Customer Reviews

Torchwood: Border Princes: A Torchwood Novel Narrated by Eve Myles

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

In Fan Fiction, a "Mary Sue" is a clichéd character that the author creates as a way of putting herself into the story. Mary Sue is often faster, smarter, stronger, and more talented than the main characters, and she flawlessly complements them in every way. The story usually revolves around her and it is her brilliant plan that saves the day. In addition, she is frequently the love interest of one or more main characters, who forsake all others to worship at her feet.

From the moment I started this story, James struck me as wrong and out of place. He is a new character to the universe, yet the other characters treat him as if he has always been there. He is stronger and faster, his actions save the day once or twice, and too much of the story centers on him. Worse yet, Gwen is madly in love with him and ready to leave Rhys to be at James' side. In fact, everyone adores James and he seems to have few flaws, if any, making him very Marty Stu-like, the male equivalent of a Mary Sue.

All of this is resolved in the end and everything is returned to normal, or whatever passes for "normal" in the Torchwood universe. However, like others, I found the story somewhat fractured and haphazard. A normal Torchwood story would focus on one or more main characters' reactions to the events around them. Unfortunately, James substituted for a main character for too much of the story, making for a very distracting and disjointed read.

This would probably rank closer to a 4 star rating if I'd never actually seen any of the BBC television series Torchwood that the story is based on. However, since I have seen the show, and read the first much more superior (in my humble opinion) Torchwood book (Another Life) by Dan Anghelides, I was left feeling rather disappointed when I finished this one.

The story itself showed some potential in places, hence the 3-star rating, but tends to be a bit of a disjointed read. Some of the scenes that can be described as a secondary story to the primary action never really get developed so they come across as being little more than filler. Perhaps the author had to reach a certain word/page count and that was the reason, but it could have all been edited out easily without impacting the main story at all. Or, better yet, the author could have taken the time to flesh out the secondary story so that it tied in more cohesively with the main story arc.

It's actually hard to give a proper synopsis of the book without giving away any of the major plot devices, so here's just a basic rundown of events our plucky cast of characters survive throughout the story. Alien lifeforms that nest in the noses of unsuspecting human hosts, more relationship issues for newbie Gwen, mysterious 11-dimensional sudoku wanna-be free thinking alien games that turn people within a certain range of it into kind of zombie-ish beings, a genocidal sentient robot, a mysterious reappearing church that was demolished 100+ years ago, and of course more alien encounters. Whew, quite a lot to cover in a mere 254 pages.

Don't let my negative rambling above mislead you though, the book isn't really a bad read. I just had some higher expectations based off of what I enjoyed from the first novelization as well as the show.

The best way to describe this particular novel is really, the Torchwood novel without Torchwood. There is little to no character interaction that does not concern the original character which the author has inserted into every facet of the story. Of the actual (series-based) Torchwood cast of characters, Gwen is the only one who is mostly in-character and in any amount of scenes.

Entire sections of the story, such that it is, are left unexplored because they do not concern the "James" character, who turns out - predictably - to be the most important character in the story and the focus of the limited plot.

Overall, I'd give this story a skip and focus on the much better Torchwood: Another Life. You won't miss it.

I am a fan of Dan Abnett's writing, namely his Warhammer 40,000 novels and his extensive comics work, so after reading the previous reviews of Border Princes here, I was a little apprehensive about reading the book when the Torchwood novels were released in America. Had a writer that, as far as I am concerned, has never written a bad book finally done just that?

After reading it...no. Not in my opinion.

Border Princes maintains many of the strengths of Abnett's writing in other areas; his dialog is crisp and witty, and while the plot does get a bit cluttered as Abnett runs headlong against the usual licensed book word count restraints, it does move well, and manages to fit well together by the end. Some of the non-Torchwood characters that populate this novel-the enigmatic Mr. Dine, the World War II veteran Davey Morgan who develops an interesting relationship with a humming bit of machinery that he keeps in his shed-are well drawn and very well done. There's nothing wrong with Abnett's characterizations in the book, even of the Torchwood characters; they're certainly recognizable as who they are on the television show, at least based on the episodes I've seen to date.

As for the criticisms of James; yes, he is forced down our throats, yes, people don't act quite around him the way they're supposed to, and yes, he seems like a Mary Sue. What the previous reviewers are missing, however, is that's the point. The resolution of the plot (which I won't spoil for the reader) makes everything that happened with the character of James makes perfect sense, and certainly explains just why he functions as he does within the plot. Bear with the novel until the end, and you'll understand it perfectly.

