The latest in the series of Faction Paradox audio adventures from Magic Bullet Productions was released in late November. Once again written by series creator Lawrence Miles, Words from Nine Divinities continues the story of the time-travelling voodoo cult and the rise of Sutekh the Destroyer.

A brand-new anthology of short stories featuring Iris Wildthyme, the character who first appeared in Paul Magrs' Doctor Who novels for BBC Books, has been announced.

Due to be published in late spring 2009, Iris Wildthyme and the Celestial Omnibus is hoped to be the prelude to a series of Iris Wildthyme novellas, which would "only be available in a limited, numbered and autographed run".

A website to promote the books has been set up at obversebooks.co.uk, with visitors able to sign up for news on the publications.

All reports in this section refer to US releases.

• The 4400
  Details of the two books intended to tie-up the loose ends left after the cancellation of the television series have now started to emerge.
  
  The third title in the book series will be Welcome to Promise City, which will pick things up after the conclusion of the final episode, The Great Leap Forward. Written by Greg Cox, who also wrote the first novel, The Vesuvius Prophecy, it is due to be published in July 2009.
  
  The fourth book will be Promises Broken from David Mack, which, according to a recent interview he gave at comicmix.com, he is approaching it "as if it were The 4400's explosive grand finale". And unless sales have been good enough for further books, it certainly will be!
• V
  Completely under the radar of this site, a new edition of the original V novelisation was published by Tor Books in October 2008.
  
  Retitled V: The Original Miniseries, the book has now acquired a credit for original script writer Kenneth Johnson, presumably in connection with what is advertised as "an all-new, never-before-seen revised ending". The book is available on both sides of the Atlantic in both paperback and hardback. Full details can be found on the V page.

The release of The Way Back and Cygnus Alpha, the two audio books based on the first Blake's 7 novelisation by Trevor Hoyle, has now been moved back to April.

Details of yet another Doctor Who audio book have now started to appear online. Doctor Who and the Cybermen, a reading of Gerry Davis' novelisation of the Second Doctor tale The Moonbase, is due to be released in April 2009.

As a tie in to the recent release of Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale, BBC Books have created a special website with additional information and extra features at www.thewriterstale.com. Amongst all these goodies are downloadable PDF copies of Russell T Davies' six most recent scripts for the television series: Voyage of the Damned, Partners in Crime, Midnight, Turn Left, The Stolen Earth and Journey's End.

Finally, UK supermarket chain Tesco are now stocking another box set of Doctor Who books, this time comprising The Pirate Loop, Wishing Well, Peacekeeper and Revenge of the Judoon. With the exception of Revenge of the Judoon, this is the first time that these titles have been available in paperback. The set is currently selling in store for £5.

A certain amount of confusion seems to have arisen over the latest set of novelisations based on The Sarah Jane Adventures, with several retailers (amazon.co.uk / play.com) claiming that four new titles have been released, and most of the rest only listing the two based on Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane? and The Lost Boy.

However, there are indeed four new books now available to buy in shops, with the two mystery titles being The Last Sontaran and Day of the Clown — based on the first two stories from Season 2 of the television series.

Further details of the next original Doctor Who audio story to be released by BBC Audiobooks have now started to appear. Somewhat surprisingly, The Nemonite Invasion has been penned by David Roden, writer of the notoriously bad Dimensions in Time sketch, which was produced for BBC1's Children in Need appeal in 1993. The identity of the narrator has yet to be announced, although it will once again be a member of the television cast. The story is currently due to be released in February 2009.

Also due for release are four new readings of Doctor Who books in March 2009 — abridged versions of September's three Tenth Doctor books (Ghosts of India / Shining Darkness / The Doctor Trap), and an unabridged reading of Doctor Who and the Masque of Mandragora. The latter title is, of course, based on one of the novelisations released by Target Books in the 1970s. Narrators for the four releases have yet to be announced.

The latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine (Issue #401) has announced the titles of the Tenth Doctor novels due to be published in September 2009. The three books are: The Taking of Chelsea 426 by David Llewellyn; Autonomy by Daniel Blythe; The Krillitane Storm by Christopher Cooper.

