DW Review: Slow Decay

The last of the current Torchwood books, Slow Decay.

The point about this book is summarised on the last page, as Toshiko considers the secondary plot thread which is completely irrelevant to the main plot thread, "In the end, she thought, the slow decay of the body didn't matter. We all continue on, renewing outselves, through our offspring." Just as well Andy Lane tells us that as that idea is completely missing from the main plot thread.

And the main plot thread is about how people want to lose weight quickly through any means. Including swallowing a drug that has unforseen consequences (well, to them anyway). Meaning ravenous hunger that makes them eat anything and anyone. This, by the way, is a major spoiler. Oops. But, hey, it's pretty obvious.

What is even more obvious is the solution, but no-one is allowed to realise it for a long time. In fact, the main crew aren't even allowed to fully realise the problem until over half-way through the book, and then they spend far too much time dithering around when the answer is already given to them. This, ladies and gentlemen, is what's known as BAD WRITING. It's also known as severe padding.

Andy Lane has given us some decent Doctor Who novels in the past, but here he is just dragging things out, probably because he knows it's a paper thin plot but he can't make it any better. The hey? He's better than that. He doesn't have a grip on the Torchwood concept, but then he's not the only one.

The characters are well enough done, which shows how robust they are to writing, but its the plot that struggles.

At least the front cover is nice, if not immediately justified by the work.

Book Order: Again between Day One and Cyberwoman. I'm going to have to blog about that...