The Bloodchild Codex

"He just aged before my eyes."

Writer: Colin Brake

Format: Audio

Released: March 2013

Series: Jago & Litefoot 5.03

Featuring: Jago, Litefoot

Synopsis 

A stranger arrives at Professor Litefoot's bookshop, in search of a work called The Bloodchild Codex. Soon Jago, Litefoot and Ellie are facing an ancient book which threatens to bring a terrifying power back into the world.

Verdict 

The Bloodchild Codex was an excellent episode to continue my way through the fifth series of Jago and Litefoot! This was my favourite story of the series so far and I really liked how this continued the arc already started in the first two episodes whilst setting us up for a brilliant finale and acting as a very strong episode in its own right! I like the idea of a brain drain killer and whilst that name wasn’t exactly catchy, taking out intelligent people was intriguing and the potential of Litefoot being next was very good. Ellie had a more prominent role in this episode which was brilliant and she really is shining in this series. She knows that Jago and Litefoot will get back to their own time where she will be waiting long in her past. Hearing how she is tackling with her foreknowledge is tremendous and I love that in Litefoot’s library she had to quickly pounce to stop him seeing a book he would write sometime after their return home to 1893. That was fun stuff and a strong red herring to the titular book that was the main focus of the story. The Bloodchild Codex sounds impressive and powerful so I could certainly buy into the idea of it containing the secrets to immortality in the form of an ancestor was fascinating. Never has the dust jacket of a book been so important but when the one remaining copy of the Codex was located, just holding it proved deadly. Both Dreislav and Summer were after the book and the former actually being a former servant of Thomas Bloodchild, Summer’s ancestral relative, was great! The reemergence of Thomas from within the book when Litefoot tried to burn the copy after both Summer and Dreislav were aged to death from holding it was very interesting! I enjoyed the description of him forming semblance in smoke within the fire. He didn’t actually last long being around which was a slight shame given the build up to the importance of the book, but he sounded good and I liked that he came from the eighteenth century. He’d been asleep in the book for a very long time and he genuinely seemed excited by the new world he’d encounter in the 1960s. That hope would never be realised though. Summer’s conversation with Ellie was good stuff and I loved how shocked the former was by the latter saying she wished she could die because of all of the hurt experienced in a life lasting a century. I’ve always maintained I would snap your hand off for immortality but I can also understand how Ellie felt. The threat posed to Dr Evans as the potential next victim of the brain drain killer was intriguing and I liked how that turned out to be the case. Guinevere’s desire for the Venusian crystal that Jago had obtained during the events of Voyage to Venus was intriguing and I was never expecting that to be the key for a very familiar object in the form of Magnus Greel’s time cabinets! Having very recently listened to The Butcher of Brisbane, I wasn’t expecting that to feature and play a part so soon in a story so that was a fantastic surprise. Of course, the surprises didn’t stop there though as within was the all too familiar threat of Mr Sin! Now that really excites me and sets us up very nicely for the finale to come. I’m assuming the time cabinet is how Jago and Litefoot will get back to their own time, but getting there from this point is something I’m very excited to hear! WIgh Guinevere being deduced as the brain drain killer I’m looking forward to seeing how she’s dealt with in the finale as she’s not felt quite that threatening in an episode yet but oozes a chilling villainous quality. I hope she can shine in the finale when the truth fully comes out. Overall, a really strong episode that sets us up very nicely for the finale to come. 

Rating: 9/10