Genre: Sci-Fi
Publishing Info: BBC Books (2007)
Pages: 254
Back Cover Summary:
The End of the World began on a a Thursday night in October, just after eight in the evening…
The Amok is driving people out of their minds, turning them into zombies and causing riots in the streets. A solitary diner leaves a Cardiff restaurant, his mission to protect the Principal leading him to a secret base beneath a water tower. Everyone has a headache; there’s something in Davey Morgan’s shed; and the church of St-Mary-in-the-Dust, demolished in 1840, has reappeared – though it’s not due until 2011. Torchwood seem to be out of their depth. What will all this mean for the romance between Torchwood’s newest members?
Captain Jack Harkness has something more to worry about: an alarm, an early warning, given to mankind and held – inert – by Torchwood for 108 years. And now it’s flashing. Something is coming. Or something is already here.
The second book based off the hit BBC TV show Torchwood, Border Princes has an intriguing premise. But, it is hindered by uneven pacing, too many secondary plots, and an easy to guess central mystery.
Much of the book rests on how successful the mystery of Torchwood member James Mayer is sustained. Unfortunately, the author was always going to be fighting a losing battle. As well as never being mentioned in any other media, the cover art shows Jack pointing a gun at him! Therefore, any mystery is reduced to the circumstances around James’ identity, which only really picks up in the second half. James is quite likeable, with his code-words to measure the intensity of situations. He is also the closest to who I would call the main character of this book. But, I always knew that he would not exist past Border Princes, which limits how strongly I feel about him. I do like the suddenness of the ending, and how it left open questions about the rest of the team. This feels very similar to the Series 2 TV episode ‘Adam’, but predates it by a whole year. It is an interesting concept for a book; I just wish the mystery element is better sustained.
The weakest element is the pacing, which is scattershot and unfocused. The first half feels like ‘Things that happened on Torchwood this week’. I’ll admit that it is interesting to get more insight into the team’s daily investigations. There are also some great sequences in this half, like the chase and fight sequence with the Amok-possessed humans. The problem is that there is no real priority between the episodic and the main plot. It is frustrating to read this and not know which chapters are relevant, and which are side missions. Sometimes, the encounters would awkwardly link to the James Mayer narrative, but not always. Their effectiveness is therefore limited, which is a shame as there are some at times creepy concepts. The murderous artificial human and the encounter in the disappearing church are two examples of these. The latter even chose to reference the Series 1 TV finale, which felt very out of place. Once the secondary plots had been dropped, the pacing becomes much stronger and more focused.
With James taking on the lead role, the rest of the regular characters are reduced to more minor roles. The exception to this is Gwen, who doesn’t really come off great in this book. I know this is Series 1 Gwen, but her numerous relationship indiscretions are infuriating. Apparently, this book takes place before ‘Cyberwoman’ so, before her affair with Owen, she nearly left Rhys for James. You’ve really got to feel for Rhys at this point. The other team members suffer from having this one-off character take centre stage. In Another Life, more was revealed about Owen’s backstory than the whole first half of the first series on TV. Here, we don’t really get anything. Tosh has an encounter in the church, that is mostly off the page. Owen does very little. Ianto does practically nothing at all. And Jack only serves as an exposition dump in the closing pages. The books could be a great opportunity to expand on the other main cast, and this sadly missed the mark.
Border Princes has an intriguing concept but is unable to fully utilise it in its plot. Some of this is down to a muddled first half which balanced the main plot with several side adventures. But, mostly, it was always going to be difficult to sustain a mystery around a one-off central character. The second half is definitely stronger once the secondary plots are sorted, and the focus is on James’ story. There are also some good action sequences, particularly the opening with the Amok. A decent read overall, if a bit muddled.
Star Rating: 3/5
+ Great opening that drops the audience right in
+ Impactful and open-ended close
– Hard to sustain a mystery for a one-off character
– Too many secondary plots; not enough character development
Thank you for taking the time to read my review of Border Princes. Please find the link below to the novel’s Goodreads page.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8897188-border-princes
Have you read Border Princes? If so, do you think it is a good supplementary book to the TV series? Did you guess the twist?
Please feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments section below!
I aim to review one book every month. I also am reviewing Big Finish’s Doctor Who audio books, and am doing a series on exploring abandoned railways. If you would like to be notified when new posts are published, you can subscribe to my blog.
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