Cover image for Torchwood: Border Princes

Reviews for Torchwood: Border Princes

There are 6 reviews so far. To add a review of your own for this item, visit the voting page.



A good Torchwood Novel.

By:Lawson. Jamie, Kent
Date:Monday 15 January 2007
Rating:   9


This novel has the feel of a Torchwood episode. It is well written, sharp and sexy.
Dan Abnett crams in so many adventures into one novel which ultimately pushes the narrative into one story and he characterises the main torchwood team well as he does by a new central Torchwood character James (character on the book cover) although it is a mystery who he is and what his ultimate goals are at first you soon warm to him and see him as a central figure.

without giving to much of the plot away a heavy theme is lies.

A fantastic novel and highly recommended :-)



A Torchwood book well written

By:Jamie Hardwick, Gloucestershire, United Kingdom
Date:Friday 26 January 2007
Rating:   10

Border Princes is the first of the three Torchwood novels I have read. I found the story fast paced and interesting. Dan Abnett really created an atmosphere with this book, involving sub-plots (Serial G, The Amok) as well as introducing a character - James(Analogy Man)-, having him have a relationship with Gwen and then surprising the reader at the end... When reading, I felt like the characters were portrayed as they had been in the fabulous series. This would have made an excellent episode! If you only read one Torchwood book, read Border Princes.



Offensive and Poorly Written

By:Rob Allwright, Redruth, Cornwall
Date:Saturday 3 February 2007
Rating:   3

I have to admit that I have enjoyed most of the Torchwood TV series. It's not Dr. Who, I can accept that, but it is a relatively intelligent drama series. However the problem with the series is that it is not comfortable in it's role as an adult drama. It has to keep pushing it's own boundaries, swearing when it's totally unnecessary and when a story is a little thin they just add unnecessary gay or straight sex scenes which do little for the plot but prove that they are 'edgy'.

This book, unfortunately, follows the same pattern. With an even more absurd plot than normal this book concerns itself with a number of smaller events that begin to mount into a larger storyline. However that storyline is so thin it's see through. For a start an extra member is added to the Torchwood team as though he's been there all along. You just cannot go messing around with the make-up of a TV show in this way, yet Dan Abnett thinks he can.

The bad language in this book is unnecessary and offensive and even at times blasphemous in its swearing. While I could imagine these lines being said by the characters I think that they wouldn't choose to broadcast them. The one redeeming feature about this book is that the characters (the ones from the TV series) are well profiled. Even though some of them occassionally act out of character there are reasons for this.

I found this book hard to get into, and more difficult to continue reading as the plot wore on. Mainly I think because the plot was so lame and poorly thought out and because there was this extra character appearing out of nowhere didn't help.

As a TV tie-in it is a pretty poor comparison to the series, in a franchise like Torchwood perhaps they should pay a little more attention to the plot because thats really what the books need, even more so than the TV series because at least on TV actors, personalities and special effects can be used to cover plot holes or weak stories, these are not available in books.



Not one story, 10!

By:antony, uk
Date:Sunday 24 February 2008
Rating:   7

It really is amazing how many different stories you can cram into one book.
Abbadon from the series makes an appearance.
The tv story "Adam" seems very similiar.
Something in the garden shed (original, NOT).
etc etc.
Not too bad, but the author tried a bit too hard to cram so many things into it. He really should make it one thing.



None too good

By:Uwe, USA
Date:Wednesday 30 April 2008
Rating:   3

I'm a huge Dr Who and Torchwood fan, and generally enjoy the spinoff novels. However, this one wasn't so great at all. For one, the Amok storyline was absolutely great, but wasn't the actual plot for this. That kinda threw me a little. Second and most inpactfully, was this "James" guy. Now, I hate Gwen enough as it is for her infidelity, but this was just too much. Even if he is just a red-shirt or an alien imposter, he was just the straw that broke this camel's back. Give me a story where the Torchwood team deals with the Doctor's aftermath anyday.



Obvious plot from the start

By:Almatos Miren, Madison, United States
Date:Wednesday 27 July 2011
Rating:   6

The inclusion of the new character made it very obvious from the beginning how the story would ultimately play out. Adding in the romance with Gwen did not help to make the character more believable (or Gwen more likable, truth be told), simply adding to the overall "alternate reality" feel of the book. No matter how much the author tries to spin the idea that everything will have been forgotten in time, simply too much happened emotionally to the main characters to have it fit into the main timeline of the show.

Writing wise, I did not like the way this was written. I found the language and style confusing at times, the actual story getting lost in 60s-ish hyperbole. A more straight-forward story would have made this one better, I feel.



Go back