Product Description

Rose and the Doctor return to present-day Earth, and become intrigued by the latest craze the video game, Death to Mantodeans. Is it as harmless as it seems? And why are so many local people going on holiday and never returning? Meanwhile, on another world, an alien war is raging. The Quevvils need to find a new means of attacking the ruthless Mantodeans. Searching the galaxy for cunning, warlike but gullible allies, they find the ideal soldiers on Earth. Will Rose be able to save her family and friends from the alien threat? And can the Doctor play the game to the end and win? Featuring the Doctor and Rose as played by Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper in the hit series from BBC Television

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #121621 in Books
• Published on: 2005-05-19
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 288 pages

About the Author
Jacqueline Rayner made a wish that she could combine her degree in Ancient History with her profession as a writer, and The Stone Rose was the result. She has written several other Doctor Who novels including Winner Takes All. Other major interests include vegetarianism, girls’ comics, cats and Golden Age crime fiction.

Customer Reviews

Feels Like an Episode
Winner Takes All is a fast, enjoyable read, that feels like an episode from the wonderful new series. Jacqueline Rayner has done a great job of capturing Rose and the Doctor, as well as Mickey and Jackie, which is amazing when you consider she must have written it months before a single episode aired.

The story is straight forward enough; a video game, Death to Mantodeans has become the rage of Rose's old neighborhood. Alas, this game isn't just harmless fun, but a horrfying life and death struggle with insectoid aliens, who have a taste for human flesh, and some very nasty, king-size porcupines. Not to worry though, the Doctor will soon sort it out.

I've read two of the novels based on the new series, The Clockwise Man and Winner Takes All, and even though I think The Clockwise Man is the better, more satisfying story, this one is still a lot of fun. These books are just the thing to hold me over until the Christmas Special. More please, and bring on the Captain Jack stories!

Great Piece Of Writing
I think (like I said in the title) that this is a really good piece of writing! Jacqueline Rayner writes really well, keeping the Doctor and Rose completely in character almost all the time. It has an interesting plot line, although the story is again, based on Earth. It also brings Mickey and Jackie back into the story and the slight bickering between Mickey and the Doctor helps to bring more humour into the story.
There is a part that some people might find slightly confusing. One of the main characters in this particular story is a boy called Robert. To help himself in tricky situations, he likes to imagine that he's somewhere else, and someone else. He pretends that he's a hero of a story or something like that to help him forget his own life. I hope I've made that clear, but I rather liked that because it shows the range of different reactions people have when they're facing something frightening.
All in all, a great read, worth buying!

A Dismal Effort
Winner Takes all is the 3rd - and by far the least - of the new 9th Doctor and Rose novels. Not only is the storyline concerning aliens using a fake computer game to recruit human warriors derivative, but the plot is shot so full of gaping holes that it's unbelievable. The aliens are generic, with no distinguishing characterisation between different members of the same species, and the background for their planetary war is non-existent. Rayner's prose is mostly readable, but it can't hope to make up for this shoddy book so otherwise devoid of decent plot or character. The quality of Winner Takes All is so poor that I can only recommend it for the under-12's, but the fact that the author throws in a few questionable elements such as references to bondage and a decapitation scene mean that it probably isn't even suited for the young children it's aimed at. Appalling.