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STORY PLACEMENT THIS STORY TAKES PLACE BETWEEN THE NOVELS "ANOTHER LIFE" AND "SLOW DECAY."
WRITTEN BY DAN ABNETT
RECOMMENDED PURCHASE OFFICIAL BBC HARDBACK (ISBN 0-563-48654-1) RELEASED IN JANUARY 2007.
BLURB The End of the World began on a Thursday night in October, just after eight in the evening...
The Amok is driving people out of their minds, turning them into zombies and causing riots in the streets.
BUT Captain Jack has something more to worry about: an alarm, given to mankind and held - inert - by Torchwood for 108 years. And now it's flashing. Something is coming. Or something is already here... |
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Border Princes JANUARY 2007
Torchwood, particularly in its first season, has a lot of flaws. One thing you can never call it, though, is boring. Which is why Border Princes is such a disappointment. It’s not bad by any means; it’s simply mediocre.
It begins by focusing on the Amok, an alien thought process being transmitted to hapless humans via a small object. As much as I like the idea of a multidimensional sudoku sending humans mad by simply being more than their brains can handle, the description of its effects lets it down. Though it produces some unsettling zombie-like effects, it mostly just seems to bother people by giving them headaches and twisting their words a little. Perhaps this is a deliberate move: the Amok is not the main threat of the novel; however, it really should come across as more than a minor annoyance.
Border Princes shows Torchwood as an organisation stretched to its limits. There’s a constant array of threats and anomalies presented to us, from the time rift at St Mary’s church and the troubles of a hypnotic door-to-door salesman. However, eventually we discover the nature of the true threat. Taff Morgan – an elderly Welsh veteran, and the best written character in the book – is holding something alien in his shed. In the book’s best written passages, Taff’s miserable life, bullied by local yobs, acts like a beacon to a sentient alien weapon. Of course, Taff isn’t in control of it, and the weapon becomes mobile and more dangerous than anyone can handle.
Anyone, that is, except Mr Dine, the second well-written character. Dine is an alien soldier from an entirely different background, disguised as a well-dressed businessman, yet char-acterised with remarkable sympathy. It’s his job to protect the Border (aka the Rift) and his Prince.
The problem is that none of these issues truly feel like the threat they’re said to be, at least until the frenetic final few chapters. When combined with some poor characterisation of the regulars – Jack is weak and rarely in control, Gwen is silly and petulant rather than witty and independent, Owen is puerile but without his redeeming charm, Ianto is barely even featured – the novel drags terribly.
Then there’s James, a new member of the Torchwood team, featured without introduction from the outset. Although Abnett creates some good original characters in the book, James is pretty unremarkable, though he does get more characterisation than most of the regulars, who should really be the ones focused on.
Gwen gets more development than most, particularly in terms of her ongoing affair with James. This at least is written realistically (as is Rhys in his brief appearances, perhaps because he’s the only normal character in the book), but the big problem is that it doesn’t fit with what we know of the characters. This is the beginning of season one; Gwen should be guiltily exploring her obsession with Owen, not thinking of chucking her life with Rhys away in favour of shacking up with James. From the outset, we know James doesn’t belong here – but it’s written as though we should be stunned when he’s revealed as an impostor. Adam later took a similar idea, but presented it better, working off the fact that the viewers knew the new team member shouldn’t be there, and allowing us to watch the effects on the real Torchwood team as omniscient observers. Border Princes, on the other hand, seems to expect us to be carried along in the dark with the characters, something which wears thin quickly.
The lack of a punch to the novel’s final twist, combined with the generally average writing on offer, means that Border Princes lacks the feel of its parent series, and fails to make an impact.
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Copyright © Daniel Tessier 2009
Daniel Tessier has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 to be identified as the author of this work. |
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