Ian Banks
@stuffianlikes.bsky.social
Human being who likes his family and friends, books, some TV and movies, music and some other stuff.
One of our neighbours popped by
November 17, 2025 at 10:53 AM
One of our neighbours popped by
The tv story issues come across better on the page, but the fact that the reader can’t do any thinking of their own throughout frustrates: EVERYTHING is explained in soul-destroying detail, even the mashed-up quotes. It’s a shame because I rather like the Baker’s ideas about the show.
November 11, 2025 at 10:08 AM
The tv story issues come across better on the page, but the fact that the reader can’t do any thinking of their own throughout frustrates: EVERYTHING is explained in soul-destroying detail, even the mashed-up quotes. It’s a shame because I rather like the Baker’s ideas about the show.
Good news: only one more Pip and Jane Baker novel.
Bad news: still one more Pip and Jane Baker novel.
It is fun, but the ominous foreshadowing is annoying. The adoration of Mel shows less than in Terror but still irks. The attribution of quotes immediately after their utterance remains pedantic.
Bad news: still one more Pip and Jane Baker novel.
It is fun, but the ominous foreshadowing is annoying. The adoration of Mel shows less than in Terror but still irks. The attribution of quotes immediately after their utterance remains pedantic.
November 2, 2025 at 4:00 AM
Good news: only one more Pip and Jane Baker novel.
Bad news: still one more Pip and Jane Baker novel.
It is fun, but the ominous foreshadowing is annoying. The adoration of Mel shows less than in Terror but still irks. The attribution of quotes immediately after their utterance remains pedantic.
Bad news: still one more Pip and Jane Baker novel.
It is fun, but the ominous foreshadowing is annoying. The adoration of Mel shows less than in Terror but still irks. The attribution of quotes immediately after their utterance remains pedantic.
With more foreshadowing than a giant 5 placed in sunlight, this also features the same repetitive phrasing used in their previous book and has a rather unhealthy fascination with Bonnie Langford’s appearance. I hope the next couple of books avoid this sort of limp over-emphasis of the drama…
October 18, 2025 at 3:35 AM
With more foreshadowing than a giant 5 placed in sunlight, this also features the same repetitive phrasing used in their previous book and has a rather unhealthy fascination with Bonnie Langford’s appearance. I hope the next couple of books avoid this sort of limp over-emphasis of the drama…
Martin handles the split storylines well but doesn’t flesh out some characters or locations. Yrcanos’s “what is this Earth thing called love” moment and the epilogue made me groan. But it’s tense and scary in most of the right places, making it enjoyable fun.
October 11, 2025 at 1:42 AM
Martin handles the split storylines well but doesn’t flesh out some characters or locations. Yrcanos’s “what is this Earth thing called love” moment and the epilogue made me groan. But it’s tense and scary in most of the right places, making it enjoyable fun.
Season 23 was a new beginning of sorts, so it fits that the first story is written by Robert Holmes and novelised by Terrance Dicks. It’s a return to “traditional” Who, riffing off familiar beats so old and new fans feel comfortable. Perfectly adequate.
September 30, 2025 at 1:53 AM
Season 23 was a new beginning of sorts, so it fits that the first story is written by Robert Holmes and novelised by Terrance Dicks. It’s a return to “traditional” Who, riffing off familiar beats so old and new fans feel comfortable. Perfectly adequate.
Saward’s best book since Visitation. Slightly more disciplined and less smug and pretentious than Resurrection but still with parts that read as though he’s put them off until the last possible moment.
September 29, 2025 at 3:19 AM
Saward’s best book since Visitation. Slightly more disciplined and less smug and pretentious than Resurrection but still with parts that read as though he’s put them off until the last possible moment.
Takes a little while to kick into gear but eventually becomes a lot more exciting than its scripted counterpart. Characterisation is minimal; however, the story makes more sense and the stakes feel higher. Bland and unexceptional but it does the job.
September 27, 2025 at 10:16 AM
Takes a little while to kick into gear but eventually becomes a lot more exciting than its scripted counterpart. Characterisation is minimal; however, the story makes more sense and the stakes feel higher. Bland and unexceptional but it does the job.
Robert Holmes’ wordplay and wonderful characterisations hide the sparse plot and the cavalier violence of the original script. Lots of fun, but morally dubious: a blackly comic farce with characters entering and exiting the sets, narrowly missing each other, creating tumult rather than tumescence.
September 24, 2025 at 3:09 PM
Robert Holmes’ wordplay and wonderful characterisations hide the sparse plot and the cavalier violence of the original script. Lots of fun, but morally dubious: a blackly comic farce with characters entering and exiting the sets, narrowly missing each other, creating tumult rather than tumescence.
Written in a dated style that was old even when it was written, this is florid, repetitive and sometimes patronising to the reader. However, it feels like a book that the authors had some fun with. And some of that leaks across to the audience, thankfully. A chore but not a terribly onerous one.
September 19, 2025 at 12:07 PM
Written in a dated style that was old even when it was written, this is florid, repetitive and sometimes patronising to the reader. However, it feels like a book that the authors had some fun with. And some of that leaks across to the audience, thankfully. A chore but not a terribly onerous one.
Philip Martin rehabilitates his own script a little, downplaying some controversial moments and beefing up the characterisation and humour. It almost works, but the result is a book crowded with incident trying to be a Nigel Kneale script without the scathing hatred of the genre.
September 11, 2025 at 2:22 PM
Philip Martin rehabilitates his own script a little, downplaying some controversial moments and beefing up the characterisation and humour. It almost works, but the result is a book crowded with incident trying to be a Nigel Kneale script without the scathing hatred of the genre.
