Torchwood: Dissected

Torchwood: Dissected (Big Finish) (CD £9.99)

The latest release from the Torchwood series of audio adventures by Big Finish reunites Gwen Cooper (Eve Myles) and Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman) in an hour long episode. A welcome crossover between UNIT and Torchwood two "rival" organisations watching out for alien incursions.

There's been a crash and although UNIT have "cleared up" the actual scene Gwen has found an unexplained body at the other side of the woods and as you do stuffed it in the boot of her car and taken it to be examined by Dr Jones who turns out to be somewhat sceptical about this death.

There's a wonderful interaction between the two characters who find themselves alone on the base as all the other operatives are down the pub waiting for Matha to give a surprise party as she's leaving. However Gwen wants a favour and Martha obliges.

This is just a dead Welsh boy? Nothing to see here.

This is the third of the Torchwood audio's I have purchased and until I heard this one wasn't overley impressed but this bodes well for the future and may tempt me to explore the back catalogue pension permitting!

Recommended even if it's just for the nostalgia of hearing two fan favourites in action again!

Silver - Chris Hammer

Silver - Chris Hammer (Wildfire Hardback £16.99)

Continuing the adventures of journalist Martin Scarsden the action starts early on this time as he and his new partner Mandy (picked up in Hammers's previous novel Scrublands) find themselves with a dead body and both suspects in a murder.

The dead man is a childhood friend of Martin's and he's holding a postcard of Jesus in his hand, A clue or an irrelevance. What has property development, a mystical guru and a surfer got to do with both his past and are the hitchhikers more than they seem?

There's a lot going on in Port Silver and Martin is as unpopular with the police as ever even here in the town of his birth. And the old school bully is one of the cops much to his chagrin. Martin has to drive very carefully.

Still there's always good old Uncle Vern and his family plus Martin has to baby sit whilst Mandy spends far too much time in custody. Who killed his old mate and why is someone trying to frame his partner?

Overall not a bad story but nowhere as exiting as Martin's outing in the previous novel. You don't need to read Scrublands but it helps. At a guess I'd say we'll see another novel with our Martin in a year or so's time. The jury is still out on whether I'd pick that up, especially in hardback.

Do read Scrublands though. That's very good.

Burning Witches release new album in March

The all-woman Swiss Heavy Metal band Burning Witches release their new album Dance With The Devil on March 6th and have published a video of their latest single of the same name.  This will be their third album and is released through Nuclear Blast records.

The five members of the group are: Singer Laura Guldemond, Guitarist Romana Kalkuhl, Guitarist Sonia Nusselder, Bass player Jeanine Grob and Drummer Lala Frischknech.

Pre-Order the new album from: www.nuclearblast.de

And on Facebook: burningwitches666

The Last Day: Thriller set in a world of half dark, half light

The Last day by Andrew Hunter Murray (Hutchinson Hardback £12.99)

The world has stopped turning. The Earth lies in a world half in darkness and the other half in light. Both zones have become uninhabitable and billions have died. They call it "The Slow". There is however a "twilight zone where on the edges of both life can continue. Britain is at the heart of this world. The country is now a police state with a growing "empire on the edge of Europe.

There is however a secret. One that a dying scientist wishes an old student to know. This secret threatens the very world they live in. People will kill or get killed to keep this secret from the survivors of a ravaged humanity. What is it and how will it effect the future.

A real page turner of a thriller that kept me gripped as agents pursued our heroine Ellen Hopper and her former husband through the bedraggled streets of London and beyond. Written by a scriptwriter and researcher on the BBC 2 Quiz QI the reader is gradually eased into the reasons as to how and why the world ended up the way it did along with the inevitable human consequences of the event.

A great first novel by the author and hopefully more of the same quality in the future.

Recommended.

Doctor Who: At Childhood's End by Sophie Aldred

Doctor Who: At Childhood's End, Sophie Aldred (BBC Books Hardback £16.99)

Dorothy McShane jolted from her sleep, lashing out at the creature that was reaching for her. But there was no creature. She was alone in her bedroom, her attacker nothing but a phantom from a nightmare.

And so Ace returns to the world of Doctor Who, except this is not the Ace we last saw in Survival back in 1989. This is set thirty years in the future and Dorothy is now an executive of A Charitable Earth living the high life but overlooking the now closed headquarters of UNIT, closed by order of HM Government.

People are disappearing from the streets and there are rats all over the place. Nobody is ever far from a rat in London though so what's the big deal. And what is the connection with Dorothy's past. Where did that alien spaceship orbiting the moon come from.

And since when was the Doctor a woman. How did that happen Dorothy knew the Doctor regenerated but a woman? Who were these three people and why was Yas  a wee bit suspicious. Nitro 9 is for terrorists surely not for the Doctors old companions.

With links to past events involving Ace and teams up with the 13th Doctor, Graham, Ryan and Yas, Plus there's an old friend and a baseball bat.

