The novella “Magic of the Angels” by Jacqueline Rayner was published for the first time in 2012.
The Eleventh Doctor, Amy and Rory are having a tour around London that is a bit special because they’re having it as tourists. The Doctor never fails to comment on details derived from his adventures in the visited places and that cause their expulsion from all groups.
While on the roads they find several posters of missing girls, the three of them find a theater where a magic show is scheduled and decide to go watch it. The tickets have already been booked weeks earlier by the Doctor himself so they can go in and enjoy the tricks performed by Sammy Star. The magician makes his assistant disappear but the thing that worries the Doctor and his friends is that in the show he used a Weeping Angel.
The Weeping Angels are the most famous invention of the new “Doctor Who” series. Many fans consider them to be the scariest monsters in the show, even more than the Daleks, so much as to beat them in a poll conducted in 2012 by “Radio Times”. This success is due to their horror connotations since there’s no way to communicate with them and in their presence you have to literally keep your eyes open and on them. Blink and you’re dead!
Due to their characteristics, the Weeping Angels can be scary especially on television but it was inevitable that they were also used in some book related to “Doctor Who”. The novellas of the “Quick Reads” series include monsters introduced in the TV show because it’s assumed that the readers are already familiar with them and in books so short it’s useful to avoid having to introduce them.
In “Magic of the Angels”, the Eleventh Doctor, Amy and Rory face a Weeping Angel in a peculiar situation. The three of them discover it in what looks like a classic magic trick but soon realize that the disappearance of the assistant in theory performed ​​by the magician Sammy Star is not a trick.
In my opinion, the story works in some elements but it has shortcomings in others. I found the feeling of the TV show in the protagonists with the initially very playful atmosphere between the Eleventh Doctor, Amy and Rory. The parts concerning the two elderly women the three meet at the theater is well done because despite the short length of the book Jacqueline Rayner gives them some depth allowing the reader to sympathize with them.
Instead, I found the story lacking especially concerning the magician Sammy Star. Having a human being who is somehow allied with a Weeping Angel was an interesting idea but it would have deserved a much greater development. Instead, the character is sketchy and nothing is explained about his strange collaboration with the Weeping Angel.
The fact that the plot is overall predictable doesn’t help so in the end “Magic of the Angels” seemed to me decent but nothing more. I think the story deserved more development to reach the length of a normal “Doctor Who” book. As it is, it seems to me especially suitable to fans of the Weeping Angels.
“Magic of the Angels” is part of the “Quick Reads” series, consisting of very cheap books around 100 pages each. Buying those books connected to “Doctor Who” makes sense for fans who want to have anything related to the saga, for those who want to try to go beyond the television episodes and for those who want to just try to read a book that’s not too challenging.
While reading this review you kept your eyes open and focused on the image of the cover, right? 😉
