Good enough until the twist occurred which bumped it up for me from a two-star book to a three. Just wish had gotten a bit more at the end. ( )

An interesting premise and a fairly quick read, but it just seemed to end rather to quickly and neatly. ( )

The Doctor is trying to bring Amy and Rory home for Christmas…and they land upon a breathtaking, properly bone-chilling winter with crunchy snow and clear black skies dotted with stars. But while it is the midwinter festival, it’s not home; it’s a colony of terraforming Morphans, whose climate is changing in ways they don’t understand, and who are encountering monsters that their spiritual guide does not seem to account for. Will the TARDIS crew be able to save the Morphans and help them withstand these freezing winters and continue the work of 27 generations?

This was a great story, not least because Rory gets his own storyline to work with. I always felt Rory was somewhat underused, and he is in fine form here. I like Amy too, don’t get me wrong, but if you’re one half of the Amy/Rory couple and you are not Amy, you’re bound to be overshadowed a bit.

I enjoyed the inclusion of a classic Doctor Who foe and the use of Christmas carols for each chapter title. I didn’t realize that the book title comes from O Little Town of Bethlehem! I learned something new from this book.

This story is a worthy addition to the 50th anniversary collection. ( )

It was a bit disorienting reading rather than watching Doctor Who, not something I do often, but this one was well written, enough that the characters for Amy, Rory and the Doctor from the book looked and sounded right. I liked the Ice Warriors a lot, and would love to see more of them. ( )

Since 2011, I've had an annual tradition of reading a Doctor Who Christmas book in December. Having exhausted the Christmas-themed Short Trips, I'm now onto The Silent Stars Go by, a novel featuring the eleventh Doctor, Amy, and Rory up against the Ice Warriors. It's not very Christmassy, to be honest, but it is pretty cold-- Abnett does a good job evoking the freezing cold. It's also quite fun: Abnett nails the character voices perfectly, and I even liked the Ice Warriors.