Torchwood: Another Life

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1790286.html

I listened to the audio version of this, the first Torchwood novel, three years ago, and didn't quite get into it - John Barrowman's audio skills have come on a lot recently but he didn't really engage me in the story when I was listening to it. The dead trees version, however, had me gripped - lots of good Torchwood stuff, a body-hopping alien, a spaceship which endangers Cardiff, a former lover of one of the team (Owen in this case), all against a gloomy backdrop of awful weather littered with variously dead bodies. I tried this one as an experiment, but now I think I'll get through the entire sequence. ( )

Fast flowing and verry visual wiriting.
A good extension of the tv-series. ( )

First of the Torchwood tie-in novels, and set a few weeks after the start of the series, i.e. after the second episode and before the fourth.

The book opens with a second-person role-playing game scenario -- except this game's not in the computer, and when the "you" loses a life and hopes for better luck next time, it's a real body that dies. Of course, it takes Torchwood a little longer to work out why their serial killer has just cheerfully committed suicide...

In a second story strand, Owen's been spending a lot of time in a more conventional multi-player game, though he's taking advantage of Torchwood technology, and Toshiko's technical skills, to ramp up the online experience a little. When he runs into an old girlfriend in the game and discovers that she's living in Cardiff, he sees it as both a personal and professional opportunity -- he wants to prove his theory that the game is a good initial screening tool for potential Torchwood recruits, and Megan's just the sort of person who would make a good recruit for Torchwood.

While Jack, Gwen and Tosh are tracking down who their serial killer was working with and what he's done with a set of stolen nuclear fuel rods, Owen and Megan stumble across part of the solution quite by chance. And all the while the rain pours down on Cardiff, as the Rift's latest problem plays havoc with the local weather system...

The mirrored plotlines make it obvious early in the book what's going on (intentionally so). But the real puzzle is who's doing it, and what their motive is. Anghelides carefully weaves the different strands together so that the reader can see the pieces falling into place, as what seem like separate stories start to interlock. By the end, what seemed like pieces of characterisation and scene-setting turn out to be crucial to Torchwood winning the day.

This is a nicely constructed novel, with an interesting story and good characterisations. There's a good spread of scenes across most of the characters, and even Ianto gets some nice characterisation vignettes, even though the book's set at a point in the series timeline when he was mainly a background character. Notably, that includes a fair bit of the flirty banter between Jack and Ianto that was in the tv episodes at this point in the timeline.

I liked this book a lot, and think a fair number of my friends would too. While it's a tie-in, Anghelides does a good job of working the universe set-up into the first few scenes, and I think the book should also work well for someone who hadn't seen the show, although obviously you'd get more out of it if you're already familiar with the characters.

It's also available as an audiobook read by John Barrowman, which I haven't heard. ( )

Title: Torchwood: Another Life
Author: Peter Anghelides
Genre: Science Fiction
Rating: 3½/5

Summary:

Something is taking over humans in Torchwood's hunting grounds and the weather over Cardiff goes berserk. It is once again time for Jack Harkness and his team to come to rescue and save the day.

And then some:

Pure entertainment. The characters are faithful to the series, the plot is decent, the description is good. Nothing spectacular or mind-blowing, but definitely a must read for anyone who's into the tv-series. ( )

I bought this book along with the two other Torchwood books, "Border Princes" and "Slow Decay" and the Doctor Who book "Made of Steel" from the Stansted airport Borders where a very friendly lady agreed to hold them for me while I went to withdraw more money from my account.

When I started reading it I was a bit worried (well, worry is maybe a little bit strong, but anyway) that the author wouldn't really go for the slashy aspects of the show, but I was happily proven wrong, because there were several bits of flirtation between Jack and Ianto and, well, Jack and other people too. [g]

I'm not that squeamish when it comes to books usually, but this author really managed to do descriptive in a way that I actually felt a little bit nauseated at one point. The dialogue seemed right in relation to the show and it was an enjoyable read. If you like the show, I think you'd like this book too. :) ( )