- Mass Market Paperback: 288 pages
- Publisher: BBC Books (7 Aug 2000)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0563538120
- ISBN-13: 978-0563538127
- Product Dimensions: 17.3 x 10.7 x 2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 422,176 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
The late nineteenth century -- the age of reason, of enlightenment, of industrialization. Britain is the workshop of the world, the center of the Empire.
Progress has left Middletown behind. The tin mine is worked out, jobs are scarce, and a crack has opened across the moors that the locals believe reaches into the depths of Hell itself.
But things are changing: Lord Urton is preparing to reopen the mine; the society for Physical Research is interested in the fissure; Roger Nepath and his sister are exhibiting their collection of mystic Eastern artifacts. People are dying. Then a stranger arrives, walking out of the wilderness: A man with no name, no history.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
With his planet and his people gone, the Doctor, literally a man without a name, awakens on Earth at the turn of the 20th century in a carriage, amnesiac, with only a tiny blue box and a letter from a mysterious `Fitz' asking to meet him at St Louis on February 8th 2001 in his coat pocket.
`The Burning' by Doctor Who luminary Justin Richards was one of the first classic Doctor Who novels I read. Having read the graphic novel collections of Scott Gray's run on the Eighth Doctor in Doctor Who Magazine, and established a firm image and characterisation of one of the most complex and deeply passionate, humanised, incarnations of the Last of the Time Lords, I was wholly unprepared for diving into where it all began.
`The Burning' reinvents and reinterprets the Doctor Who mythos, heralding a new beginning in the Doctor's life, and readers alike. The Doctor here is a blank slate: a chance to be someone else, to be human for once. No longer does the Doctor have to `act' human, or project a human side, so as to not alienate the human companions that have taken up so much of his lifetimes, filling the long periods of loneliness in his long life. He can finally form human relationships, experience human love and loss, as is explored in the subsequent `Earth Arc' as it has become known. By cutting the cord to Gallifrey, and thus the weighted burden of his Time Lord responsibilities, the Doctor can finally adopt Earth as his home-from-home. He has become a blood-brother to the human race. He is a fallen angel seeking redemption for the sins of his tumultuous and tenebrous past. To quote show-runner Steven Moffat: "I think of the Doctor as an angel that aspires to be human".
I highly recommend `The Burning' for anyone interested in not only one of the more fascinating periods in Doctor Who's history, but for anyone who is interested in finding out what it's all about. It's a perfect place to start. You don't need to know anything about the character or his history: that's something for you both to discover (or re-discover) together.
`The Burning' by Doctor Who luminary Justin Richards was one of the first classic Doctor Who novels I read. Having read the graphic novel collections of Scott Gray's run on the Eighth Doctor in Doctor Who Magazine, and established a firm image and characterisation of one of the most complex and deeply passionate, humanised, incarnations of the Last of the Time Lords, I was wholly unprepared for diving into where it all began.
`The Burning' reinvents and reinterprets the Doctor Who mythos, heralding a new beginning in the Doctor's life, and readers alike. The Doctor here is a blank slate: a chance to be someone else, to be human for once. No longer does the Doctor have to `act' human, or project a human side, so as to not alienate the human companions that have taken up so much of his lifetimes, filling the long periods of loneliness in his long life. He can finally form human relationships, experience human love and loss, as is explored in the subsequent `Earth Arc' as it has become known. By cutting the cord to Gallifrey, and thus the weighted burden of his Time Lord responsibilities, the Doctor can finally adopt Earth as his home-from-home. He has become a blood-brother to the human race. He is a fallen angel seeking redemption for the sins of his tumultuous and tenebrous past. To quote show-runner Steven Moffat: "I think of the Doctor as an angel that aspires to be human".
