where there's smoke there's--

Initially when I started reading The Missy Chronicles, I liked it. But then again, when you’re initially skimming through a book to understand it, you miss a few things. When I read it a second time to summarize the book, there were a few things that stood out to me that bothered me. And I was personally let down by some of the stories.

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Who is Ashildr?

When the Doctor and Clara meet Ashildr (played by Maisie Williams, best known for portraying Arya Stark on Game of Thrones) in Series Nine, Ashildr is a puppet-maker in a ninth-century Viking village. Although she feels like she doesn't fit in with the villagers and is their harbinger of bad luck, she defends the village she loves against an alien warrior race known as the Mire. She uses a Mire helmet to create a sea serpent illusion to scare the Mire away from her village. However, the helmet stops her heart and she dies. Unable to accept Ashildr's death, the Doctor takes a Mire repair kit, used by the Mire to continuously repair themselves in battle, and modifies it for a human. The repair kit not only revives Ashildr, it also makes her immortal. She eventually outlives the show's semi-immortal and immortal characters, making it to the end of time. There is a cost, though: outliving everyone she loves and her limited human memory makes her jaded to the point where she renounces names and calls herself "Me."

The Legends of Ashildr covers the period between "The Girl Who Died" and "The Woman Who Lived," presenting four tales where she travels the globe and gets into trouble. A theme persists in all of these stories: greed usually claims the lives of people, either innocent or deserving of death. And no matter how many people Ashildr meets on their travels, she's the last person standing in all of them.

A note: "The Arabian Knightmare" and "The Fortunate Isles" are written in third person while "The Triple Knife" and "The Ghosts of Branscome Wood" are written in first. Also, although "The Fortunate Isles" happens after "The Triple Knife," it's the second short story in this collection. It's an interesting editorial decision, but it didn't seriously hamper my reading of this book.

( The Arabian Knightmare )

( The Fortunate Isles )

( The Triple Knife )

( The Ghosts of Branscome Wood )

( Conclusion )