The four new Iris Wildthyme audio adventures being released by Big Finish Productions between February and May 2009 will also be available as a Complete Season 2 boxset.

German fans of Primeval might want to start saving their Euros, as translations of the first two books in Titan Books' series of original novels are due for release early in 2009. Im Schatten des Jaguars (Steven Savile's Shadow of the Jaguar) is published in January, with Die Insel Jenseits der Zeit (Paul Kearney's The Lost Island) following in March.

A brief interview with Torchwood and Sarah Jane Adventures script writer Joseph Lidster in Issue #401 of Doctor Who Magazine mentioned that he has now completed work on his original Torchwood audio book, which had been delayed by his work on A Day in the Death for Season 2 of Torchwood and the Lost Souls radio drama. In the Shadows has now been re-listed at amazon.co.uk and is due to be released in March 2009.

Also now starting to appear in online catalogues is the next batch of Torchwood books, currently due to be published in May 2009. The three titles are: Into the Silence by Sarah Pinborough; The House That Jack Built by Guy Adams; Bay of the Dead by Mark Morris.

After quite a delay, The Colour Of Magic: The Illustrated Screenplay is finally due to be published in hardback by Gollancz in November. A paperback edition from the same company is due out in April 2009.

The most recent issue of Doctor Who Magazine (#400, out now!) has revealed that the first Doctor Who audio book of 2009 will be an unabridged reading of Doctor Who and the Abominable Snowmen.

Released in February, Terrance Dicks' 1974 novelisation will be read by David Troughton, son of Patrick Troughton, and who has recently been seen on the small screen playing Professor Hobbes in the television episode Midnight.

Also forthcoming are two new Short Trips anthologies from Big Finish Productions. Short Trips: Christmas Around the World is edited by Xanna Eve Chown and is due to be released in December 2008, while Short Trips: Indefinable Magic is edited by Neil Corry and is due for release in March 2009.

Also announced in the latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine was the news that Big Finish Productions will be releasing four new audio adventures featuring the somewhat controversial character of Iris Wildthyme, who first appeared in a number of Doctor Who novels by Paul Magrs.

Released monthly from February 2009, the four titles are: The Sound of Fear by Mark Michalowski, Land of Wonder by Paul Magrs, The Two Irises by Simon Guerrier, and Invasion of the Pandas by Mark Magrs.

As with the two previous audio plays from November 2005, Iris will be voiced by Katy Manning.

Rather unexpectedly, Fantom Films have announced a series of unabridged audio books based on the Time Hunter series of novellas released by Telos Publishing between 2003 and 2007.

The series featured the characters of Emily Blandish and Honoré Lechasseur, who were originally created by Daniel O'Mahony for The Cabinet of Light, the June 2003 Doctor Who novella from Telos.

The first two audios will be The Cabinet of Light and Lance Parkin's The Winning Side, which launched the Time Hunter series proper. The former has been read by Terry Molloy, with the latter being narrated by Louise Jameson. Both titles will be released in November 2008 and will be available on CD from Fantom Films themselves, and also as downloads from the likes of audible.co.uk and iTunes.

A second set of titles is due to be released in February 2009.

The third and fourth titles in Titan Books' series of original Primeval novels are due to be published early next year to coincide with the broadcast of Season Three of the television series.

Dan Abnett's Extinction Event will be released in January 2009, with Simon Guerrier's Fire and Water following a month later.

A recent news report at horizon.org.uk (the web site of the Blake's 7 Appreciation Society) has cast some light on two mystery audio books which have recently been listed at amazon.co.uk.

Due out in January 2009, the two items will comprise a full reading of Trevor Hoyle's first novelisation based on the series, which was simply titled Blake's 7. The first audio volume will be read by Gareth Thomas and cover the episodes The Way Back and Space Fall. Paul Darrow will then be stepping up to the microphone to read the sections of the book covering Cygnus Alpha and Time Squad.

A further two entries in the Darksmith Legacy series of books from Penguin have now been listed at amazon.fr. The Art of War by Mike Tucker is due for release in August 2009, with Justin Richards' The End of Time being released in October 2009.

