The New Torchwood Book Covers ...

[a_silver_story]

Okay, so The Undertaker's Gift, Consequences and Risk Assessment are all due for release in the UK on the 1st of October, and I just went over to play.com to see if they'd released the cover images yet. Lo and behold! - what a kick in the teeth!














Ianto doesn't even get his own cover this time around! Why does this annoy me so much? - aside from the fact these books are supposedly Ianto's final outing in the Whoniverse and he doesn't even get his own cover? Talk about kicking a fictional construct when he's down!


_{... and they cropped out his gun ...} THE GUN THAT HE NEVER FREAKIN' HAD!! ... come to think of it ... were any of you watching CoE thinking "Maybe he steals the gun from Johnson's men ... oh they're at an army base. Does he get his machine gun now? Okay the hand gun didn't burst the tank ... maybe he grabs his machine gun to do it ... WTF? He's dying and he didn't even get the big arse gun they've spent the past nine months drumming into us via publicity shots and photographs he's going to lay his hands on?" - anyone else, or just me?

*goes away to reminisce about Bay of the Dead and The Twilight Streets covers ... with a couple of passages from Pack Animals and Almost Perfect for good measure ...*


EDIT: Also ... in the bottom images of two of the books, Gwen is front and centre like she's the main character (something I've noticed on a couple of CoE promos). I thought Torchwood was Jack's series? Hmmmm


EDIT 2: Rile ye'selves! The original covers released in April had a Ianto cover!



Thanks goes to lawsontl

Comments

[wrenriddle.livejournal.com]

BOOO, I say. Booooo!

I am so annoyed right now. The contents better make up for the cover-fail. :(

[a-silver-story.livejournal.com]

I'm laying my hopes with James Goss as far as Janto development/representation is concerned. He wrote Almost Perfect and so far the best novelized representation of their relationship so far IMO.

I'm curious about the apparently collaborative work on Consequences, too. Joseph Lidster - who gave us the 'L' word in In the Shadows - and Sarah Pinborough (who I can't help but feel was a little Gwack in Into the Silence) have what I feel are two different approaches to the relationship. I wonder how this pans out in the book? Hmmmmmm ...

[hab318princess.livejournal.com]

I agree, Ianto should have had his own cover... but let's be grateful, at least he's still in these books...

I'll read but will be dreading the first post S3 books without him

[x-starfuckers.livejournal.com]

Do you think there's gonna be post s3 books? I can't see how since the writers would have nothing to work with :/

[me-eat-drums.livejournal.com]

Urgh...it's like the ultimate kick in the teeth! Urrrgh! Does anyone else want to slap the smug look off Gwen's face on the first cover?! *slap slap*

[addled-nutcase.livejournal.com]

They alsoput Gwen up front like she is the main character. Look at the pics again.

[lunachickk.livejournal.com]

I don't see how they think anyone will buy any books without Ianto in them.

[a-silver-story.livejournal.com]

Me neither. It's still annoying though: these books are set pre-CoE, they're the last 'new' bits of canon for Ianto and they don't even give him the grace of his own cover.

And Gwen just looks smug. *hmph*

^^ that could be the fangirl talking, though ...

[zsazsa4168.livejournal.com]

I think it's clear there was a major bait-and-switch operation going on from the beginning. RTD can do what he wants with his characters (doesn't mean I have to watch). However, I do resent the constant evidence that I'm being played with.

[lawsontl.livejournal.com]

It's even more annoying when you know that the original cover for the Undertaker's Gift was an Ianto cover.

Check out the first set of covers released back in April:

http://media.photobucket.com/image/%252522undertaker%252527s%20gift%252522%20torchwood/TardisBase/TWBooks.png

[a-silver-story.livejournal.com]

Grr!

I've edited the post to include this link - thanks!

[alchemistpotion.livejournal.com]

Yeah...
wher's the big ass gun did run throught my head after a while.

FAIL!!!

