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lullabelle(Review is only minor-league spoilery... nothing you don't find out in the first four chapters.)
I listened to the audio book instead of reading it, so the version I got might have been abridged. It was read by Eve Myles, who's up there on the list of Girls I Would Bone, but it took me a little while to get used to her accent. Also, the way she dropped her voice when speaking for the menfolk was a little annoying at first, but you got used to it. I found myself grateful that she didn't try to mimic character speech (i.e. accents) much beyond that.
As for the story itself, it was definitely one of my less-favorite of the Torchwood novels I've read so far. It fell into a couple of common tie-in novel pitfalls. For one, it created too big of a new character in James. By creating a character who's an equal part of the team with equal screen time, Abnett both detracted from the characters I gave a shit about/have a frame of reference for, and tips his hand that the book is going to end with a major event that wipes this person from the record, because how else are you going to explain that this person is never mentioned in the show proper. Also? Setting him up with Gwen was a desperate bid to give him relevance. It felt out of character -- which is funny, since she eventually sleeps with Owen, proving an act like this to be IN character, but it still manages to feel completely forced. Don't get me wrong, I really dislike Rhys (especially at this point in the continuity, this novel taking place between "Ghost Machine" and "Cyberwoman") but having Gwen up and leave him is... funky. And way too big of a personal event to take place outside of the show.
Aside from that, this novel was just... blah. Disappointing, because of its awesome Romero-esque opening. It's hard to go too wrong with zombies. But alas, the opening scene actually has virtually nothing to do with the plot as a whole. My favorite part is when Owen lightly slaps Ianto, and Ianto backhands him. It made me squee. But that's pretty much all you'll see of Ianto, since he's still looking after his robot girlfriend at this point.
Anyway. I give it 3 out of 5 zombie-making alien Rubik's cubes. Something to do if you're bored, but don't expect too too much.
I listened to the audio book instead of reading it, so the version I got might have been abridged. It was read by Eve Myles, who's up there on the list of Girls I Would Bone, but it took me a little while to get used to her accent. Also, the way she dropped her voice when speaking for the menfolk was a little annoying at first, but you got used to it. I found myself grateful that she didn't try to mimic character speech (i.e. accents) much beyond that.
As for the story itself, it was definitely one of my less-favorite of the Torchwood novels I've read so far. It fell into a couple of common tie-in novel pitfalls. For one, it created too big of a new character in James. By creating a character who's an equal part of the team with equal screen time, Abnett both detracted from the characters I gave a shit about/have a frame of reference for, and tips his hand that the book is going to end with a major event that wipes this person from the record, because how else are you going to explain that this person is never mentioned in the show proper. Also? Setting him up with Gwen was a desperate bid to give him relevance. It felt out of character -- which is funny, since she eventually sleeps with Owen, proving an act like this to be IN character, but it still manages to feel completely forced. Don't get me wrong, I really dislike Rhys (especially at this point in the continuity, this novel taking place between "Ghost Machine" and "Cyberwoman") but having Gwen up and leave him is... funky. And way too big of a personal event to take place outside of the show.
Aside from that, this novel was just... blah. Disappointing, because of its awesome Romero-esque opening. It's hard to go too wrong with zombies. But alas, the opening scene actually has virtually nothing to do with the plot as a whole. My favorite part is when Owen lightly slaps Ianto, and Ianto backhands him. It made me squee. But that's pretty much all you'll see of Ianto, since he's still looking after his robot girlfriend at this point.
Anyway. I give it 3 out of 5 zombie-making alien Rubik's cubes. Something to do if you're bored, but don't expect too too much.
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Date: 2010-01-29 03:45 am (UTC)