Book Review: Time-Lord Fairy Tales

Original Release Date:

November 17th, 2015

Date I Read The Book:

July 2016

My Star Rating:

4 stars

(Technically, if I average my rating for each story, its 3.6, but it feels like a 4 in total okay?)

Chronology:

Bind up of 15 short stories

How I Own It:

(Very pretty) Hardcover

Official Summary:

An ancient, illustrated collection of dark and captivating fairytales about heroes and monsters from across the Whouniverse, originally told to young Time Lords at bedtime.

My Review:

On the whole, it was an entertaining book. It was good for my painkiller addled brain post wisdom teeth removal. The stories are short (they average about 18 pages each), easy to read, and entertaining. Some of course, are better written or more easily understood as their fairytale counterpart than others. Most don’t seem like stories you would actually tell to a Time Lord child, but entertaining enough. Some read like stories OTHER species/humans from the future would tell though.

A nice read for fans of Doctor Who for sure, but I don’t think anyone who has no experience with the show would enjoy most of these stories.

Below, I have mini-reviews for each story as well as a star rating for each:

Italics indicates a favorite.

The Garden Of Statues:

5 stars

I actually really loved this one, it was a good start to a book. Not sure what it was retelling, but the Weeping Angels are harrowing as ever.

Frozen Beauty:

4 stars

Sleeping Beauty. Pretty cute. With some action.

Cinderella and the Magic Box:

5 stars

I loved this one. The Doctor playing matchmaker is very entertaining to me.

The Twins in the Wood:

3 stars

NO clue what this is retelling. Entertaining enough.

The Three Little Sontarans:

3 stars

Three Little Pigs. Cheesy, but entertaining (the word entertaining no longer looks real I’ve typed it so much today, ugh.).

Jak and the Wormhole:

4 stars

Jack and the Beanstalk retelling. It was a nice story. I’m obviously bad at these mini-review things just look at the star rating.

Snow White and the Seven Keys to Doomsday:

5 stars

This one seemed the most original and I liked that. Definitely the most complete feeling story.

Little Rose Riding Hood:

4 stars

I LOVED this. Mostly, because Rose and Nine are my favorite. Also: zygons.

The Gingerbread Trap:

3 stars

Hansel and Gretel, very obviously. It felt abrupt at the end, but somehow the story worked.

The Scruffy Piper:

4 stars

I also love seeing the Doctor from other people’s perspectives. (and classic doctor is cool to see) This would have made a better episode than most of season 9. I liked it, though I’m not sure what fairytale it was based on…

Helana and the Beast:

4 stars

Obviously Beauty and the Beast, liked the way he got turned IN to a beast. The Doctor was entertaining in this.

Andiba and the Four Slitheen:

3 stars

Not sure what fairytale this one was (like thats news at this point). It was pretty cute though.

The Grief Collector:

4 stars

This one was weird but entertaining. I think it was supposed to be Rumplestiltskin? Not sure though.

The Three Brothers Gruff:

4 stars

This one was based off the Three Billy Goats Gruff and while it was different from the original story, it was a very good story I thought.

Sirgwain and the Green Knight:

3 stars

Of all of them, this one read most like a fairytale that the Time Lords would tell their children. Not even sure why, it just did. I liked it well enough, but I’m not sure what fairytale it was supposed to be.