I highly recommend `The Burning' for anyone interested in not only one of the more fascinating periods in Doctor Who's history, but for anyone who is interested in finding out what it's all about. It's a perfect place to start. You don't need to know anything about the character or his history: that's something for you both to discover (or re-discover) together.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
After the over-the-top nature of the Faction Paradox arc, the Doctor Who books needed a little more grounding in reality and this is it. Not that this is a purely historical novel - the main plot concerns a fire monster - but it strikes a down-to-Earth (excuse the pun) mood, more gothic horror than insane sci-fi.
This is our first look at the "new" Doctor and my is it impressive. The writer's guidelines say that the Doctor should be viewed through the eyes of others to remain an engima, and this is one of the few times I've seen it work well. Without giving us a single look inside his head, Richards paints a picture of a very complex man; intelligent and incisive and compassionate, yet also rather detached. The ending - to give away nothing - is a powerful scene simply because it's the last thing you'd have expected the the "old" Doctor to do. I wouldn't have minded seeing more of this character.
Overall, this is a gripping book from start to finish, with great characters and a storyline that actually makes sense. (Although they never did explain the link between the TARDIS and the Burning.) Buy it. Read it. You won't be disappointed!
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Post-Interference series, late nineteenth century. Middletown has industrialised itself intoan unprofitable corner, leaving the land-owner, Lord Urton, floundering for options. When Roger Nepath offers him one, however strange, the town - and potentially the world - are put in danger. And only The Doctor, and the small blue-black box in his pocket, stand between Nepath and the end of the world.
As the first book of a new arc, The Burning is a reasonable enough beginning, steeped in mystery and mysticism. In hindsight, it reads like a Hammer horror film - and Peter Cushing's Doctor might have been better suited for the main role (if spiked with a little less grandfatherliness and more monster-mashing chutzpah), with Christopher Lee as Nepath. This is the sort of horror tale that sees people killed because they seem to lack the commonsense and balance to know when and how to run.
At times it feels sluggish, in that I felt the need to move on, peeking ahead through the pages to see what lay ahead. The Earthbound environment, following a lot of stories on aliens worlds, or in alien times, may be at fault for making me feel that way. However, the need to forge ahead and see what happens next seems to have had something to do with the engaging storyline and the loathsome characters - so, it comes recommended.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
good story slow burner
plot
the doctor having lost his memorys lands in the past where he encounters someone who sees fire as a god the plot drags from the start it takes over 90-100 pages... Read more
the doctor having lost his memorys lands in the past where he encounters someone who sees fire as a god the plot drags from the start it takes over 90-100 pages... Read more
Published on 7 May 2010 by chace
"Who... Am... I...?"
Justin Richards has always been, in my opinion, one of those, um, 'dependable' authors - never writing a classic, but never really churning out something hideously bad (oh alright,... Read more
Published on 8 Mar 2001
!!JUST GO BUY IT!!
This book is a great example of why we love DR Who? he is a man of mystery and until quite a bit in to the book its hard to know which of 3 chars. Read more
Published on 1 Feb 2001
New story arc off to an average start
"The Burning" is the start of a new story arc for the Eighth Doctor. Stranded on Earth in the late nineteenth century without his TARDIS or memory after the events of... Read more
Published on 19 Sep 2000
A highly enjoyable new beginning for the Doctor
How refreshing it is to read a story that isn't bogged down by continuity references and that's coming from someone who normally enjoys stories like that. Read more
Published on 30 Aug 2000 by GARY T PRUDHOE
A highly enjoyable new beginning for the Doctor
How refreshing it is to read a story that isn't bogged down by continuity references and that's coming from someone who normally enjoys stories like that. Read more
Published on 30 Aug 2000 by GARY T PRUDHOE
New Direction=Excellent Book, New feel
This book starts off the "new" era in the EDA's- after the resolution of a great deal of plotlines in the last book "The Ancestor Cell". Read more
Published on 25 Aug 2000 by Julio Angel Ortiz
A new start for the Dr Who novels...
This is terrific-a new start for the Dr Who novels that lives and breathes excitement. All who have given up on the books should look back in here, here is none of the baggage of... Read more
Published on 20 Aug 2000
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