A collection of 11 short Doctor Who stories by a handful of today’s most distinguished writers.

Eoin Colfer’s (faithful readers will know that he is the author of the Artemis Fowl series) tale of science fiction, ‘A Big Hand for the Doctor’, reflects Colfer’s usual writing, but adapted to a more fantastical basis.

Michael Scott’s dark yarn, ‘The Nameless City’, would be boring but for its sinister air.

Marcus Sedgwick’s Viking story, ‘The Spear of Destiny’, leaves me apathetic most of the time, the result of its unexcited characters.

Philip Reeve’s ‘The Roots of Evil’, proved to be rather short but fantastical and displayed only a little intelligence at the resolution, contrary to every other tale.

Patrick Ness’ ‘Tip of the Tongue’ was the most interesting, without so much of the complex terms and theories as in all the other stories. I found the ‘Truth Tellers’ involved rather fascinating. The end, typical to Patrick’s ‘A Monster Calls’, incorporated a smaller end to a relationship hidden between the lines.

Richelle Mead’s ‘Something Borrowed’ is very creative and original compared to the other science fiction stories.

Malorie Blackman’s ‘The Ripple Effect’ showed not to be so creative and rather lacking in an interesting plot.

Alex Scarrow’s ‘The Spore’ has a brilliant description of the disease in the tale and of the place where it is based, as well as being thoroughly ‘cool’.

Charlie Higson’s ‘The Beast of Babylon’ seems to make an attempt at being creative and failed. Perhaps more description would have helped bring the fantasy to life as well. In addition, the Doctor’s accomplice is not from Earth, a disappointment. The references to Earth are the things  that help me connect to the characters, for I can then relate to them.

Derek Landy’s ‘The Mystery of the Haunted Cottage’ has an interesting idea on which the plot is based, yet the resolution is not clever and lets the story down.

Neil Gaiman’s ‘Nothing 0′ Clock’ has a very clever ending, but is not overall intriguing though the ‘baddies’ are quite a fascinating creation.

I hope you enjoy this book as much as I did!