Now all we need is that jacket.

A stirring novel that belongs on every whovians bookshelf!

Date for your Diary: March for 61st Anniversary Tibetan Uprising

Tuesday 10th March 11am

Opposite 10 Downing Street

Tuesday March 10 2020 marks the 61st Tibetan National Uprising Day. 

On March 10, 1959, tens of thousands of Tibetans took to the streets of Lhasa — Tibet’s capital — rising up against China’s illegal occupation of Tibet. The uprising was violently quelled by the Chinese military, resulting in thousands of deaths. More than 1.2 million Tibetans have been killed, 6,000 monasteries have been demolished and more than 100,000 Tibetans have fled to exile as a direct result of the Chinese occupation.

Since 2009, 156 Tibetans has committed self immolation in side Tibet in the form of protest against china’s illegal rule over Tibet. To this day, China rules Tibetans with an iron fist and Tibet is ranked as the second-least-free place in the world (next to Syria) in the annual Freedom test report. 

Under Xi Jinping’s totalitarian rule, the brutal crackdowns against voices demanding freedom, democracy and human rights across China and its occupied territories have intensified. In Tibet today, there is no freedom of speech, assembly, press or religion. Tibet is locked down and become the largest prison in the world.

11:00 AM Outside Downing Street

11:30 AM programme commence and march towards Chinese Embassy through the streets of London. 

There will be speeches at Downing Street and at Chinese Embassy. 

After the program at Chinese Embassy we will continue our march towards Oxford Circus to end the rally. 

15:00 PM -Afternoon program inside the Hall. There will be patriotic & cultural performance. Few speeches and time for network plus refreshments. 

Everyone is welcome to join.

Salvation Army Hall
Regent Hall
275 Oxford Street
London W1C 2DJ

5:00PM Program ends.

Supported by:

Free Tibet: freetibet.org 

Tibet Society: tibetsociety.com

Students for a Free Tibet: studentsforafreetibet.org

Eden Alene to represent Israel in Eurovision 2020 (Amended Post)

The Eurovision Song Contest is still a little way off and the final will take place in the Netherlands on Saturday May 16th but Israel has entered the fray once again with Eden Alene who won the contest singing this song.

I earlier suggested this was actual entry as the news report seemed to indicate this was the actual entry which a reader has informed me is a cover of a Sia song. I've never heard of her and I never learned to speak or read Hebrew either so my bad and many apologies to readers for my error.

When Eden releases her actual track I will publish along with my usual picks from the contest

Eden hails from Ethiopia and was the winner of the Next Star for Eurovision contest.


Eden on Facebook: www.facebook.com/edenalenexfactor

And on You Tube here: www.youtube.com/channel

The Other People - C.J.Tudor

Review: The Other People by C.J.Tudor (Penguin/Michael Joseph) £12.99 Hardback)

Fast becoming one of my favourite authors C.J.Tudor's latest novel is a twisting mystery of intrigue, revenge, hope and otherworldly influences. The third of her novels I've read in almost as many months this one really does keep the pages turning and the reader guessing as to motives and what else is involved.

And what's with the pebbles already?

Driving home from work Gabe sees his daughter in another car overtaking him and gives chase then there is the phone call. The police have found his wife and child dead. Murdered in their home. That can't be right...can it.

The search begins. Where is that car? Who was driving it. And if Izzy is still alive who was that dead little girl identified as his daughter by her grandparents. A life in a camper on the road begins as Gabe tries to solve the mystery or is there nothing for him to find?

Who is the Samaritan and more to that who is trying to kill his waitress.

And why does Alice call her Mum Fran.

Plots within plots and a little bit of Steven King keep the reader intrigued and glued to the page right up to the end. A highly recommended adventure that comes from the author of the equally brilliant The Chalk Man and The Taking of Annie Thorn her first two novels now available in paperback.

 

Doctor Who: Dark Universe

The latest release from Big Finish is a really terrific full cast audio drama featuring Sylvester McCoy as the Seventh Doctor and Sophie Aldred as Ace. This is number #260 in their monthly series of classic Doctor Who adventures under licence from the BBC. And that's not including the box sets, Companion adventures and spin-offs galore they have turned out over the years.

Like the TV series the stories can be variable depending on one's own individual tastes. However this one is actually top-notch featuring a new villain that should actually be written into the TV canon. His name? Eleven.

The Doctor is playing the fool as usual despite the stakes and the ultimate threat to universe that the quest of Eleven is. Eleven is helped by Ace seemingly on a different side this time. And she no longer annoyingly calls the Doctor "Professor" inpart due to the fact this is in her future and she is now one herself...

As for Eleven he is a Time Lord with a real difference. Named after his latest incarnation he has an amusing demenour that is great fun.

I highly recommend this release so if you haven't ever heard one of these or not purchased one in a long time this is more than worth the price of entry.

Rating has to be 5 Stars



Go to: www.bigfinish.com