Doctor Who: Shroud of Sorrow

by Tommy Donbavand

It is the day after John F. Kennedy’s assassination and the faces of the dead are everywhere. PC Reg Cranfield sees his deceased father in the mists along Totter’s Lane. Reporter Mae Callon sees her late grandmother in a coffee stain on her desk. FBI Special Agent Warren Skeet finds his long-dead partner staring back at him from raindrops on a window pane.

Then the faces begin to talk, and scream... and push through into our world. As the alien Shroud begins to feast on the grief of a world in mourning, can the Doctor dig deep enough into his own sorrow to save mankind? are trademarks of the BBC.

A thrilling, all-new adventure featuring the Doctor and Clara as played by Matt Smith and Jenna-Louise Coleman in the spectacular hit series from BBC Television

• ISBN10: 1849905762
• ISBN13: 9781849905763
• Publish Date: 11 April 2013 (first published 1 January 2013)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 10 August 2021
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: BBC Consumer Publishing
• Imprint: BBC Books
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 256
• Language: English

Reviews

[Nessa Luna]

Read this review, and many more on my blog October Tune!

As you all might know, I am a big fan of Doctor Who. It is my favourite TV show, and I also like (most) of the books that have been written based on this show. I haven’t read a lot, only about six or seven, but I have never actually written a review about either one of them. So I decided to write a review about the one of the recent ones that I’ve finished. I might go and write reviews about my two all-time favourites (Touched by an Angel and the Stone Rose). Okay, I have given my opinion about this book a while ago, but this is a proper review. Oh, it might contain some minor spoilers.

Shroud of Sorrow is the first DW book that has Clara as companion. And since I loved Clara from the beginning, I needed to have this book. A couple of pages into the book, I already liked it so much, that I couldn’t wait to finish it, and to re-read it again. As the Doctor goes to change into dry clothes, he comes back into the main control room to find both Clara and the TARDIS crying. He then asks Clara if she called the TARDIS ‘fat’.

Later in the book, they end up on an ice-cold planet where the houses are built into the hill, like hobbit holes, Clara says. The Doctor and Mae then meet two clowns called ‘Flip Flop’ and (here it comes) ‘Wobblebottom’! I don’t like clowns at all, but I think I will like Wobblebottom when I meet him.

At the end of the story, it gets a bit sad, because the Doctor has to relive several of ‘sad’ moments in his life. Including saying goodbye to ‘his’ Ponds, in ‘The Angels Take Manhattan’.

In total, I absolutely loved this story; I liked the plot, I liked the writing, and I just loved reading more about Clara, who is on her way of becoming one of my favourite companions (okay I love all of them, but Rose and Amy have a special place in my heart, and Clara is starting to get there too). I would recommend this book to everyone who has watched Doctor Who, and just anyone who loves to read a Sci-Fi story (though you probably would be a bit confused if you haven’t seen the show).