Another Life (Torchwood)
Encyclopedia
Another Life is a BBC Books
original novel written by Peter Anghelides
and based on the British
science fiction television
, Doctor Who
spin-off
series Torchwood
. It features all the regular cast of the show.
by chewing out the backs of their necks and eating part of their brains. Gwen
and Jack
pursue Wildman, their suspect, into a half-finished building site, where he coughs up a starfish-like creature to delay them. Realising that he's been caught and has nowhere to run Wildman deliberately falls off the unfinished building. Owen
, who witnessed Wildman's fall, tells Jack and Gwen that Wildman started to scream as he fell, as if he'd changed his mind halfway down. Tosh reports that she's found a cluster of similar deaths around the Caregan barracks, an army training camp in Cowbridge
.
Owen finds the remains of a burnt-out alien sphere attached to Wildman's spine. Tosh reports that experimental nuclear power packs have gone missing from Blaidd Drwg. Jack and Gwen go to Wildman's flat where they find a woman who identifies herself as Wildman's neighbour, Betty Jenkins. While searching the flat, Jack enters Wildman's bathroom and is attacked by a giant starfish creature lurking in the tub. Gwen's gun has no effect on the creature, and she tells Betty to run, grabs Wildman's electric heater and throws it into the tub, electrocuting the starfish thing. Tosh reports another alien device like the one in Wildman's spinal column was found during the autopsy of Sgt Anthony Bee who was shot dead while trying to steal military equipment from the Caregan barracks. Jack decides to investigate, and Gwen discovers Betty Jenkins was an impostor.
At the barracks, Gwen interviews the medical officer who admits that Sgt Bee apparently killed and ate two of his own men before shooting Private Sujit Kandahal in a botched attempt to steal an amphibious vehicle. Jack investigates the contents of Bee's barracks, and finds photographs of Bee scuba diving with his friends: Guy Wildman and Sergeant Sandra Applegate, the blonde woman from the flat. Jack realises that the starfish creature had been guarding something in Wildman's flat.
At the flat Sandra has returned and she coughs up a starfish onto Gwen's hand. Jack shoots Sandra, who falls through a window, but he then pauses to stab the starfish creature and get it off Gwen before it can do too much damage; by the time he returns to the window, there's no sign of Sandra's body. Jack returns to the bathroom and finds that the large starfish had been protecting a lead-lined box containing the stolen nuclear packs; he sets off to return them to Blaidd Drwg. Meanwhile Cardiff has been having serious rainstorms, and by the time they get back to the Hub, the Oval Basin is flooded and the water level in the Hub's tidal pool is beginning to rise. Owen has finished decontaminating and apparently gone home. Sandra, realising that her body has been mortally injured by the gunshot wound deliberately steps in front of an ambulance and lets it hit her.
Back at the Hub, Owen has been unwinding in a multiplayer online game called Second Reality. Owen finds one of the other players is Dr Megan Tegg an ex-girlfriend who now works at the Cardiff Royal Hospital. Owen goes to visit her and wants to recruit her to Torchwood, as her behaviour in Second Reality has convinced him that she'd be open to the possibilities of alien life. Owen accompanies her to her shift at the hospital and notices Sandra Applegate's name on the in-patient lists, recognises it and decides to investigate, though he does not actually know what Torchwood's current interest in her is. Sandra's X-ray
s seem to indicate that there is a bullet
lodged near her spine
but is in fact an alien implant, just like the one in Wildman's body. Sandra then wakes and tells him that she needs Torchwood's help. According to Sandra, she, Tony, and Guy found an alien spacecraft on one of their diving expeditions, and were captured when they investigated. Sandra asks to return to the alien ship to remove the tracker.
Owen and Megan drive Sandra out to the Wetlands Reserve, where the alien ship's escape pod is hidden. Sandra tells Owen that the typhoon swamping Cardiff is a result of the ship forcing its way through the Rift
. Sandra traps Owen and Megan implanting control spheres in their spines, and the entity controlling Sandra's body vacates it and moves into Megan's. Megan activates a control to reveal an alien life form sitting in a nearby cabinet; this is the true body of the ship's only survivor, a Bruydac warrior. The Bruydac's consciousness has been moving from host to host, trying to find more fuel for its damaged ship. The act of possession burns up human cerebrospinal fluid at an accelerated rate, which is why the Bruydac's hosts had to feed on others to replenish their own.
