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dancing_moonTorchwood: Into the silence by Sarah Pinborough is another book set between S2 and Children of Earth.
And it's pretty darn crappy, mostly because some really iffy themes and inter-universe stupidity. The plot is ok, I guess. An alien has come through the rift and is fascinated by music, so it kills the competitors in a large welsh singing contest. Okidoki.
But then there's a little autistic boy who sings this one song constantly and I dunno, that description felt very very off to me. Also when they decide to give the kid to the alien, because he wants to be alone and cut off from the world while the alien feels lonely, I just found it very skeevy. It's one thing if Jack alone had found it a good idea. He's seen many, many alien lifestyles and has a history of morally complicated decisions. But when Gwen, a nurse and the policeman decide that, hey it's a great idea to give this six-year-old boy to an alien because we think they'll like each others company (and no other company, ever) after about five minutes consideration... Um, what? That's definitely not the Gwen I remember from the fairy episode, where Jack had a better reason to give the child away (no girl to the fairies = everyone dies). I just – there's so many things that could go wrong in this scenario, even if the kid and the alien were perfectly matched with each other.
There is also a rather annoying meta-error. We get introduced to a somewhat bitter police officer who's met up with Torchwood One in London and was allowed to remember it. Does Jack, with his woefully understaffed Cardiff office, perhaps consider hiring the guy? Nope, because that would break the status quo and retcon Children of Earth. Bah, just add another book where the dude dies or something...
On the upside, the scene with the couple by the road was extremely creepy and well-done and most of the minor characters for this book were well-done, rather interesting even.
Last complaint: Jack & Ianto's relationship, or rather non-relationship. After all the lovely fanfic and some of the canon interaction on screen, that aspect of Torchwood has been far too underdeveloped in these later books.
And it's pretty darn crappy, mostly because some really iffy themes and inter-universe stupidity. The plot is ok, I guess. An alien has come through the rift and is fascinated by music, so it kills the competitors in a large welsh singing contest. Okidoki.
But then there's a little autistic boy who sings this one song constantly and I dunno, that description felt very very off to me. Also when they decide to give the kid to the alien, because he wants to be alone and cut off from the world while the alien feels lonely, I just found it very skeevy. It's one thing if Jack alone had found it a good idea. He's seen many, many alien lifestyles and has a history of morally complicated decisions. But when Gwen, a nurse and the policeman decide that, hey it's a great idea to give this six-year-old boy to an alien because we think they'll like each others company (and no other company, ever) after about five minutes consideration... Um, what? That's definitely not the Gwen I remember from the fairy episode, where Jack had a better reason to give the child away (no girl to the fairies = everyone dies). I just – there's so many things that could go wrong in this scenario, even if the kid and the alien were perfectly matched with each other.
There is also a rather annoying meta-error. We get introduced to a somewhat bitter police officer who's met up with Torchwood One in London and was allowed to remember it. Does Jack, with his woefully understaffed Cardiff office, perhaps consider hiring the guy? Nope, because that would break the status quo and retcon Children of Earth. Bah, just add another book where the dude dies or something...
On the upside, the scene with the couple by the road was extremely creepy and well-done and most of the minor characters for this book were well-done, rather interesting even.
Last complaint: Jack & Ianto's relationship, or rather non-relationship. After all the lovely fanfic and some of the canon interaction on screen, that aspect of Torchwood has been far too underdeveloped in these later books.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-23 14:44 (UTC)Meanwhile, my Doctor Who book is pretty good, actually! Rory gets some respect, which I enjoy, but I'm not sure the author really likes Amy... But I'm not quite at the end yet, so we'll see.^^
The problem whit these sort of books is that it all has to go back to the status quo, as you said, which can be detrimental to the story; some events don't really work unless the characters develop in some way.
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Date: 2010-08-23 16:15 (UTC)Otherwise, most of the first season books were really good (so far - I've avoided the one by Dan Abnett because everything I've heard about him is bad) but... this is like, at the very end of Torchwood, when we only have a 3 person team. And the plots are stupid (gender-switch? I mean, really??), the characters not up-to-date with their canon development and the focus is a bit odd, considering how few main characters are left.
The Doctor Who book set in the fifties was really crappy too, but now I'm reading the one with the gold glamour thing, and that seems more interesting. It's up to the individual authors, I guess, to write these "between episode" stories in as interesting a way as possible
no subject
Date: 2010-08-25 10:45 (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-25 11:23 (UTC)Men av Torchwood tyckte jag bäst om Peter Anghelides Another Life och Something in the Water (skriven av någon annan). The Twilight Streets av Gary Russell innehåller figuren Bilis Manger, från slutet av säsong ett, så den är ju typ semi-halvt-kanon...? Men jag gillade inte boken så mycket
lanjelin tyckte också om Dr Who boken The Glamour Chase, också av Gary Russell.
Så, där kan man ju börja? Eller dra till London o peta runt på antikvariat tills man hittar en billig bok XD
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Date: 2010-08-25 12:47 (UTC)