An archaeological expedition to Telos, the Cybermen’s home planet, is gatecrashed by the Doctor, Jamie, and Victoria. The Doctor warns the expedition of the perils of awakening the Cybermen from their tomb, but a megalomaniac cannot be reasoned with, especially one who thinks he is supremely logical…

Michael Kilgarriff was a good choice of narrator—he played the Cyber Controller in the original TV story, and he has a good audio voice—but the novelization itself seemed really slow. The book is 13 chapters long, and 8 chapters in there was no sign of Nicholas Briggs doing his usual excellent work as the voice of the Cybermen! Most of the story was taken up with expedition members variously panicking, dropping bombshells in an American accent, or being the aforementioned megalomaniac. I ended up watching the TV story instead so that I could declare the book finished. ( )

Typically, I try to pick up any Target novelization I see that's not by Terrance Dicks, especially if it's by the writer of the serial. The original writer typically adds something to the story I saw on television, a dimension they had in their head that didn't make it to screen. Gerry Davis does not does not do this. If anything, this is worse than the serial it is based on, which is already not a favorite of mine due to the fact that the story makes very little sense. Without the serial's strong direction, and thus its sense of spookiness/suspense and its excellent visuals, the story really has nothing going for it. At all. Even at a mere 140 pages, it wore out its welcome quickly.

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1028958.html?#cutid2

I have been unimpressed by Davis' previous Cyberman books, which were nothing like as good as my fond memories of them. But in this case, writing up what is certainly the best Cyberman story, Davis rose to the occasion and produced what is probably the best Cyberman book. He even succeeds in injecting Victoria with some gravitas, making her both courageous and assertive in total contrast to her screen character (he makes her blonde as well for some reason). It is not bad at all. ( )