Torchwood Yearbook
Aug. 29th, 2008 02:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethSo, among the new and shiny items I bought yesterday on my grand adventure, I got the new Torchwood Magazine Yearbook. I figured I could be sensible, find out what was in it, think about it, go home, count the spare change... or just admit I'd buy anything with Torchwood written on it and grab it then and there. So now I has shiny.
The photos are good. I can already tell exactly where I'm going to get JB and NM to sign it.
The text... I'm on the first page, the 'Meet the Team' feature.
Contents:
Meet the Team
Visually it's very much like the similar feature in the first issue of Torchwood magazine. But the text has been revised. They haven't fixed the peculiar and canon-contradicting birthdays issue - Tosh and Ianto are still listed with dates quite different from those spoken on screen. Ianto Jones, born August 19th 1983, according to Jack in Fragments. Toshiko Sato, born in London, 1975, according to Mary in Greeks bearing gifts. Yet the Yearbook still lists Ianto as 02/12/82 and Tosh as 18/09/81. I think the latter has been used on screen in art, but it still contradicts spoken. Now, usually, when canon contradicts itself, I see the holes that plot bunnies peek through. I can work with the differences. Plus it gives us an excuse to celebrate Toshikomas and Iantomas twice a year each.
But typos? *facepalm*
"[Ianto] then sort out Torchwood Three in Cardiff."
... yes I know it sounds right, but: sought
... Do you think the magazine needs a proofreader? No, wait, clearly that's a yes - do you think they take volunteer betas?
Many edits are for space - the print is much smaller and there's still not as many words per article. To make up for it we get to see the characters chests, not just their heads. Except for Jack and Gwen, who are hiding behind 'Meet the Team'. It's not that I mind seeing Toshiko's chest, it's just that I was in fact more interested in having more writing, on account of we can see that chest in action any time we put in a DVD.
I haven't read even the whole of these first little prophile things. For all I know it's the only typo in the book.
File 1: Black Water by Steven Savile
Interesting bad guys, good atmosphere, whole lot of bugger all happens.
And by 'interesting' I mean 'kind of like Autons only gloopier'. Oil instead of plastic. I'm not usually much of one for criticising DW for repeating itself, on account of there's no such thing as original, but the lack of actual plot or character leaves the bad guy as the whole of the story, and... *shrugs*
I now want to take this snippet and turn it into something more episode sized, with a theme and character interaction and a few complications and things being tried and failing instead of the first thing working. The length just leaves it as an interesting opening and a end all smushed together.
Grand Designs: Inside the Hub The feature from the magazine. Far as I can tell, full sized. Very pretty. Useful resource for fanfic, shows you what all is there and where.
File 2: Mrs Acres by David Llewellyn
I've read only the first paragraph and I'm a bit in love with it. Talk about culturally specific referents. Paints a whole character through their house things. And then the team character voices are spot on and differentiated. I likes this one. So then it keeps going, mostly Mrs Acres talking, and clues click together, and it has a tidy little plot that makes sense and changes people like story should. And it resonates with Gwen's situation, feels right thematically. And the details are so clear throughout it just feels like a few minutes of someone's life, and how it intersects with Torchwood. This one was good.
O Captain My Captain like in the magazine. pictures look a bit red. or is that just me?
File 3: The beauty of our weapons by Andy Lane
In character LOLs in the first page = win. And by the second page I want to argue with Jack for having such Torchwood opinions. So it's doing great in the characterisation. Funny and spiky, with bits of that first season worrying Torchwood I like.
oh, typo again - random misplaced " messing up a sentence.
I like this story. Just a bit gross and nasty, some nice team stuff, some moral messiness. Torchwood recipe.
Oh excellent, it's taken the annoying opinion and, er, run with it.
And then it just... okay, so, I can think up reasons the ending makes sense, but... hmmm.
Still, I rather like it. And also the 'to be continued' feel in the punchline.
