indeed to Preddle himself, who has turned in quite a reasonable adaptation of what was a decent enough story to begin with, with extra characterisation of the Happy Repose setup (and unhampered by one particular rather weak performance).

https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3311899.html

Neither of these is Great Literature, but on the other hand this is a better, more coherent story than Resurrection of the Daleks (even if the plot is basically resolved by killing almost all of the other characters) and these are therefore both better novels for it. Saward for once has dialled down his writing style, and cranked up his concentration on character and giving his fictional world a bit more in-universe context, to the point that this is actually a pretty readable book. Preddle’s earlier work is also a decent effort, without the depth that Saward brings to it but perhaps a bit more emotional empathy. These are for completists only, but not too embarrassing. ( )