Torchwood: Risk Assessment

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1964473.html

As usual, I very much enjoyed this Torchwood novel by James Goss. Unusually, it has a very strong comedic element, not something that Torchwood always managed successfully and not something I'd seen Goss try at all. The beautiful concept is that Agnes Havisham, a stern and sarcastic Victorian lady, emerges from decades of suspended animation to do an official assessment of Torchwood, at the same moment as two separate alien threats emerge to torment the innocent citizens of Cardiff. Unlike his first book, Almost Perfect, we get a pretty satisfying exploration of Jack's character from another perspective, and decent page time for Ianto, Gwen and Rhys too. Rhys gets a couple of particularly glorious moments. I felt the pacing of the plot a little uneven but the style very entertaining. ( )

The majority of authors who approach TV tie in work seem almost to be afraid of writing outright comedies, afraid perhaps of not getting invited back if they're taking the piss out of much beloved characters. James Goss has no such qualms, his second book taking Torchwood no more seriously than his first did. And as with that first book it's immediately enough to mark it out as amongst the better novels in the range. It centres around the resurrection of the Torchwood assessor, an event that happens only in time of severest crisis. Which sounds like a clumsy device by the author to try to make the events of the book more weighty, but ends up being quite the opposite.

Of the original elements, main guest character Agnes Havisham is a memorably sarcastic addition to the Torchwood universe, providing a fresh, withering perspective on the established cast. She's certainly devious and funny enough to warrant a return appearance. And the Vam is an ingenious threat which'd be fearsome if it wasn't played mainly for laughs. And ther are several unexpected story twists which end up answering the questions you should've been asking all the way through. What may at first appear to be funny but clumsy ends up funny and ingenious. The sort of book that ends up giving tie-ins a good name. ( )