Details have also emerged of the readers for the three audio books contained in the forthcoming New Adventures box set, released in October. The three Tenth Doctor stories are based on the books published in April 2008. Martha in the Mirror is read by Freema Agyeman. Geogia Moffett (Jenny in The Doctor's Daughter) is responsible for Snowglobe 7, while David Troughton (Professor Hobbes in Midnight) reads Dale Smith's The Many Hands.

The forthcoming original audio book Shatter Point has undergone a change of title and will now be released as The Ghost House, with actress Elisabeth Sladen taking on narrating duties.

Meanwhile, the twelve-part second season of the television series is due to start on BBC One at 1635 on 29 September, with the first part of The Last Sontaran. Like last year, viewers with access to the digital CBBC channel will be able to see the next episode at 1715.

A somewhat quieter month for hard news than usual, but several details on releases for 2008/9 have come to light.

Although no details have been officially announced, a third original Doctor Who audiobook has materialised in amazon.co.uk's listings, with a provisional release date of January. Online listings are aso showing that the Forever Trap audio book in October will be narrated by Catherine Tate, who has recently left the television series.

Two further entries in the Darksmith Legacy series of books from Penguin have also been listed at amazon.fr: The Planet of Oblivion by Justin Richards, and The Picture of Emptinesss by Jacqueline Rayner.

The Doctor Who and the Time Warrior audio book has now apparently been moved back to November.

And finally, the New Zealand Doctor Who Fan Club have now uploaded a PDF version of their unofficial novelisation of the 1979 television story City of Death.

The latest issue of SFX magazine has reported that a sequel novel to the classic 1970s children's drama is in the pipeline, with hopes for an eventual television adaptation at some point later. Although this sounds like an exciting prospect, it should be remembered that a sequel was first mooted some years back when the DVD was released.

Further details of the Doctor Who books planned for release next year have continued to emerge, with 2009's volume in the Quick Reads series being confirmed as The Sontaran Games. Written by Jacqueline Rayner, the Tenth Doctor title is due for release at the end of February and like the previous three titles will cost just £1.99.

Elsewhere, it appears that Penguin Character Books have abandoned their series of Decide Your Destiny books in favour of a series of linked titles which are being released between January and May 2009. Titled The Darksmith Legacy, the six books are being written by Justin Richards (two books), Colin Brake, Richard Dungworth, Stephen Cole and Trevor Baxendale.

With BBC One's new adaptation of Terry Nation's Survivors novelisation due on air this coming autumn, it's probably not too surprising that a publisher has managed to sneak a new edition of what is a rather rare and expensive title onto their lists. Retailers are currently showing the new Orion paperback as being scheduled for release in November 2009, but as the series itself should be shown before Christmas 2008, this is more than likely a mistake. As yet there is no news on whether John Eyers' sequel, Genesis of a Hero, will also be reprinted.

• The 4400
  In a move which will certainly gain much applause from fans of the abruptly cancelled series, it has emerged that books three and four in the new range from Pocket Star will be set after the conclusion of Season Four, hopefully meaning that some (if not all) of the loose ends left dangling when the series finished will be resolved. Although details of the storylines haven't yet been announced, it is known that the third book will be written by Greg Cox, with the fourth title being penned by Dave Mack.
• The X-Files
  With The X-Files: I Want to Believe now released, it appears that Titan Books in the UK are expecting a renewed surge of interest in the series. To accompany their release of the movie novelisation, Titan have also re-issued all six of the original X-Files novels released in the 1990s, complete with new photographic covers.

With BBC One's Doctor Who output in 2009 consisting solely of four specials, it appears that BBC Books will be doing everything they can to keep the series in people's thoughts, with the three books due for release in April 2009 all featuring old enemies of the Doctor. The three titles are: Judgement of the Judoon by Colin Brake, The Slitheen Excursion by Simon Guerrier, and Prisoner of the Daleks by Trevor Baxendale.

