I'm really intrigued by this novella. After it was featured rather prominently in the first episode of season 7, part 2 of Doctor Who, and learning that BBC actually published it - I have to wonder was it just clever marketing ... or something more?

This was quick and fun, and I enjoyed pretending to read this with Amy's voice in my head. As with most DW novellas - too short! ( )

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

Those that watch Doctor Who will probably recognize this as the book Artie (one of the kids Clara was looking after) was reading, in the Bells of Saint John. Written by Amelia Williams, the Eleventh Doctor's companion. I was excited when I found out they actually released this story!

Summer Falls is about Kate, who wants do 'Get Something Done' in the last week before school starts. She becomes friends with her strange neighbours, a man who calls himself the Curator (which is obviously the Doctor), his cat, and a boy named Armand, whose father 'kills people'. Then, she finds a mysterious painting, and a ring, and then suddenly, it's winter, in September!

It's a very short story, only about 60 pages long, but I enjoyed it a lot. When I was on chapter nine, I remembered that in the episode Clara told Artie that 'Chapter eleven's the best, you'll cry your eyes out', so I was a tiny bit scared of what was going to happen. And indeed, the things that happened in the (small) chapter were sad (though I didn't exactly cry my eyes out, haha).

The story reminded me of a mixture of Coraline, the Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe, and the Snowmen (the last two are Doctor Who Christmas specials), because of the cat who could suddenly talk in the winter world (Coraline), the winter world itself (Doctor, Widow, Wardrobe) and the Lord of Winter (the ice governess from the Snowmen). But that didn't make it a lesser story, in fact, I enjoyed it even more!

Because I don't know what to say about this short story anymore, here's two of my favourite quotes from it:

"Magic?" Kate snorted. "There is no such thing? Is there?" "Magic?" Barnabas (the Curator) shrugged. "Why not? Magic is cool!"

"[...] But a smell hung in the air. The smell of earth after rain. She sniffed, and somehow, oddly, she knew that she would never see the mysterious Barnabas ever again."

A nice short story, by one of my favourite companions (of course it wasn't really written by her, but shhh!) ( )

The parts with the cat felt a little bit like Gaiman. ( )

A fun, short little novella first seen on Doctor Who. I would argue that you don't have to be a fan of Doctor Who to appreciate the story, but true Whovians will definitely get more out of this one. I'm curious if the story will tie into later episodes of the show...

For non-Whovians, this is a story of a young girl who finds a magical painting and nearly causes everlasting winter. With the help of two young boys and a mysterious man who seems to live in his "shed" (an obvious reference to the Doctor and his TARDIS), the young girl must set everything right. ( )

This book was featured in an episode of Doctor Who. It's supposedly written by former companion Amy Pond/Amelia Williams and there is something important that happens at the end of chapter 10. Or is it chapter 11? I've erased that episode from my DVR so I'm not sure, but, either way I didn't find any clues to the season's mystery at the end of either chapter.
The story involves a young girl named Kate who has just moved to a small sea-side village in England. It's the end of summer. She lives next door to a museum. Barnabas, the curator of the museum, sounds an awful lot like the 11th Doctor. Kate finds a painting in a thrift store that depicts the shore, snow covered, and a man and woman. There are a key and a ring shown in the painting and a saying about how the Lord of Winter will return when summer falls. When Kate wakes up the next day the entire village and shore are covered in snow, the ocean is frozen and all the adults are gone. A mysterious talking gray cat helps her solve the mystery.
The story reminded me a little of The Dark is Rising. Short but enjoyable. ( )