beccaelizabeth's dreamwidth journal

Today I finished reading Torchwood Exodus Code.
It took a few tries.
I cannot recommend it.

I'm sure no one sat down and decided Let Us Do A Sexism
but they very much did a sexism
and it was boring.

I feel like if I unraveled this story and had another go with some of the same parts it could be okay but as it is there's a bunch of messy parts and mad women and I am making a face like :-/

The ending also didnt seem to pay off much of the book. Although ( Read more... )

I feel like I could be kinder to this book
but Gwen gets made 'mad' and sedated and carted around like so much baggage through a plot that really is affecting her most of all
yet is there to raise the stakes for Jack and make him suffer.

So I'm not feeling kind towards this book.

Honestly I'd have liked it better if it was a Captain Jack adventure and just left Gwen out of it.

There'd still be the problem of weirdly sexist pheremone induced madness
but...

nope, still making a :-/ with an option on >:-(

A Bilis Manger story that possibly plays with our expectations of a Big Finish Bilis Manger story.
Lots of creepy bits, pretty solid ending, but ( Read more... )

It was quite good but doesnt give me the lingering creepies that Bilis stories so often arrange.

This Torchwood audio adventure is set post all the canon, and had Gareth David Lloyd on the cover
and Murray Melvin, Bilis Manger.

Anyone who has only seen the TV show is thinking uh oh, but if you listen the audios it is fully UH OH with an option on YIKES.

And this one is up there with the most tense and terrible Bilis stories, so, you know, be in the mood for that before you follow the urban explorers in.

Spoilers under the cut:

( Read more... )

The audio gives interesting characterisation and motives to Bilis, sketches in vivid personalities for the new characters, and leaves us with an interesting jumping off point should we want to use it.

But if you are there for Ianto you get much less.

I am not sure what the appeal of that was meant to be.

But it's a very creepy Bilis episode.

Listened to Torchwood Golden Age
which is absolutely vicious about the British Empire and people who want to turn the clock back
and that is never me
but now I am feeling vaguely got at
because the idea there was a Best Day and the only thing you can do is live in reruns
when I have been relistening Torchwood for a While now
feels sort of
personal.

I, however, would not kill people to hit rewind
and have never needed the incentive of not ageing
just to stay indoors for years.

I wasnt impressed with Ianto and Gwen getting surprised by the creepy people being danger
but it was kind of funny hearing Ianto complain that if he wanted to get knocked out and murdered he could have stayed at home.



In the hypothetical situation one could intervene in Torchwood to make an AU where Ianto didnt die the way he did
you would still need to change *this* day as well
because this is the day that ate all his time.

It didnt make him old, it ate his possibilities.

Other Doctor Who audios have had similar things happen so I reckon that's what the screaming part did.



Thing is though that Gwen was right there getting chewed on as well, so hypothetically her getting to old age seems unlikely.

Jack must be so depressed realising the ending would have been the same with only him in there.



It's a good audio
but makes me feel like I should think of something else to do.

Another reason I don't write much: these daydreams are Very Specific.

Like, this one started as doing protective magic tattoos on an appreciative Ianto Jones
but now it developed a plot wherein we are on Golarion and we get accused of worshipping an evil god of pain
and therefor he has to strip and show his tattoos in a crowded temple court
and go through trials
to determine if all that is evidence of worshipping The Midnight Lord, or Calistria, or Shelyn.
... pain or sex or beauty&love, basically, but with elaborate backstory and lore etc.

And I think at some point that daydream has an audience of one
because the fantasy world theology and deep lore from like three foot of setting books
is integral to the outcome.

... Ianto with tattoos is going to be slightly more popular, but mostly when paired with Jack, who is the most difficult one to get to Planet Where True Resurrection Is A Thing.



I also want to write Lisa as a Paladin who everyone thinks used to be a graveknight because when she tried to explain her experiences it sounded a lot like undeath to them.

And Ianto should date a nonbinary tiefling. As part of his ongoing What Would Jack Harkness Do lifestyle. ... ( Read more... )

I like dropping Torchwood into Pathfinder because a lot of the creepier things they do ie anything with retcon is no longer relevant, or effective. There's too many antidotes and a closer to level playing field. So they might read this as the kind of chaos that happens if they dont defend those conceptual borders as hard as they defended the rift. Or they might have to change their minds a bit. Or, obviously, with a team around, both.

