A simple plot with little twists, and some parts are lacking in detail. For example, Xorax's role was apparently essential to the story's finale, yet we didn't learn much about him and why exactly him being held hostage was so important for the police to be involved when many other Torodons were being killed.



It can be hard to image the characters behaving like they are described in this book. Rory perhaps unusually asserts a lot of dominance in this book, but I like how it is noted that he seems to become more docile when the Doctor is around.

The Doctor is also uncharacteristically attributed things such as 'not being one to run away', when in many episodes running has been a major feature. He also ruthlessly sets an alien creature to kill an unarmed 'hunter' instead of letting him walk away, and later explodes another character when it didn't seem wholly necessary.



Other than generic statements such as 'holidays are cool', there's no real humour in this book unlike the humour in the books of the previous Doctors, although this could be excused by the writer wanting to focus on the Doctor's more forlorn theme which is confirmed on the last page.



I also made very little attempt to remember the alien names, as the X/Z names make this quite difficult.



Overall, not bad.