Love the characters, the story lines, all of it. Well, for the most part, I didn't.
Another Life (Torchwood, book 1) by Peter Anghelides
The plot kind of dragged. One that had my fiber-arts loving back up was "crotchet edge". Completely and utterly jarring. At first I thought it might be to have an obvious distinction between our heroes and the bad guy, except it happened in hero moments, too. I did like the portrayal of the crew.
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Tosh might have had a little more spunk to her than what I remember her having around the time this story supposedly plays out, but I liked it. Jun 07, Writerlibrarian rated it it was ok Shelves: For the fan of the series the book is a nice tie over until series 2 begins. There are three books so far. Another Life is set before Cyberwoman. If you haven't seen the series some of Ianto's behavior will not ring a bell for you. The plot is interesting but the pace is very slow. The characters' introduction are minimal. The author assumes that the readers know the players.
Which is not a bad thing, it cuts on the repeats. The plot is slow to begin and not all the strands of the story fit nicely. But overall it's a interesting read. Not as good as some fan stories but definitely worth a look if you are a fan of the series. Yes, Jack harasses Ianto just like in the series. Jul 11, Tom Malinowski rated it it was amazing. This is the first time I've read a book based off a TV series. What a thrilling, captivating read. Anghelides definitely captured the characters well. The book takes place within a few months of Gwen joining the team, so I was in for a great flashback of the time when these five were all working together.
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Just because there are so many episodes of the show, doesn't mean that those were the adventures Torchwood was limited to. Great subplot concerning 'Second Life' game and how Tosh's knowledge of technology can tweak that for an even immersive environment. Dec 19, melydia rated it liked it. Cardiff is flooding and people are dying horribly and Owen is reconnecting with an old flame via a cross between Second Life and World of Warcraft.
It was fun to see the old gang back together again, even back to before Rhys knows anything about Gwen's new job. If you like the early seasons of Torchwood, you'll like this little adventure, but like many books based on a TV program, it does not stand on its own. Jun 04, Shelley rated it it was amazing Shelves: Lots of sexy, snarky Jack in this one, which is worth an extra star right there.
Torchwood--Another Life
Ianto has some great lines, too, especially in banter with Jack. Maybe that deserves another star. Some of the VR scenes are incredibly hysterical - Ianto's tail! All in all, fairly decent and I hope he writes more in the series this year.
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John Barrowman really brought this book to life in the audiobook version. It made it all the more precious as a season 1 Torchwood tale. Jan 05, Holly rated it really liked it Recommends it for: I can't help it, I love Jack Harkness. The story here is interesting and Jack is very Torchwood-Jack-- mysterious, cryptic, and bizarrely in love with the s. Oct 14, Miriam rated it liked it Recommends it for: Having read my way through all the Doctor Who novels I had available — five actually — I needed something to read for the remaining two weeks of the month until the new moth would renew my book budget.
So I remembered having bought the first five Torchwood books as hardcovers a few years ago. Now I know that Torchwood is actually quite different from Doctor Who. Darker, grittier, more dystopian and certainly much more violent. So, I knew what to expect with Torchwood and I still had problems to get through this book. Maybe the writing was the problem. For more than half of the book it seemed an effort to read it. The pace was slow, meandering, never really getting to the point.
Then there was so much subplot that never seemed to connect to the main plot. Having finished the book I now know this was all build-up for the climax, view spoiler [with Owen falling victim to the alien. Like the whole Second Reality thing. While it was nice to show Tosh as the techno geek who can program almost everything, this could have been cut a lot shorter without losing something for the story. A little more pace and timing would have done the story good, because the idea was really good and promising. The Point of View varies with a huge portion falling to Gwen and Owen.
Maybe it was this to, what made the book difficult for me, since those two are not my favourite characters in the show. There is not much to say about the worldbuilding. But that was carefully done and totally in-world. With the Characters, the question is the same. Do they feel right? Do they sound right? Well, they are and at the same time, they are not.
They are recognisable all right, but they seemed slightly off. As if the author had to write them from script and had never been able to watch any off the episodes before he had to finish the book. The characters all feel kind of flat. But there was nothing more to her. No real life, no feeling. Just like those figures in a shadow play, where you can see the outline, but nothing more. Same — worse even — with Ianto. It seemed even more extreme than in the series.
Plus in the end I got the impression, the author diminishes him even more, in the way he described his interaction with Jack and Gwen in the aftermath of the events. And Ianto is definitely anything but that. Owen is just the snarky, often very cynical Doctor and Gwen is just the good Copper with the big heart, wanting to rescue everything and everyone, view spoiler [even the alien, that has controlled six people in turn, using them to its means, abandoning them to their deaths when he could no longer use them and making them murderer of at least two dozen people along the way.
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While I grant you, that it might be difficult and sometimes an effort to bring Jack as Barrowman plays him adequately to life on the pages of a book, there certainly is no excuse for him being this flat. He is a character with many facets, he can be caring and cruel at the same time, he often is in a very dark mood and very cynical and yet there have been occasions, when he shows the same eccentric happiness in face of dire situations the 10th Doctor displays. But there is something underneath all that, that holds the character together, make him feel like a real person. And that bit is somehow absent in the book, along with his more caring side.
