A warm welcome! If you feel like it, you can pop over to introductions to introduce yourself and let us know more about you!
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Hey!
Welcome to the forum!!
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Welcome to the forum @beardedwhovian - good to have you here. As MrColdStream says, do pop over to the Introductions thread and tell us a bit more about yourself.
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I was the same - but don’t worry, Exodus is a real page-turner! I’m having the same problem again now with Time’s Crucible though. Going to give it a rest and catch up on the NSA’s for Book Club once I’ve finished The Long Sleep
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I am reading At Childhood’s End. I like the concept that the actor like their character and decide to write their own stories about them. Also fun to get companions paired with the wrong Doctor.
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Yeah Time’s Crucible was a bit dull for me lol
Especially coming on the heels of Revelation, it felt like a backwards step in terms of characterization
Finished Killing Ground. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I loved the idea of the Cybermen essentially running a farm planet, returning every few years for more conversion tributes. The Agorans policing themselves, as well as the rebellion contemplating converting their own soldiers into off brand Cybermen all felt suitably dystopian.
The Cybermen themselves were decently portrayed. I loved all the jokes and debates over logic, the jabs at the Cybermen’s performative ‘emotions,’ as well as the Cyberleader’s bewilderment that Hegelia was willing to be converted, because the idea was illogical. That made me chuckle. In contrast, the sequence where Hegelia is converted and trying to narrate the process was a suitably horrifying read.
This is definitely a step up from Time of Your life pacing wise. There are much fewer subplots, so everything feels a lot tighter. On the flip side, Lyons might’ve cut things down a bit too much. The novel has a tendency for leaving characters in precarious situations, then revealing that they’re fine when we eventually cut back to them. It worked once with the Grant death fakeout, but the fakeout where the Doctor considers just giving up on the irradiated Selachian warship, only to have clambered onto the TARDIS offscreen felt a bit unsatisfactory.
The worst offender of this pacing issue was easily the epilogue though. We’re just given a basic summary of the conversation that the Doctor and Grant had, rather than actually getting to see the conversation take place. After all the drama and tension between them during the book’s 2nd half, it was disappointing to see such a pivotal moment in their relationship relegated to a footnote.
Speaking of which, I should probably talk about Mr Markham. Boy did Grant get dealt a raw deal on his first trip. Separated immediately from the Doctor and having to live under a tyrannical regime for the three weeks. Platform one looks almost quaint. While I do like the immediate stakes of having the Doctor captured, forcing the companion to step up, it does mean we don’t get a chance to flesh out the dynamic between the pair, which is a shame given that this was their final proper story together (outside of some short stories). I’m surprised Big Finish and the BBC books never did more with Grant. Though then again, I suppose he’s a little bland when compared to sixie’s other companions.
While I do ultimately appreciate the attempts made by Lyons to usher in a new chapter for the 6th Doctor’s life, I think Big Finish did a much better job of it with Evelyn Smythe. She was precisely the companion that this Doctor needed at that point in his life, and I think the stories were better off for almost completely rejecting the Saward era mould and tackling new genres. Though I can’t really blame Lyons for this, as it doesn’t seem like the VMAs were built for ambitious, longform storytelling like the VNAs were. A valiant effort nonetheless.
All in all, a really gripping read, let down by some pacing issues and an underdeveloped Doctor-Comapnion dynamic. 
1/2 stars.
Next up, The Infinity Doctors.
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It always amused me that Grant’s headshot on the cover is basically just the artist Alastair Pearson.
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To be fair, his cover art for the VMAs were pretty cool. I think he earned that little bit of indulgence.
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No disagreement here. Pearson is a fabulous artist. Always loved his covers for things.
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Finished “Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks” today.
Really interesting to see the differences as we get a whole new start to Doctor Who which goes straight into the Daleks.
It is a fine narrative device to experience the story entirely from Ian’s perspective, except it’s not really the Ian we know and love - he is more brusque and his charm is almost nonexistent. Also the relationship between Ian and Barbara is really odd - what does she see in him, why is she being so standoffish towards him if she has an interest in him and why is she consistently referred to as a girl. The Doctor is spot on - David Whittaker really paints him in a good light. Susan English is a bit of a nonentity for much of the book.
Definitely worth a read 
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Currently, I’m just working my way through the ‘Virgin Missing Adventures’.
I’ve read some of them already, but this time I’m trying to go in order.
‘Goth Opera’ was really fun.
‘Evolution’ was… well, the writer has reputation for some pretty vile content and it wasn’t great.
Currently, I’m about a quarter of the way through ‘Venusian Lullaby’. It’s really bizarre, but I love how Paul Leonard treats the reader with a bit of intelligence. The world-building is absolutely strunning too; which is my favourite part of any book.
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Remind me here, is ‘Speed of Flight’ the book which was weirdely meant to be a prequel to ‘Timelash’ - of all things?
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I struggled big time with Venusian Lullaby (and many of Leonard’s books to be fair) but as I read it when I was a spotty teenager, I always think it would be worth me revisiting the MAs and NAs now, in my advanced years, because I think I would appreciate them in a whole different way.
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Currently making myself read Ready Player One because my non-Doctor Who prose reading is shockingly poor.
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I sort of had a similar experience. I read through the first fifteen NAs when I first got into the range in 2018, and gave up about half way through ‘White Darkness’ - realising that I much preferred the audios.
Decided to dig my books out of the wardrobe last year, and now the complete opposite is true. Nearly caught up to where I was with the NAs (‘Lucifer Rising’ is next up, and I remember it being superb).
With the MAs, I tried going through them in any order to begin with and foud some excellent ones. ‘Burning Heart’ was a real surprise - world-building was supreme, and Dave Stone has such a wonderful approach to writing.
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When I think about reading these back in early to mid 90s onwards, phrases like ‘when I first got into the range in 2018’ make me ever so slightly aware of the inevitable approach of old age and death!
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Yeah I wasn’t even born when the NAs and MAs were released, which is weird to think of.
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I’m working on Autumn Mist at the moment, recently finished Earthworld too since it happened to be at my local library
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‘Autumn Mist’ is a McIntee book, isn’t it?
Think it’s one of few by him that I know absolutely nothing about.