Back at Torchwood, Jack receives a call from Blaidd Drwg, and learns that there are still two nuclear packs missing. Tosh then reports that her weather analysis indicates that something is emerging from the Rift beneath the Bay, causing a localised typhoon that is going to get worse until the source of the disturbance is removed. Jack orders Tosh and Gwen to find Owen and investigate the disturbance under the Bay, using the Torchwood mini-sub; he himself returns to Wildman's flat, hoping to find the two remaining nuclear packs. They aren't there, but Tosh finds that the last person to call Owen's cell phone was Dr Megan Tegg of Cardiff Royal Hospital. Jack goes to the hospital, where he learns that a nurse was recently murdered.
Jack goes back to the building site where Wildman died. Jack rushes back up to the eighth floor to find that Megan Tegg has found and retrieved Wildman's briefcase containing the nuclear powerpacks. When she quotes something that Wildman had said in the same circumstances, Jack realises that alien is moving from body to body. It insists that it just wants to escape, but when he refuses to let it get away with murder, it pulls the two remaining nuclear packs out of the briefcase and threatens to smash them together. Before it can do so, Jack shoots Megan in the forehead, killing her.
Gwen and Tosh have descended into the Bay and found the alien ship. When Jack kills Megan, Owen revives and attacks Gwen, trying to chew out the back of her neck; fortunately, Ianto arrives just in time and Owen is forced to flee. Jack calls the Hub, learns what's happened, and orders Ianto to restrain Owen and kill him if necessary. While Ianto and Tosh search the Hub for Owen, Jack orders Gwen to fetch some scuba gear and the harpoon gun, and together, they return to the ship. When they arrive, Jack sets the engines in reverse; the ship will tear itself apart backing through the Rift. Jack then executes the Bruydac by shooting its body with the harpoon gun. He then tells Gwen his plan to dispose of the Bruydac's consciousness and he connects himself to the control frame and allows it to implant a sphere in his spine. Gwen calls Torchwood and tells Tosh that Jack has accidentally has a control sphere implanted into his spine.
Owen is captured by Ianto, who injects him with a powerful sedative
, but the Bruydac has overheard Gwen's call and thus moves out of Owen's body and into Jack's. However, when it opens Jack's eyes, it finds that Gwen has restrained Jack's body in the cage where its original alien body had been resting. Following Jack's earlier instructions, Gwen dons her scuba gear and opens the ship's airlocks and drowns them. Gwen takes Jack's body back to the Hub, where he revives. Unaware that Jack cannot die, the others assume that the Bruydac panicked and incorrectly assumed that he was dead.
BBC Books
BBC Books is an imprint majority owned and managed by Random House. The minority shareholder is BBC Worldwide, the commercial subsidiary of the British Broadcasting Corporation...
original novel written by Peter Anghelides
Peter Anghelides
Peter Anghelides is an English author and dramatist best known for his work on various spin-offs related to the BBC television series Doctor Who.-Work:...
and based on the British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
science fiction television
Science fiction on television
Science fiction first appeared on a television program during the Golden Age of Science Fiction. Special effects and other production techniques allow creators to present a living visual image of an imaginary world not limited by the constraints of reality; this makes television an excellent medium...
, Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
spin-off
Spin-off (media)
In media, a spin-off is a radio program, television program, video game, or any narrative work, derived from one or more already existing works, that focuses, in particular, in more detail on one aspect of that original work...
series Torchwood
Torchwood
Torchwood is a British science fiction television programme created by Russell T Davies. The series is a spin-off from Davies's 2005 revival of the long-running science fiction programme Doctor Who. The show has shifted its broadcast channel each series to reflect its growing audience, moving from...
. It features all the regular cast of the show.