Criticisms? Well, the incident with the church really doesn't move the plot much-the resolution and some of the revelations about James would work better if it had more pages to develop-and Abnett does tend to suffer from cramming too many ideas into too short a space-one day I'd like to read an Abnett novel with no limit to the word count just to see how he functions without limitations-but overall, Border Princes is an entertaining, fun book, and certainly not as dire a read as some here have said. My rating would be 3 1/2 stars if Amazon allowed it, rounded up to 4. Give it a chance, it's not that bad.

Torchwood: Border PrincesIt comes close. I say this of course having just finished the most uninspired trek through the torchwood universe. Lets talk about James.

James is a new member of torchwood. Never ever in the show and that is a good thing. James has super powers, James is funny and attractive, James is perfect and that makes him perfectly annoying. The most unfortunate part of this book is how much the author thinks he can mess with our beloved characters. I wont say much but lets say the series one form of ignoring Ianto and Tosh is favored along with the old "lets make Jack know everything about this race, and know nothing of that one." It all seems a bit Dodgy to me.

Even as a die hard torchwood and doctor who fan I found it hard to finish this book. It wasnt dreadful, but it wasnt anything like the previous two. None of it can be seen as show cannon so feel free to skip it.

No, I really mean that. Misdirection at its finest. I was hooked from the start. I had to reread the first chapter just to figure out I wasn't misreading something. The main plot is hidden among a bunch of subplots and themes going on. Only the reader KNOWS something else is going on. It's like a mystery movie in which you know one of the characters is not who he seems even when he has no clue he is not who he is. Don't worry, that is not a spoiler, because you know something is wrong by page 8. Unless you've never seen a Torchwood episode, then it may take longer.
Oh, I noticed that Border Princess, Another Life and Slow Decay, if you put them all in a row, make one picture of the group with the spines. I assume other books will also, when linked together, do the same. So far I am not disappointed with the novels, even if they are sometimes slow to start.

Almost smack middle in the Border Princes, a BBC Book, featuring the team from Torchwood, Dan Abnett, author of the Gaunt's Ghosts series for Black Library, various comics for Marvel, and Triumff from the British imprint Angry Robot Books, demonstrates his greatest strength: the ability to present a scene of horrific violence without actually describing the violence. The trick, of course, is that the reader imagines the horrific machinations that occurred offstage and fills in the details, thereby heightening or magnifying the sensation of violence. Here is a portion of the scene: "The bodies--there were no whole bodies, just pieces--had been scattered in front of his shed. It looked like a direct hit by an 88 round, except there was no crater, no litter of cordite ash. The poor bastards looked like they had been pushed through a wood chipper. Bits of bone and half-limbs, some still partly clothed in meat, protruded from the soil as though they were heads of celery, carefully planted. (p. 148)"

Border Princes is a Torchwood novel, and Torchwood, of course, is the BBC series featuring Captain Jack Harkness. Harkness appeared originally in several Doctor Who episodes and who, through the actions of Rose Tyler, is now immortal and heading up the Torchwood team guarding Cardiff against the denizens and riff-raff that enter our world through the Rift. The Rift in the Doctor Who universe is located at Cardiff Bay, Wales and acts as a generator of stories. It has been defined as a wormhole but it acts as portal contacting various universes. The Rift appeared initially in the Doctor Who episode, entitled "The Unquiet Dead," starring Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor. In that brilliant episode, featuring Simon Callow as Dickens, a rift opens in Victorian Cardiff and allows the Gelth, gaseous humanoid organisms to pass into a funeral parlor, where they inhabit corpses. Additionally, the Rift releases radiation, which grants people psychic powers, including Gwyneth, a servant in the parlor. Gwyneth in the episode is played by Eve Myles, who later plays the current day policewoman Gwen in Torchwood and perhaps is a descendant of the first Gwyneth. In the Doctor Who episode Gwyneth saves humanity by the forfeiture of her life. In Abnett's Border Princes, the modern Gwen is also at the center of the action. This time her forfeiture involves the loss of a lover.

Abnett's novel contains the usual suspects but at the same time it shares and demonstrates all the Abnett tropes and devices. First, Abnett uses multiple points of view. That works well with this novel because it is really about the team. Second, Abnett is the master of delay and suspense. He carries us along to the end by slowly dribbling out the clues. Intertwined with the mystery of the sixth member of the Torchwood team, James, is numerous other stories of Rift mishaps and mayhem. Third, no one writes combat better than Abnett and there is plenty here. His alien creatures sizzle with hardware and battle expertise, causing us to want to know more about them. Fourth, surprisingly, Abnett writes domestic scenes well. My fantasy was that his well-crafted scenes between James and Gwen were echoes from his own relationships.