The title, though, does rather remove all possibility of suspense about the nature of the thing. It might make up for it in added creeping dread though.
Series Two episode guide
Haven't read it. Looks familiar. Still only has overnight rather than final ratings for the last three episides.
File 4: Plant Life by Trevor Baxendale
"Feed me Seymour"
Familiar plot used for character exploration. Fun how Ianto seems perfectly Ianto-like all the way through. Or, you know, creepy. :-)
Aging Agyeman
Make up pictures. Same like magazine, probably.
Forever Hold your Rhys, behind the scenes at Gwen and Rhys' wedding.
Magazine feature again. Haven't compared them. Lots of pretty pictures.
I still like Toshiko's dress.
File 4: Monster, by Joseph Lidster
In case you ever wondered what the Hub smells like: Monsters and demons and lust and coffee.
It's... all a bit obvious really. It's first person, from someone that doesn't know the team. Quite a bit of it happens when they're not there. It plays with the Owen+Hunger thing, so it has theme and connection, and the Owen stuff works. It's just the story as a whole doesn't work for me. Interesting survey though: Does this one AND Mrs Acres work for anyone? Or is it an either/or? Different demographics, sort of thing.
I like the ending. Good Owen throughout.
The Files are new fiction, the articles I thought were straight from the magazines, but the meet the team actually has less in it. Why buy a book that has less than the magazines? Unless it's meant to be that the mag stuff is meant to lure you in to go buy back issues.
There's a nice pic of Jack with his Vortex Manipulator showing, opposite the contents list. Very useful for making replicas, I'm sure.
Okay, I'll go read it now.
ETA: putting little reviews in under the cuts.
The higher quality paper and better printing means that both the black on white and white on black sections are readable, even with small type, which annoyingly is not always the case with the magazine. And they stick with black on white plenty often. Is good.
Overall: Having now read it, I like it.
3/5 stories were different sorts of good, and the other 2/5 had good aspects and were okay.
I don't like how much I spent on it, but then again I'm cheap.
The photos are good. I can already tell exactly where I'm going to get JB and NM to sign it.
The text... I'm on the first page, the 'Meet the Team' feature.
Contents:
Meet the Team
Visually it's very much like the similar feature in the first issue of Torchwood magazine. But the text has been revised. They haven't fixed the peculiar and canon-contradicting birthdays issue - Tosh and Ianto are still listed with dates quite different from those spoken on screen. Ianto Jones, born August 19th 1983, according to Jack in Fragments. Toshiko Sato, born in London, 1975, according to Mary in Greeks bearing gifts. Yet the Yearbook still lists Ianto as 02/12/82 and Tosh as 18/09/81. I think the latter has been used on screen in art, but it still contradicts spoken. Now, usually, when canon contradicts itself, I see the holes that plot bunnies peek through. I can work with the differences. Plus it gives us an excuse to celebrate Toshikomas and Iantomas twice a year each.
But typos? *facepalm*
"[Ianto] then sort out Torchwood Three in Cardiff."
... yes I know it sounds right, but: sought
... Do you think the magazine needs a proofreader? No, wait, clearly that's a yes - do you think they take volunteer betas?
Many edits are for space - the print is much smaller and there's still not as many words per article. To make up for it we get to see the characters chests, not just their heads. Except for Jack and Gwen, who are hiding behind 'Meet the Team'. It's not that I mind seeing Toshiko's chest, it's just that I was in fact more interested in having more writing, on account of we can see that chest in action any time we put in a DVD.
I haven't read even the whole of these first little prophile things. For all I know it's the only typo in the book.
File 1: Black Water by Steven Savile
Interesting bad guys, good atmosphere, whole lot of bugger all happens.
And by 'interesting' I mean 'kind of like Autons only gloopier'. Oil instead of plastic. I'm not usually much of one for criticising DW for repeating itself, on account of there's no such thing as original, but the lack of actual plot or character leaves the bad guy as the whole of the story, and... *shrugs*
I now want to take this snippet and turn it into something more episode sized, with a theme and character interaction and a few complications and things being tried and failing instead of the first thing working. The length just leaves it as an interesting opening and a end all smushed together.