Plot summary
Someone has been killing the homeless of CardiffCardiff
Cardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales and the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for...
by chewing out the backs of their necks and eating part of their brains. Gwen
Gwen Cooper
Gwen Cooper is a fictional character in the BBC television programme Torchwood, a spin-off to the long-running show Doctor Who, portrayed by Welsh actress Eve Myles. The series' lead female character, Gwen has featured in every episode of the sci-fi programme to date as well as two crossover...
and Jack
Jack Harkness
Captain Jack Harkness is a fictional character played by John Barrowman in Doctor Who and its spin-off series, Torchwood. He first appeared in the 2005 Doctor Who episode "The Empty Child" and reappeared in the remaining episodes of the 2005 series as a companion of the ninth incarnation of the...
pursue Wildman, their suspect, into a half-finished building site, where he coughs up a starfish-like creature to delay them. Realising that he's been caught and has nowhere to run Wildman deliberately falls off the unfinished building. Owen
Owen Harper
Owen Harper is a fictional character played by Burn Gorman, and a regular in the BBC television series Torchwood, a spin-off from the long-running series Doctor Who. The character last appeared onscreen in the Series 2 finale, "Exit Wounds"....
, who witnessed Wildman's fall, tells Jack and Gwen that Wildman started to scream as he fell, as if he'd changed his mind halfway down. Tosh reports that she's found a cluster of similar deaths around the Caregan barracks, an army training camp in Cowbridge
Cowbridge
Cowbridge is a market town in the Vale of Glamorgan in Wales, approximately west of Cardiff. Cowbridge is twinned with Clisson in the Loire-Atlantique department in northwestern France.-Roman times:...
.
Owen finds the remains of a burnt-out alien sphere attached to Wildman's spine. Tosh reports that experimental nuclear power packs have gone missing from Blaidd Drwg. Jack and Gwen go to Wildman's flat where they find a woman who identifies herself as Wildman's neighbour, Betty Jenkins. While searching the flat, Jack enters Wildman's bathroom and is attacked by a giant starfish creature lurking in the tub. Gwen's gun has no effect on the creature, and she tells Betty to run, grabs Wildman's electric heater and throws it into the tub, electrocuting the starfish thing. Tosh reports another alien device like the one in Wildman's spinal column was found during the autopsy of Sgt Anthony Bee who was shot dead while trying to steal military equipment from the Caregan barracks. Jack decides to investigate, and Gwen discovers Betty Jenkins was an impostor.
At the barracks, Gwen interviews the medical officer who admits that Sgt Bee apparently killed and ate two of his own men before shooting Private Sujit Kandahal in a botched attempt to steal an amphibious vehicle. Jack investigates the contents of Bee's barracks, and finds photographs of Bee scuba diving with his friends: Guy Wildman and Sergeant Sandra Applegate, the blonde woman from the flat. Jack realises that the starfish creature had been guarding something in Wildman's flat.
At the flat Sandra has returned and she coughs up a starfish onto Gwen's hand. Jack shoots Sandra, who falls through a window, but he then pauses to stab the starfish creature and get it off Gwen before it can do too much damage; by the time he returns to the window, there's no sign of Sandra's body. Jack returns to the bathroom and finds that the large starfish had been protecting a lead-lined box containing the stolen nuclear packs; he sets off to return them to Blaidd Drwg. Meanwhile Cardiff has been having serious rainstorms, and by the time they get back to the Hub, the Oval Basin is flooded and the water level in the Hub's tidal pool is beginning to rise. Owen has finished decontaminating and apparently gone home. Sandra, realising that her body has been mortally injured by the gunshot wound deliberately steps in front of an ambulance and lets it hit her.
Back at the Hub, Owen has been unwinding in a multiplayer online game called Second Reality. Owen finds one of the other players is Dr Megan Tegg an ex-girlfriend who now works at the Cardiff Royal Hospital. Owen goes to visit her and wants to recruit her to Torchwood, as her behaviour in Second Reality has convinced him that she'd be open to the possibilities of alien life. Owen accompanies her to her shift at the hospital and notices Sandra Applegate's name on the in-patient lists, recognises it and decides to investigate, though he does not actually know what Torchwood's current interest in her is. Sandra's X-ray
X-ray
X-radiation is a form of electromagnetic radiation. X-rays have a wavelength in the range of 0.01 to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30 petahertz to 30 exahertz and energies in the range 120 eV to 120 keV. They are shorter in wavelength than UV rays and longer than gamma...
s seem to indicate that there is a bullet
Bullet
A bullet is a projectile propelled by a firearm, sling, or air gun. Bullets do not normally contain explosives, but damage the intended target by impact and penetration...
lodged near her spine
Vertebral column
In human anatomy, the vertebral column is a column usually consisting of 24 articulating vertebrae, and 9 fused vertebrae in the sacrum and the coccyx. It is situated in the dorsal aspect of the torso, separated by intervertebral discs...
but is in fact an alien implant, just like the one in Wildman's body. Sandra then wakes and tells him that she needs Torchwood's help. According to Sandra, she, Tony, and Guy found an alien spacecraft on one of their diving expeditions, and were captured when they investigated. Sandra asks to return to the alien ship to remove the tracker.
