I very much enjoyed Peel's novelisations of black-and-white era Dalek stories, where he managed to inject a bit more sense and continuity than was to be found in the originals; here he writes a fun Eighth Doctor story which is very much in the tradition of the Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Doctors' televised encounters with the spawn of Skaro, including lots of thrilling elements such as Thal commandos, Davros on trial and yet leading a faction in a Dalek civil war, and the twisted and complex plans of the anti-Davros leader (here dubbed the Dalek Prime). There is even a pleasing nod to The Power of the Daleks towards the end. Sam is now going all gooey-eyed at the Doctor, a foreshadowing of things to come (and I wonder how they will keep that up in future books).

I have already read the next Eighth Doctor book (Alien Bodies by Lawrence Miles) so will skip on to Kursaal by Peter Anghelides.