Torchwood: Into The Silence [Englisch] [Gebundene Ausgabe]

I will have to admit that I am Torchwood Obsessed, and Sarah Pinborough's "Torchwood Into The Silence" is the tenth novel in the line of BBC Torchwood Books, and marks her first authorship of a title in the series. I ask, Sarah, that you "please!, please!", come back and do another one!.

"Into The Silence" takes place after the end of Torchwood Season Two, but before the cataclysmic events of "Children of Earth". Though, a later adventure, Pinsborough manages to write a story that returns us to more to the unknown territory of Torchwood Season One- in that she shows that Torchwood, and the reader, can still be awed by the appearance and nature of an alien we could never have suspected existed. Its modus operandi of killing is one that we're horrified by so that we sympathize and frazzle away alongside the Torchwood team. And yet, this creature, while still frightening us, also manages to gain our sympathy. Yes, this is an alien. literally from the nether regions of the universe, with a bizaare reason for mutilating victims, but it is a reason we're compelled to want to understand.

The character handling is top-notch, and each of the Torchwood members, Jack, Gwen and Ianto grow the way we would expect them to given what the plot and drama demand. We're also introduced to the charming down-and-out DI Cutler, who has his own history with Torchwood One of London. This connection draws Jack into taking him on board in the team's effort to apprehend the alien and stop the murders.

"Into The Silence" is a near Perfect Torchwood Novel. I have one very bizaare and petty complaint. It's the one thing and only thing that for me at times distracted me from imagining the whole thing happening live as if a televised episode. For reasons known only to Sara Pinsborough, it seems that every character entering or exiting the Hub, always enters or exists via the invisible lift in the center of the HUB. Maybe the front Tourist entrance was destroyed in one of the later episodes of Season two and I'm not recalling it. The books are set up, regardless of the author's style, to fit into and correspond to a certain point in the televised adventures. But whatever the reason, it seems that in this book, no one enters or leaves the HUB, ever, by the rolling "gear" entry.

Still, if this is my only issue (and questionably relevent), you'll be denying yourself a serious pleasure if you don't sit down and read Pinsborough's book. If you love Torchwood's proclivity for strange aliens - you'll love "Into The Silence".

SPOILERY

Torchwood gets called to the scene when the corpses of prominent singers in town for the Welsh Amateur Operatic Contest start turning up with their throats slit open and their vocal cords removed. It's rare (unprecedented?) for Torchwood to encounter good aliens, and while the alien in Sara Pinborough's Into the Silence isn't evil, per se, it certainly racks up a body count.

Although the plot itself is only middling, there's great characterization of the alien menace and its victims--a gay couple, the parent of an autistic boy, a woman who's had a stroke recently, and more. Torchwood is assisted on this particular case by a newcomer to Cardiff named Tom Cutler, a police detective who had a history with Torchwood London. Cutler has a great backstory and would be fun to see more of, though his getting ret-conned and sent back to London makes that unlikely.

The ending is well-done, as Jack makes a difficult moral decision that foreshadows what we see him capable of doing in Children of Earth. I wouldn't say Into the Silence is a top-tier Torchwood novel, but it's a solid entry in the series.

This, is indeed, a perfect novel. Not just a perfect sci-fi novel, or a perfect Torchwood novel. Even if you have never read or seen anything about Torchwood, this would be a perfect, brilliant, great book to start with. It can almost stand alone all by itself.
Great alien idea, great plot, perfect characters - flawed yet fill of merit at the same time. Get it used or new, but just get it!