Torchwood Novelisation: Skypoint

[grassangel]

This book is pretty much for all the Owen/Toshiko shippers who were never quite satisfied that all they ever got was episode 13 of season 2. Pretty much.
It focuses more on Owen than Tosh though, which makes this the THIRD Owen-centric novelisation that I’ve read in their little series. I’m beginning to think the authors really like him. Or his sense of humour. One of the two.

Um… it’s set RIGHT after episode 9 of the second season and the plot is pretty much set up by Rhys dragging Gwen to look at a show apartment. During the show-around though, the real estate agent ends up disappearing. With no signs of Rift activity, it’s investigation time!
Unfortunately, this means Owen and Tosh have to play house (for all of six hours, maybe) as cover.
Yes, this is rather amusing and they fail rather spectacularly.

As it is set after the wedding, there are some very forceful reminders that Gwen is unlikely to ever be with Jack. There’s some rambling about how Rhys is so accepting and is her hero, plus some general cheekiness when they’re being shown around the shiny apartment. (Including what they do on the kitchen counter that is NOT chopping up vegetables.) Oh, and a moment when both Capt. Jack and Gwen are exposed to psychotropic gas and he has to restrain her.
In general it’s a very Rhys/Gwen, Owen/Toshiko, Ianto/Jack book as far as shipping goes, although you barely see any of that last pairing. There’s one scene in the Hub, where Capt. Jack is doing up his shirt buttons and Ianto adjusts his tie (there’s more context in the actual book, but you get the idea it’s just very lightly touched on) then there’s another slight reference when Ianto’s trapped in the elevator and there’s a couple across from him and he hopes that Jack’s all right.
No writer seems to be able to strike a balance that pleases me. *sighs*

Eh, at least there’s plenty of humour scattered about. Predictably, it’s mostly Capt. Jack’s that I’ll be mentioning (or something involving him at any rate), as Owen's is generally a bit too cynical for me.
So there’s Jack bouncing on a bed during the first reconnaissance into the apartments and Tosh mentally comments on how he’s a big kid really, though he didn’t play kid’s games. Then there’s something about fifteen centimetres being not nearly enough, even when it had been six inches. (And er… I am NOT going to explain that joke.)

Ianto’s love for coffee is played up again, he’s randomly mentioned as having Honours in English Literature and History (which is like, five years of Uni…), no one seems to be able to keep track of what’s in canon as Owen's age is messed up (according to iantos_desktop, either those involved in the series consistently get it wrong or Owen's lying about his age) and there’s hero!Ianto when he escapes from the aforementioned elevator. (And saves the guys sitting across from him to boot.)

Er… there’s plenty of Owen commenting on how he knows Tosh loves him, and plenty of Tosh thinking about how she loves Owen, but nothing really outstanding. Except maybe that moment when Owen accidentally walks in on her dressing…
Actually, no, a bit near the end was very ‘awww’ inducing.

Owen's being threatened with a bullet to the head, and he’s being very fatalistic about how he should just stand there and be shot, except that Tosh is crying and he couldn’t stand that the thing he would take into the darkness with him would be Tosh crying.

THAT. THAT WAS THE BEST PART OF THIS FIC BOOK.
(Well, that and him saying to her that he never wants to go back in the dark, ever.)

The ending is completely anti-climatic though and Tosh was the damsel in distress, which distressed me a bit, because while she isn’t the brawn of the team by any means, but Tosh =/= helpless.
And er… that’s it? My dad is currently stuck halfway through it, but I managed to finish it in less than 24 hours? (It’s a really slim book, only 250 pages.)

*goes back to reading*