Owen and Megan drive Sandra out to the Wetlands Reserve, where the alien ship's escape pod is hidden. Sandra tells Owen that the typhoon swamping Cardiff is a result of the ship forcing its way through the Rift
Cardiff Rift
The Cardiff Rift is a fictional wormhole in the science fiction television series Doctor Who and Torchwood, one end of which is located in Cardiff Bay, Wales. The other end is apparently floating freely through spacetime, and matter and radiation can pass through the Rift, allowing extraterrestrial...
. Sandra traps Owen and Megan implanting control spheres in their spines, and the entity controlling Sandra's body vacates it and moves into Megan's. Megan activates a control to reveal an alien life form sitting in a nearby cabinet; this is the true body of the ship's only survivor, a Bruydac warrior. The Bruydac's consciousness has been moving from host to host, trying to find more fuel for its damaged ship. The act of possession burns up human cerebrospinal fluid at an accelerated rate, which is why the Bruydac's hosts had to feed on others to replenish their own.
Back at Torchwood, Jack receives a call from Blaidd Drwg, and learns that there are still two nuclear packs missing. Tosh then reports that her weather analysis indicates that something is emerging from the Rift beneath the Bay, causing a localised typhoon that is going to get worse until the source of the disturbance is removed. Jack orders Tosh and Gwen to find Owen and investigate the disturbance under the Bay, using the Torchwood mini-sub; he himself returns to Wildman's flat, hoping to find the two remaining nuclear packs. They aren't there, but Tosh finds that the last person to call Owen's cell phone was Dr Megan Tegg of Cardiff Royal Hospital. Jack goes to the hospital, where he learns that a nurse was recently murdered.
Jack goes back to the building site where Wildman died. Jack rushes back up to the eighth floor to find that Megan Tegg has found and retrieved Wildman's briefcase containing the nuclear powerpacks. When she quotes something that Wildman had said in the same circumstances, Jack realises that alien is moving from body to body. It insists that it just wants to escape, but when he refuses to let it get away with murder, it pulls the two remaining nuclear packs out of the briefcase and threatens to smash them together. Before it can do so, Jack shoots Megan in the forehead, killing her.
Gwen and Tosh have descended into the Bay and found the alien ship. When Jack kills Megan, Owen revives and attacks Gwen, trying to chew out the back of her neck; fortunately, Ianto arrives just in time and Owen is forced to flee. Jack calls the Hub, learns what's happened, and orders Ianto to restrain Owen and kill him if necessary. While Ianto and Tosh search the Hub for Owen, Jack orders Gwen to fetch some scuba gear and the harpoon gun, and together, they return to the ship. When they arrive, Jack sets the engines in reverse; the ship will tear itself apart backing through the Rift. Jack then executes the Bruydac by shooting its body with the harpoon gun. He then tells Gwen his plan to dispose of the Bruydac's consciousness and he connects himself to the control frame and allows it to implant a sphere in his spine. Gwen calls Torchwood and tells Tosh that Jack has accidentally has a control sphere implanted into his spine.
Owen is captured by Ianto, who injects him with a powerful sedative
Sedative
A sedative or tranquilizer is a substance that induces sedation by reducing irritability or excitement....
, but the Bruydac has overheard Gwen's call and thus moves out of Owen's body and into Jack's. However, when it opens Jack's eyes, it finds that Gwen has restrained Jack's body in the cage where its original alien body had been resting. Following Jack's earlier instructions, Gwen dons her scuba gear and opens the ship's airlocks and drowns them. Gwen takes Jack's body back to the Hub, where he revives. Unaware that Jack cannot die, the others assume that the Bruydac panicked and incorrectly assumed that he was dead.
Continuity
- The Blaidd Drwg nuclear facility was first introduced as a major setting in the Doctor Who episode "Boom TownBoom Town (Doctor Who)"Boom Town" is an episode in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast on 4 June 2005. The Doctor, Rose and Jack travel to modern-day Cardiff and meet up with Rose's boyfriend, Mickey...
