Cold Fusion, 1996, Lance Parkin
A mostly clever book, slightly undone by its use of some of the more aggravating “New Adventures” era tropes. The idea of the Fifth Doctor trying to do what he thinks is right, only to end up being opposed by his own future incarnation, is probably my favorite concept for a multi-Doctor story yet. References to a parallel world Gallifrey where Time Lords use magic and “the Other” are less appealing.
This was apparently a hard book to come by, as well, as it’s the only book from the Virgin Publishing period I had to buy a used copy of.

Return of the Living Dad, 1996, Kate Orman
Benny returns to get the Doctor to help her discover the truth about her father’s disappearance, leading to Earth in the early 80s and an answer to the question of what happens to the stragglers of all those alien invasions that the Doctor ends up thwarting. A typically light Orman adventure.

Godengine, 1996, Craig Hinton
One of the hardest charges to defend the “New Adventures” line against is that the books were overly obsessed with fanwank and continuity porn. And, brother, this book is like the King Daddy of Doctor Who fanwank. Not only does it take place during the events of “The Dalek Invasion of Earth” (but without the Daleks ever actually putting in an appearance, thanks to the magic of copyright), but at least in part the novel attempts to reconcile all the various different Mars based stories and enemies that appeared during the run of the original series, most notably in the case of the Ice Warriors and the Osirians.
Despite all that, it’s actually pretty good, with a crisp plot and engaging characterization. Even if having a Who reference guide handy while you read it might be a good idea.

Fahrenheit 451, 1969 ed, Ray Bradbury
Submitted by Jeffrey Morris
“This was one of the first books I’d bought from the Scholastic Books people with my own money, way back in third grade. I still have it, and had Bradbury autograph it a while back. It still astonishes me how in far too many ways it mirrors today’s world.”

City, 1952, Clifford D. Simak
Submitted by Scott Slemmons
“A *brief* statement about the book would really be kinda hard to put together. It’s basically the myths and legends that robots and dogs tell each other about the vanished mythological creature called Man, how the species disappeared, and how Earth survived without them. I’ve had chances to get nicer editions of this book, but I’ve stuck with the old one ’cause I love the way it screams “Classic Science Fiction.””

Cat’s Cradle, 1970 ed, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr
Submitted by Brandon Bragg
“According to the blurb, this book “deals with atomic scientists, ugly Americans, gorgeous sex queens, vengeful midgets, Caribbean dictators, undertakers, Hoosiers, a new way of making love, ice-none, Bokononism, the end of the world…”
This is all true.
Plus, it has a chapter entitled “Vice-president in Charge of Volcanoes,” which is awesome.”

Dark Future: Comeback Tour, 1991, Jack Yeovil
Submitted by Bob Temuka
“Dark Future was the best pulp fiction series of the 1990s, especially those written by Jack Yeovil, who is the hard-drinkin’ alter-ego of Kim Newman, the best movie critic in the UK.
Comeback Tour featured Elvis Presley defeating dark Lovecraftian gods through the power of rock and roll and heavy artillery. A career soldier who has gone freelance in an apocalyptic USA, the big E ends up fighting people turned into lethal Barbie dolls named Donny and Marie in the swamped ruins of Cape Canaveral, as the spirits of Gus Grissom and Dave Bowman watch on.
Sadly, it was the last in the series, although further books were promised 17 years ago. Newman certainly intended to have one big blow-out, where all that is good in America finally defeats the forces of darkness, but it never happened.”

Armada, 1981, Michael Jahn
Submitted by Mike Sterling
“In the near future of 1995, a ten-mile long spaceship parks in Earth’s orbit and soon, it becomes apparent that the alien critters aboard the ship are coming planetside to feed…on humans. Our hero, the incredibly-named space shuttle captain Nathaniel Broadsword, finds himself at the forefront of the battle against this terrifying menace.
I think I must have read this book about a thousand times as a kid, first repeatedly checking out the library copy, then finally scoring a copy of my own. It’s a very surface-level alien invasion story — no subtlety whatsoever — but maintains a nice mix of creepiness regarding the mostly-faceless and unknowable aliens, and just plain ol’ sci-fi military spaceship shoot-em-ups. A lot of attention is paid to number of available ships for battle, how many of the enemy are taken out, who has how many rocket missiles left to shoot at the enemy, and so on…sounds like a lot of bean-counting, I realize, but the logistics involved in the extremely-outmatched humans trying to take on the nearly-invulnerable aliens kept me fascinated. Plus there’s lots of swearing and sex, and thus perfect for a 12-year-old to read.”

The Rest Must Die, 1959, Richard Foster
Submitted by Andrew Weiss
“The lurid pulp packaging masks a surprisingly effective tale about a group of New Yorkers trapped under Penn Station after a nuclear attack. It’s no ON THE BEACH, but it is vastly superior to the overpraised silliness of Pat Frank’s ALAS, BABYLON.”

