[Audiobook Review] Dan Abnett - The Silent Stars Go By

The concept of a winter-world is an oldie in sci-fi terms, but it’s a goodie. And it’s to this setting we turn for Dan Abnett’s new Doctor Who romp – featuring old adversaries the Ice Warriors!

When it comes to action, there’s no better writer than Dan Abnett and paired with the inimitable delivery of Michael Maloney, The Silent Stars Go By does well to conjure up the scenes of a treacherously cold lost world that has forgotten its original heritage.

This might be officially touted as an 11^th Doctor adventure, but Maloney clearly had Tom Baker in mind when narrating the Doctor’s lines, and it actually works a treat – the likeness is spot on, plays in some wonderfully humorous lines and is at its best in the brilliant confrontation with the Ice Lord in Part 5. Full of menace and rich in the history of the show – it’s a classic Doctor/baddie confrontation and written with perfect suspense.

That said, for all that this adventure has its high octane moments, it’s not without its lulls too. At six hours long, parts of the tale can feel rather wordy and there’s a lot of exploratory stuff mid-way; part three in particular feels rather padded out. Equally though, the extended running time gives the story room to build a proper sense of setting, giving it a richness of texture you rarely get in the TV episodes.

Amy and Rory feel rather periphery to the action, but this is all the more to allow the Doctor more time to be brilliant himself – the effect is of giving The Silent Stars Go By the flavour of a classic series adventure, or indeed classic sci-fi; those golden greats of the 60s pulp fiction era.

The descriptions of the ice warriors themselves are brilliant – they’re given genuine menace and gravity; their monstrous, hulking size really coming across. Likewise, the other enemies of the piece – the trans-humans – are fantastically realised; horrible Necron-esque creations of fused flesh and metal. On the other end of the scale, there’s  the large supporting cast of west-country-accented natives who serve a rather good job of filling in the mystique of the post-Earth world.