Grand Designs: Inside the Hub The feature from the magazine. Far as I can tell, full sized. Very pretty. Useful resource for fanfic, shows you what all is there and where.
File 2: Mrs Acres by David Llewellyn
I've read only the first paragraph and I'm a bit in love with it. Talk about culturally specific referents. Paints a whole character through their house things. And then the team character voices are spot on and differentiated. I likes this one. So then it keeps going, mostly Mrs Acres talking, and clues click together, and it has a tidy little plot that makes sense and changes people like story should. And it resonates with Gwen's situation, feels right thematically. And the details are so clear throughout it just feels like a few minutes of someone's life, and how it intersects with Torchwood. This one was good.
O Captain My Captain like in the magazine. pictures look a bit red. or is that just me?
File 3: The beauty of our weapons by Andy Lane
In character LOLs in the first page = win. And by the second page I want to argue with Jack for having such Torchwood opinions. So it's doing great in the characterisation. Funny and spiky, with bits of that first season worrying Torchwood I like.
oh, typo again - random misplaced " messing up a sentence.
I like this story. Just a bit gross and nasty, some nice team stuff, some moral messiness. Torchwood recipe.
Oh excellent, it's taken the annoying opinion and, er, run with it.
And then it just... okay, so, I can think up reasons the ending makes sense, but... hmmm.
Still, I rather like it. And also the 'to be continued' feel in the punchline.
The title, though, does rather remove all possibility of suspense about the nature of the thing. It might make up for it in added creeping dread though.
Series Two episode guide
Haven't read it. Looks familiar. Still only has overnight rather than final ratings for the last three episides.
File 4: Plant Life by Trevor Baxendale
"Feed me Seymour"
Familiar plot used for character exploration. Fun how Ianto seems perfectly Ianto-like all the way through. Or, you know, creepy. :-)
Aging Agyeman
Make up pictures. Same like magazine, probably.
Forever Hold your Rhys, behind the scenes at Gwen and Rhys' wedding.
Magazine feature again. Haven't compared them. Lots of pretty pictures.
I still like Toshiko's dress.
File 4: Monster, by Joseph Lidster
In case you ever wondered what the Hub smells like: Monsters and demons and lust and coffee.
It's... all a bit obvious really. It's first person, from someone that doesn't know the team. Quite a bit of it happens when they're not there. It plays with the Owen+Hunger thing, so it has theme and connection, and the Owen stuff works. It's just the story as a whole doesn't work for me. Interesting survey though: Does this one AND Mrs Acres work for anyone? Or is it an either/or? Different demographics, sort of thing.
I like the ending. Good Owen throughout.
The Files are new fiction, the articles I thought were straight from the magazines, but the meet the team actually has less in it. Why buy a book that has less than the magazines? Unless it's meant to be that the mag stuff is meant to lure you in to go buy back issues.
There's a nice pic of Jack with his Vortex Manipulator showing, opposite the contents list. Very useful for making replicas, I'm sure.
Okay, I'll go read it now.
ETA: putting little reviews in under the cuts.
The higher quality paper and better printing means that both the black on white and white on black sections are readable, even with small type, which annoyingly is not always the case with the magazine. And they stick with black on white plenty often. Is good.
Overall: Having now read it, I like it.
3/5 stories were different sorts of good, and the other 2/5 had good aspects and were okay.
I don't like how much I spent on it, but then again I'm cheap.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-08-29 05:23 pm (UTC)I mean, you posted FIVE HOURS ago only!!!
Google algorithm is going to reference us before we post! It's mind reading, or what???
no subject
Date: 2008-08-30 03:56 pm (UTC)*smug*
;-)
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Date: 2008-08-30 03:59 am (UTC)I feel a big Amazon order coming on...
no subject
Date: 2008-08-30 03:55 pm (UTC)