I have received and read the 73 Yards novelization. Spoilers for a lot of what stood out to me as different from the transmitted episode follow.
I liked it, but then I was always going to, unless Scott Handcock fucked it up and overexplained things. He didn't - the central premise is just as mysterious and unexplained as in the transmitted episode - but some other things were filled in. The first notable expansion comes during the scene in the pub Y Pren Marw - we get a lot more info about the patrons. So Joshua (the first guy to leave the pub and get terrified by The Woman), and the pub owner, Lowri, have been basically in love with each other their whole lives, but they waited too long to acknowledge it and by the time they had, Joshua was married and he felt it was too late. He still visited the pub every day, though, to see Lowri, at least until The Woman scared him away. He never returned to the pub again after that, we're told - even after Ruby and The Woman left, he still never went back. He and Lowry still occasionally saw each other, but drifted apart. Years later, when Ruby visits as an old woman (not yet The Woman herself, this is when she's being cared for in hospice or whatever it is in the UK), Ruby sees a message out of the corner of her eye that says "Love you, Josh..." in faded writing. I find this odd - Ruby read another message at the fairy circle right at the end of her life! Doesn't this mean she has transgressed against the fae again? Or is this somehow closing the circle somehow?
We also learn about the two young patrons of the pub. The young girl, Lucy, is in love with Ifor, the guy who was dressed kind of goth-y on TV. Lucy eventually confesses her love to Ifor, and he turns her down, but she still pines for him. Later, when Ruby reads Lowri's message at the fairy circle, she wishes that at least Ifor was happy, which I take to mean she wishes he comes out of the closet and lives as a proud gay man. It's never explicitly stated, but some of what we see on screen is expanded upon here. He says Mad Jack will get him first, and everyone there knows it - just like on TV. It seems everyone there, or at least most of them, know his secret.
Ruby being abandoned by her mom happens pretty much exactly as it does in the transmitted episode, even down to Mrs. Flood coming out, seeing what's going on, saying "...Nothing to do with me," and heading back inside. The book gives absolutely no hint whatsoever as to who she really is, and it's her only appearance.
We are told in the book how Ruby contacted UNIT - she went to UNIT tower and asked for help, and wasn't getting too far until she mentioned the Doctor and his TARDIS, at which point she is told to sit and wait, until eventually, a woman comes downstairs and asks if Ruby knows something about "the Professor." Ruby Sunday meets Ace, and has a brief chat with her! It's fairly insubstantial - and Ace is not present for the scene where UNIT tries to apprehend The Woman, and is not in the rest of the book, but it was lovely to make that connection. Ace works for UNIT sometimes, when she's not running her charity (this may have been canonized in The Power of the Doctor, but I can't remember, and don't feel like rewatching that mess).
We, frustratingly, don't learn all that much more about Roger ap Gwilliam. It really does seem his whole thing is he actually does want to launch nukes. Marti is still implied to be abused by him, and Ruby seems to know about it and seems to be friends with her to a degree, but doesn't stop Gwilliam until the stadium. There's a bit more detail about the world he gets elected in, though - it's ravaged by climate change, as one would expect for 2046. The stadium they hire out where the pivotal scene with The Woman scaring him off the Prime Minister job occurs has to be accessed by fording up overflowing rivers and such, not a hint of which was in the episode, but is a nice touch. We do get a bit of postscript for Gwilliam - he writes a book about his life, but lies about why he left politics. He said he was under threats and didn't want to give details so as to not risk his life again. The 73 Yards novelization says his life ended the way his political life began - with a lie, and that's it for Gwilliam.
The scene where Ruby dies and seemingly becomes The Woman is just as vague as in the transmitted episode. I'm fine with that - I don't want to be told that it really is the fae or some alien trap or whatever it might have been.
Overall, I enjoyed it. It won't replace the episode, not that I ever expected it to (nor, I'm sure, was it intended to) - the TV episode is far creepier and makes me uneasier than the book did. Still, it was a breezy read, and you may enjoy it if you liked the episode.
