TW: Into the Silence

The first book in the next set of three is Into the Silence by Sarah Pinborough.

This is a book of two halves, the first half being 180 pages, the second half being 50. In the first half, an alien attacks people. Again and again and again. And again. All the while Sarah Pinborough is introducing people, spending pages on their lavish introductions and setting them up so we get to know them and their lives and we care deeply about their imminent death... yeah, that’ll happen. Basically, read "padding". A lot of padding. Until finally, in the last fifty pages, all of a sudden Torchwood decide to do something, and we get resolution! Which is a level of brutal we haven't seen in a while, although this book does take place before Children of Earth and it's not that brutal.

This means that most of the Torchwood team are sitting around, kicking their heels, until they finally do something. This might lead to characterisation of them in their off-time or in their 'we don't know what to do' time, but all that potential characterisation is given to the victims. There is a last-second hint of something for Jack, right at the end, but on the whole the team are just 'there' rather than being meaningful people.

Not that the new people are that interesting. Aside from the victims, the other main characters are made to be unpleasant or at least severely broken. This might be a realistic view of many of the people in Cardiff, but doesn’t endear me to want to read about them.

This book is not light reading, in fact 'slog' might be a better term. Skip it until you really want to read them all.

Order: Before Children of Earth.

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