And why does Gwen look like 'ultimate action hero' in all these covers? Really, when was the last time (before the travesty of CoE) that she barged in and saved anybody, guns blazing? I thought that was usssualy Jacks job!

[me-eat-drums.livejournal.com]

Hear, hear!

[rosy5000.livejournal.com]

I was definitely disappointed we never got to see Ianto with his kick-ass gun. :( Ianto and his gun is v. v. sexy. But then none of the promo pics made any sense after seeing COE because they played up Jack and Ianto's relationship like it was a major part of the series and we barely got anything. :P

Obviously, I'll wait for your reviews before deciding to get any of these books. :)

Ohh.... I did finally listen to "The Sin Eaters" a few weeks ago!! Don't ask me a thing about the story. lol I was a bit distracted. May have to listen to it a few hundred more times before I get what it's about. hehe *grins*

[a-silver-story.livejournal.com]

VOICE PORN!



... I mean ... er ... excellent showcase of GDL's vocal acting skills ... *ahem* ...

[woani21.livejournal.com]

Well now I'm just going to have to go through the day pissed off. And it only really just got started over here (east coast, USA). I'm not planning on buying anymore Torchwood books, since I won't contribute anymore money to the Torchwood franchise after Children of Earth and since I find that the books are often written by people who have seemingly never even seen the show. I wish that they would simply pick one or two authors who could write the books. I mean, hasn't it already become painfully obvious that the Torchwood screenwriters can't even seem to do consistent characterizations? I hate to think what further slaps to the face of Ianto's character and the Janto relationship they have in store for fans. Maybe will learn how Gwen became such an incredible shooter/soldier pre-CoE and why the others became so incompetent and careless.

[lawsontl.livejournal.com]

*whispering* It happened so they could give Gwen the series, which is probably what RTD planned all along, not that I'm a conspiracy type or anything. :)

But WAIT! Don't you remember? One session on the Torchwood range with Jack, and she went from PC Cooper - who'd never held a gun and giggled when shown one - to lean, mean, shootin' machine. Two-fisting them, waving them in his face (good thing he was immortal, no wonder he didn't bother to teach her proper gun safety), shooting like she was from the 'hood (where is that in Wales...Splott?).

[isarae.livejournal.com]

Okay. I wasn't going to say anything...until I saw the original covers..(which by the way, aren't linked in the post. The link is wrong :) )

Now I'm wondering why the changes occured.
1. Gwen-centric, not Jack-centric. On the first two. Also on the last where she has higher hierarchy in comparison to the original. (but this also stands if you disregard the originals) She's also confident and smug where Jack and Ianto look hesitant.

2. Change from Ianto to Jack cover. Just...WTF?!

Oh, and Icon love!

(My other WTF moment came when I was looking at the 'Consequences' cover. It seriously looks like separate images of the actors put together. It could be just me, but..the colours and shadows don't seem quite right. Most noticeably on Ianto. Like someone forgot to adjust the levels on him. *shrug*)

[a-silver-story.livejournal.com]

I've fixed the original covers link now.

That is a photo composite from the CoE photoshoot - the same image with equally bad lighting and colour balance can be found as a wallpaper on the CoE site.

Thanks for the icon love ^_^

[jessy100502.livejournal.com]

I think the "big-ass gun" pics in the promos and such are just reusing the shots from 'Stolen Earth' and 'Journey's End' when he and Gwen tried shooting up the Daleks...

[a-silver-story.livejournal.com]

The gun pics were promos for CoE. They were photographed, sold and packaged to magazines as such, and taken after CoE was filmed (DW S4 had already aired).

[griza.livejournal.com]

No wonder I got a bit confused when I saw the covers for the books. I kept thinking something was wrong as I had seen the original covers. Pah! What a piece of *swearing is head* wank!


It's really annoying me with how the character Gwen has gone from this rather silly cop to this superwoman. To me they jumped the shark. I know JB loves the Captain Jack character but I seriously hope something will happen to him in the final DW episode. TW4 couldn't live without him (or Ianto for that matter) Not that RTD would be sorry about that as I am sure he would get a good wank out of it. pah!

