Product Description

Doctor Whom, the grammatically correct TimeLord (or should that be Time Lord? Or is it Timelord?) has come to save our universe from the terror's of sloppy syntax and bad grammar. With his intrepid assistant Lynne: hes here to correct greengrocers sign's, popular fiction and government memos (memoes?) before inaccurate and lazy communication rips apart the very fabric of the space time continuum. Is it any wonder that the rise of global warming has coincided with the decline in the teaching of Latin in our schools? I do'nt think so. Will the Doctor save us all? or will his evil nemisises (nemisiss? nemisi?) The Dalek's triumph and rule over a universe where no-one has any clear idea of the correct usage of semi-colons?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #451643 in Books
• Published on: 2006-09-21
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 176 pages

About the Author
Adam Roberts is 40 and Professor of 19th century literature at London University. His first novel, Salt, was shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award. He has also published a number of academic works on both 19th century poetry and SF.

Customer Reviews

Misses The Mark
What a great idea - a Doctor Who/Eats, Shoots and Leaves parody. Unfortunately, this has not been written by a witty, erudite grammar Nazi and Doctor Who fan, but by someone with a talent for churning out wordcount but little else. Mel Brooks once said something along the lines of, "to effectively spoof something, you have to have detailed knowledge of the things you are spoofing". Sadly, 'Roberts' clearly has little interest in Doctor Who (shamelessly admitted in the appendix) and so misses out on the great potential for an affectionate or cutting send up, instead resorting to lazy tabloid journo cliche, a good fifteen years out of date. This is an overpriced and unfunny stocking filler that will only bore editors and Who fans alike if they're unfortunate enough to find it in their Chrimbo stockings. Avoid!

Laugh Out Loud
I actually read this book through twice. First time through I found it amusing, quite clever and a little confusing. Then my son got interested so I decided to read it to him as a bedtime story. Rather than read it as written, I put the chapters back into order for him and began. On reading it out loud it became a different book as so many of the jokes rely on 'hearing' the words. At times I was laughing so hard I couldn't get through the story much to my son's annoyance. For those who didn't enjoy it's first read through - try out loud.

Amusing
I must say i disagree entirely with the first review - as a doctor who fan with detailed knowledge of the show i still found this book witty, suitably parodical and i loved the layout of the chapters. It is sort of like a puzzle, finding the chapters and looking for the in-jokes. Who cares about the journo cliches? Why do cliches always have to be bad? Sometimes they work, and one of those times is in Doctor Whom.
Maybe for me it is just the perfect mix of two things i like: Doctor Who and English Language commentary (although admittedly there was less of that than i expected) but don't knock it until you've tried it!