Exodus Code

"I want my old life back. I want Torchwood back."

Writers: John & Carole E. Barrowman
Format: Novel
Released: September 2012
Series: Torchwood Novels 19

Featuring: Captain Jack, Gwen, Rhys

Synopsis

'Aliens were here, and they slapped a best before date on us...'

It starts with a series of unexplained events. Earth tremors across the globe. Women being driven insane by their heightened and scrambled senses. And the world us starting to notice - the number one Twitter trend is #realfemmefatales.

Governments and scientists are bewildered and silent. The world needs Torchwood, but there's not much of Torchwood left.

Captain Jack has tracked the problem to its source: a village in Peru, where he's uncovered evidence of alien involvement. In Cardiff, Gwen Cooper has discovered something alien and somehow connected to Jack. If the world is to be restored, she has to warn him - but she's quickly becoming a victim of the madness too...

Verdict

Exodus Code was a very good Torchwood novel! It's been a while since I've done anything Torchwood-related and I've been keen to delve back into its world because it's a spinoff series I absolutely love. I have been taking advantage again of the library service and this was quite an epic book in terms of the scale. I think it's quite ironic that my first Torchwood novel is actually the last one to be released but having a story set post Miracle Day was very exciting for me and I liked how it didn't contradict with Aliens Among Us. I'm now intrigued to see where it sits in the Torchwood comics from Titan but I'll get to those at some point in the future. Having John Barrowman, along with his sister, writing was something that really fascinated me but I think having the actor who portrays Captain Jack was hugely beneficial in capturing the character. I loved how much he loved having a team and it was clear that he longed to be back at the Hub with Gwen, Owen, Tosh and of course Ianto. I thought it was good that Torchwood's history was acknowledged and I particularly loved that Jack refused to let Isela sacrifice herself to the mountain following the events of Children of Earth. No more children. Esther getting a mention was lovely too but I have to admit, I was surprised by the lack of depth in Rex's appearance. I was glad he featured but following the cliffhanger of Miracle Day, I expected a little more than just a job update. The changing time-frames in this book was good and I liked the connections between Jack and Renso's relationship and their fall from a plane with the modern day disaster was excellent. I really liked the geysers and the scale of them, and the whole story, was quite extraordinary. It stretched from Wales with effects being felt in New Zealand, Scotland and Peru. The use of synaesthesia was fantastic and was such a good inclusion as it's never been done before in the works I've come across in Doctor Who. I really was a big fan of that, particularly the level of description. The explanation of some of the terminology in this book was very helpful and I liked how things were all tied together. Rhys was superb and the calmness with how he was dealing with Gwen being affected by the madness was quite impressive. His thankfulness towards Jack was also nice to see. I loved how often Anwen featured and it was lovely to see her starting to grow up. The crew of the Ice Maiden were really good additions and I could definitely see them forming a new Torchwood team in the future, or at least helping what's left of the original. Eva and Vlad were particular highlights and I also really liked Shelley. Her continued pointing out that her function to fuck was not yet available did get a little tiresome though. I shouldn't really be surprised by how sexual some of the dialogue was in this book but I did like how the geysers and their omissions were increasing sex drive. The time jump from four days until they geysers closed to six hours was quite unexpected and the whole story with Donoso and Juan and Rex trying to get a connection to the Three Families seemed a bit unnecessary to be honest and made things a little confusing. Once that was dealt with though, getting Jack to the top of the mountain was full of action and tension which was terrific. He believed that the Helix wanted him, based on his previous visit in 1930, because of his coded 51st-century DNA to escape the Earth's core but it actually wanted him to repair. He was the man who fell from the stars. Gwen would join Isela in the sacrifice which had always prophesied three sacrifices in a gripping conclusion but one that needed a bit more time I felt. It was quick and abrupt which made it exciting and unexpected but some more clarity over how Gwen survived would have been nice. Overall though, it was still a great read! We even had a lovely mention of Sarah Jane.

Rating: 8/10