Anything Doctor Who is awesome. I'd always recommend any book or movie or tv episode that is remotely related to Doctor Who or it's various spin-offs.

This was a great filler for time when the show was off the air! Its not a graphic novel, so it was perfect to put yourself into the story and imagine a new episode!

When Doctor Who goes off the air I switch to the books to get my fix of my favourite Timelord. This is a tactic which has been working for me since 1989 and I hope it never ends. When the novelisations of the tv shows ended I was bereft, however, Virgin Books and then BBC started releasing original novels featuring various incarnations of the Doctor and since the early 1990’s there have been a steady stream of new tales to enjoy.

Through the years Justin Richards has been a regular contributor to those original Doctor Who novels and he has written some of my favourite Doctor Who books. This means that when settled down to read Doctor Who: The American Adventures (six tales all from Mr Richards) I knew that I had some treats ahead…I was not disappointed.

As the name suggests all the stories are based in America and the Doctor will find himself arriving at some familiar points in time. The Oregon Trail (opportunity missed for The Ogron Trail), the California Gold Rush and with New York and a Florida theme-park also featuring we get a feel for different parts of the diverse landscape offered in the US.

I don’t believe it is possible to read a short story collection without favouring some tales more than others and this was the case with DW:TAA. I enjoyed the New York ghost story and the amusement park in Florida was fun too. That said the collection holds together really well and Who fans will enjoy the chance to see the Doctor (avec Capaldi face) back in the thick of the action.

A bit of Doctor Who knowledge will serve you well – but this is much more commonly found in readers over the last 10 years than was the case in the 1990’s!

Justin Richards is always very readable and this was an enjoyable evening’s entertainment. There are too few Capaldi stories available for readers so while we wait for the latest incarnation to light up our screens I recommend Doctor Who: The American Adventures.

I adore Doctor Who and was looking forward to it. However, being forced to read it on my computer (as opposed to my Kindle) meant I couldn't finish it.

'Doctor Who: The American Adventures' by Justin Richards is a book of 6 short stories featuring the Twelfth Doctor in uniquely American adventures.

The Doctor finds himself at various places in American history: the California gold rush, with a group of settlers, at a military base that is planning D-Day and at a large familiar sounding theme park in Florida, and other places. In each, the Doctor's unique gifts are needed to protect the people of Earth from the unknown. In each, he exhibits his own wry humor, which is often unappreciated by those around him.

The true test of a tie in book is if the character feels true to the original creation. On that level, I think these stories succeed. The stories themselves are not great, but neither are they completely terrible. As a fan of the Doctor, I enjoyed reading this collection of stories.

I received a review copy of this ebook from Penguin UK, Diamond Book Distributors, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this ebook.

This book is written for established fans of the Doctor Who franchise. Those that are not familiar with the main character, The Doctor, may not get as much out of this book. This book is a set of stories that take place at different points in time in the United States. (For those of you that may be reading this but are not familiar with the franchise, The Doctor is a time traveler.)

The stories take place during a time when The Doctor is travelling along. (Again, for those that don't follow Doctor Who, The Doctor usually travels with at least one companion and they have various adventures through space and time.) I really enjoyed seeing The Doctor connect with new characters. I liked the different chemistries that took place throughout the stories.

The stories themselves were a delight to read. There was always something new and refreshing. Another mystery to solve and another mishap to avert. While the stories are very fast-paced, The Doctor's character shines through each and every one flawlessly.

While reading these stories, they felt very much like children's stories about Doctor Who. I don't know if this is by design or not, but the feel was very juvenile. My children are fans of Doctor Who, and these stories were perfect for them. They did not include anything overly confusing, the way some episodes of Doctor Who can be because of the science fiction aspect.

I think that fans of Doctor Who would enjoy these short stories.
I personally am not into short stories. I am normally one that devours 500+ page novels, and rarely likes to read anything less than 300-400 pages long. That aside, these stories were fantastic. A light, quick read, but very much showcasing one of my all time favorite characters. I have to recommend this book, especially for fans of the television show. If you aren't the short story type, don't let that stop you or you'll miss out!

