The second and last Una McCormack novel I've read. How someone manages to make a book that's so short and light such a boring slog, I'll never know. ( )

Properly I ought to have read it before Big Bang Generation (I think, anyway, the ordering is unclear), but too late now.

Royal Blood feels more like a novella than a novel. Not so much in terms of length (it is probably on the short end for an NSA but not overly so) but in terms of structure. It just doesn't have the kind of complicated structure one might expect from a novel. Instead, the Doctor and Clara kind of turn up, observe what's happening, slightly get involved, and then things come to an end. There are not significant turns in the plot. That's not a criticism per se, it just requires you to calibrate your expectations: this would probably work a bit better in a volume of short fiction than as a $10 book. It's an elegaic story about the end of civilizations and the clash of colonizer and colonized and holding true to one's values.

McCormack is generally quite good at exploring this kind of thing, but though I enjoyed the book, I didn't think this was one of her stronger ones. Specifically, the guest characters mostly felt like types rather than people. I wanted to like them, but there just wasn't enough to them, unfortunately. Did we not spend enough time in their heads? Did the short length of the book mean they just didn't have enough to do? I am not sure, but I found them less successful than similar characters in some other McCormack books. I wonder if cutting this down even further would have the answer, make it into a punchy novella in terms of length, and then the level of characterization would feel slightly more appropriate.

What the Glamour is and how it works doesn't really seem to have anything to do with how it was in Big Bang Generation, but this is much more interesting, so I am willing to make that a knock against Gary Russell, not Una McCormack. There is some neat stuff here, the story is of course well told, and it reads quickly. A good NSA, but it's by Una, so I know it could have been a great one.

The Doctor and Clara arrive at a planet, visits a city and the people thinks the Doctor is the ambassador from another country that is planning war on them. They have technology in the city that doesn't work properly since the people have forgotten what the gadgets do. Apparently somewhere along the way everyone just forgot how it worked and the new generations just use the things without any real knowledge about it. Then another man shows up, is he the real ambassador, and will the Doctor and Clara stop the war? And what has the Holy Grail to do with it all?

I think my biggest problem with this book is that if feels like the Doctor is hardly in it. That and that it's so short that it lacks depth. It's super easy to read, and that's the bloody problem. It's so easy to read because nothing is every really explained or described. No real explanations for why Conrad wanted to invade the country, just oh they have it coming since they are not a mighty power anymore. And the Quest for the Holy Grail knights that showed up felt like a sidetrack that really just wasn't that necessary and not even that interesting to read about. And, the final explanation for them was like "a bit meh". And, then we get the explanation for what the technology do. And, I still don't understand why no-one thought about for instance write it down to explain to future generations what it is for and the cost to use it and frankly I don't even understand why it was forgotten it the first place.

Also, I not sure I like Clara, I don't dislike her, but I don't love her either. Right now is she also a bit meh for me as a companion. I have yet seen more than the first eps of Doctor who with the Twelfth Doctor, but I like him, he just doesn't do much in this book.

So, if you're looking for a quick read, but don't need any really deep book? Then this one is for you.

Thanks to Random House Crown and Edelweiss for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!
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This was a really good book ( )

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2595396.html

Possibly the last Twelfth Doctor / Clara novel, or at least the last we'll have for a while, this has the TARDIS arriving in a medieval-style society where knights have lasers. It's good fun, particularly the invocation of the Holy Grail quest, an interesting viewpoint character among the knights, and Clara's lines in general; there's perhaps not enough Doctor in it (though he too is well caught), and I wasn't quite sure in the end how the Glamour here fitted in with its other appearances. But a worthy addition to the shelves. ( )