Several of my friends regularly watch/watched Dr Who and Torchwood. I managed to never get into Torchwood when it was on the air. I was familiar with the characters and concepts due to catching bits and pieces of the show or hearing friends discuss some point or other. I'm more of a reader than TV watcher, so I started reading this series as I was interested enough to see what it was all about. At first, I had assumed the novels would just retell the events from the TV show, but these are totally different stories. The books do occasionally touch on stuff that happened in the show as the events they portray sort of happen between episodes. After reading the first 12 novels in this series, I actually went back and watched the whole show, too, since I liked the characters so much. ( )

This was well-written and enjoyable to read. No real surprises in the story, but the characters and situations are quite vivid. ( )

Definitely going on my list as one of the better Torchwood books that I have read so far. ( )

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1949276.html

Again, a decent Torchwood novel - I remain impressed by the overall quality of the range - this time featuring a time-travel mystery centred around a particular Cardiff house, one which Jack himself has personal links to. Adams is a good descriptive writer and takes us much further into Jack's background over the decades in Cardiff than other authors have done, with decently creepy alien forces to boot. Another good 'un. ( )

People keep dying in strange ways at a house that Jack used to own.

The plot is creepy and interesting and none of the minor characters are safe (although like most books of this kind, the main characters never seem to be in any real danger). Unfortunately, everything is a bit rushed and the resolution is not especially satisfactory.

The writing was ok for the most part, but the oddest mistakes kept popping up, like missing commas that totally changed the meaning of a sentence (or more often just made no sense whatsoever). I don't know if it was a writing problem or an editing problem, but either way, it was distracting.

Overall, the book is rather like a Torchwood episode - enjoyable but not really what I'd call good - except without the things that make the tv show so much fun (the actors, the witty banter, the special effects). Only recommended if you really like Torchwood. ( )