 – Customer review on 13/03/2007
This one was the hardest to get into, right from the get go you knew something was out of whack since there seemed to be an extra member of Torchwood who was not only part of the team but so well integrated that they even had a nickname for him and were using his sayings in common parlance. Although I will admit to being quite fond of ‘boiled egg’ as an emergency code if I ever get in a situation that warrants it, I’m using that one.
This ‘newest’ member of Torchwood is James, a tall blonde good looking man with an easygoing nature and a warm personality that gets on well with all of the team, and rapidly becomes intimate with Gwen, so much so that she takes a break from Rhys (in the Friends version, of ‘on a break’) to move in with him for the week or so that this novel encompasses. As readers we know that something is wrong, since James does not exist in the Torchwood universe we know but somehow it doesn’t feel forced just mysterious and intriguing, which is a feat on the part of the author. It would be so easy to get annoyed and think, what is this guy trying to do just forcing this Mary Sue into our team, but given the ease with which he is accepted as part of the group the only question in your mind is how did he manage to convince them he belonged with them and what is his motive, think Dawn in Buffy.
Still we get very little time to ponder exactly what is going on with James as we are thrown into one bizarre alien encounter after another, a killer suduko from the planet mind-screw, an alien construct in human form who likes a spot of curry, a demolished church that’s reappeared ahead of schedule and a mysterious humming cylinder that seems to have made friends with a WWII veteran and tears apart the local hooligans when they get too close. Not to mention the fact that Jack has been carrying around an alien doohickey in his pocket for the last who knows how many years and six weeks ago it started flashing an alert than no one can decipher. Most of these disparate threads tie painfully together at the end of the novel into if not exactly a neat bow then one with only one or two loose ends, but they are ends that could possibly lead to other stories so you don’t mind so much.
There is a far amount of character development in this one, mostly on Gwen’s part due to her relationship with James but there is also some great team dynamic, although I would suggest not reading the Mr & Mrs Peeters scene if you have a cold, it’s disgusting, well written, quite funny, but disgusting. The chapters with Jack and Toshiko in St-Mary’s-in-the-Dust have to be some of the most chilling I’ve read, mostly because the vast majority of it was left to the readers imagination, and I have a vivid imagination. Still I’m glad to see a writer has picked up on the great connection the two of them have without making it something sexual. Oh and Ianto gets to slug Owen again, this is getting to be a bit of a habit with these two.
I was a little worried that the ending would fall into that 'it was all a dream' trap, but I was happy to see that it didn't, it was bittersweet and pulled on the heartstrings a little but my only complaint has to be that it was a little too abrupt for my tastes. Although given the eventual discovery of just what Mr Dine was and why James was there it does fit. I do hope we get to see Mr Dine again, although I can't see how that could be accomplished, still he was one of the most interesting characters in the book and the history of his 'people' could be a novel all of it's own.
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