Needless to say, the novel is well-written, exciting and true to the Torchwood IP. However, it is almost impossible to discuss the plot without giving something away. So I won't. Instead, I will just say that if you like Torchwood, you will like this novel. If you like Abnett, you will be pleased because you get the usual Abnett--plus. The plus is the way in which he describes domestic scenes and relationships. In the Border Princes, Gwen is having trouble with Rhys, her boyfriend. The number of incursions through the Rift has increased her workload and is interfering with her personal life.

Finally, if you haven't read Abnett, I recommend the following novels: the omnibus volume from Black Library, entitled The Saint; the Warhammer novel Riders of the Dead, a personal favorite, and Triumff from Angry Robot.

I listened to the audio book and can say for certain this will be the last Torchwood book I buy to complete my collection if I ever buy it. Maybe it is a bit more clear on paper but I sent my ipod back a lot and re-listened so I was never lost. My problem was I spent the first half of the book asking who is this James character and how did he slip in. Plus the character himself just made me frustrated I wasn't thinking about how or why he was there just that he was really annoying because there were only tiny pieces where a couple of the real team members would actually be there. In many ways it reminded me of Adam but not in the good ways. It could have been pulled off if the book centered less on James and more on the other members making him seem like a member of the team not just a character the author thinks is perfect. Another thing that gets really annoying is Gwen's fascination with James. It actually kind of pisses me off because she was not even written well. I do not much like Gwen so a book focusing on an outside character and her without the others almost at all made this book distasteful. The end was obvious you knew it was coming just not exactly what form it would take. It is not a Torchwood book but rather a James book with a dash of Gwen. It is just as bad as some of the other reviews skip it.

I actually first started this book in the audio version. After fifteen minutes in, I stopped, rewound the book, and listened to the first part again. I was sure that I missed something. Then, I was sure that the audio abridged version left some critical piece of information out. So I bought the book, sure that I'd caught out the audio version in a very egregious editing error. I was wrong on both counts.

If this is your first or second Torchwood novel, and you have not watched the TV series, you might not notice what's wrong, or why the Torchwood team rubs you the wrong way. If you have viewed the second season episode, "Adam" then you will immediately start thinking along those plot lines, and then wonder why a book with so many similarities to an episode was given the nod.

I'm sorry to say that it is this reason that is likely driving the low reviews (mine as well) of Border Princes. The concept of *who* the border princes are is excellent, a group of people on the far side of the Rift who serve much the same purpose as Torchwood does on this side. Now something has gone horribly wrong, and they have arrived on our side of the Rift to do their job. And once things got rocking along towards the big reveal, I enjoyed it. But I spent the first part of the book going, "Who the **** IS this guy, why hasn't Jack noticed, and how the **** did that happen?"

It does share minor similarities to the Torchwood audio-adventure "Everybody Says Hello", but nothing as jarring as the major element which is parallel to the one in "Adam". For this reason, if you have read other Torchwood novels and seen the show, this book might grind a bit.

This book is well written, based on a fabulous show, and has a great plot. That said. Who the hell is James? The author sticks this new charactar in the book, that was never in another book or the show. Yet, somehow everyone believes he has been there for years. I spent the entire book waiting for him to be explained. (Adam anyone?) If only he had been left out. His presense made it almost impossible to focus on the rest of the book, which, was great. A four dimensional puzzle box that seems to captivate three dimesional people causing them to act like it's "the one ring". A four dimensional creature is hunting for it part of the time, but only when his "hunter self" takes over, which only happens when he can sense it, and he can only sense it when someone is messing with it. The puzzle box is somewhat self aware, and wants to be played with, but doesn't want to go back home (wherever that is). It's an intricate plot, yet not so complicated you get lost. That is until you hear the name James pop up. Apparently Gwen if having an affair with him, one that reminds me of the one she had with Owen in the show (as she hides the passionate romance from everyone). His personality is somewhere between Jack and Owen, with him saying everything you ever wished Jack might have. The Author obviously CAN write, but made a big mistake. He see's himself as this "james" and put himself into a universe that has many fabulous charactars. He did so however without explaining how he got there, already having the relationship with the other charactars as though he'd always been there. Makes great personal fanfic, but not something the rest of us wanted deal with.