... hmmm, also, have had an idea bout current location of Torchwood Four. That would be all OCs though.

Anyone from our time would have to take one of the variants from the Technology Guide, because all the other rules assume you grow up with magic, not tech. Another way to put Torchwood at sea.

Unless they drop in near Numeria, where their superior technological knowledge would threaten the Technic League, but the League's magic would keep them dangerous.

And the Worldwound is up around there, so there's a hole between dimensions handy to fall out of.

Most things that fall out of it are demons from the Abyss though. If post House of the Dead Ianto comes in through that door, he is going to have some Questions.

Dating a tiefling might be part of answering those questions. Every Tiefling has had to deal with the whole So You Might Be A Bit Of A Demon, Now What? Embracing difference is always a good answer to Now What.



My plot bunnies are always too far from source to make good AUs but too close to make sense without canon. Extensive tie in canon at that.

Ah well.

Finished listening to these sets.

I like Tyler a little better, Colchester a little less, and Andy so much worse.

Ng and Orr almost developed personalities, but mostly seemed trapped in a nightmare of other people's demands, and trying to be someone they're not. Not awesome.

Jack ... has some character moments but I feel like the story has stepped back from him. We never know the cunning plan as he's running it, just from where it bumps into other people. But I dont feel like it ended on outright character assassination so that's an improvement.

Didn't much enjoy these, but, didnt hate them, had some good bits, strong bits, bits that seemed human.

Still feel uncomfortable with some of the sexuality and gender stuff I feel it makes messes, but, also still feel like it's conspiracy board and string time when I try and pick out specifically why.

Can't give it an honest star rating because it still boils down to
whatever it is trying to do isn't what I wanted to be listening.

Today I reread Torchwood The Twilight Streets.
I had forgotten it, and that turns out to be because it was boring and pointless.
No one was in character for most of the book, and that turns out to be because ( Read more... )

Messy mythology, boring 'motivations', makes me annoyed I spent the time rereading it.



I think at this point I should just remember to search up my own earlier opinions.
... aaaand my earlier opinions were unalloyed approval... wtf earlier self?
https://beccaelizabeth.dreamwidth.org/1359866.html

Okay, you know what, I can see why it is interesting if you take it as a near miss of possibly in character bits, but, on this reread I... don't.



Oh, also, there's a paragraph Ianto says that even Gwen on the page blames on mysterious outside influences, but it's just so biphobic I don't understand why anyone thinks it belongs in a story.
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/1017820-oh-come-on-smile-lisa-jack-being-bisexual-is-hardly
It doesnt even make sense.

... it might have vaguely pissed me off for the rest of the book actually.



Okay, my opinion on this book changed quite a lot.

Onwards to something else to do.

Another Torchwood book, this time one I haven't read before.
ETA after searching my journal: https://beccaelizabeth.dreamwidth.org/2956277.html
I had in fact read it before, so, you know, that tells you what an impact it made. I just didnt buy it then. /ETA


It is set after CoE and after Jack leaves, which seemed to me likely to be just a bit sad.
Also Gwen is not my favourite, mostly for the times she is the show's favourite.

But, this was quite good.
Depressing of course, Torchwood being Torchwood, but quite good.
It's mostly set after Gwen's baby arrives, with Rhys and Gwen at the end of their tether as new parents, and it's like the author stirred up a cocktail of worry about screwing up your kids and or losing yourself when the baby arrives and suddenly you realise you've left all your old life behind, but then added Torchwood.

( Read more... )

So many layers of failure to parent.

The ending was striking but also really depressing.

Torchwood turns a mirror on the world from a very particular angle, but now I'm going to feel a bit grim until I find something entirely unlike this to read.

So, effective Torchwood story.

Have been thinking about Owen's story if he got True Resurrected in Pathfinder's setting Golarion.

As a former undead he would get some very judgemental people as soon as they knew. Wouldnt matter he hadnt done it on purpose, too many people are in too much danger from undead.
( Read more... )



Bouncing plot bunnies around is fun because you pull up themes and hold compare contrasts up to each other, but the chances of me putting words in a row properly are... slim.


