Customer Reviews

Torchwood: Pack Animals

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Peter Anghelides 2nd Torchwood novel is a solid improvement over his previous book. The story moves very fast and effectively juggles multiple plot threads and time lines while sending the team all over Cardiff. The plot is interestingly and introduces a new team of "alien hunters" that really could give Torchwood a run for their money. Any person who played Magic or any other card game like it as a kid will get an extra kick out of this story.

There's a new trading-card game in town: MonstaQuest. It's all good fun... until the game's monsters begin to materialize out of thin air.

I feel rather ambivalent about this book. On the one hand it's always fun to spend some time with the Torchwood team. On the other, the plot had some rather silly moments. I'm an expert at suspending my disbelief, but once unicorns start flying around, even I have to admit things have gotten ridiculous.

Still, there were several things I liked about the book: Jack and Ianto on a date; Gwen and Rhys in a car chase; and Tosh (my favourite character) getting plenty to do. I also like the idea of Achenbrite, a rival organisation that also knows about the Rift and uses alien tech, and journalist David Brigstocke would make a great reoccurring character.

Overall, this is an average Torchwood story--entertaining but ultimately forgettable.

One of the Torchwood books with the whole team, and that makes it better for me. I don't know why at least half of the TW books are written with only the 3 who survived series 2. It's a good bedtime or airplane read :-)

Pack Animals is my least favorite Torchwood book so far, but even then it's not really all bad. The main plot is the problem: a troubled young man finds a piece of alien tech called a Vandrogonite Visualiser and uses it to bring to life monsters from the rift as reflected in a series of Magic: The Gathering-type cards he creates. The idea that real monsters would spring to life from a collectible card game would probably have been a fine plot on Buffy during the first or second season (imagine Ethan Rayne playing yet another trick on Sunnydale), but it's just too . . . silly for a Torchwood plot: I don't want to see Jack riding around on a unicorn or Tosh using the cards to summon a killer clown.
Main plot aside, the book has two really interesting subplots: first, an organization called Achenbrite which is actually one step ahead of Torchwood in understanding and manipulating the Rift; and second, an investigative journalist named David Brigstocke, who would make a great recurring character even if he gets dosed with Retcon at the end of every book. Oh, and did I mention that Jack and Ianto go on a date to the zoo? Very cute.

This is the second book by Peter Anghelides, who wrote Another Life, which I read before I was even watching the Torchwood DVDs. In other words, he introduced me to Jack and Tosh and the others. I kind of liked Another Life. And I kind of like this book. A twisted plot, a third party tossed in, and lots of action. But I also found things moving too swiftly, sometimes, and also kind of got confused a couple of times. Does a car chase really belong in a Torchwood novel? What did the card game have to DO with anything? In the end it was so-so. A library book you read once or a book you get from a friend. Get it used.