(Grumpiness is caused by lack of TW watching for the last 4 days...)

[magicmalcolm.livejournal.com]

*Sigh*

I really liked the original cover for Consequences...and in fact, all the original covers are better than their new ones.

But I suppose it was too much Team!Torchwood for what is now the GWENOMGAWESOMECOOPER(featuring the other two)Torchwood. It is rather annoying when even the merchandising is turning pro!Gwen (who, note, gets a special picture on her cover rather than a previously used promo pic).

Do the books have synopsis's yet, or do we just have the disappointing cover pics?

[a-silver-story.livejournal.com]

We've had the synopsis for a while. Here you go:


The Undertaker's Gift Trevor Baxendale


The Hokrala Corp lawyers are back. They're suing planet Earth for mishandling the twenty-first century, and they won't tolerate any efforts to repel them. An assassin has been sent to remove Captain Jack Harkness.

It's been a busy week in Cardiff. The Hub's latest guest is a translucent, amber jelly carrying lethal electrical charge. Record numbers of aliens have been coming through the Rift, and Torchwood could do without any more problems.

But there are reports of an extraordinary funeral cortege in the night-time city, with mysterious pallbearers guarding a rotting cadaver that simply doesn't want to be buried.

Torchwood should be ready for anything - but with Jack the target of an invisible killer, Gwen trapped in a forgotten crypt and Ianto Jones falling desperately ill, could a world of suffering be the Undertaker's gift to planet Earth?



Risk Assessment James Goss

'Are you trying to tell me, Captain Harkness, that the entire staff of Torchwood Cardiff now consists of yourself, a woman in trousers and a tea boy?'

Agnes Haversham is awake, and Jack is worried (and not a little bit afraid). The Torchwood Assessor is roused from her deep sleep only in the worst of times - it's happened just four times in the last 100 years. Can the situation really be so bad?

Someone, somewhere, is fighting a war, and they're losing badly. The coffins of the dead are coming through the Rift. With thousands of alien bodies floating in the Bristol Channel, it's down to Torchwood to round them all up before a lethal plague breaks out.

And now they'll have to do it by the book. The 1901 edition.




Consequences Collaboration


Saving the planet, watching over the Rift, preparing the human race for the twenty-first century ... Torchwood has been keeping Cardiff safe since the late 1800s. Small teams of heroes, working 24/7, encountering and containing the alien, the bizarre and the inexplicable.

But Torchwood do no always see the effects of their actions. What links the Rule and Regulations for replacing a Torchwood leader to the destruction of a shopping centre? How does a witness to an alien's reprisals against Torchwood become caught up in a night of terror in a university library? Any should Gwen and Ianto's actions at a local publishers have a cost for Torchwood more than Half a century earlier?

For Torchwood, the past will always catch up with them. And sometimes the future will catch up with the past ...

[animalboything.livejournal.com]

What I'm curious about is how they get these writers for the novels since some of the writing is... interesting... >.>;;;

Why?

I've actually been writing a fan novel that really remedies the CoE disaster in a believable way, and I'd love to ship it off to them for consideration. Maybe would give them a fucking idea of something to do.

GRRR.

[kharma2815.livejournal.com]

They look pretty good!

[kirri1.livejournal.com]

I have read a lot of Fanfic that is a great deal better than any of the novels.
I shall not buy the new novels, new...if they turn up at a Car Boot I might risk a couple of quid on the whole set, but no more, and at least I know it will not be going to the BBC!
So I think I shall stick to reading and amusing myself by writing, Fanfic form now on, at least there you know that if enough people disapprove the story dies a death and disappears.
Oh and people....it was ALWAYS RTD's plan to have Gwenwood...right back at Day One (TOS)RTD was saying the series was about Gwen and the whole TW thing was launched as a vehicle for Eve, specifically, not JB, this is on record.
Then there is the whole "I never liked Ianto anyway, he was always a blank..." thing that RTD said...way to make an actor feel valued, RTD, seems it is not just the fans RTD likes pissing off....

