17) The Glittering Storm, by Shaun Lyon
18) The Thirteenth Stone, by Justin Richards

These two audiobooks are both based on the recent TV Sarah Jane Adventures, and are read by Elizabeth Sladen. I have a particular concept of what I rate as a book for the bookblog and what I don’t. I’m counting these two because they are described as “audiobooks” and, crucially, feature only one reader doing the text. I listed the audio autobiographies of Tom Baker and Nicholas Courtney on last year’s bookblog on the same basis. The Big Finish Companion Chronicles, by contrast, have two actors each, so I reckon that makes them plays rather than books.

Yet all the Big Finish plays are listed separately on LibraryThing, so I’ve posted all my reviews of them there, even though they are not tagged as bookblog entries here. An argument could be made that if it has an ISBN number, it’s a book, or at least a review of it is fair game for one’s bookblogging. Another argument can be made that it’s my blog and doesn’t have to satisfy anyone except me. I expect I will come back to this fascinating topic some time.

The Glittering Storm The Glittering Storm is OK, but fairly standard stuff: Sarah’s young friends pick up rumours of dubious goings-on involving locals, Sarah herself is the victim of a mysterious burglary, and it turns out to be part of an alien plan to Destroy The World which is duly thwarted.

The Thirteenth Stone was another matter. The setting is a school trip to an ancient stone circle which, according to legend, is a group of warriors chasing a hostile king. Well, you can guess what happens, but it is done well and Elisabeth Sladen gets to show her repertoire, conveying Sarah’s horror and dismay as Luke becomes the focus of the action and also deftly bringing to life the other characters. The contrast between the ancient stones and the scientific techniques for analysing them is very pleasing too. And anyway I am a sucker for anything involving megalithic monuments.