As already noted below, the latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine (#397) includes one of twenty-seven different Doctor Who books, all of which were published between the 1970s and 1990s. The full list of titles are:

First Doctor (William Hartnell)
Marco Polo / The Time Meddler / Galaxy Four / Doctor Who and the Tenth Planet

Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton)
Doctor Who and the Cybermen

Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee)
The Curse of Peladon / Doctor Who and the Mutants / Doctor Who and the Green Death / Doctor Who and the Time Warrior

Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker)
Doctor Who and the Invisible Enemy / Doctor Who and the Power of Kroll / Doctor Who and the Armageddon Factor / Doctor Who and the Creature from the Pit / Meglos / Logopolis

Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison)
Castrovalva / Time-Flight / Warriors of the Deep

Sixth Doctor (Colin Baker)
The Twin Dilemma / Mission to Magnus

Seventh Doctor (Sylvester McCoy)
Delta and the Bannermen / Dragonfire / The Greatest Show in the Galaxy / Survival.

Non-Fiction
The Making of Doctor Who / Terry Nation's Dalek Special / K9 and Other Mechanical Creatures

The same issue of Doctor Who Magazine has also revealed that the narrator for November's Doctor Who and the Green Death audio book will be Katy Manning, who played Jo Grant in the television series between 1971 and 1973 and who made her final appearance in the story in question.

Details of the next issue of Doctor Who Magazine have now started to emerge, and it appears that they will be running a similar giveaway to SFX last year, with each copy of Issue #397 (out Thursday, 26 June) being accompanied by one of twenty-seven different titles from the Target range of Doctor Who books, which were published between the 1970s and 1990s.

Presumably another warehouse full of the long out-of-print titles has been unearthed!

Editor Tom Spilsbury has confirmed online that this includes twenty-four different Doctor Who novelisations, with the remaining three titles being: The Making of Doctor Who, K9 and Other Mechanical Creatures and Terry Nation's Dalek Special.

The twenty-sixth release in the Big Finish series of Doctor Who anthologies will be Short Trips: How the Doctor Changed My Life. The volume is edited by Simon Guerrier and is due to be published in September.

A second box set of Doctor Who novels is now available to buy from thebookpeople.co.uk. Like the earlier set, the ten Tenth Doctor titles are all available in paperback for the first time and include: The Art of Destruction, The Price of Paradise, Sting of the Zygons, The Last Dodo, Wooden Heart, Forever Autumn, Sick Building, Wetworld, The Pirate Loop and Wishing Well.

The four Bernice Summerfield audio dramas for 2008 have now been scheduled, and are being released at the rate of one a month from late June.

And new to the schedule is a hardback book titled Professor Bernice Summerfield and the Vampire Curse. The title contains three novellas, by Mags L Halliday, Kelly Hale and Philip Purser-Hallard respectively, and is due to be released in December.

In a recent interview at UnrealitySF, author Gary Russell revealed that he was working on several new Sarah Jane Adventures novelisations, and it would now appear that these will be two of four new books which are due for release at the start of November.

The first two titles are Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane? and The Lost Boy, novelisations of the final two stories from Season One of the television series, by Rupert Laight and Gary Russell respectively. Books seven and eight in the series, as yet untitled, are being written by Russell and Phil Ford — presumably novelisations of the first two stories from Season Two, which is due on air this autumn.

Also released the same month are two more in the series of original audio stories. Shatter Point is written by Stephen Cole, while Time Capsule is by Peter Anghelides. The narrators have yet to be revealed.

The readers of the three Doctor Who audio books due for release in July have now been revealed. The Pirate Loop is read by Freema Agyeman, Wishing Well is read by Debbie Chazen, with Peacemaker being narrated by Will Thorp.

The second title in Titan Books' series of original Primeval novels will be The Lost Island by Paul Kearney, and is currently due for release in October 2008. The ten-part third season of the television series is currently filming and is due on ITV1 early in 2009.

Details of the Doctor Who novels due to be released in January 2009 have now started to appear online. The three titles are: Beautiful Chaos by Gary Russell, The Eyeless by Lance Parkin, and The Story of Martha by Dan Abnett.

All three authors are new to the New Series Adventures, although Russell and Parkin have both previously written novels for the defunct ranges from Virgin and BBC Books. In the case of Dan Abnett, The Story of Martha is his first Doctor Who novel, although he has previously contributed Border Princes to the Torchwood range and wrote a number of comic strips for Doctor Who Magazine in the 1990s.

Interestingly, The Story of Martha is apparently set between the television episodes The Sound of Drums and Last of the Time Lords, and covers the year in which Martha travelled the world spreading news of the Doctor during the Toclafane invasion.