Better than the tv version, and more tightly written than most of his other books in this range, but I don’t think that Saward liked Doctor Who all that much. The Doctor and Peri are hardly in it: most of the action goes to Lytton and co, who live in a world far more interesting than the Doctors.
September 5, 2025 at 2:17 PM
Better than the tv version, and more tightly written than most of his other books in this range, but I don’t think that Saward liked Doctor Who all that much. The Doctor and Peri are hardly in it: most of the action goes to Lytton and co, who live in a world far more interesting than the Doctors.
One of my favourite autobiographies gets added to the Stuff shelf this month.
stuffianlikes.com/2025/08/31/a...
stuffianlikes.com/2025/08/31/a...
August 31, 2025 at 8:12 AM
One of my favourite autobiographies gets added to the Stuff shelf this month.
stuffianlikes.com/2025/08/31/a...
stuffianlikes.com/2025/08/31/a...
Eric Saward manages to make this a lot more palatable as a novel than a script but almost ruins it by thinking he’s Douglas Adams. Saward is a competent writer but rather too much enamoured with his own voice to be really enjoyable or fun.
August 31, 2025 at 5:23 AM
Eric Saward manages to make this a lot more palatable as a novel than a script but almost ruins it by thinking he’s Douglas Adams. Saward is a competent writer but rather too much enamoured with his own voice to be really enjoyable or fun.
Dicks takes a brilliant, grim script from old friend Robert Holmes and turns it into something approaching superb. His economical prose is brilliantly suited for a tale of gunrunners and corporate intrigue. One of his best works in this series.
August 23, 2025 at 10:46 AM
Dicks takes a brilliant, grim script from old friend Robert Holmes and turns it into something approaching superb. His economical prose is brilliantly suited for a tale of gunrunners and corporate intrigue. One of his best works in this series.
Despite his penchant for laboured similes - dropping them like overripe tomatoes on a bed of nails - Grimwade retells this script competently, fleshing out the “ancient astronaut” cliches so that they don’t leap out at the reader quite as obviously as they did on screen. Fun, but slight.
August 18, 2025 at 2:16 PM
Despite his penchant for laboured similes - dropping them like overripe tomatoes on a bed of nails - Grimwade retells this script competently, fleshing out the “ancient astronaut” cliches so that they don’t leap out at the reader quite as obviously as they did on screen. Fun, but slight.
Saward retells his own story making it more solid but still asking so many new questions - where has the Doctor met Lytton before? Why are there so many nods to Slaughterhouse 5? How can the author who wrote The Visitation have produced this? A very easy read, but not as good as it thinks it is.
August 13, 2025 at 1:05 PM
Saward retells his own story making it more solid but still asking so many new questions - where has the Doctor met Lytton before? Why are there so many nods to Slaughterhouse 5? How can the author who wrote The Visitation have produced this? A very easy read, but not as good as it thinks it is.
You wouldn’t think it was possible for a book of 140 pages to be a slow burn but Frontios manages it. It crawls towards the conclusion which then happens at a rather breathtaking pace. Far more gruesome than its TV counterpart, this manages to retell the story faithfully but with more atmosphere.
July 30, 2025 at 1:47 PM
You wouldn’t think it was possible for a book of 140 pages to be a slow burn but Frontios manages it. It crawls towards the conclusion which then happens at a rather breathtaking pace. Far more gruesome than its TV counterpart, this manages to retell the story faithfully but with more atmosphere.
Quite a lot of fun: Pringle expands his script, giving the reader more of a rustic/time-slip/folk-horror tale than we got on screen and making it feel less like a retread of The Daemons.
July 20, 2025 at 6:55 AM
Quite a lot of fun: Pringle expands his script, giving the reader more of a rustic/time-slip/folk-horror tale than we got on screen and making it feel less like a retread of The Daemons.
A cracker, proving that the issues with this story stemmed from the large number of production crises that befell its creation. Characters are clearly defined and the plot moves along at a steady pace, building into an exciting climax. Unlike its on-screen counterpart, this is a great season opener.
July 7, 2025 at 6:45 AM
A cracker, proving that the issues with this story stemmed from the large number of production crises that befell its creation. Characters are clearly defined and the plot moves along at a steady pace, building into an exciting climax. Unlike its on-screen counterpart, this is a great season opener.
This month’s Stuff: the only book in existence which I will judge a person for if they don’t like it.
stuffianlikes.com/2025/06/30/a...
stuffianlikes.com/2025/06/30/a...
June 30, 2025 at 10:10 AM
This month’s Stuff: the only book in existence which I will judge a person for if they don’t like it.
stuffianlikes.com/2025/06/30/a...
stuffianlikes.com/2025/06/30/a...
This has been a core Who text for me for over 40 years. It’s a delight, loaded with a proper, but slight, story without the continuity porn that would plague the show for the next few years. It’s a celebration with some returning characters and monsters. But don’t play the Drinking Game Of Rassilon.
June 29, 2025 at 12:43 PM
This has been a core Who text for me for over 40 years. It’s a delight, loaded with a proper, but slight, story without the continuity porn that would plague the show for the next few years. It’s a celebration with some returning characters and monsters. But don’t play the Drinking Game Of Rassilon.
This is much better than the TV version. There’s a lot of padding (it’s one of the longer books in the range) but it isn’t superfluous. The guest characters feel like leads in their own story and the regulars are terrific, but a little old-fashioned. This does nothing new but it does it wonderfully.
June 20, 2025 at 11:17 AM
This is much better than the TV version. There’s a lot of padding (it’s one of the longer books in the range) but it isn’t superfluous. The guest characters feel like leads in their own story and the regulars are terrific, but a little old-fashioned. This does nothing new but it does it wonderfully.