None of the authors reverts back to the characterizations from early scripts, but build their stories on what the actors had established within the series. Since the Torchwood character set already consists of five people, well mostly minus Ianto in this one — there is not much room for notable supporting characters. Especially with an antagonist like this one. Owen tries to recruit her for Torchwood but as things go with him and woman usually, it all goes horribly wrong. It is difficult to say something about the main antagonist here without giving too much of the story and its conclusion away.
And there is, but any more word would give away too much. And this part of the story was told and build-up really good, with adequate pacing and suspense, but sadly it was interrupted at all the wrong places. Not much to say about the editing. I read the hardcover version from Random House and it was good. Some Typos, but nothing really distracting. I think it mostly was the slow pace in the first two thirds of the book that made me notice them at all.
So, I would say 3 stars, which makes it an average read on my scale. I listened to the abridged audiobook, so take my review with a grain of salt. The printed book might be better if it's badly abridged or even worse as I'd gladly listen to John Barroman reading a telephone directory. But be that as it may, the plot seemed unoriginal and pointless, the characters seemed to come only to life because I know them from the TV show, and the overuse of adverbs often the same one for the same verb twice in memory range contributed to the overall impression of, wel I listened to the abridged audiobook, so take my review with a grain of salt.
But be that as it may, the plot seemed unoriginal and pointless, the characters seemed to come only to life because I know them from the TV show, and the overuse of adverbs often the same one for the same verb twice in memory range contributed to the overall impression of, well, poor writing. I really wanted to like it. On the other hand, this one was apparently directed by someone who was able to rein in Barrowman's tendency to overdramatize his narration that had occasionally annoyed me a little in "Hollow Earth". Abridged audiobook version listened to.
Aug 08, Jules Jones rated it really liked it Shelves: First of the Torchwood tie-in novels, and set a few weeks after the start of the series, i. Of course, it takes Torchwood a little longer to work out why their serial killer has just cheerfully committed suicide 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.
And all the while the rain pours down on Cardiff, as the Rift's latest problem plays havoc with the local weather system 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.
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By the end, what seemed like pieces of characterisation and scene-setting turn out to be crucial to Torchwood winning the day. 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. 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.
Jul 23, Keri Payton added it Shelves: The opinions expressed are mine and no monetary compensation was offered to me by the author or publisher. There is a storm brewing over Cardiff of the worst kind. Dead bodies have been showing up, the subjects of human cannibalism. When the killer is caught, he calmly greets his death…but the killings From my blog: When the killer is caught, he calmly greets his death…but the killings keep happening.
After almost four seasons of Torchwood, I liked revisiting the beginning, to experience some of the things that I miss. It was an enjoyable kick to the past but also a further insight into some of the characters. This book focused a lot on Owen Harper, the resident doctor of Torchwood, which I loved. He is such a sarcastic and witty character and I felt I got a good look into how he viewed his life working for Torchwood and how it could have been if he'd chosen a different path.
The mystery of the book is very compelling. I think that Tosh proved that intelligence holds a lot of power in this novel, since her brainy ideas and inventions were so heavily relied on at stages. Not that she wasn't also very skilled in the field. I found the foreshadowing of Ianto's storyline from early in the first season of Torchwood to be quite thrilling. It gave a sort of reference point, allowing the reader to see where he was in his relationship with the team and his place in Torchwood. I enjoyed travelling back in time and reliving a new story with the Torchwood team.
May 18, Lucinda rated it really liked it. Capturing on the page the fast-paced drama and exciting action as seen in the television drama series. You've reached the maximum number of titles you can currently recommend for purchase. Your session has expired. Please sign in again so you can continue to borrow titles and access your Loans, Wish list, and Holds pages.
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If you receive an error message, please contact your library for help. Try refreshing the page. If that doesn't work, there may be a network issue, and you can use our self test page to see what's preventing the page from loading. Anyways - not much Ianto, but he does save the day at the end by nearly killing Owen sound familiar? But there's not much of him in there, really. Then again, it's set at the beginning end of series 1, so yeah There's a couple of nice flirty Janto banters though: I should have guessed that, whatever I say, you'll always want to top me.
I felt that most of the characters were quite OOC - I doubt that Toshiko would spend copious amounts of time refining a 3D social networking programme just to show off to Owen in a "Lookz wot I dun clevah me" kind of way. Gwen was clumsy and a bit lost, which I suppose she was at the beginning, but maybe not to this extent. Anyways, if you're going to read this one, it's for the plot: It has you guessing to the end, despite its length, and couple brilliant plot with equally good writing, and you've got a good book no matter how loose the characterizations were.
The writing from different perspectives is used very effectively and you really don't click what's going on until the writer wants you to well, apart from in one instance - but I am very clever. There's a strange dream Gwen has of Jack in a swimming pool.