Timey-Wimey Books for Doctor Who Fans
Between episodes of “Doctor Who,” we’ve got a few book recommendations to tide you over.
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Add to BookshelfDoctor Who: Shada
by Gareth Roberts
We might as start with an obvious choice. Shada is a lost adventure for everyone’s favorite Time Lord straight from mind of everyone’s favorite British Sci-fi absurdist, Douglas Adams. Originally conceived by Adams as a script for “Doctor Who”, it was unfortunately never produced. Thankfully, Gareth Roberts has gamely picked up the sonic screwdriver and transformed the script into a novel. The story sees the Doctor on the hunt for a misplaced and immensely powerful book in a delightfully ridiculous Adams-esque take on “Doctor Who.”
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$22.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: The Illustrated Edition
by Douglas Adams
Speaking of Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide sits somewhere near the intersection of “Doctor Who” and “Monty Python”. Which makes sense given Adams’ well-known love for the latter and his pedigree as a writer and editor for the former. The story of Arthur Dent, Ford Prefect, and their misadventures around the galaxy isn’t just absurdly funny, it also happens to be absurdly good sci-fi.
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$22.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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How to Invent Everything
by Ryan North
Perhaps time travel is largely a work of fiction. But what if it’s not? What would you do if you suddenly found yourself stranded in the 18th or 19th centuries and desperately in need of a few modern conveniences? Fortunately, this is a quandary Ryan North has contemplated in detail. How to Invent Everything lays out how to invent, well, everything (it’s right there in the title). This is a must-read for any potential time traveler.
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$18.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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Stories of Your Life and Others
by Ted Chiang
Originally published as Stories of Your Life And Others, Arrival is mind-bending collection of speculative fiction from Ted Chiang. The centerpiece, a novella called Story of Your Life, was the basis for the film “Arrival”. It’s a fascinating exploration of memory, grief, and language built around an original take on the concept of time travel — to say much more would ruin the story.
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The Blind Assassin
by Margaret Atwood
Margaret Atwood’s story-within-a-story-within-a-story is a Russian nesting doll of speculative fiction. The Blind Assassin recounts the history of the Chase family, the mysterious death of Laura Chase in 1945, a scandalous novel, and the story within that novel of a blind assassin on a distant planet. Each of these disparate threads are meticulously woven together toward a haunting and stunning finale. It’s a mind- and genre-bending piece of fiction as only Atwood could imagine.
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$19.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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The Eyre Affair
by Jasper Fforde
Have you ever wished you could actually step into your favorite book? In the world of Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next series, people can do exactly that. Of course, things aren’t all fun and games. Fforde’s version of Great Britain, circa 1985, is one of time travel, cloning, and the possibility of literally getting lost in a favorite piece of literature. When someone begins kidnapping various classic characters, Thursday Next, a special operative in literary detection, comes up against one of the greatest challenges of her career.
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$18.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe
by Charles Yu
Time travel is just a part of everyday life in Minor Universe 31. Each day people use time machines with an eye toward changing the past. Fortunately, time travel technicians like Charles Yu keep the whole thing from going to pot. In his spare time, though, Charles searches for his missing father, the man who invented time travel. The key to finding his father may lie in a book called How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe. It’s a witty, absurdist, and all-too-human story of father, sons, space-time, and metafiction.
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$17.00Buy from Other Retailers:
