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Border Princes (Torchwood #2)
by
Dan Abnett (Goodreads Author)
'The twenty-first 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...more
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...more
ebook
Published
August 3rd 2010
by BBC Digital
(first published January 4th 2007)
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I'll admit, my expectations weren't high, as in my experience books based on TV shows are mediocre at best, but Border Princes still managed to fall short of them. The story moved at a snail's pace, and character development was nonexistent. In addition, the new character, James, was ridiculously Mary-Sue-like: faster, stronger, smarter than everyone else, attractive, and well-liked by everyone. And because the author was so intently focused on making his new character more awesome than everyone...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
During a very busy week, Torchwood discovers an artifact that was given to an earlier Torchwood as an early warning system is starting to count down.
What of the many things going on is the 'Big One' that the artifact is warning them about?
Good read, with lots of clever bits, good characterization and a nice look at the day to day running of a secret agency that deals with aliens.
Jack and Gwen get the most time in the spotlight, and so the most characterization, but at least everyone gets to do s...more
What of the many things going on is the 'Big One' that the artifact is warning them about?
Good read, with lots of clever bits, good characterization and a nice look at the day to day running of a secret agency that deals with aliens.
Jack and Gwen get the most time in the spotlight, and so the most characterization, but at least everyone gets to do s...more
I'll be honest - I don't ask for much from the Torchwood books. A plot that can at least stick together while I'm reading and recognizable characters. Snark is good, funny one-liners are great, ribald comments from Jack a must.
But seriously. It is not a good thing to have your reader wondering through 3/4 of the book if the author was working from an old script where there was an extra team member. This book definitely needed a prologue. And some editing. Ugh.
I only marked two pages as having go...more
But seriously. It is not a good thing to have your reader wondering through 3/4 of the book if the author was working from an old script where there was an extra team member. This book definitely needed a prologue. And some editing. Ugh.
I only marked two pages as having go...more
This isn't a novel so much as a collection of interconnected short stories, and might have worked better in that format. There are a bunch of subplots that ultimately don't really have anything to do with each other, instead serving to illustrate a "typical" week in the life of the Torchwood team; of course, if you're at all familiar with the show, you'll recognize right away that one out-of-place factor makes this week anything but typical.
It's interesting to get a look at the slightly smaller-...more
It's interesting to get a look at the slightly smaller-...more
Best of the three Torchwood books I've read. The narrative doesn't get too hung up on personal issues and reflections, other than are necessary to further the plot, which is fairly fast moving and intricate.
Torchwood Border Princes/Slow Decay/Another Life General:
I've now read three of the Torchwood books. I was most interested in how three different writers dealt with the same charater and scene confinements and also what it means to have pre-defined characters who can be watched on screen so m...more
Torchwood Border Princes/Slow Decay/Another Life General:
I've now read three of the Torchwood books. I was most interested in how three different writers dealt with the same charater and scene confinements and also what it means to have pre-defined characters who can be watched on screen so m...more
I hate to review a book I didn't finish but the fact that I didn't finish it is a sign to me. I only got about halfway through before I became disgusted with it. And when I pay nearly $10 for a book, it takes a lot for me to flat out not finish it. If I could have given it zero stars I would have. My main problem? The introduction of a brand new team member, James, who never appears series and (although he may turn into an Adam at the end, I wouldn't know since I couldn't finish it and my not ca...more
Jul 24, 2012
Craig
rated it
1 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
doctor-who-and-related
The second in the Torchwood books, and since I liked this even less than the first book, "Another Life", it's getting one star. It starts with the team converging on an incident taking place involving a sphere that is effecting the minds of people and has a lingering effect of the Torchwood team after they've captured it and secured it away. As the book progresses, there are a few side adventures. I guess the author was trying to make this like "a week in the life" of Torchwood. Though I agree w...more
"http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1341870.html[return][return]This is the first Torchwood book I have read, rather than listened to, and it was a good start. Set before the end of the first season (indeed before Gwen's affair with Owen), the immediately striking thing is that the team has acquired a sixth member, James, who is rather too good a fit to be true. It's fairly obvious from the first page what the problem is; Abnett supplies us with a decent chewy and often witty tale of suspense as to h...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
October, 8:00 pm. Torchwood responds to an alien energy spike in the heart of Cardiff; Tosh has been tracking the energy signature for some time, but it has abruptly escalated into what team member James Mayer calls the End of the World, or a 26 on a scale of 1 to 10...