It was a great book! I actually brought it to a Whovian Con I was going to and gotten a few photos of fellow Whovian cosplayers reading it. W0uld buy for the Whovian reader who enjoys the newest doctor.

I always love reading any Doctor Who tie-in stories, especially when we are all anxiously waiting for a new season to be released. I have also read a number of Doctor Who novels authored by Justin Richards, and I tend to consistently enjoy his writing style and his depictions of the various Doctors over the years. This is only my second experience with stories written about Peter Capaldi’s Doctor, and I had a fun time reading these short tales of his adventures. While this is targeted at a younger audience, I still feel that this book is something that can be universally enjoyed by Whovians of all ages.

These stories follow the Doctor’s journeys through various notable time periods in American history, as well as in present day America. Because of that, I found it to be a very unique read due to the fact that he is somewhat rarely portrayed traveling through the United States, particularly in the tie-in novels. It was great to see how he insert himself into many historical moments that I grew up learning about.

Though this was not the best collection of stories and I had very mixed feelings about them, I still found them to be solidly written. Creating a compelling story in a very small number of pages is incredibly difficult—it is an entire art in itself. There is not much time to flesh out the plot and the characters. This can make everything feel very rushed, as well as make characters come across as being a little bit flat. I found this to be somewhat true of this collection at times, but overall, I think Richards did a decent job with the length of each text.

Richards’ writing itself was a high point for me. His narration style is very fluid and not at all hard to find yourself getting pulled into. It is wonderful to see these skills in the tie-in stories, as they are generally simple reads, still composed using quality storytelling. I have found—in my personal experience with his work—that Richards’ is also a master at capturing the personality of whichever Doctor he is writing about. Even in this shorter format, it truly feels similar to watching an episode starring the twelfth doctor.

Now, I’ll talk about each individual story and my feelings on them. This will also remain spoiler-free.

All That Glitters (Rating: 3/5)

This story takes place in California, 1849, during the gold rush. Josh Langham is panning for gold in the Sacramento River when finds an odd metallic object. As he begins to pick it up, fatigue overtakes him and he passes out. Suddenly, he begins terrorizing the nearby town and townspeople, breaking in to homes and attacking his people who have all known him as a kind and gentle man. We follow the Doctor as he attempts to figure out what has caused Josh to act in this most unusual way.

I found this story to be just alright. It was a very simple plotline without much action, so it felt a little too slow-paced for my liking. Despite this, it was still intriguing to read, and there was a good amount of mystery. The build-up was a bit too much compared to how the story ultimately ended, but it was a decent read.

Off the Trail (Rating: 3.75/5)

The Doctor finds himself on the Oregon Trail, 1846, in this story. Hattie and her family are traveling the Oregon Trail in a large wagon train when suddenly, they begin to encounter strange noises and unnerving sightings of a creature outside their wagon one night. When they emerge the next morning, they find themselves exactly where they were but completely alone—the other parties in the wagon train have disappeared without a trace. It’s up to the Doctor to rescue the family from a deadly enemy and return them to the missing train.

I liked this story quite a bit—I think that it was my second favorite of the collection. I’ve always enjoyed stories about the Oregon Trail, and this science fiction twist was very captivating. Richards did a good job of building up the suspense to a heart-pounding climax. This story was also one of the more fleshed out ones in terms of both the setting and the characters. Everything was well-described, and I feel that he really utilized his writing talent to create a developed story in a short amount of time. Overall, it didn’t completely blow me away, but it was still a fascinating and unique narrative that I would have loved to see as an actual episode of the show.

Ghosts of New York (Rating: 4.5/5)

Taking place in New York City, 1902, this was by far my favorite of the short stories. This story involves the construction of the New York City subway tunnels, with a nice helping of ghostly activity. Soon after a tunnel roof collapses, killing three workers, a man named Pete begins seeing the ghost of one of his deceased coworkers. Other workers begin to experience this strange paranormal phenomenon as well. Then, of course, the Doctor swoops in, ready to discover the source that is causing these ethereal figures to appear. With many of the other workers too afraid to follow him, only a young man named Tom is brave enough to join in the quest for answers.

