Trace Memory

Fifth Torchwood tie-in novel, and the middle one of the trio released for the second season. This one has a couple of references which place it late in second season, but no spoilers, and you don't need to know anything but the basics about the universe to enjoy it.

Michael Bellini's a Cardiff dockhand, part of a workgang waiting to unload a ship late one night in 1953. A ship whose cargo includes a crate marked "Torchwood". A strange explosion leaves him in hospital, the only one of his mates to survive. But that's not the worst of his worries. There are the men who say they're from the union, but who are clearly government agents. They're not nearly as frightening as the men in black suits and bowler hats, who aren't men at all.

In the show more present day, a quiet Sunday in the Hub is interrupted by the intruder alarm. A young man has suddenly appeared in a locked room, and he's riddled with a strange form of radiation. It doesn't take long for the team to establish that he's a local boy, but out of time. Not so strange for Torchwood, but there's a twist -- they've all encountered Michael before. Owen was a junior doctor, learning the necessary art of forgetting about his patients at the end of the day. Tosh was a little girl in Japan. Gwen was on her first day with a new partner, and somehow feeling as if it was her first day in the police force. Ianto was in his second week at Canary Wharf, making friends with another recent starter called Lisa.

And Jack? Well, Jack's been with Torchwood a long, long time. His own encounter with Michael was out of hours, but he still knows something about Michael's first encounter with Torchwood, and the alien artefact that sent Michael leaping through time. And a few more things besides.

This is a beautifully constructed novel, which uses Michael's leaps back and forth through time to tell a solidly plotted story around Michael and the artefact, while giving some lovely backstory and characterisation for each of the main cast. Something I particularly liked is that we see the characters when they were younger, and in those scenes they feel like younger versions of themselves, before various things happened to them. There's also some good characterisation in the present-day scenes. The nature of the book means that all of the main cast get a good share of the word count.

This is my favourite of the novels so far. That's partly because it plays to things I like, but it's also because it's well written. And while the canonicity of the Whoniverse tie-in material is ambiguous, I think this one adds a little more depth to the Torchwood world, not just another monster-of-the-week story. show less

The season two Torchwood books are much, much different than the first season books. The new books actually have *our* characters (as we know them second season) and are about half the length. They are more fangirly and they are tied in to the show accurately. I couldn't say any of that for the first season books. Spoilers: Trace Memory was generic enough that I didn't spot any season two spoilers - I think you could read it before you watched season two entirely.

I liked this one - It was much more generic that Twilight Streets - Less fangirly moments, not a lot of canon references, much more plot driven. I liked the story, I thought it held together, I found it interesting from start to finish, and there were a few specific favorite show more moments. The characters seem very much themselves, even if we didn't get a lot of *extra* stuff. I wondered where this whole "Ianto is a Bond fan" thing had come from in the LJ groups... Now I know.

I was kind of intrigued by Jack in this one... We see him mostly in the past and he's that slightly cold, not-really-from-Earth, con-man Jack we sometimes get in flashbacks on the show... I've always found that interesting to watch. He does a few things in the story that hover on the edge of repulsing me (although I don't think the writer meant them to) - And I'll be hard pressed to exclude my impressions of him in this book from my "canon image" of him.

Respond (if you wish) at my LJ: http://agentxpndble.livejournal.com/298253.html show less

In 1953, three dockworkers died in an explosion of a strange piece of cargo in Cardiff. One survived but found himself jumping from one place and one time to another, pursued by two men called Valentine and Cromwell, and a group of bowler-hatted men. One day Torchwood Three in the present time find him - but each of them realises they have come across him (or in Ianto's case, those after him) before, and Jack seems to know how the situation will eventually resolve itself.

I liked the jumping across time aspect of the story and the glimpses into Gwen's, Tosh's and Ianto's previous encounters with Michael's case; glimpses into Owen's backstory make Owen's past even more confusing than it was, Jack's was fairly confusing too but not in a show more way to break your brain. show less

Several of my friends regularly watch/watched Dr Who and Torchwood. I managed to never get into Torchwood when it was on the air. I was familiar with the characters and concepts due to catching bits and pieces of the show or hearing friends discuss some point or other. I'm more of a reader than TV watcher, so I started reading this series as I was interested enough to see what it was all about. At first, I had assumed the novels would just retell the events from the TV show, but these are totally different stories. The books do occasionally touch on stuff that happened in the show as the events they portray sort of happen between episodes. After reading the first 12 novels in this series, I actually went back and watched the whole show, show more too, since I liked the characters so much. show less

Again, the second set of Torchwood books is much improved over the first three. This one is win in terms of plot.

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1803529.html

this sadly isn't one of the better examples - somewhat clunky prose in places, and the plot of The Time Traveller's Wife forced into the mould of the Torchwood format. (Unlike certain recent episodes of New Who, which have taken the concept in a totally new direction.) For completists and Ianto/Jack fans only, I think.

Absolutely Brillaint. Eeasily the best Torchwood book I've read so far.