Time for another VNA! We are going to read together Conundrum
Please discuss below - no need to finish it first, discuss as you go along but please add spoiler tags!
If you’ve previously read the book and want to join in the discussion, that’s great too!
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Oh this is a good one 
The slow reveal of the setting actually being the Land of Fiction is so well done. I started suspecting it about 4 chapters in, and when it is finally revealed two thirds in it was a punch in the air moment.
The prose flows and creates a narrative that is incredibly engrossing, I just never wanted to put down my e-reader.
“‘I imagine you’re going to tell us,’ the Doctor grumbled, checking his pocket watch impatiently. ‘Just try to be succinct - exposition passages can be very trying.’”
The 7th Doctor would go well with Madame Vastra:
“I cannot abide unnecessary exposition” - (Doctor Who: Redacted Season 1)
I think this is one of the best uses of breaking the fourth wall I’ve ever seen, it just made perfect sense within the narrative boundaries of a novel. And it really sets up for an explosive continuation in the next book.
A definite highlight of the VNAs for me so far 
I’ve read about two-thirds of the book, and I just have to say that it has. A very different vibe to most VNAs so far. It’s not overly complex or bleak. It’s playful and actually feels like it could have been a TV story. It’s well-written, and it has a number of small mysteries that slowly come together. Can’t wait to see how it all ends!
One of my favourite VNAs! I love the how it uses the Land of Fiction, and there are some really great character moments for Benny and Ace. I read most of it in one afternoon, I enjoyed it so much.
Currently, this is my favourite Doctor Who book.
Creative wildfire with some of the most mature and deep character development done not only in the novels but in the show in general.
Every character is on top form, it plays with its own format and tropes in utterly ingenious ways and, just to top it off, is an unbelievably brilliant follow-up to an already legendary story.
Steve Lyons, you madman.
Full review here, if you enjoy, please leave a like:
This was one of the magical highlights of the NAs when I read it on release. So much so that I re-read it a couple of years back. These were my thoughts in January of 2023:
*It’s a book that wowed me the first time around. It’s a playful book, leaning heavily into some familiar tropes, and I again found all that stuff fun. What I didn’t like, and didn’t remember from before, was the strained relationships of the TARDIS occupants. That put a real downer on things, particularly in the early going.
For me, it just got better and better at the end, as it got more meta and more self-aware (and moved the focus away from the bickering), and that probably has something to do with why I remembered it so fondly.*
Just finished this book for the first time and I absolutely adored it. This is for sure a highlight of the VNA’s (that I have read thus far!).
The setting and characters were all wonderful and the fourth-wall nonsense is unbelievably amusing and charming. I particularly enjoyed how it toes the line of breaking the fourth wall completely without crossing the line entirely, until
the Doctor’s final line!
On top of how fun it all is, it’s also incredibly mature and shows a real depth in portraying not just the regulars, but also the people of the town. I thought it a real shame when
they started dying
, although the DWM prologue is actually more of an epilogue and acts as a sweet coda for this reader, who found himself caring about the side characters in a VNA a lot more than usual.
Absolutely remarkable stuff and a must-read for anyone!
Bangers book honestly very much one of the best of the arc
By rights I should hate Conundrum becouse meta-storytelling is so much of its core and its very rare for fiction to pull that off for me. But BY GOD does Conundrum pull it off.
This and Nightshade, diffrent as they are, are my two favorite books now. Perhapse Conundrum falls a bit when the whole “Land of Fiction” thing is made public, but the stuff before is phenominal. I actually guessed the reveal from the cover alone (and some things like the Scrabble scene), but that didnt bring the book down at all.
Its a must read as far as Im concerned. 5/5 stars