Torchwood: Another Life by Peter Anghelides

I love Torchwood and Doctor Who but for some reason have never tried one of the novels in that universe before. That is now over 😉 Published in 2007, Another Life is the first novel about the Torchwood 3 crew and plays probably somewhere during the first season of the show. Curious if it will be as entertaining as the show!

Sadly, it wasn’t. While the characters match their TV-counterparts quite well, the plot never goes beyond the OK-line and more often than not is just poor. Some parts are OK while others have the characters do things that range from wild-guesses to not even remotely plausible. I love Cardiff and all the references to various locations there but, sadly, not even that helps much.

Terms, objects, characters

• A&E: Owen refers to an A&E training he once had, which stands for “Accident and Emergency” and is the emergency unit in a hospital.
• Brummie: The term Gwen used to refer to the SOCO from Birmhimgham at the Fallon crime scene most likely references the Birmingham Brummies, a local speedway team.
• Gower is a peninsula in South Wales near Swansea.
• Rhondda is a valley in Wales that was home to mining operatings.
• SOCO: Scene of Crime Officer of the British police. Wikipedia has more details.
• SHO or Senior House Officer is a role or rank of a doctor at a hospital. This rank has been replaced around 2005 but is still sometimes used inofficially. Curious, given that this book was published in 2007.

Summary (SPOILERS)

An Bruydac battle cruiser is sucked into the Rift from to other side and gets stuck which causes the whole Cardiff area to destablize which causes the weather to go crazy.

A group of friends (two soldiers and one researcher from Blaidd Drwg) discover the alien ship on a diving tour and are captured. Since all crew members but one are dead, the surivor implants remote-control devices into his victims in order to find parts to repair the ship. Too bad, the pilot is addicted to human spine-fluid and he in the body of his victims goes on a Vampire-style murder-spree.

In the meantime Owen and Tosh experiment with a Second Life-style online game where Owen meets his former girlfriend from London and tries to recruit her to Torchwood.

In the end, she as well as the three divers and the alien are all killed (by Jack or each other) and the ship is moved back into the Rift where it most likely got ripped apart.