I'll keep slogging my way through Torchwood books until an alien eats my brain
Torchwood: 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.
Originally posted at Dreamwidth.
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.
Originally posted at Dreamwidth.