I have started reading the Torchwood books out of nostalgic feelings - I miss the series, can't wait until the next installment etc etc. One should never expect much from the books based on popular TV shows - the TV stuff is alway...more
I have started reading the Torchwood books out of nostalgic feelings - I miss the series, can't wait until the next installment etc etc. One should never expect much from the books based on popular TV shows - the TV stuff is alway...more
Meh. Gripping enough that I wanted to read it to the end, but it's really rather chaotic and jumbled. I could see what the author was doing - dropping in a new character, trying to establish this person as part of the team as the team saw him - but I don't think it was very successful. A lot of things are put in that seem like tangents, don't add anything to the story, and just left me wondering what the point was. The story itself is decent, but I don't think this author has the same mastery of...more
If you're like me, and wanting more Torchwood than they can broadcast, I highly recommend this. The characterisations are spot on, and the story is quite interesting.
This book feels like a half-season (or one of the short series) of Torchwood. There are several small, shorter plots with a developing overarching theme.
That structure really worked for me. Rather than trying to shoehorn a gradual realization into a single plot structure, we are allowed to see and experience the gradual dawning of realization. Everything does fit together, and does so without being ham handed.
The characters are lovingly and accurately presented. Without the close care to the c...more
That structure really worked for me. Rather than trying to shoehorn a gradual realization into a single plot structure, we are allowed to see and experience the gradual dawning of realization. Everything does fit together, and does so without being ham handed.
The characters are lovingly and accurately presented. Without the close care to the c...more
Третья попытка осилить этот выкидыш торчвудской франшизы увенчалась успехом! Пора открывать ром и танцевать джигу, ибо я наконец пережевала эти 3,5 часа своеобразной авторской фантазии.
Почему мне было так тяжело слушать эту книгу? Да потому что от Торчвуда тут остались рожки да ножки. В команде появился из ниоткуда новый персонаж по имени Джеймс – до странности мартисьюшный сплав Джека и Оуэна. Гвен, сама не своя от любви к вышеозначенному новому товарищу, бросает (бросает!!) Риса. Вот прямо так...more
Почему мне было так тяжело слушать эту книгу? Да потому что от Торчвуда тут остались рожки да ножки. В команде появился из ниоткуда новый персонаж по имени Джеймс – до странности мартисьюшный сплав Джека и Оуэна. Гвен, сама не своя от любви к вышеозначенному новому товарищу, бросает (бросает!!) Риса. Вот прямо так...more
It's first season (pre-Countrycide, and probably pre-Cyberwoman), and Team Torchwood are doing their usual thing -- but they have an extra member. James has recently joined the team, he fits in very well, and he's conducting a romance with Gwen -- not just a stress relief affair, but an actual romance that leads Gwen to think about how to finish gently with Rhys. He is, in short, a classic Mary-Sue figure for the first half of the book.[return][return]Since this is in series 1 continuity and thu...more
Dec 21, 2009
Meagan
rated it
1 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
whoverse,
read-in-2009
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
Apr 27, 2008
E.B.
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Torchwood Fans
ONLY 5 TYPOS! Better then the 13 I counted in the first book "Another Life". Perhaps the editor enjoyed this one as much as I did.
This book was really great. Yes, it's for Torchwood fans. It will most likely not get any new fans from it, as strangers to the Torchwood series wouldn't care to even look twice at the book.
At any rate, I have few issues with this book. The story is very VERY similar to an actual chapter of series 2 of Torchwood, so if you've seen it, you'll have a good, general idea...more
This book was really great. Yes, it's for Torchwood fans. It will most likely not get any new fans from it, as strangers to the Torchwood series wouldn't care to even look twice at the book.
