Time for another book! We are going to read together The Stone Rose
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 thought that this was a fun book when I read it a couple of weeks ago. I like the space museum vibe when you see the statue first. 8/10
I’m finishing this today! A fun pseudo-historical adventure with a jolly ten, fun Roman characters and a couple of nice timey-wimey twists. I really like Jacqueline Rayner’s NSAs so far.
One of my first NSAs. I first read in Chinese then got an English ebook version.
Funny thing is that when I first read the NSAs, I got an ebook bundle with like 10 books and I just ignored all the cover art and for a long time I thought The Stone Rose was with 9th. 
I enjoy this book mostly, but it starts to lose me when we get to The Genie
One that I read many years ago, so my memory is very distant, but I do remember enjoying it. I don’t think there’s anything wildly standout about it, but I’m pretty sure it was entertaining enough which is all you need from a DW book
Now that you mention it, I feel the same. I still had a lit of fun with this book though. Lovely to be in Rome again too.
So I finished it.
Quite a jolly adventure, this one, and a nit childish almost. Maybe to a fault.
Rose, Jackie and Mickey are very well-written, so it’s a shame we barely get anything with the latter two.
Ten feels a bit too clownish here, but Rayner gets some of his mannerisms right. This is a better novel debut than The Clockwise Man was for Nine.
The Roman setting is well-done, and the exploration of its people and customs is, so it’s a shame that the focus shifts to more sci-fi stuff in the second half. I half expected this one to be a pure historical!
The Colosseum scene is a highlight!
Vanessa is a good supporting character if somewhat underbaked. The others are good as well.
GENIE is a “mad computer” with a quirky personality and it’s not evil, but only fulfilling its basic function. I loved it, even if its quirks turned out very quickly. And the discussion of the role and responsibilities of AI still feels very relevant.
The second half went perhaps a bit too eager on the timey-wimeyness and paradoxes, so it felt a bit heavy.
Anyway, this was good fun! Nothing extraordinary but definitely fun. So I’ll give it a 7/10.
A couple of additional things I noted:
Is this the first time we find out that Rose has a middle name? I didn’t know she was named Rose Marion Tyler!
Finally another reference to Finland! I was so delighted to see the Moomins mentioned, and the Doctor’s suggestion that they’ve tried to invade Earth (or at least Finland) at some point.
I read this one over the last few days. I don’t quite know what to make of it.
It becomes apparent that it is Rose that has been petrified really quickly and yet it takes about a 100 extra pages before that is actually revealed. And after that it turns to a great big fight in the arena and then in the final act everything turns wibbly-wobbly grandfather paradox about the creation of an in no way magical, purely scientific AI creature that can alter reality through wishes by absorbing any kind of energy from human tissue to a sun? That was what happened right? 
The writing style is really nice, but the characterisations of Rose and the Doctor seems a bit off - the Doctor is a Terrance Dicks style “generic Doctor” and Rose appears way too clever.
Highlight has to be the mention of the Moomins! Fond childhood memories there @MrColdStream
I think a fair rating from me would be a 3/5 
Yes, the Moomin mention made me love Jacqueline Rayner more than before! I have fond memories of the 90s anime show, which is considered a classic here in Finland (they made a new CGI version a couple of years back, and it’s horrible!).
This is one of the few New Series Adventures that I’ve reviewed online by dint of it being set in Roman times and there being an audiobook version which was given away for free with a newspaper.
Weirdly, my review makes a point of stating this was the second time I’d listened to it and hadn’t remembered much of the story. Reading my review, I realised I’d forgotten a lot of it again!
But it’s a fun story according to past me 
Yeah, the Rome part and the mad AI reveal feel a bit disjointed to me, the concept of the Genie is fun though.
That was such a good show. It is a classic here as well!
Same here in Denmark, loved it growing up. My youngest sister was scared stiff anytime Mumi Troldene came on for some reason
I’ve never even thought about the fact that the are a thing in Denmark and that they’re called Mumi Troldene 
that’s funny!
SCANDI ALERT, SCANDI ALERT, Shelter in place.
ALL TALK OF MOOMINS WILL BE REMOVED TO A SECURE LOCATION.
We are just trying to cheer @MrColdStream up a bit. It must be hard to live in a country that did not win any medals at all in the Olympics 
Okay, now you make me feel bad! Bad, bad @Tian! Go to your room!
(I don’t actually care, though it is quite interesting that this breaks our perfect Olympic medal streak that has been going on since 1908 when we were still an autonomous Grand Duchy under the Russian Empire. That’s a streak of 50 Summer Games broken 
. And which country is the only one that has a better streak? It starts with S and ends with -weden!)
Well, at least we have the Moomins. You can’t take them away from us!
Well I really enjoyed this one. Just when I thought I knew what was happening, there would be another twist to subvert my expectations, and yet all the paradoxes etc did end up getting addressed, and usually explained.
My only criticism would be that there were times that I found it hard to identify “The Doctor” as Ten, although there were other times when the characterisation was spot-on. I suspect this may be due to the book having been written before any of his episodes had been broadcast.