All reports in this section refer to US releases.

• Babylon 5
  A new set of three books, going under the title Other Voices, is being released as a follow-up to the recent fifteen-volume series of books which contained all of J Michael Straczynski's scripts to the regular Babylon 5 television series.
  
  The first volume, containing scripts by Larry DiTillio, DC Fontana, David Gerrold, Marc Scott Zicree and Christy Marx, was released in May with the remaining books due out in June and July respectively.
  
  As with the earlier books, the three Other Voices volumes will only remain available for a limited time and will be withdrawn from sale after September 2008.

Details of the next batch of Torchwood novels have now become available. The three titles are: Pack Animals by Peter Anghelides, SkyPoint by Phil Ford, and Almost Perfect by James Goss. All three are due to be released in November 2008, with the first two set during Season Two of the television series. Almost Perfect is set after the events of Exit Wounds, the final episode of Season Two.

Pack Animals will be Peter Anghelides' second book for the Torchwood range after January 2007's Another Life, while Phil Ford will be best known to Doctor Who fans for his work on the spin-off television series The Sarah Jane Adventures, for which he wrote Eye of the Gorgon and The Lost Boy for Season One.

Also due for release later in the year is the third in BBC Worldwide's series of original Torchwood audio books. In the Shadows is written by Joseph Lidster, who scripted A Day in the Death for Season Two of the televison series.

Lidster has also written a one-off Torchwood radio play which is due to be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 sometime during the summer, and which will tie in with the switching on of the new Large Hadron Collider particle accelerator at CERN in Switzerland. The story will be set after the conclusion of Season Two and will feature all of the surviving Torchwood members as well as Freema Agyeman who will once again be reprising her Doctor Who and Torchwood role of Martha Jones.

Details of the narrators for a number of BBC Worldwide's forthcoming Doctor Who audio books have now started to become available. Tom Baker will be stepping up to the microphone for the Pyramids of Mars, with Barry Letts due to read his own novelisation of The Daemons, and Jeremy Bulloch due to do the honours for The Time Warrior, in which he played the role of Hal on television.

The latest Faction Paradox audio drama, Body Politic, has finally been released by Magic Bullet.

Details of October's two Doctor Who audio books have started to appear at online retailers, and would seem to be readings of Malcolm Hulke's Doctor Who and the Green Death, and Terrance Dicks' Doctor Who and the Time Warrior. The identities of the narrators have yet to be revealed.

Rather unexpectedly, the New Zealand Doctor Who Fan Club have followed up their unofficial novelisations with a new downloadable version of Jim Mortimore's Campaign, the First Doctor novel which was commissioned by BBC Books as part of their Previous Doctor Adventures range and then rejected upon delivery. Weighing it at a hefty 13.9MB, the PDF file also includes extensive notes by the author.

All reports in this section refer to US releases.

• The 4400
  Hot on the heels of the cancellation of The 4400 after four seasons comes the news that Pocket Books will be publishing a series of four original novels.
  
  The first book to be released, in June 2008, will be Greg Cox's The Vesuvius Prophecy which, according to comments by the author online, will be set immediately after the Season Three episode Graduation Day. Wet Work by Dayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore will follow in October 2008 and is set between the episodes Carrier and Rebirth.
  
  As yet there is no news on books three and four.
• The X-Files
  A paperback novelisation of The X-Files: I Want to Believe, the second movie based on the television series, is due for release at the end of July, a month before the movie itself goes on release. Written by Max Allan Collins, the book is being published in the United States by HarperEntertainment, with the UK edition being released by Titan Books.

With the new series of Doctor Who now well under way on BBC One, the coverage in the Radio Times continues to be as extensive as ever. And as part of that coverage, the next issue (26 April — 2 May) will include the first of the two CDs from David Tennant's reading of The Resurrection Casket, Justin Richards' April 2006 novel featuring the Tenth Doctor and Rose Tyler. The concluding part will be included with the following issue.

The narrators for the next two Doctor Who audio books have now been announced. Black Orchid is being read by Michael Cochrane, who played Lord Cranleigh in the television story, while Doctor Who and the Auton Invasion is being read by Caroline John, who made her debut in the television story (Spearhead from Space) as Liz Shaw.

