Book Club: Goth Opera

Books Book Club
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Starting our look into the VMAs! This week we’re reading Goth Opera by Paul Cornell.

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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2 Likes
Book Club Backlog
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I need to read the book proper at some point, but I did listen to the audio adaptation and it was AWESOME

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Samee I loved the audio so much and I’m intrigued by the stuff they didn’t include from the book (namely Romana)

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Is Romana actually in Goth Opera proper? I thought she was only in Blood Harvest. Either way, need to read both of those soon

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She is, but she’s only in very brief parts, mostly the pro- and epilogue I believe. It is this book that shows her becoming president of gallifrey

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I remember adoring this one (Paul Cornell, man, Paul Cornell) but I do admit that I am deeply in need of a re-read.

Great use of vampires, great use of Five’s TARDIS team. It’s a very strong way to start off the VMAs.

8/10

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I enjoyed this book a great amount, it does a lot of interesting things with vampires and vampire!nyssa is just something else.

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Loved how dark and weird Goth Opera was, really need to check out the audio adaptation sometime

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I didn’t realise we were doing it for Book club! No wonder Nyssa mentioned it!

I guess I have to read it, now!

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The little blurb from the edditor at the start basically says that the VMAs wont have any of my biggest complaints from the VNAs, especially from authors like Cornel. So naturally this was the best book of his yet. The story was great, The “enigmatic dialogue” was (almost) entierly gone, and The Doctor, Tegan, and especially Nyssa were perfectly charicterized!

So I spent about half the book really confused about why I wasnt enjoying it more. Especially knowing Goth zopera’s reputation. Then suddenly it hit me:

I dont like the TV show’s “golden age” of Gothic horror, finding it the weakest classic era. And this book is literally called “Goth Opera”.

So yeah, unfortunately this book is from a genera where for me it’s noteworthy for a story not to be dull, let alone to be good. Thankfully this is still a great 4/5 book, and Im sure all you “golden era” 4th Doctor fans will praise the hell out of it. Personally the non-vampire Gallifrey stuff was my favorite, by Nyssa’s story is also a great premise and handled very well.

2 Likes