I’m a recent convert to TORCHWOOD, the BBC’s addictive DOCTOR WHO spinoff about a covert organization that keeps Great Britain safe from alien lifeforms. Having devoured the first season DVD set in under a week, I needed something to give me my fix between now and whenever the current second season hits those shiny discs.
Luckily, BBC Books answers the call with a wave of original tie-in novels, the first of which is Peter Anghelides’ TORCHWOOD: ANOTHER LIFE. It did the trick, too, and should for you, too … provided you’ve seen the show.
It assumes you’ve digested at least a couple of episodes, giving you no introduction to either the characters or the Torchwood Institute. So if you don’t know what a “vagrant Weevil” refers to, give your DVD player a workout first, and then hit the books.
As ANOTHER LIFE opens, Torchwood leader Capt. Jack Harkness and new recruit Gwen are chasing a suspected serial killer named Guy Wildman, presumably responsible for a rash of recent mutilations – via teeth – in the general Cardiff area. Wildman escapes by jumping off a building to his death, but not before barfing up a starfish-like glob at our heroes.
What gives? And why don’t the murders stop after his passing? An investigation leads them to Wildman’s apartment, where they’re attacked by an acid-secreting tentacled creature in his bathtub. Further sleuthing takes them to British army medical officer Dr. De’Ath, who supplies a few answers.
As with most of the show, Jack and Gwen do most of the legwork here. Toshiko and Ianto have little to do, while Owen spends much of his time online in a SECOND LIFE-style world, where he plays several rounds of Russian roulette before running into an old girlfriend (username: Egg Magnet).
There’s a little too much of Owen’s cyberexperiences, but eventually it meets up with the main narrative. The good thing is that Anghelides’ story has the interplay of the characters down pat; Jack is as cocksure as ever, and Gwen’s gapped teeth are referred to with affection. Also translated from screen to page is the series’ good humor (Wildman’s fatal leap is referred to as death by “concrete poisoning”).
Just be prepared to get used to single quotes, however, because the book’s origins are 100 percent British. (Random House UK is the publisher, but Amazon has copies on the ready, with no obscene import fees.) Words and phrases like “favour” and “onion crisps” contribute to the charm, actually.
SLOW DECAY and BORDER PRINCES sit alongside ANOTHER LIFE in the first batch (their spines even form a cast photo when placed together in the correct order); TRACE MEMORY, THE TWILIGHT STREETS and SOMETHING IN THE WATER are soon to follow, all in cute, compact hardcovers. –Rod Lott
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
This is so cool. I’ve been watching Torchwood on BBC America. I love it. It’s one of my favorite shows to watch. This is great to see tie-in books now. I’ll definitely have to check this out.
Rod buddy, once again our tastes converge as I’ve become a HUGE fan of the show & had been giving these books a long gaze wondering about their quality & whether they’d be worth the $$$. By your account ( & in my experience my friend, your recommendations are almost always spot on! ), they are. So, they’re likely to be placed high on my own personal “wish list”.
I have to ask however, are the novels of the uncensored sort that I see on HD Net’s telecasts of the series or are they more toned down ala the BBC America version of the show?
I imagine that coming from the UK, that they’re the former rather than the thinly disguised YA books that most TV show novels are here Stateside. Yes?
So far, I’ve only read this one TORCHWOOD book (more are to follow, though), and it wasn’t toned down. There’s profanity and sexuality, but not to a gratuitous degree. So, no, nothing YA about them!