[saxgoddess25.livejournal.com]

Meh. Ianto was a blank? Could I hate RTD more? *thinking about that one* Okay, yes I could, but he really is becoming the unspeakable one. If a character is a blank, WRITE BETTER! Yeesh. Some people...

[deangirl1.livejournal.com]

No WAY will I buy these books new. Notice that in the cover with the three of them it looks as if Gwen and Jack are protecting Ianto from "whatever" and he is cringing and scared behind them?????????????? AAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRGGHHHHHH.

[charlotte3006.livejournal.com]

must not comment when drunk must not comment when drunkj.

Are there two covers for each book or am i more dfrunk than i realisere?

Ianto is pretty.

[diggybear.livejournal.com]

Two covers would be nice...that way I can pick the one I want.

[diggybear.livejournal.com]

Not sure how hopeful to be since we once got some bloody cockblocking beans from him, but James Moran had mentioned "Consequences" in his blog:

Oh, and it may have looked like I was randomly pimping the Consequences book for no reason - it was meant as a partial response to the general "when can we have stuff where Jack and Ianto care about each other". There is Stuff in my story, which is why I mentioned it...

[delennbr.livejournal.com]

More reasons to be mad! Ianto at least deserved a cover! And is so worse that they did one and changed!

[silverearthelf.livejournal.com]

Ok, this just pisses me off. I think it looks great with the three of them on the cover for Consequences, and it's better than the old one, BUT I LIKE THE UNDERTAKER'S GIFT WITH IANTO ON THE COVER!
ALSO! since when does Gwen get to be in the middle? It's always been Jack, so why is she there now?
GRRR!
Thanks for the update!

[ceindreadh.livejournal.com]

I suppose from a staging point of view, having the one female between the two guys makes a sort of sense. But changing the covers like that, especially when the first undertaker one is much nicer than the second, that makes no sort of sense at all.

[caffeine2.livejournal.com]

WANKERS!!!!!!!!!
I also find it very interesting that the "Risk Assessment" cover has been changed to give Gwen a pose with a gun - the plot (or lack thereof) thickens!
btw - LOVE the icon

[diggybear.livejournal.com]

And don't forget a blue shirt instead of a red one. :)

[musac-luver.livejournal.com]

I was very unhappy when I saw the new covers. Why fix something that's not broken? I just don't understand... I hate that Ianto doesn't get his own cover now :(((

[ella-caramella.livejournal.com]

Why fix something that's not broken?

Isn't it the same thing they did with CoE?

They already had a successful show, with well beloved characters, they had to go and break it.

[aviv-b.livejournal.com]

Ah yes, its WonderGwen in all her awsomeness. I'm still betting on Jack's Angels with Jailbait Habiba and Emma Peel retread Johnson. Lots of bikinis and spandex.

Jack will be reduced to cameo/guest appearances.

RTD wanted a show about a policewoman hunting aliens and now he's got it.

Rhy's may bite the dust, but the baby will live. You know, got to keep the American Rightwing Nutjobs happy. So save the baby and kill da gay.

The best thing you can do is don't buy the merchandise. Everything comes down to $$. Borrow the books from the library or buy them on ebay if you must read them, but don't spend your money supporting a show you don't like. Cause your purchase will be used as proof that the fandom still loves TW - even if the books are pre-CoE.

[ella-caramella.livejournal.com]

And the worst part is that, even if Ianto is still in the books, Jack will still treat him like a "part time shag" so I have no interest in reading that stuff.

Or if by chance there's an actual relationship in the books, that will make me even angrier because their relationship couldn't be portrayed on the telly, oh no, but let's have it relegated in the books so not to offend the casual homophobic viewer.

[tertiaryraiths.livejournal.com]

Uuuuuhhhh, they changed it??? I went and bought it for the Ianto cover already!!! *is pissed*