I absolutely loved this story. Anything containing ghosts and spookiness is right up my alley. One of the interesting realizations I had while reading this one was that the side character and the Doctor were much more well-developed. This may be due in part to the fact that there is only one sidekick on this particular mission. The only issue I had with the plot was that, when they found the source causing the ghosts to appear, it was not very well explained—I had an extremely hard time picturing it in my head. Nonetheless, this was an absolutely fantastic story and I very much enjoyed it.

Taking the Plunge (Rating: 3/5)

The Doctor comes into the present day in this story that takes place in Florida, 2017. Strolling through a theme park named Adventure World, the Doctor is simply people-watching when he comes across some peculiar occurrences. He meets a family as they first come into the park—two parents and their highly energetic and excited son. They are headed to the popular ride, “Space Plunge”. But when he runs into them again coming back from the ride, they have lost all energy, and look tired and empty. It’s time for the Doctor to inspect “Space Plunge”, and figure out what is sapping the liveliness out of all of its riders.

Though it was not one of my favorites, I still quite enjoyed this story. It was fairly unique and unpredictable in many ways. However, this was one story were the length really was a detriment to the plot. It felt as though not much happened, and that the problem was solved far too easily. This is a story that could have been expanded upon a lot and made into a more complex tale. I think it was just not right for this format, but I still liked aspects of it.

Spectator Sport (Rating: 2.5/5)

Set in New Orleans, 1815, this was unfortunately one of the stories that fell a bit flat for me. The Doctor lands the TARDIS during the Battle of New Orleans, and watches from the sidelines, upset at the idea of humans waging war against each other. All of a sudden, a woman using a perception filter comes rushing up to where he stands on a hill, stating that she has been looking for him all over. She takes him back to what she calls the “safe area”, which turns out to be a ship where people travel back in time in order to watch various battles throughout history.

This story was my least favorite—I found it rather hard to get in to and I did not like the idea of the plot. Not that much really happened, aside from the Doctor reprimanding everyone for getting enjoyment out of the fighting. Of course, there was a bit more depth to the plot other than that, with an assassin being loose on the ship, but this did not take up enough of the story. I could see the potential in this narrative, but is just didn’t reach it.

Base of Operations (Rating: 2.5/5)

Transpiring in the United States, 1944, this story just did not click with me, and unfortunately ended the collection on a slightly sour note. This story is set on an army base during World War II, right before the D-Day landings in Normandy. The TARDIS picks up signs of a rouge transmat system coming from inside the base, and he decides to infiltrate it in order to find the source. Along the way, he encounters some unusual activity, and finds out that not everyone within these walls is who—or what—they appear to be.

I’m not quite sure exactly what it was about this story, but I had a hard time getting into it. I wasn’t particularly interested in most of the characters and the story felt far too rushed. Once again, it was too expansive a topic to try to cover in a story as short as this one. The aliens were sort of interesting, but again, there was not enough time to really connect with the story and understand them. It was not bad by any means, but I just personally didn’t get quite as much enjoyment out of it.

Overall, I am very glad that I had the chance to read these stories. Despite my tepid feelings when it came to parts of it, this book was still great for a Whovian like myself. I also love seeing authors producing stories for a younger generation of fans. All the novels are relatively easy and straightforward reads, but this one is particularly well suited for early readers.

Richards fluidly sweeps readers up into the action-packed adventures and quirky antics of the Doctor, and I think these short stories make the show and the characters widely accessible, and will draw in more of a following that will stay strong through all the coming years of the show.

Reading a Doctor Who book is always fun. I recommend this book for Whovians.

I received a copy via netgalley (and the publisher), which didn't influence my review, though for some reason NetGalley had it listed as a graphic novel (which it is not. It's an anthology). The cover led me to believe it would be Capaldi's Doctor. However, honestly, this could have been any of them and he is traveling alone (which I would have liked to hear more of an internal dialogue about since he doesn't often do it). It was hard to see who wrote them but they had Justin Richards hidden away on the publisher's page inside the book (and here on GR) so I'm assuming these shorts are all from one person.