The New Zealand Doctor Who Fan Club have now uploaded their unofficial novelisation of the Fifth Doctor story Resurrection of the Daleks.

As most readers of Doctor Who fiction should be aware, five of the television Doctor Who stories between 1963 and 1989 were never novelised by Target Books. During the 1980s and 1990s the New Zealand Doctor Who Fan Club published their own unofficial novelisations of these stories, and four of the five titles are now available online in PDF format. The final novelisation, City of Death, is expected to go online sometime in the next few months.

Yet another audio book based one of the Doctor Who Target novelisations has been announced, resulting in a re-shuffle of forthcoming titles.

Doctor Who and the Auton Invasion will now be joining Black Orchid in June, with Doctor Who and the Daemons and Doctor Who and the Pyramids of Mars now both scheduled for release in August.

Details of the narrators have yet to be revealed.

The latest Doctor Who special from SFX (Collection #33, £5.99, on sale now!) includes a copy of 2007's Quick Reads book Made of Steel, featuring the Tenth Doctor, Martha Jones and the Cybermen.

Some further details have now become available about the forthcoming reading of Charles Chilton's first Journey into Space novelisation. The book is being narrated by William Hope and, as can be seen from the image to the right, the cover utilises the artwork from Pan's 1958 paperback release.

Of further interest to fans of the classic radio series will be the news that a brand-new, one-off episode will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April.

As viewers of BBC Four's recent Auntie's War on Smut documentary will have seen, despite being over 90, Chilton is still firing on all cylinders, and has returned to his most famous creation. Journey into Space: Frozen in Time has been produced for the Saturday Play slot, and the hour-long drama will be broadcast from 1430 on 12 April.

Rather unexpectedly, online book sellers thebookpeople.co.uk are now stocking a set of all three of the Torchwood novels from 2007 (Another Life / Border Princes / Slow Decay) at the knock-down price of £4.99. As with their exclusive set of ten Doctor Who novels last year, the titles are in paperback, whereas the normal retail versions are all hardbacks.

The company are also currently offering a box set of all twelve current Doctor Who: Decide Your Destiny game books at a significant saving.

The latest updated listings at Amazon.co.uk would seem to indicate that the next audio book based on one of the Target Doctor Who novelisations will be Doctor Who and the Pyramids of Mars. It is currently scheduled for release in August.

Fans of The Prisoner, who may have been concerned that the recent novel Miss Freedom would only be available as a limited edition hardback, can rest easy as a paperback edition will be released, although no specific date has yet been revealed.

The most recent issue of Doctor Who Magazine (#392) saw the announcement that the three novels released in September will be the first to feature new regular companion Donna Noble, who will be joining the Tenth Doctor aboard the TARDIS in the forthcoming series — currently expected to be shown from late March or early April. The three titles are: Ghosts of India by Mark Morris, Shining Darkness by Mark Michalowski, and The Doctor Trap by Simon Messingham.

Also announced was a reading of Terence Dudley's 1986 novelisation Black Orchid, due for release in July alongside the previously announced Doctor Who and the Daemons. The following month sees the release of audio books based on the Tenth Doctor novels The Pirate Loop, Wishing Well and Peacemaker.

Completely out of the blue, Powys Media have announced that the second title in their series of original Prisoner novels will be released on 15 February. Miss Freedom, by Andrew Cartmel, is being released as a signed and numbered limited edition. There is currently no news on what has become of The Other, Lance Parkin's novel which was originally due to have been the second book in the series.

A prelude to the new Faction Paradox novel Newtons Sleep has now been made available to download from the Random Static website in PDF format.

Confession time. With a series of novelisations shortly to begin release from Puffin, it appears that the first in a new series of original adult novels from Titan Books has been overlooked. Shadow of the Jaguar, by Steven Savile, is published in hardback in May. Full details have now been added to the Forthcoming Releases page.

The audio book of Barry Letts' Doctor Who and the Daemons novelisation now appears to have been rescheduled for June 2008.

David Llewellyn's February 2008 novel, which recently saw its title online changing from Back Stories to Horaizan, appears to have been re-titled again, with the cover image showing the book to now be called Trace Memory.