Review: Enjoyable but too many loose ends
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 05 27, 2014
I was surprised that this short story turned out to be a loose take on Cinderella, it works out great though because it imaginatively intertwined the fairy tale with science fiction and the world of the Doctor - I enjoyed seeing how the author integrated the two.  That element of fairy tale - magic - was immediately and correctly dismissed by the Doctor but unfortunately there was no explanation given for the science behind reanimating dead people and for the ending with Princess Ash.  It all seems very like magic, and I'm surprised that the Doctor didn't discover what was the mechanism behind it.  This was the reason why I lowered the rating for this story - because I really enjoyed it, but I was left feeling very confused at the end.In addition to fairy tales, this story also incorporates a version of zombies which I thought was pretty interesting.  It's horrific and well described, so I think that grounded this story in a good old-fashioned Who adventure, as the Doctor tries to understand and help the people in this world.  The other main characters were brief and mostly fulfilled predictable and stereotypical roles, but it worked to keep the plot going and I felt interested enough in the characters to hope they succeeded.The 10th Doctor is captured well in this - in all his charming and slightly eccentric ways - and there are even a couple really funny moments in this story (although it is all too brief).  This is a very enjoyable read, that I would probably recommend even more strongly if only there were more of an explanation about how certain things happened in the plot.(I received this book from the publisher or author for a fair and honest review.  I was not compensated for this review.)