As the title suggests, it's a collection of the Doctor's adventures in America but honestly some of them were rather anemic. The anthology wasn't bad per se but not many of them stood out. It's relatively short and a quick read.

All That Glitters was interesting, sort of steampunky weird west feel to it.

Off the Trail went on a tad long but had an interesting idea of settlers going west meeting aliens ala Cowboys vs Aliens.

Ghosts of New York and the haunted subway construction was easily my favorite.

Taking the Plunge wasn't half bad, a little something wicked happening at a Florida amusement park.

Spectator Sport featured tours to past battlefields so you can imagine the Doctor wasn't thrilled and the last Base of Operations seemed a bit easily resolved after aliens take over a WWII military base.

For me this is about what I've come to expect of TV tie in books, mildly entertaining but not particularly memorable.

Overall the book was good, entertaining, I’m glad I read it. But some of the stories felt dragged on, other felt too short and on the whole it just made me keenly aware that we aren’t getting any new Doctor Who for another year still. I usually like Justin Richards expanded canon books a lot more than this one, it fell a little flat.

ALL THAT GLITTERS – CALIFORNIA 1849

This one felt the most like a real Doctor Who episode. It was one of my favorites. But I wished we focused more on The Doctor than the random townspeople.

OFF THE TRAIL – THE OREGON TRAIL 1846

This one I liked, I liked the idea of fending off the aliens on the Oregon trail and in this one, The Doctor seemed most like himself. It all felt too fast though.

GHOSTS OF NEW YORK – NEW YORK CITY 1902

I’m…still not even sure what was happening in this.

TAKING THE PLUNGE – FLORIDA 2017

This one was interesting, and the one I most wanted to be longer. The concept of sucking out people’s energy was cool, and the villain was actually active not passive. But it was all over really quick. It would have made a good episode.

SPECTATOR SPORT – NEW ORLEANS 1815

The Doctor is the king of interfering, so why isn’t this about that? Or about the humans at all? The spaceship drama was irrelevant to me. I mostly skimmed this one I was bored.

BASE OF OPERATION – USA 1944

This one has a lot of potential, but again, everything was resolved so quickly it felt like nothing happened. I do like the idea of The Doctor being friends with Eisenhower though.

I started this book as I was supposed to read and write my honest review on it. As you can see by my start and end date I put it back down and stewed on it after only reading the first story.

This is a book that would normally be able to be finished in one sitting, however something was amiss and had me very uninterested in continuing. That being said I was actually disheartened by this fact. I am a HUGE Doctor Who fan and while 12 isn't my favorite Doctor, I do adore him. I just felt as if the Doctor we were getting on the pages of this book where not the 12 that many of us of come to love. It's as if this were a different Doctor.

Due to having such a place in my heart for Doctor Who I decided to try again. Especially with the fact that I had sorta already said I would review this book. With that said I did finish and as I stated earlier it just all seemed off. I can't pin point one specific thing. As yes the Doctor was wrong but so were other things. Tone was odd and a couple of the stories themselves just weren't captivating. With all of that said I will still give it a 3/5 due to missing Doctor Who for so long. It's been a long break between seasons and it was nice to try and be in that world again.

If your grade school age child is a fan of Doctor Who, this would be an excellent present for the two of you to read together. Six tales, all set in the United States, from the 18th century to the 21st, follow the twelfth incarnation of the Doctor. While the monsters and alien threats can be frightening, the Doctor always manages to save the day and protect humans, his favorite species. These stories do require some slight knowledge of the show, as terms like TARDIS and sonic screwdriver are not defined, and a few Britishisms sneak through, but the stories are well written.

Good stories but not exactly what i was expecting. Regardless I still enjoyed, and i could see other fans enjoying it as well.

A fun set of stories geared towards the younger fans of the franchise.