This season’s Doctor Who novels are a set of three linked narratives featuring the Twelfth Doctor and Clara, pursuing an alien intelligence called the Glamour through space and time (hence the series title, The Glamour Chronicles). I can’t recall a linked sequence of novels with the current Doctor and companion coming out during the season before – there was a series of ten Tenth Doctor novels in 2009 for younger readers, but with no TV companion, and the New Adventures started with seven novels in two loosely linked series with the Seventh Doctor and Ace, but by then Old Who had ended. It may be a coincidence that this is the year that Who on TV has returned to the idea of having multi-part stories.

Anyway, it’s a decent start, with some homage to Alien, the Doctor and Clara joining a mixed crew taking their ship to solve a historical mystery, and discovering that the problem they face is much worse than they imagined; there is a good who’s-the-real-monster subtheme. The first couple of chapters feel a bit self-consciously written for younger readers, but then it settles down. Clara doesn’t get to do much other than sass the Doctor; the Doctor however is in good form, and this reflects the new confidence the TV show seems to have found of late.

Technically eligible for next year’s Hugos, but I don’t think it is accessible enough to a wider audience to have a realistic chance, and I’ll almost certainly invest my nominations elsewhere than the Who books no matter how much I like them.