Reviews

Torchwood: First Born by James Goss

childdeirdre's review against another edition

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4.0

Qué bien me lo he pasado. :D

mczolly's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

nwhyte's review against another edition

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4.0

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1865810.html

A prequel to this year's Torchwood: Miracle Day series, which fairly leapt off the online shelves at me when I realised it was by James Goss, whose contributions to the off-screen Whoniverse have been pretty impressive, and that two of the readers - the main two, it turns out, the other four getting only a chapter or so each - are Kai "Rhys Williams" Owen, who did such a good job of Goss's Ghost Train, and Clare Corbett, who likewise did well sharing The Hounds of Artemis and carrying Dead of Winter on her own.

I was not disappointed. Although the plot itself is a pretty straightforward cut-and-paste from The Midwich Cuckoos and Children of the Corn, Goss puts together a very compelling story of creepy children in a village where nothing is quite right, with the added factor of Gwen Cooper and Rhys Williams and their very small baby trying to work out what is going on and also incidentally not get killed. I have been generally enjoying the Torchwood novels, which as a series are some of the hidden gems of Who fiction, but this is one of the best. The audio brings us Kai Owen's voice to do a warm, confused but courageous Rhys, with Clare Corbett doing a convincing interpretation of Eve Myles and carrying her chapters extremely impressively (she is really good at accents). Apart from the basic horror of the story, there's some bleak office humour about the bureaucracy of atrocity, and some tough teenagers who are central to the story. Very strongly recommended.

dodau's review against another edition

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4.0

Picked this up in the Supermarket and rushed it to the top of the TBR pile cos it said on the cover that it's a prequel to Miracle Day which is showing on TV at the moment. While it is set in the period between Children of Earth and Miracle Day it has no effect on the events of the latter. Set after the birth of Anwen it shows that Gwen and Rhys aren't as distanced from Torchwood as they would like to be.
Quick, easy and enjoyable to read like most Torchwood books.

bookishsmiles's review against another edition

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Brilliant
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