Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Torchwood - Border princes , 15 Jan 2007
I've just finished reading the latest installment from the Torchwood series, and I have to say I am impressed at the way it sucked me in.
Several small tales are all explored throughout the book, all of which seem quite unrelated until they all neatly come together, weaving a complex and quite enjoyable storyline.
The plot mostly revolves around the well known members of the Torchwood team, including new addition James, who has more to him than meets the eye. This leads to the numerous twists and turns throughtout, and even thought the ending becomes quite predictable it is still an enjoyment to read.
I am now looking forward to reading the other releases in the series, and if this book is anything to go by I won't be able to put those down for a while either!
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointing, 22 May 2007
This was the 3rd Torchwood book I read and I'm glad I read it last otherwise I would not have bothered reading the other two which were brilliant!
I found the difference in attitude of the characters - from what I'd learnt about them on TV and in the other two books - to be extremely off-putting; they just didn't ring true and, to me, acted out of character. Cap'n Jack was quite a marginal figure and seemed very weak - not leadership material at all and not the cool, calm but witty hunk we know and love! He didn't seem to be in control much and we didn't hear that much about him or from him, which was most unexpected.
The introduction of the character James didn't work for me either and the fact that he and Gwen 'got it together' was a real shame; Gwen's love of Rhys provides one of the strongest links to 'reality' - he represents the rest of us - that the series has. It is her constant battle between what she sees and learns at Torchwood and the 'normal' everday life of her and Rhys - the way she adapts and reconciles the two and the constant wrestling of her conscience between them - that gives her such strength and adds humanity and compassion to the team. The loss of that throws us out of kilter - all without good reason as far as I could see. Maybe I just didn't 'get it'!
Still, it's far better than anything I could write so I guess I have no right to criticise!
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Entertaining - for Torchwood , 13 Feb 2007
After having finished this book and more than half of the third book of the set, I think I have read the books in the right order. "Another Life" is giving the basics of the series and also introduces the known background of the characters at the time of early Torchwood well. "Slow Decay" is looking at the Gwen/Rhys relationship more closely. Reading it after "Border Princes" gives that aspect of the book more impact. Nevertheless, all three books can be read in any order. They are stand-alone novels.
"Border Princes" is the least dark of the three novels. Some parts are surprisingly funny, sometimes in a twisted, sick way, but more than once I had to smile. Having a bad cold at the moment, especially one part of the book left me half amused and half disgusted. I enjoyed that but on the other hand, the book also contains more swearing than I would have liked sometimes, especially at the beginning. I know, Torchwood is aimed at adults, but nevertheless, I don`t consider excessive swearing to be clever or "adult".
What I mainly liked about the book is the idea that there are other, kind of Torchwoods. Mr. Dine is a great character and I kept hoping that he won`t be killed off. I wish Torchwood, the TV series, would have something like that: An alien who is basically a good guy, an ally but who is obviously coming from a very different world and is still learning to understand how our society works. I could also appreciate how powerful these people are and how dangerous they can be. The vast majority of Torchwood is about dangerous, often outright bad aliens and artefacts that cause death and misery. We get the dangerous artefacts also in this book but this was a refreshing change: If there will be more Torchwood books, I am hoping very much that we will meet Mr. Dine again.
That James is not who he seems to be is obvious from the beginning because he never was a member of the Torchwood team on TV. That also meant that the relationship between him and Gwen had to end badly and I didn`t expect him to survive the book. Soon after the first appearance of Mr. Dine I had a pretty good idea of what will happen next but nevertheless, there were a few surprises and the book never stopped to be an entertaining read.
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