Character - 9
Atmosphere - 7
Writing - 7
Plot - 8
Intrigue - 9
Logic - 6
Enjoyment - 8

Rating: 7.71 / 4 stars

Character - 9
Atmosphere - 8
Writing - 6
Plot - 7
Intrigue - 8
Logic - 5
Enjoyment - 8

Rating: 7.29 / 4 stars

Character - 8
Atmosphere - 7
Writing - 7
Plot - 8
Intrigue - 7
Logic - 6
Enjoyment - 8

Rating: 7.29 / 4 stars

Character - 9
Atmosphere - 8
Writing - 9
Plot - 7
Intrigue - 7
Logic - 6
Enjoyment - 9

Rating: 7.86 / 4 stars

Full review available on my blog, 5th August 2022: https://inkandplasma.com/2022/08/05/doctor-who-empire-of-the-wolf/

Character - 7
Atmosphere - 10
Writing - 9
Plot - 8
Intrigue - 7
Logic - 8
Enjoyment - 8

Rating: 8.14 / 4 stars

Thanks to Titan Comics for the eARC of this book. It has not affected my honest review.

Tal and I have been rewatching Doctor Who for a few weeks now, so when I saw EMPIRE OF THE WOLF pop up on Netgalley I knew I had to request it. As soon as I was approved, I curled up to read it and it’s totally rekindled my love for reading Doctor Who content. As I write this, I’m listening to an anthology of short stories (12 Doctors, 12 Stories) and I’ve added a dozen more to my tbr. Oops.

I’m very familiar with Nine onwards, but didn’t know much about Eight before reading this comic. I actually really liked the balance of Eight versus Eleven, especially in combination with the two Roses in this graphic novel. It worked very well, and I always enjoy Doctor and Doctor interactions. In this graphic novel, we also get to see an insight into TenToo and Rose’s life in the alternate universe, which I absolutely loved. We’d only recently rewatched Ten’s seasons, so it was nice to see this little scrap of her future.

I don’t know enough to say if Eight was in character, but Eleven definitely felt accurately portrayed – I could imagine Matt Smith saying his dialogue and all of his individual quirks were present. Rose was also well-written, and I liked that the two Roses were still very distinct characters. The art style was very pretty, though the character designs could have been a bit more distinct, and I liked the page design very much. It was dynamic and guided the eye very well, leading us through the story in a very readable way. I ended up reading the whole thing in one sitting.

Bad Wolf Rose is super interesting to see and I’d love to see more about her. Her character arc is fascinating and I do wish that there was more depth to her character. We get to see an excellent storyline where she deals with the moral consequences of her own actions, but I’d have liked to see more about how she became the Empress in the first place. A story about her rise to power would be fascinating and I’d like that a lot as a graphic novel.

Character - 9
Atmosphere - 7
Writing - 8
Plot - 6
Intrigue - 7
Logic - 5
Enjoyment - 8

Rating: 7.14 / 4 stars

I liked this a lot, though it wasn't even a little bit what I expected. Mickey7 was an engaging main character and loving him made me a lot more engaged in the story than I might have been if I didn't like him so much. Equally, the audiobook was a fantastic performance and really added to the atmosphere of the novel. I highly recommend it as a good way to read this book.

The premise of the novel kind of implies that the book will focus entirely on the conflict that arises from Mickey7 and Mickey8 existing at the same time. But in reality, Mickey8 doesn't feature much in the story at all, with the whole novel driven far more by Mickey7 and his history. I actually liked this better, but it was strange to realise that you could take Mickey8 out entirely and have a very similar and equally strong story.

The book was interspersed with Mickey7's experiences as an expendable, and with history of humanity's expansion through the stars, and as an avid sci-fi reader I really liked seeing this interpretation of humanity. I loved the insight we saw into people's attitudes towards the expendables, with their vital role being weighed against humankind's inherent fear of death, with an added note of religious fear on top.

Kind of as an aside, I do wish this book had found a better way to hammer home the idea of resource scarcity and 7 and 8 having to pretend to be one person because honestly? If I read them discussing how many calories they were each allowed one more time, I was going to scream. I understand its narrative purpose but it made my skin crawl.

The way this went from 5 stars to 3 in the space of a chapter? amazing

Character - 9
Atmosphere - 9
Writing - 7
Plot - 6
Intrigue - 6
Logic - 5
Enjoyment - 6

Rating: 6.86 / 3 stars

Character - 7
Atmosphere - 6
Writing - 7
Plot - 8
Intrigue - 6
Logic - 5
Enjoyment - 7

Rating: 6.57 / 3 stars

rating may change? i'm hovering between a 3 and a 4 on this one.

mainly because the stories i liked i would give a roaring 5 stars, namely: where are you dear heart, meat, no birthdays or baptisms and kids who come back. but the rest were just okay. the author has a spectacular writing style and powerful narrative voices, but i was left wanting more with most of the stories, and not in a good way.

those that were good were fantastic tho, and i will be telling all my gory horror loving friends to read those four asap

This was rocking at a high 4 stars for a while there, then the last three pages whacked it down to 3 stars. I fuckin hate miscommunication trope

Character - 7
Atmosphere - 8
Writing - 8
Plot - 6
Intrigue - 7
Logic - 7
Enjoyment - 5

Rating: 6.86 / 3 stars