h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I've recently become interested in the Doctor Who novels. I hope this counts, but I am recommending an entire series of books as opposed to one.

I like the books because they are all based around the same central figure (The Doctor and his adventures, obviously), but as each one is written by a different author there are many different styles, themes and ideas on display. I understand that there is a strict vetting procedure that the books have to survive before being published, and this seems to ensure a high quality collection of books. I have read five or six so far, and all have impressed me with their insight, twists and turns in the plot and highly different but equally skilled writing styles.
Each book has managed to capture the established personality of any of the 8 doctors the author has chosen to centre the story around while producing a completely original work of fiction. The ones I've read have only taken me a couple of days to get through due to their unputdownable nature!

TK

Neat!

Have you seen the Doctor Who television series?

"I understand that there is a strict vetting procedure that the books have to survive before being published"

Oh yes. Can takes years to go from aspiring to write one to actually getting a contract. And some of the novelists have gone on to become household names for other things (Russell T Davies was already a respected TV writer and has now been put in charge of the new Doctor Who tv series; Mark Gatiss of the League of Gentlemen has written several DW novels; Paul Cornell and Paul Magrs have mainstream SF publishing deals and Magrs also teaches creative writing at UEA).

But the John Peel who writes DW is not *the* John Peel. Sadly.

Mags

Of course I've seen the television series! I even have a scarf of silly length...

TK

I went to a local library's booksale yesterday and bought about 6 or 7 Doctor Who novels; hope they're as good as you say.

I love library booksales; I usually end up finding really old copies of H2G2, Pratchett books, etc. It's fun I got a huge stack of books for less then $10.

I've seen the episodes for most of the Doctor Who novels I got so I'm interested in seeing how they compair.

Most of the ones I've read have been 8th doctor stories, and have contained some really imaginitive ideas. They've made me rack my brains trying to find some new imaginative plot!

TK