Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
hungry!, 15 Jan 2007
Torchwood: top secret cardiff based agency who protect the country from aliens and alien technology, and from the latter being misused. Most of it comes through a time rift in the city.
Recently finished it's first thirteen episode run on the bbc, and now we have some novels featuring the main characters.
So how does the show translate to prose?
Interestingly well. These are larger books than the doctor who ones, and have smaller print, although the page count is the same. And just the show, they feature sex violence and swearing, so don't put them alongside the doctor who books in the childrens section, wh smith!
They feel like grown up books, more so than the original doctor who novels that came out from 1991-2005 ever did. It did take me a little while to get into this book, but once I was on page 100 it really clicked.
A lot of exposition which is well handled introduces the characters, who are all well realised. Captain jack in particular comes over very well on the page when he isn't the viewpoint character. And there's some interesting back story for team member owen, and a look at parts of the torchwood base we never saw on screen.
The plot involves creatures and technology that came through the rift being misused. It would be a good but average tv episode, but in prose form it really took off and read very well.
I don't know if this would get you hooked on the tv show, but I enjoyed reading it, and will be getting the other ones
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Torchwood: Slow Decay, 18 Jan 2007
First off, i'm giving the book 5 stars but thats because i havent seen the show..., so i dont have anything to go by, but i did very much enjoy the book. Maybe the score should be about 4 and a half.
Well, i dont know if this is the 1st book out of the 3 that were released, but its the one i pick to read first. It was a great book, fo course i dont know if all the characters in the book are the same as they are on tv, since i live in the USAi dont get the show. Maybe they'll show it on the sci-fi channel as they did with series 1 & 2 of Doctor who. I went of a few websites and read that Captain Jack was alot more darker as well as the show, and that the show was more for adults, then kids. As Doctor Who is aimed toward everyone.
So as for as Captain Jack he is alot more darker and less human (then in the Dr. who series and the 3 books) The feel of slow decay is pretty dark, scary...but i loved it. Cant wait to read the other 2 books. Hopefully we can find out why Jack became how he is now, find out more about the team members he has assembled at torchwood, because i love the other characters, i want to know more about Ianto, Toshiko, and Owen, they just make my think that something about them will come up...at some point, and i'll see who they really are. Andy Lane did a great job, cant wait to see if he write more books for the series.
As for seeing a lighter side of Captain jack when he was on Dr Who, read The Stealers of Dreams (which was good had alot of him in there, and gave an insight on who he is, just a little..not too much) or Only Human (didnt have him in the as much as i would have liked but still good...Now, Deviant Strain that was beyond great...A great Captain jack book, as well as Rose and the Doctor.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A pleasant surprise, but not perfect, 15 Jan 2007
I was pleasantly surprised by this book. I felt that the TV series, after a great start, got a bit 'giggly' and overexcited about the fact it could have swearing and some bare flesh in it, as if it had been written by a teenager. I thought the books might suffer similarly, but this book doesn't. It's written very well, with an adult tone that enjoys the smut and gore without getting lost in it. It is not quite as well developed as many of the books in the old BBC Books range of Eighth Doctor novels, but at least it's not as childish as the new BBC Tenth Doctor range.
You do get the feeling that this book was written in a bit of a hurry, without the writer knowing too much about the background of each of the characters, as it's not particularly well fleshed out. It's not bad considering the author can't have had too much time to write it and it's one of the first in the series, though. Maybe the characterisation will improve now that people are more familiar with the series.
The plot does feel a bit restricted, considering that the events have to take place inbetween TV episodes, without anything major enough happening that would cause continuity problems in the series. So you get this inevitable feeling that there will be a 'reset switch' that will make everybody conveniently forget everything at the end of the story. Thankfully, that's avoided as well.
I picked this book up cheap not expecting much from it, but I'm glad I checked it out.
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