A Feast Unknown, 1969, Philip Jose Farmer
Submitted by Dave Campbell
“This book is mostly about the penises of Tarzan and Doc Savage. Sure, Philip Jose Farmer doesn’t identify his main characters as Tarzan or Savage – instead they are “Lord Grandrith” and “Doc Caliban,” but they clearly are. This gory, erotic, over-the-top adventure serves up a psycho-sexual clash between these pulp titans, who have two things in common: Their dad was Jack the Ripper, and they can only ejaculate after committing acts of violence! Featuring a memorable “sword fight” over a bottomless chasm, a Feast Unknown gloriously smears the line between sex and violence.. with a penis.”

Uncle Dynamite, 1950 ed, P.G. Wodehouse
Submitted by Bully
“Congrats on hitting your century of Paperback Book Club, Mister Dorian! You mighta have guessed that my choice would be a P. G. Wodehouse novel. This one’s Uncle Dynamite, originally published in 1948, and the edition I have here is a 1950 Dell paperback. It’s one of the favorite in my collection, not only for the sensationalistic cover art which features a leggy blonde (ah-oo-gah!) but also one of the best-loved characters in Wodehouse, Uncle Fred, the Lord of Ickenham, getting into the usual mischief and hijinks appropriate for a Wodehouse rogue.
Great cover, huh? But flip the book over to the back…
This is a Dell Mapback, so called because the reverse of the paperback series each featured a map (or, more cartographically technically correct, a “view”) of the ongoings and settings of the book. I love collecting this series for the wonderful back cover art. More modern books ought to revive this trend, doncha think? Wouldn’t you want to see a map of the dull grey woods of Forks, Washington on the back of a copy of Twilight, or of Washington DC outlining the events of Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol? Oh, wait, no, never mind. Those we don’t need. Never mind then. Happy hundredth anyway, Dorian!”

Venus on the Half-Shell, 1975, “Kilgore Trout” (Philip Jose Farmer)
Submitted by Dr. K

Death and Diplomacy, 1996, Dave Stone
A nice mix of humor and adventure, even if the plot is largely contrived to give us the set up for writing Bernice out of the New Adventures line. Still, Jason Kane, her beau, is a fairly decent entry in the long line of lovable sci-fi rogues. The story leads into Happy Endings, featuring the actual wedding, cameos from virtually every still-living character to have appeared in the line and a wrap-up to lots of dangling plot threads.

Sleepy, 1996, Kate Orman
A loose series of “Psi-Power” novels begins here, with the Doctor tracking down a psychic conspiracy through time and space. It’s kind of a shame, as the fruits of that series are one of the chief reasons I never bothered with most of the eighth Doctor novels.
In any case, here, in this book, it actually works, with an Earth colony succumbing to a strange virus that gives people psychic powers. Add in sentient computers, the Doctor working extremely hard to prevent anyone dying for once, and a groan-worthy Snow White inspired pun, and you’ve actually got a pretty good read.

Warchild, 1996, Andrew Cartmel
The conclusion to Cartmel’s “War” trilogy suffers a bit from the same problem the previous books had: they’re not quite really “Doctor Who” stories. They’re sci-fi stories…that the Doctor happens to cameo in. The TARDIS crew have a stronger presence here, but much of the book is dedicated to making Cartmel’s characters as miserable and spite-filled as possible, which makes you feel a bit unclean after reading it.

Just War, 1996, Lance Parkin
A fairly strong and gripping book, if you can get through the long, long passages of Benny being tortured by Nazis and Roz being condescended to by racists. The strength of the book is the core idea, though, that for all the times the Doctor goes around saving worlds, he occasionally has to deal with problems of his own making. Here, he has to stop the Germans from developing stealth bomber technology that would have allowed them to win the second World War, technology that they only almost develop because he had the wrong conversation with the wrong person years earlier. It’s the Doctor as fallible, something that was frequently missing from the “New Adventures” period.

Shakedown, 1995, Terrance Dicks
In this book, Terrance Dicks adapts his script for a direct-to-video Doctor Who spin-off into a novel featuring the characters currently appearing in the “New Adventures” line. Characters who didn’t appear in the video. Which means that the middle half of the book is a straight adaptation of the video, while the rest of it is the regular cast being more or less sidelined by the need to fit in this great big whopping other story that they’re not actually involved in. It’s not quite successful, but I’ve got a soft spot for Sontarans, so I kind of liked it in the end. That it’s really very fanwanky about the Sontaran/Rutan war, and is, as far as I’m aware, the only time that Sontarans and Rutans actually appear in the same story, is somewhat charming.

The Also People, 1995, Ben Aaronovitch
One of the better Who novels, and one of the few that really feels like it lives up to that promise of using the novels to tell stories too “big” for television. You’ve got a fully realized and engaging alien culture, all the companions getting along instead of squabbling or angsting for dramatic purposes, and a well-crafted central story, involving the possible murder of a sentient computer.
There is also Dalek poetry.