Lethbridge-Stewart: The Black Eggs of Khufu

Candy Books have been generously giving away free short stories to people who pre-order the Lethbridge-Stewart book and this is their Easter free story, although other than the eggs connection it has nothing to do with Easter.

Lethbridge-Stewart arrives at the Great Pyramid in Egypt where ancient alien activity has been uncovered. There's an alien body and mysterious black eggs but when a group of Russians get involved Lethbridge-Stewart finds himself racing across the desert on a camel. 

It's a decent story and I liked the alien explanation for the pyramids. It certainly made good use of the locale although it's never really explained how on Earth Lethbridge-Stewart ending up going there. 

As is often the case with Doctor Who short stories though, this is limited by it's length. We get little explanation for the aliens and I couldn't really work out what the Russians were hoping to achieve. I hope that at some point Dexter gets to write a full-length Lethbridge-Stewart novel because he brings some great ideas into these short stories but doesn't have the time to expand upon them. 

Another decent freebie that adds to the growing Lethbridge-Stewart series.

The Legends of Ashildr

This book gives us four stories featuring the virtually-immortal Ashildr, as played by Maisie Williams in Series 9 of Doctor Who. 

The Arabian Knightmare by James Goss: The least enjoyable of the collection in my opinion but not awful by any means. It sees Ashildr, here known as Ash El Dir, tell a version of the Arabian Nights which she was part of. The framing was awkward and I'm not sure the concept totally worked. I think if you are going to re-tell a known story in the Doctor Who universe you need to add at least a sci-fi twist, like in Time Lord Fairy Tales.

The Fortunate Isles by David Llewellyn: Ashildr stows away on a ship in 1485 as a way of escaping from a robbery. It turns out the ship is going on much longer voyage than expected. It starts as a great tale of explorers and has a massive twist where suddenly it becomes very science-fiction.

The Triple Knife by Jenny T. Colgan: Colgan has yet to write a poor Doctor Who story so far and this doesn't break that rule. Ashildr brings her three young children from France to London in 1348. But she brings the plague with her and only the mysterious scientists, based on the bird-like costumes plague doctors wore, might be able to help. The most emotional story here which is truly gut-wrenching. 

The Ghosts of Branscombe Woods by Justin Richards: It's gone 1600 and Me finds herself in the village of Branscombe somewhere near London. There ghosts haunt the local woods and Me decides to investigate. I liked the idea of the ghosts themselves but the lack of explanation for the ship that caused them was disappointing.

A good collection of stories featuring an enigmatic character. Lots to enjoy.