fajrdrako | Torchwood: Slow Decay... (Reply)

This is the second of the Torchwood novels I have read - the first was Another Life by Peter Anghelides, which I thought was terrific. One of the best novels based on series that I have read.

And Slow Decay by Andy Lane was as good.

Now, I wouldn't read either book for the plots. The plots are actually very similar: nasty alien causes people to kill other people in nasty fashions. The Torchwood crew have to figure out what's going on and stop it. Frankly, I wish they'd use this theme in the TV show. The closest they've come is "Day One", with "Greeks Bearing Gifts" maybe being a variant.

What's good about these books isn't the plots, it's the style and the characterization. Jack particularly is wonderful - well, I would think so, wouldn't I? Except when Jack is badly characterized (as in substandard fanfic ), it drives me crazy. Part of the joy here was the excellent depiction of Jack, with even a scene or two in his viewpoint - those were particular favourites.

Usually the viewpoint is Gwen or Owen, sometimes Tosh. I like Gwen here; she seemed more mature and competent than in the TV show, though she did make a few bad judgement calls. I liked it that Rhys is a significant character, and their relationship is central to the plot - Rhys thinks Gwen is losing interest in him because he's gaining weight, so he takes extreme steps to lose it, and becomes unknowingly endangered by the alien menace.

I've already quoted from a scene about Jack's unique driving style. I want to quote other bits I particularly loved.

About Jack, for example: There's a nice description of him from Owen's point of view

What about Captain Jack Harkness, for instance: the enigmatic leader of the team? From things he said, and more things he left unsaid, Owen sometimes suspected that Jack was as alien as some of the things that drifted through the Rift, and yet there were other times when he seemed more grounded, more part of the moment than anyone else he knew.¹

There are no references to the Doctor in the novel, of course, but there is an indirect reference to Jack's private obsession. Owen and Gwen are looking at the waterfall fountain at street level.

'Jack told me that something had happened here, once,' Gwen said softly. 'Something was here that had the power to make people ignore it. The thing left, but some echo of the power stayed. That's why nobody can see it until we step away.'

'Whatever it was,' Owen said, 'he's obsessed by it. It's scarred him.'²

There's an interesting section about Jack from Gwen's point of view:

One day she was taking statements and guarding crime scenes... and the next she was part of Great Britain's first and last line of defence against... what? Invasion. Incursion. Infiltration. A hole bag full of words beginning with 'In' because that's where things were coming. In-to her reality, in-to Cardiff.

And it was all because of this man standing on the edge of a roof twelve storeys above the ground. This man who had arrived in her life like a flash flood, drowning her in strangeness and adventure.

Impulsive. Impressive. Impossible. A whole dictionary of words beginning with 'Im'.

'Most people spent their time looking up,' she said eventually, 'looking at the stars. You seem to spend far too much time looking down. What are you looking for, exactly?'

'Perhaps I'm looking for fallen stars,' he said after a moment.

'It's the people, isn't it? You just can't help watching them.' She caught herself. 'No, that's not it. You're not watching them, you're watching over them.'

'Ever seen a two-year-old tottering around a garden?" he asked softly, without turning around. 'There might be poison ivy, or rose bushes, or hawthorn around the edges... The kid doesn't care. He just wants to play with all those brightly coloured things he sees... If he does get a rash from the poison ivy, or if he does cut his finger, then you get him to a hospital as quickly as you can, in the reasonably sure knowledge that he'll never make that mistake again.'

...'Is that what we are to you?' Gwen asked. 'Children?'

'That's all we are,' he replied. 'To them.'

'And who are They?'

'Who are They? They are the ones who live over the walls of the garden, in the wilderness outside. Me - I'm just a child as well, playing in the garden with the rest of you. The difference is, I'm just a little older. And I've already had my share of poison ivy rashes.'³

On page 74, Gwen won my heart by making my favourite dessert - creme brulee! Who knew the girl could cook? I thought Rhys did all the cooking in the family.

Frankly, I liked Gwen better in the novel than I do in the show, and I'm not sure why. I liked Owen better too, but that was easier to understand - he was a nicer character here.

A reference I found interesting was when a woman in one of the Torchwood cells mentions that Jack came down there sometimes to talk quietly to the Weevils - though she doesn't know that the inhabitant of the other cell is a Weevil.

Ianto is a shadowy character, a mystery to Gwen, and vaguely sinister, though always efficient. Jack doesn't flirt with him, as he did in Another Life, more's the pity.

One of the scarier details in the story was that the Weevils were afraid of the alien menace. You have to worry, when something scares a Weevil.

I always love it when Jack quotes poetry:

'Weevils to the right of them,' Jack declaimed. 'Weevils to left of them. Weevils in front of them. Boldly they rode, and well, into the jaws of Death, into the mouth of Hell.'

'Very poetic.' Owen's voice was scathing. 'Is that Eminem or Chris de Burgh?'

'They're not in front of us,' Gwen muttered. 'They're behind us.'

'Like a lot of things in life,' Jack said, 'it depends on which way you're facing at the time.'⁴

~ ~ ~

¹ Torchwood: Slow Decay by Andy Lane, page 13.

² Torchwood: Slow Decay by Andy Lane, page 14.

³ Torchwood: Slow Decay by Andy Lane, page 8-9.

⁴ Torchwood: Slow Decay by Andy Lane, page 109.