", which was also the episode that featured the first on-screen visit to Cardiff by Captain Jack. The name Blaidd Drwg means "Bad Wolf", a recurring theme during the 2005 season of Doctor Who. - The police cordon at the scene of Guy Wildman's death is headed by PC Andy DavidsonAndy Davidson (Torchwood)Andy Davidson is a fictional character in the BBC television programme Torchwood, portrayed by Tom Price. Andy, an officer with the South Wales Police, is a supporting character who first appears in Torchwoods premiere episode "Everything Changes" and recurs regularly from thereon...
. - Jack mentions UNITUNITUNIT is a fictional military organisation from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures...
during his visit to Caregan Barracks. - Reference is made to the pistol training given to Gwen by Jack in the episode "Ghost MachineGhost Machine (Torchwood)"Ghost Machine" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Torchwood. It is the third episode of the first series, which was broadcast on 29 October 2006.-Synopsis:...
". - The book features many instances where Ianto goes down to the basement, claiming he is doing filing. He is, however, tending to Lisa Hallett, his girlfriend, a reference to the plot of "CyberwomanCyberwoman"Cyberwoman" is the fourth episode of the first series of the British science fiction television series Torchwood. Written by Chris Chibnall and directed by James Strong, the episode was first broadcast on the digital channel BBC Three on 5 November 2006, and later repeated on terrestrial channel...
", the episode which this novel precedes. Also, when Owen says he met someone online interested in cybersexCybersexCybersex, also called computer sex, Internet sex, netsex, mudsex, TinySex and, colloquially, cybering, is a virtual sex encounter in which two or more persons connected remotely via computer network send each other sexually explicit messages describing a sexual experience...
, Ianto acts suddenly panicked. - CannibalismCannibalismCannibalism is the act or practice of humans eating the flesh of other human beings. It is also called anthropophagy...
also features in the episode "CountrycideCountrycide"Countrycide" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Torchwood. It is the sixth episode of the first series, which was broadcast on 19 November 2006-Synopsis:...
" and the novel Slow DecaySlow DecaySlow Decay is a BBC Books original novel written by Andy Lane and based on the British science fiction television, Doctor Who spin-off series Torchwood...
. - Jack requests Toshiko carry out a search for any patients in hospitals over the past three years who had a binary vascular system. This is a reference to the DoctorDoctor (Doctor Who)The Doctor is the central character in the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who, and has also featured in two cinema feature films, a vast range of spin-off novels, audio dramas and comic strips connected to the series....
's alien organ system, and to Jack's ongoing search for the Doctor after they were separatedThe Parting of the Ways"The Parting of the Ways" is an episode in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast on 18 June 2005. It was the second episode of the two-part story that featured Christopher Eccleston making his last appearance as the Ninth Doctor...
. The Doctor had been noticed previously in hospital as having two hearts in Spearhead from SpaceSpearhead from SpaceSpearhead from Space is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 3 January to 24 January 1970. The serial opened Series 7 of the show and was the first to be produced in colour. The serial introduced Jon Pertwee as the...
, the TV movie and various other adventures. - RhysRhys Williams (Torchwood)Rhys Alun Williams, portrayed by Kai Owen, is a fictional character in the BBC television programme Torchwood, a spin-off from the long-running series Doctor Who. The character is introduced in the premiere episode as the co-habiting boyfriend of principal character Gwen Cooper...
mentions a co-worker, Lucy, who's gone on a diet. A foreshadowing of the next novel in the series, Slow DecaySlow DecaySlow Decay is a BBC Books original novel written by Andy Lane and based on the British science fiction television, Doctor Who spin-off series Torchwood...
. - PC Jimmy Mitchell also appears in Slow DecaySlow DecaySlow Decay is a BBC Books original novel written by Andy Lane and based on the British science fiction television, Doctor Who spin-off series Torchwood...
.
Outside references
- The game Owen plays, Second Reality, is similar to real world MMOG, Second LifeSecond LifeSecond Life is an online virtual world developed by Linden Lab. It was launched on June 23, 2003. A number of free client programs, or Viewers, enable Second Life users, called Residents, to interact with each other through avatars...
