Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10629 in Books
• Published on: 2007-01-11
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 256 pages

Synopsis
High-profile new Doctor Who - inspired drama created by Russell T. Davies. The 21st century is when it all changes, and you've got to be ready. Separate from the government; outside the police, beyond the United Nations; Torchwood sets its own rules. A team of investigators, using alien technology to solve crime - both alien and human. This new British sci-fi crime thriller, created by Russell T. Davies, sees them delve into the unknown. A group of people fighting the impossible. A terror hides at the bottom of Cardiff Bay - waiting, feeding, controlling...this novel is a brand-new Torchwood adventure.

From the Publisher
Torchwood is the new high profile drama series from the team behind Doctor Who.

About the Author
Peter Anghelides:
Peter Anghelides has written novels, audios, and short fiction for BBC Books, Virgin Publishing, and Big Finish Productions. "Frontier Worlds" won Doctor Who Magazine's Readers' Poll, and SFX placed "The Ancestor Cell" in the year's Top Ten TV tie-ins.

Customer Reviews

Another Life
Another Life is the first of the Torchwood books. Unlike many TV-tie-ins it hits the ground running. The story is interesting enough which fits well into the Torchwood world. All characters are well represented and Torchwood McGuffins like the Rift, the Hub and the various technology all fit in well.

The main plot concerns a theft of nuclear material. Its nothing remarkalbe but its enjoyable reading about characters we have only till now watched on TV. Nothing too ambitious is tried in this first book but at the same time the reader gets the impression a lot of work went into this book as it fits seamlessly with the Torchwood world. Its set between episodes 3 and 4 of the series it seems.

The secondary plot concerns Owen hooking up with an old girlfriend. This eventually fits well with the main plot but initally meanders.

There are some good descriptions of various areas of Cardiff and various Welsh characters.

The end is not too surprising but we get a lot of insight into Gwens character without her deviating too much from her TV persona.

So all in all a good start for the Torchwood range.

Reasonably good
Parts of the sub-plot in this book were a weighed down with geekery that I initially found amusing but that swiftly became extremely tiresome; otherwise, this was a fairly good distraction for a few hours. It didn't have a groundbreakingly original plot, but it was fun and fits in well with the TV series.

A decent spin-off...but nothing more.
This first of the Torchwood spin-off novels (at least going by the picture on the spine) features the team going up against a killer mind-hopping alien whose spaceship also happens to be slowly drowning Cardiff as it emerges from the Rift...

Strip away the investigative details and the plot of 'Another Life' is sadly a rather generic 'invading alien warrior' already seem a few hundred times in the main Doctor Who lines. Beyond the creatures mind-hopping abilities and delightfully gruesome diet there is also absolutely nothing interesting about the main alien threat, who seems to be entirely devoid of any interesting motivation beyond being 'alien'. Thankfully this rather generic warrior is accompanied by some non-talking starfish creatures which lead to some of the novels better moments...

Peter Anghelides does well to provide a good chunk of material for each of the Torchwood regulars, and while Owen probably gets the meatiest section of the novel with the tale of his own doomed attempt to recruit a new Torchwood member, everyone gets a good slab of the action - even tea-boy(or should that be 'coffee-boy'?) Ianto. The only slight downside to this is that the novel is almost entirely lacking any strong or well-developed original supporting characters, as Anghelides concentrates exclusively on the Torchwood regulars, with (a few short death scenes aside) practically every paragraph seen through the eyes of one of the TV series stars.


As with the TV series Captain Jack's immortality is something of a problem dramatically, as thanks to the aliens modus operandi it becomes very obvious early on how Jack will end up defeating the menace.

Still, this is a good solid pacy spin-off, and thanks to the lack of the more jeuvenille sex-based antics of the TV series this is superior to some of the more embaressing episodes of the TV series itself. All in all a good translation of Torchwood to the printed page, and if you are looking for more Torchwood between TV seasons this will fill the gap admirably, but compared to some of the more imaginative original Doctor Who novels of the past this doesn't really add anything to the Torchwood mythos. A good spin-off book yes, but simply not original enough to be a great novel.