This was the book that most intrigued me from the first batch of 2013 novels. I was looking forward to them all but the fact this one was set in 1963 really did get me looking forward to it and it did not let me down. The Doctor in this was spot on to me. The eccentricity is there but with the seriousness and the moaning about wet bow ties. Clara was also very well written. I didn't know what to expect with her as this is her first novel and it was interesting to see if they would get her character right. I think they got her good but at times she felt more like her Oswin character than the Modern Clara she is meant to be. But that is probably due to the fact they might have been working off Asylum to get the character. There were many interesting characters in this book. I enjoyed Mae and Warren and I thought they would end up getting close in the end but they didn't. But the main characters I loved were the clowns. I just love that they had come together to save the other humans just because they were so kind. There would be some humans that would have just killed those affected but they rehabilitated them and made sure they were fine in the end.
The villains in this were fantastic. The Shroud latching themselves onto you and destroying your grief. As Clara said in the book, you expect a planet with no grief to be a good thing but in the book you find that to be wrong. Other emotions take up that space and you get tribes. I love the idea of this. Its an original idea that I really do love. There is a big revelation about the shroud near the end of the book that is a good idea but part of me wonders if it was put there just to make the resolution a bit easier.
Now this book to me feels like the perfect tribute to the shows 50 years. A brand new story but packed with references to the past such as the return of the fast return switch and lovely little scene in chapter 14 which will have you in tears. I have to give this book a 9/10.
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