It has to be said that James Goss has
captured Rhys Williams perfectly in every drama story he’s written. In ‘Ghost Train’ the story is told from Rhys’
point of view. There’s no guns toting
and wild screaming chases throughout the streets of Cardiff, there’s no casual
grin of a Captain, there’s just Rhys, 100% human, no bullshit, Rhys, who has
lost a cargo of fridges and no matter how many times he tries to ask Gwen for
help, she’s off as usual defending the planet, this time from fiery beasts.
They’re just about to leave when heavily
pregnant Gwen needs to pee, and Rhys after months of running through their
escape plans, puts the plan into action when the security teams are outside
their front door.
I do have a selection of James Goss books
and audios still to listen to and to read.
His writing captures the scene almost immediately and because we know
the characters, we can skip to the action quickly and be thrown along the road
enjoying the nail biting ride, hoping that we can outrun the helicopter firing
ahead of us on the road, hoping the old taxi cab won’t die before we make it
out of Cardiff.
The action is fast paced and you get the
same feeling of excitement and tension as you do watching a similar scene on
the television, you can’t put down the book until you know for sure, your
heroes have made it out alive.
James Goss was born in 1974, the year the
Doctors changed from Jon Pertwee to Tom Baker.
He has been actively involved in the Doctor Who world since 2000 when he
was made senior content producer for the BBC and put in charge of the BBC's
official Doctor Who website. In 2005 he
moved to BBC Wales to oversee the new show’s website expanding the content to
feature all aspects of the show including cast and crew interviews, games and
spin off sites based on the broadcasted episodes.
James has an extensive list of credits and
achievements which are featured on Wikipedia, a source of interesting
information. He has written an
extortionate amount of novels, audiobooks, ebooks and novellas for Doctor Who
and the spin off series’.
For me it’s his list of Torchwood stories
that capture my imagination and it doesn’t matter how many times I listen to
‘Ghost Train’ it’s still as fresh as the first time I listened to it, and I
still find myself chuckling at the comical aspects of the story. If you don’t believe me, listen for yourself.
Recently we interviewed
James about his books especially ‘Almost Perfect’ a Torchwood novel that is
next on my reading list, and which features Ianto in not the same fashion as
we’re used to seeing him as.
Novels, audio books and ebooks:
Almost
Perfect (2008)
Risk
Assessment (2009)
Department
X (2011)
Ghost
Train (2011)
First
Born (2011)
Radio Dramas
Golden
Age (2009)
The
House of the Dead (2011)
Short stories
The
Last Voyage of Osiris (2009) in Torchwood Magazine Issue 17
The
Package (2010) in Torchwood Magazine Issue 22
The
Mind's Eye (2010) Torchwood Magazine Issue 24
We All
Go Through with Steve Tribe (2011) Torchwood Magazine Issue 25
And for those of us who love the non
fictional side of Doctor Who these two books are an absolute must for any
bookshelf:
The
Dalek Handbook with Steve Tribe (2011)
Doctor
Who: A History of the Universe in 100 Objects with Steve Tribe (2012)
For the full list of reading material visit:
To follow James on his blog and Twitter:
I really love the writing of James Goss. I appreciate the nature of relationships he creates, the humour in his writing, his occasional asides to the audience and the contribution he makes to a better understanding of gender relations through his writing.
ReplyDeleteAnd near the top of my list of most loved of his works is 'The Package'. It captures the essence of Jack, of Ianto, of Gwen and of every unhelpful 'service provider' wonderfully, in one short story.