Doctor Who: Storm Harvest [Paperback]

The tale of the Doctor and Ace trying for a holiday on the pleasure-world of Coralee and finding, sadly, that ancient monsters are being awoken, is not an especially new one in Doctor Who. Still, the traditional format merely allows for some expert storytelling, and the monsters in question - the Krill - are amazing creations. Handily designed and pictured on the cover by effects man Mike Tucker, the relentless beasts make mockeries of the Daleks. They're unstoppable, and would have been unrealisable on screen. When they attack en masse, I got the distinct image of an eye-bleeding CGI monstrosity. But again, it's a book, so we don't need to think about things like that.

It's all amazingly visual stuff, from the typically gripping opening scene to the last. Particularly well realised are the Doctor and Ace, still reeling from the events of Matrix (so now I have to go and read it...). It's times like this I realise what above-average characters they were on television: McCoy's Doctor looked the part more than most of the others, and his otherworldly genius and gentleness come across completely. Similarly Ace, once the stroppy teenager, has come a very long way but is still recognisably good old Sophie Aldred. It's no wonder Perry and Tucker stick to their favourite duo, as there's so much mileage left in them.

Occasionally it does cross the line - there is an apt nod to Mark Morris at the start, whose book Deep Blue was just as joyfully bloody and unpleasant - but for an unrelenting thrill-ride of a novel, you can't do much better. This would have been the Doctor Who of McCoy's life, and it remains a vastly entertaining, if slightly self-indulgent little gem.

I'm delighted to say that all my fears were unnecessary. "Storm Harvest" is a fantastic read, once again different in structure but consistent in style and fitting perfectly with the other novels, and indeed the era on TV.

Ace and the Doc have decided to have a well-earned holiday on the beautiful aqua world of Coralee, when strange creatures in the water wreck a ship to bits and massacre all but one of the crewmembers. Taking the initiative that "something's wrong", the Doc as usual starts "making enquiries" while Ace's interest is caught on one of the young men working on a tourist vessel. Needless to say something is "definitely in the water" as the tourist vessel that Ace boards almost suffers a similar fate to the first ship, and mystery deepens in an underwater excavation...

It is a testament to the authors that even the introductionary chapters depicting Ace and the Doc enjoying the start of their holiday (before the inevitable chaos) were so well written that I didn't want them to end.

So well written are the characters of the 7th Doctor and Ace that the authors' obviously love and so well paced is the adventure that you can picture it all in pin-point detail. Together with some brilliant ideas like talking dolphins who walk in exo-skeletons and animatronic credit cards (ideas that in other author's hands would be incomprehensible) and an ingenious new alien race - The Krill - and you have yourself one hell of a novel.

I look forward to future projects from these authors.