At any rate, I have few issues with this book. The story is very VERY similar to an actual chapter of series 2 of Torchwood, so if you've seen it, you'll have a good, general idea...more
The storyline was a good one when all the pieces finally came together in the end. However, a book should be good all over and not just at the end. The author didn't really let the reader inside the characters' heads. And, to me, that's what makes Torchwood good. In fact, the characters were barely recognizable as Torchwood characters other than names and basic facts (Ianto makes coffee, Owen is a doctor, etc.) Also, there was an awful lot of bantering dialogue that tried to incorporate inside-j...more
I've read two books from Torchwood series previous to Border Princes and I was not much happy with them. This book, on the other hand, is way better than I expected. Very good dose of humor, adequate dose of action. It almost catches the atmosphere of a good tv episode, except Jack is not glamorously under the spotlight as often as he usually was. But it is quite forgivable because of the new member of the Team Torchwood. I'm almost tempted to give 4 stars and if I could give half stars, then th...more
The ending made the book make sense. However before all that, I was totally lost and frankly somewhat bored. The book meandered all over the place until the end. I know Torchwood and I had a hard time visualizing the characters in it as Torchwood. They were all very bad echoes of the Torchwood characters. It just never came together. It is one book where it should be mandatory to read the ending before you read the book.
It actually read more like the novelization of the bare bones not fleshed ou...more
It actually read more like the novelization of the bare bones not fleshed ou...more
Boy, this threw me for a loop. Who the hell is the character James? He appears to be a member of Torchwood but he never appeared on the BBC show. He came completely out of left field. In addition, he was having an affair with the show's lead character, Gwen. This was very strange since Gwen briefly had an affair with another one of the characters. I won't tell how it turned out but it was very foreseeable.
Dec 23, 2012
Zuzana
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
2012-challenge,
sci-fi
One of the first Torchwood books.
At first, I was like "Who the heck is James?" And then I was like "Wait a minute, didn't they reworked the very same idea into an episode in the second season?"
The focus is on Gwen for the most part of the story and her characterization is o.k. I think. As for the others Jack, Tosh, Owen and Ianto are just supernumeraries.
2.5 stars
At first, I was like "Who the heck is James?" And then I was like "Wait a minute, didn't they reworked the very same idea into an episode in the second season?"
The focus is on Gwen for the most part of the story and her characterization is o.k. I think. As for the others Jack, Tosh, Owen and Ianto are just supernumeraries.
2.5 stars
This second Torchwood adventure follows the team through a week of more oddness in Cardiff. The characters didn't strike me as being completely true to canon, but then again they were under alien influence and that may have been part of it. A fun read for die hard fans of the show, but I don't think the casual reader would get much out of it.
Nov 23, 2010
Burt
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
action-adventure,
fantasy
I recently began to watch Torchwood on TV and my friend Ben mentioned that there were a series of hardbound paperbacks (yes, yes, I know) available. So I bought this one. And nobody can say that I don't take time to digest a book. Having started it in 2007, I finished it in November, 2010. Dan Abnet has catapulted into "favorite author" status. I've read quite a bit of his Warhammer 40K stuff and a friend gifted me with Triumff last Christmas. It just so happens that Abnett wrote this Torchwsood...more
More like 1.5/5. Entertaining enough to make me read the whole thing, but the story was sort of jumbled, the characters felt off and the whole "mysterious unexplained OC is suddenly part of the team"-storyline was already used in the TV show. Hopefully the next Torchwood book is better.
This one was pretty confusing. And strikingly similar to the episode "Adam" in Series 2. I liked it because I listened to it on audio book read by Eve Myles.
I've enjoyed quite a few of these Torchwood books. I found this one to be one of the weaker stories - more scattered and less satisfying. Still, I did find it entertaining and fans should enjoy it.
Took a little while to enjoy this book, mainly because the character James annoyed me. I knew he didn't belong in the team and I suspected the truth early on in the book.
All in all a very good read.
All in all a very good read.
Fantastic fun, action, suspense, twists, well written, fast paced adventure
I kept wondering, who is James?
I kept wondering, who is James?
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“christ alive we're abit of a mess arent we?”
—
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“we got beat to shit tonite. beat to shit. i know tosh is hurt worse than shes letting on, and james must be banged up a treat. owen too, but hes playing it all macho.”
—
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Apr 27, 2013 09:55am