there were moments reading this where I forgot that it isn't actually canon.

I'm not much of a New Who fan, so prefer not to acknowledge that the Time War even happened, but if I have to accept it, then this story has become canon for me. It's that good. In fact, I think it handles the Time War better than New Who would (because I'm just not that impressed with New Who's writing, despite, or maybe because of, its relentless "bigger is better!!" mentality).