And since this is the hardest setup to make Jack/Ianto, despite me thinking about Jack/Ianto pretty much all the time, it's probably not the most fun place to start.

ah well. onwards...

This big finish audio was okay to listen to but I deleted it off my phone because it's mostly good at showing why Suzie ended up breaking down. Sure it's an adventure and she gets to do stuff and have plans and be her dark and creative self, but ( Read more... ) you can see why she'd end up in episode one despair. Torchwood happened, as Torchwood always happens, and it cuts off all her hopes. Which is well written but not somewhere I personally want to revisit enough to keep it on my phone.

Very good at humanising Suzie while keeping her sharp. Adds more depth to the character.

It's just depths of despair, so, on the whole, not my speed.

Went quiet because I've been reading Torchwood books. I have read

The House that Jack Built
includes some very vivid deaths, domestic violence, and a reflection on Jack's love life that... didn't feel to me like it was written by someone that likes Jack.
Detail and spoilers under the cut: ( Read more... )
I liked it in a way, strong horror story, but... I wouldn't write it that way. It feels like it's saying something about Jack being destructive and it ties that to his sexuality in a way I don't like. Even if it's not about his violence, it ends up implying he's a destructive influence, specifically for loving many people. Not right.


The Undertaker's Gift
Honestly don't have much to say about this one. That's a lot of horror, even for Torchwood.
Also it took the opportunity to hurt the team in many and varied ways.
Not my sort of thing.


Consequences
This book is a series of short stories that hand off to each other, ending with one that wraps threads you probably didnt even notice scattered through earlier books.
( Read more... )

Good book, but as usual dark.
So I end up mostly thinking about the cool Jack/Ianto bits.



The thing is, I know with fanfic we're not playing the same game, we don't have to color inside the lines, and resolving the romantic relationships in a satisfying way is often what we're there for, but
what the books are doing made me miss fanfic
especially the fics that take 51st century definitions of love seriously.

I feel like more often than not the tie in writers have a subtext that Jack is wrong, that how he loves, dates, shags, is wrong, especially when compared and contrasted so often with Gwen and Rhys having a happily perfect marriage.

And that's a choice, and not the only one they could make. ( Read more... )

I keep on being surprised by the plots in these books because I don't remember much from them. I remember Ianto expressing jealousy of tentacles, but I don't remember him saying a few pages earlier that he's just a shag to Jack. And I don't remember the plot at all. So the books aren't giving me the good stuff, whatever it is that keeps me interested in Torchwood.

But it's not because they're coloring outside the lines.

So I end up vaguely dissatisfied but feeling like I shouldnt be.



Also though, I dont think most of them are good at balancing which characters get something to do. Several think Jack is The Hero, and the others exist to get in danger. Or today Owen is The Hero. Or for one short Ianto was The Hero, but only when he was literally the only one left conscious. I feel like the books aren't good at utilising the whole cast at once even after the cast is down to three.

The audios are so much more focused, they can do so much better.

Reckon I'll go back to them for a bit.

A reread again, but since I dont think I've read it since it came out, all news to me again.

If I think of this as an Owen story it has a solid character arc, a lot of action, and a satisfying conclusion.

The problem is it started out as a team book and just sort of dropped everyone else as it went.
( Read more... )


I guess I feel like there's the parts for a better story here if it didnt have to cram the whole team in.

As an Owen story it's good.

In the TW book Almost Perfect Ianto turns up with some missing memories so Jack gives him an anti-retcon pill meant to reverse memory loss
with the possible side effect of remembering Everything.

Okay but if Ianto gets All his memories back... in TV canon that includes Adam.
Which could be considered a problem.

But in Big Finish canon that includes... so many things. Like, all the things. Things Torchwood One did to him. Times he retconned himself. So. Many. Things.

The book just treats it as a handy time delay on Ianto remembering the answers
but
that would logically be huge.

And it might end up with him being a bit of a different person. Since he remembers a different tapestry.

Or he could get really, seriously, annoyed with Torchwood.
... less so with Jack. TW1 is the most retcon happy.

Still. Bunny turning point big time.