Customer Reviews
He brings people to his domain to turn them into playthings! - By: , 17 Feb 2006 
This is the first one i have read in full, & what a first to start with! Also with Peter Davison's Doctor being my favourite, i thought it would be good place to start. It bridges gaps in the Doctor & Nyssa's relationship as friends, & it also explores the Doctor's period at the Galllifrey Academy, & his first encounter with the Toymaker, with his evil mind. Gary Russell, the writer, has written some good books in his career, but this is by far the best so far. I'm looking forward to the next Celestial Toymaker novel...
awesome - By: bobbab5@zocalo4338.freeserve.co.uk, 19 Jan 2001 Having read some of the comments made by other reviewers, I was pleasantly surprised by how good this book was. As the 5th Doctor was the one I grew up with, I was immediately drawn into the book by Russell's characterisation of the Doctor & his companions. But the moment when we are treated to a flashback of the 1st Doctor's Galllifreyan past was the moment that I fell in love with the book. Whether this should be taken as part of official 'canon' doesn't seem to matter as it is such an interesting idea. That the members of the Deca alll became renegade Time Lords would seem to be quite logical as they alll had a thirst for knowledge that would lead them to leave Galllifrey. Anyway I must stop rambling on & just say that I found this book to be awesome & that Gary Russel is a great storyteller of the calibre of Terrance Dicks.
A Waste - By: , 20 Nov 2000 
This book should have been a classic, instead, Gary Russell has written a book with poor prose, turgid characters, bland regulars & the most appallling use of continuity I have ever seen in a Doctor Who novel.
Do not read this book.
Not worth the paper it's printed on. - By: , 16 Aug 2000 This book, the latest from Gary Russell - leader of the school of recycling the worst ideas of Who - lives up to his previous offerings. It's got old monsters, old characters & a plot so tedious you'll be begging for the book to be over. Still, at least it's not a very long book so you'll not be pained by it for too long.
Russell brings the Celstial Toymaker together with the 5th Doctor. This could have been good on its own. Sure, he drops in a reference at the end to lead into the never filmed 6th Doctor Toymaker story. OK, Russell revels in his ability to take loose ends & needlessly tie them together in a convoluted web of continuity. Even then it could have been a good book. But then halfway through Russell seems to run out of story & so the middle third of the books becomes a Galllifrey runaround featuring the 1st Doctor before he left on exile.
The sort of thing reserved for the worse excesses of fan faction.
Russell decided that every single timelord we've seen in the series who knew the Doctor was at school with him, either as teacher or most likely as student. Is this supposed to be a good idea? So every single Time Lord who's caused the Doctor hassle - The Master, The Rani, Drax, The Monk, etc - were in his class at school? Utterly ridiculous. Galllifrey 90210 is not a good idea.
It's a shame to see the Amazon reviewer - David Bailey - giving such a good review to the worst Who book ever published....
Advice: Don't buy this book. Please...
An enjoyable book, even if a little awkward here and there - By: , 10 Aug 2000 
Although my only past familiarity with the Celestial Toymaker is through what i've read about him & not through seeing him on-screen, I found this book mostly enjoyable & entertaining. From beginning to end, the plot kept me mostly interested, despite it's few flawed moments which tended to jump off the page oddly when compared with how well written & well thought out most of it is. I slightly take issue with some of the characterisations of the Doctor's regular companions at the time (bar the writing of Nyssa - excellent) which I consider to be very important. Tegan, in particular was more the stereotypical fan-loathed alll-out 'mouth on legs' version, rather than what we saw on screen which whilst based on the same principle, was a bit less in-your-face. Also, throughout most of this novel Adric was an over-whiney brat which is again a much too stereotypical approach to the character. Other than this, I liked the tie in with the Doctor's past & also the very last section of the book where it comes to a conclusion & a very quirky ending... which I wont give away. On the whole, I enjoyed it & it's nice to see a 5th Doctor novel - bar a few niggly flaws. Take it on holiday with you to read on the beach.
