Convinced that the Doctor is Varlos, the Agent demands the return of the Eternity Crystal. But what happened on Mordane to make the Crystal too dangerous to be left on the Moon? The Doctor has to convince the Agent that he is not Varlos and doesn't know what happened on Mordane, then escape with the TARDIS and find out. The Doctor decides that the Eternity Crystal must be destroyed but before he can the Agent and the Crystal vanish. He has to find the Agent, which leaves the Doctor only one option, and he doesn't like it...
Colin Brake is an English television writer and script editor best known for his work for the BBC on programs such as Bugs and EastEnders. He has also written spin-offs from the BBC series Doctor Who. He currently lives and works in Leicester.
Brake began working on EastEnders in 1985 as a writer and script editor, being partly responsible for the introduction of the soap's first Asian characters Saeed and Naima Jeffery. From there, he went on to work as "script executive" on the popular Saturday night action adventure program Bugs, before moving to Channel 5 in 1997 to be "script associate" on their evening soap Family Affairs.
In the early 2000s, Brake wrote episodes of the daytime soaps Doctors and the revival of Crossroads.
Away from television, Brake had his first Doctor Who related writing published as part of Virgin Publishing's Decalog short story collection in 1996. He then had his first novel Escape Velocity published by BBC Books in February 2001 as part of their Eighth Doctor Adventures range based on the television series Doctor Who. At the time, Brake was quoted as saying how appropriate it was that he was now writing for Doctor Who, as he was briefly considered as Eric Saward's replacement as script editor on the show - a job that eventually went to Andrew Cartmel instead.
Brake followed Escape Velocity with the Past Doctor Adventure The Colony of Lies in July 2003, and then with the audio adventure Three's a Crowd from Big Finish Productions in 2005. His Tenth Doctor Adventure The Price of Paradise was released in September 2006. He has also written an audio for their Bernice Summerfield range, and a short story for their Short Trips range.
A nice continuation of the previous book and I enjoyed it a lot more than the first book. Again I found the story very quick but I remind myself this is a children's book and I think it's perfect for that younger reader. I look forward to seeing how the next book progresses this story!
Review from 2012. This book is set just after book one. We see how the cliffhanger at the end of The Dust of Ages is resolved and how the Doctor finds the next clue to the mystery of the Eternity Crystal. This leads him to Mordane where the he sees how much the planet has changed. Children may not see it until it is revealed, but it is soon clear what the Crystal does and why several people want to have it.
As it happens with the other book of this series, we’re supposed to know the Doctor and not much information is given about him.
There is some character development though. Catz starts as just a young girl, but we soon discover that not everything about her is what we had assumed. The other characters are a bit flat and their characterization doesn’t include many details.
The action is fast-paced and the activities are easy, though also fun. This book doesn’t end with a cliffhanger, like the previous one, but not all the questions are answered (and we have new ones), which keeps the audience interested.
The target audience of the series is young people, but although it is rather short, older Doctor Who fans can enjoy it, too.
Although written for younger readers, I have so far preferred this 'Darksmith Legacy' series more than many of the main line of recent 'Who' novels.
Both titles I have read so far have had good supporting characters, clever plots, a great atmosphere and sense of place and have dipped their toes deep in the waters of gothic horror. 'The Graves of Mordane' is basically a Doctor Who zombie tale and it accomplishes its task quite well.
The only slight complaint is the brevity, it's a little bit rushed (though nowhere near as bad as the recent ebook short stories). I'm looking forward to catching up with the remaining titles in the series, though.
This one is a direct sequel to book 1. The Doctor lands on a graveyard planet with lots of zombies, this includes a few logic puzzles to do with graves that the reader can figure out.
The website is similiar to the first book one, but has a different location, a graveyard.
Given to me as a white elephant gift, I read it quickly when I had an hour to kill while waiting for friends to show up for dinner. A short, fun-ish tale for children who love sci-fi or Doctor Who. It is a one or two star read for an adult, but for the intended audience comprised of those under the age of 12 it's most likely a three or so star read.
Very much like "The Dust of Ages" in the way it offers a simple straight forward story that has been written well but doesn't really excite. Hopefully the bigger plot will kick in more in future installments. Still, this isn't a bad book at all; there's a healthy amount of entertainment value present and the DW energy is there.
It's obvious these books are written for young audiences but they still include lots of gothic horror elements like for this chapter of the series for e.g. Zombies. This chapter was better than it's predecessor for me as I loved the characters more and the plot was also more developed we learnt much more about the Darksmiths and the Eternity Crystal.