, a game in which users generate their own content to share with the rest of the user base, although the technology described is beyond what Second Life is capable of as of 2007. At one point in the game, Owen's avatar is banished for breaking the rules to an area with an endless staircase; this is similar to Second Life's "Corn Field", a similarly endless area where rule-breakers' avatars are temporarily sidelined. - The song "Chasing CarsChasing Cars"Chasing Cars" is the second single from Snow Patrol's fourth album, Eyes Open. It was recorded in 2005 and released on 6 June 2006 in the US and 24 July 2006 in the UK as the album's second single....
" by Snow PatrolSnow PatrolSnow Patrol are an alternative rock band from Bangor, County Down, Northern Ireland. Formed at the University of Dundee in 1994 as an indie rock band, the band is now based in Glasgow...
is mentioned as playing from a tram in the game, Second Reality. - When asked whether his parents read a lot of TolkienJ. R. R. TolkienJohn Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College,...
in relation to his in-game costume and character name, Owen responds that he always wanted to visit New ZealandNew ZealandNew Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
(where The Lord Of The RingsThe Lord of the Rings film trilogyThe Lord of the Rings is an epic film trilogy consisting of three fantasy adventure films based on the three-volume book of the same name by English author J. R. R. Tolkien. The films are The Fellowship of the Ring , The Two Towers and The Return of the King .The films were directed by Peter...
trilogy was filmed), but only got as far as dressing how he did, "a hobbitHobbitHobbits are a fictional diminutive race who inhabit the lands of Middle-earth in J. R. R. Tolkien's fiction.Hobbits first appeared in the novel The Hobbit, in which the main protagonist, Bilbo Baggins, is the titular hobbit...
he found hard to break." - In the Hub's Recreation Room, there is an Asteroids cabinet made by AtariAtariAtari is a corporate and brand name owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by Atari Interactive, a wholly owned subsidiary of the French publisher Atari, SA . The original Atari, Inc. was founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. It was a pioneer in...
along with several other retroRetrogamingRetrogaming, also known as old-school gaming, is the hobby of playing and collecting older computer, video, and arcade games. These games are played either on the original hardware, on modern hardware via emulation, or on modern hardware via ports or compilations...
arcadeArcade gameAn arcade game is a coin-operated entertainment machine, usually installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars, and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, and merchandisers...
machines, a Bat out of HellBat out of HellBat Out of Hell is the second album by American rock musician Meat Loaf, and his first collaboration with composer Jim Steinman, released in October 1977 on Cleveland International/Epic Records #PE-34974. Selling approximately 200,000 copies per year as of 2010, it is the fifth best-selling album...
-themed pinballPinballPinball is a type of arcade game, usually coin-operated, where a player attempts to score points by manipulating one or more metal balls on a playfield inside a glass-covered case called a pinball machine. The primary objective of the game is to score as many points as possible...
machine, and a game called Zombie Death that bears many similarities to the House of the DeadThe House of the Dead (series)The House of the Dead is a video game franchise published by Sega and created by in-house designer Atsushi Seimiya of AM1....
arcade series made by SegaSega, usually styled as SEGA, is a multinational video game software developer and an arcade software and hardware development company headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan, with various offices around the world...
.
Publication
- The first printing of the novel was dedicated to Anne Summerfield whereas subsequent printings are dedicated to Craig HintonCraig HintonCraig Paul Alexander Hinton was a British writer best known for his work on various spin-offs from the BBC Television series Doctor Who....
, a Doctor Who spin-off writer who died on December 3, 2006.
Audio book
- An abridged audio bookAudio bookAn audiobook or audio book is a recording of a text being read. It is not necessarily an exact audio version of a book or magazine.Spoken audio has been available in schools and public libraries and to a lesser extent in music shops since the 1930s. Many spoken word albums were made prior to the...
version of the novel was released on CD in April 2007. It is read by John BarrowmanJohn BarrowmanJohn Scot Barrowman is a Scottish-American singer, actor, dancer, musical theatre performer and media personality. Born in Glasgow yet growing up in Illinois after his family emigrated to the United States when he was eight years old, Barrowman was encouraged to further his love for music and...
and published by BBC AudiobooksBBC AudiobooksBBC Audiobooks is a publisher of audiobooks and also a range of spoken word and large-print titles.BBC Audiobooks has published unabridged audio novels, and also the BBC Radio Collection which incorporates dramatisations and non-fiction output derived from BBC Radio programming.In 2010, BBC...
.