Doctor Who: Festival of Death - Jonathan Morris

A novel adventure for the Fourth doctor, this book was reprinted as part of the 50th anniversary of the franchise.

While it contains many elements that became "common" in the restarted series, back then the time-hopping and multiple time versions of one self was rather new in the story of the Doctor.

Plot

The Beautiful Death. The ultimate theme-park ride. For twenty galactic credits, you can find out what it's like to be dead.
But something has gone wrong. Visitors expecting a sightseeing tour of the afterlife have been transformed into mindless zombies, set on a killing rampage.
The TARDIS arrives in the aftermath of the disaster and, to the Doctor's baffled delight, he is immediately congratulated for saving the population from certain and terrible destruction.
The only problem is, he hasn't actually done it yet.
Aided and abetted by a drug-addled hippie lizard, a hard-hitting investigative reporter and a suicidal ship's computer, the Doctor has no choice but to travel back in time and discover exactly how he became a hero.
And then he finds out. He did it by sacrificing his life.

Opinion

The book is actually a nice rollercoaster ride, as time and time it gives the impression you`ll be jumping to the "correct time" to break the cycle, only to get yet another layer put over the whole storyline.  In total you have about 4 main Doctor timelines, of which two seem to converge every time, leading to close calls and as such putting in motion yet another one, but that turns out to be what was supposed to happen anyways.
While that sounds more complex then it is, think of the Matt Smith season that ended with the complete resetting of the universe, and how everything through the season hinted at that moment in the end.

Rating: 6 / 10