If you like peril by the pool then this is the book for you. Actually if you like anything else then this is also the book for you, I was simply commenting on where I personally read the book. In the foreword Jacqueline Rayner admits that this is the first Doctor Who book she wrote, and she believes it isn't her finest work. Even though I agree that she's written better (one of the first Doctor Who books I read was The Stone Rose, which I loved), Earthworld is in no way a bad read and I'd definitely read it again. You are thrust straight into the action and evidently this isn't Anji and Fitz's first adventure with the Doctor. I hope to read the previous story (Escape Velocity by Colin Brake) but, from reading Earthworld, I already know it's sad. Currently the Doctor is in the midst of amnesia, barely knowing how to use the sonic screwdriver or the TARDIS. Anji is also unfamiliar with the TARDIS, and you get the impression that this is her first time on an alien planet. She takes the role of audience surrogate, preferable to Fitz, who seemed to spend a lot of time wishing the Doctor would remember and seeing himself as the senior companion. As the book went on I did warm to him, and being from the sixties, he gave light to the number of inconsistencies present in the 20th Century Zone at Earthworld, a theme park on New Jupiter. They seemed to think that the 20th century happened all at once, mixing the post-Victorian with the 70s and everything else during that 100 years. They got the Police Boxes right (you can guess what happened with that!) and Coca Cola was still a very popular drink, but they saw Elvis as the King of Earth and decided that Roger Ackroyd was a real person (instead of a book character glimpsed in the episode The Unicorn and the Wasp). Messed up history is the theme which stuck with me from this novel, from mixed up queens to weird named foods (and if you want more you'd better read the book). But if you prefer teen terrorists, homicidal princesses, and plenty of twists, then you should definitely pick up a copy - I do recommend that you order online as it isn't widely available in bookshops, they obviously don't rate the Eighth Doctor quite as much as we do!