Slow Decay (novel)
Slow Decay was the third release in the BBC Torchwood Novels series.
Publisher's summary
When Torchwood track an energy surge to a Cardiff nightclub, the team finds the police are already at the scene. Five teenagers have died in a fight, and lying among the bodies is an extraterrestrial device. Next morning, they discover the corpse of a Weevil, its face and neck eaten away, seemingly by human teeth. And on the streets of Cardiff, an ordinary woman with an extraordinary hunger is attacking people and eating her victims.
The job of a lifetime it might be, but working for Torchwood is putting big strains on Gwen's relationship with Rhys. While she decides to spice up their love life with the help of alien technology, Rhys decides it's time to sort himself out — better music, healthier food, lose some weight. Luckily, a friend has mentioned Doctor Scotus's weight-loss clinic...
Plot
to be added
Characters
- Captain Jack Harkness
- Gwen Cooper
- Toshiko Sato
- Owen Harper
- Ianto Jones
- Lucy
- Dr Scotus
- Craig Sutherland
- PC Jimmy Mitchell
- Marianne Till
References
- The sky over Cardiff is compared to an Edvard Munch painting.
- Gwen states that they stopped wearing bowler hats in the Civil Service in the 1950s as they went out of fashion, like tea trollies and waistcoats. Jack compares the Civil Service to an administrative version of the Ku Klux Klan.
- Jack Harkness uses a two-year-old playing near poison ivy, rose bushes, hawthorn, spades and secateurs as a metaphor for humans and alien technology.
- Jack lists examples of small talk: fashion, politics, house prices, sport.
Notes
- The plotline of medical malpractice and treatment using an alien parastite is similar to the Torchwood television story Reset.
Audio release
- The story was released as an audiobook on 3x CD read by Burn Gorman.
- The audiobook is also available as a download from the AudioGo website.
Continuity
- The Tenth Doctor investigated a completely different weight loss programme in TV: Partners in Crime.
- Gwen questions if just for once they could take one thing from the storerooms of the Hub to make their lives easier. Many of the team already are. [source needed]
Gallery
Original cover
German edition
Audiobook cover
External links
- Official Slow Decay page at Penguin Books
- Slow Decay at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
- The Discontinuity Guide to: Slow Decay at The Whoniverse
