To me, it has a lot to do with external factors as well. One problem I have now is that our youngest is affected by pollen and that makes my sleep bad which makes the book harder to read and get emerged by.
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Iâm right there with you. My youngest has some sort of eye infection, and I just become a zombie when sleep deprived - I canât focus on reading then. Oh the joys of parenting 
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Finished Chapter 6. Itâs starting to pick up a bit now. The Siberian Sub Base and the slowness of the story definitely lean into the horror vibes. Milligan isnât the best narrator, but itâs interesting enough that I want to keep going.
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I did actually finish it yesterday, bought a hammock recently and it is a perfect place for reading 
The story did pick up in the last third of the book when it turned more base under siege. But then it just ended really abruptly as a result of something the Doctor did âoff screenâ.
It wasnât bad per se but just a bit unimaginative I suppose, didnât do enough to keep the attention. Even if the geographical location and the disused submarine station made for a really good backdrop.
Rose and the Doctor were written well but I donât quite feel as if that was Captain Jack Harkness.
I think this was a 2/5 
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Just finished Chapter 12. Iâm interested in seeing how this resolves.
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There we go, finished this one. It was good, a bit slow, felt more like a Classic Series novel, but good. I think part of the reason it felt slow was the audiobook format, but I enjoyed it. Great setting and very atmospheric. Stuart Milligan was a good narrator, not the greatest at capturing the regularsâ voices, but well with the Russians. Definitely worth the read.
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Just finished this, it took me a little while. I enjoyed the first chapter or two but then kinda dropped off for a bit. I like a lot of the elements, the setting is atmospheric, the general plot, but it just never really came together for me? I really liked The Clockwise Man but found this a bit of a step down. There are some lovely interactions between the trio though and Iâm so used to Captain Jack being immortal that I had to remind myself that he isnât here and is actually a vulnerable human.
I really liked Valeria though, a tragic fate. After all that effort to save her throughout the novel I was sort of expect them to reverse the effects somewhat and the fact that she is stuck like this is really tragic.
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This was the exact post I was just about to make LOL!
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A bit of a delay in reading this one, as I wanted to wait until after Jackâs introduction in TV Club.
I agree with most of the points that have been made above - although I hated the narratorâs âDoctorâ voice, as it most definitely wasnât Nine! Liked his Russian though.
It was a bit on the gory side with a very high body count - & I really didnât get why Jack was so focussed on saving Valeria even at the cost of his comradeâs life. I was expecting either him or Rose to put her in the âchairâ in the policewomanâs house to restore her, but it never happened.
And everyone was a bit slow in suspecting who the traitor was on the base when it was so blindingly obvious.
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Read this one recently myself. Thereâs some good moments with the characters and the storyâs decent with a really interesting setting, but I have the misfortune of being a Soviet history nerd so itâs harder for me to enjoy DW stories relating to it when I can tell Iâm more informed than the writers sometimes 
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Echoing what others have said. It was very meh.
I do think itâs a bit more consistent than Richardâs previous NSA Book, but not by much. I think Richards nails the Voices for our Tardis Trio quite well, all of them feel very much stripped out of the TV Show, which is at least an Improvement over some very early ones. The Pace of this book is very slow and at times it can be a bit tough to get through it. It does pick up after a while, but I feel like it picks up Pace way too late, which is a shame. A lot of it, I would describe as âperfectly fineâ, which at times makes it go on the Verge of being boring. Some great Character Moments help it a lot to not fall down the Pit fully. I still think itâs a somewhat decent, if unremarkable Read.
I really hope the NSA pick up and become a bit more âout-thereâ, besides one book, I donât really think much of them. If anything, a lot of them feel a bit âtoo safeâ and âby the numbersâ.
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I read this a few days ago, and yeah it was just alright.
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