Time for another book! We are going to read together Cat’s Cradle: Witch Mark
Please discuss below - no need to finish it first, discuss as you go along but please add spoiler tags for anything that could be considered a spoiler!
If you’ve previously read the book and want to join in the discussion, that’s great too!
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I started this a while ago expecting it to be a bit as boring as the other two parts of this series especially since it was the lowest-rated one. But this was my favorite part of The Cat “Trilogy” and I finished it a week ago. Finally, a fun ”new Adventure” book. I think that the setting was interesting and some of the side characters were fun and the story did not take itself too seriously. The biggest problem with it was that it had a bit too many characters and it was a bit dragged out in the middle. But it was a fun book. 3.5/5
Regarding the “trilogy” it was not connected at all and the overarching plot made no sense and the conclusion was barely a conclusion at all. The main part of the story was main was in the first book which was one of the most boring pieces of fiction that I have ever consumed and that made it a good thing that the other two parts were barely connected but it would have been better if they had been stand-alone. I look forward to the next book that doesn’t have any forced connection to other stuff.
Considering Witch Mark was written on a whim by a Veterinarian, I’d say it’s a pretty alright effort.
However, I can’t say it’s very good. Doctor Who crossed over with The Lord of the Rings can be a good idea, but the book doesn’t do anything with it. The worldbuilding is nil, the characters aren’t very interesting there’s too much going on at once. Ace is characterised like she was in Dragonfire, oddly enough and the final few pages were so confusingly written I still don’t really know what happened.
About as messy an end to this “trilogy” as you’d expect
5/10
Not a favourite of mine, to be honest. Despite the central idea being great—Doctor Who in a world of fantasy, something that would be picked up on again in one of my favourite EDAs, the exuberant Scarlet Empress!—I found the execution of this one quite disappointing.
It’s the world of Tír na nÓg itself that lets it down. For a fantastical world it feels so grey, miserable and bleak. None of the characters we meet are particularly inspiring, and there are just so many characters that on top of that, it becomes confusing! (I love, however, that it’s based on real life Celtic mythology, which was very cool.)
On a plot level, I also liked the ending, where the truth behind Tír na nÓg is revealed. That was cool—although, along with the rest of the book, I didn’t think it was written terribly well.
This was my favourite of the Cat’s Cradle trilogy and the one I had the easiest time reading. Conceptually it may not have as many ideas as the previous two but it is far more coherent but I wouldn’t call it great.
The book cover is gorgeous though. Had it as my phone background for a while.
I found this book quite easy to read, it just hummed along at just the right pace for the story being told. The premise of the setting of the story was really good, but I don’t think the plot did it any real justice. Nothing wrong with it per se, but it just didn’t really capture my interest.
I would still say that Warhead is the best of this “trilogy”, but only by a little bit. Quite a lot better than Time’s Crucible though.
Time’s Crucible: 1,5/5 
Warhead: 3/5
Witch Mark: 2,5/5
The next two in the range are two of my favourites of the ones I’ve read so far 
I have started the next one and it is a good one!
It really is!
If it wasn’t for “An Adventure in Space and Time” I would say that it is the best thing Mark Gatiss has ever done in the Whoniverse 
Here’s the Poparena video.
I love Witch Mark. It’s imo one of the most underrated New Adventures, with lots of atmosphere, a really fun take on the “door to another world” genre that I think stands on its own merits as that even apart from being a Doctor Who story.
(I wish I were reading it now instead of Dragons’ Wrath lol, which is currently living up to its name by draggin’ along, much to my wrath 
I really hope the later Benny books are better than this 
)
I finally finished Witch Mark.
What an interesting piece of Doctor Who prose, and written by a veterinarian, no less!
This isn’t a masterpiece by any means: the prose is readable but not overly vivid; there are a lot of typos; and the pacing is a bit off at times, especially in the middle, which drags, and the end, which goes way too fast. Seven and Ace are very well written, and the human supporting characters are good (mostly Inspector Stevens and the two American backpackers). Hugh is annoying, and there’s one random human who suddenly appears in the second half but does nothing of value). The fantasy characters all blend into each other and aren’t very interesting, except Bathsheba.
The fact that there are so many characters doesn’t help at all, because they easily get lost in the mix. What was going on with Bats the unicorn? Or the weird time stuff with Herne?
This has been brought up before, but the book has nothing to do with the Cat’s Cradle arc. It’s very hastily wrapped up in the final chapter (after the chatty build-up to the climax, which is overstuffed but surprisingly huge). Fortunately, they scrapped this overarching arc idea with the next book, because both the Timewyrm arc and this one have barely been any arcs at all.
The fantasy elements bring a unique little flair to this, and I like how it’s inspired by Celtic folklore. What bothers me a bit is how the fantasy elements are less and less present in the story as it progresses, and, in the end, it all turns out to be sci-fi all along. Granted, I didn’t see the twists in the final quarter coming, but they didn’t feel very original when stories like The War Games or the recent 15th Doctor novel Caged have done similar things.
Generally, I like Witch Mark. It’s built on fun ideas, but it’s a bit sloppily written and suffers from too many characters and some padding. It’s the most enjoyable of the Cat’s Cradle books for me, though. And considering it’s the debut novel for someone who never aspired to be a writer in the first place, it’s a pretty solid, official piece of Doctor Who fanfiction.
Interestingly, Andrew Hunt claims he doesn’t like The Lord of the Rings (according to the Poparena video), yet he inserts a couple of very obvious hobbit references into his book.
Overall, I rate this a C-Baker (d’ya like my new rating system? 
).
The Doctor’s Beard podcast rates everything on an x/15 scale and so the two hosts will both give their rating and then average it. So a 12.5 rated episode is a regenerting Peter Capaldi. It’s kinda fun, and definitely unique.
I know I enjoyed this when I read it - and it seemed more straightforward than a lot of what had come previously in this range. Definitely prefer this over the nastiness of Warhead.
