Exodus Code (novel): Difference between revisions
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{{Infobox Story | {{Infobox Story SMW | ||
|image = Exodus Code.jpg | |image = Exodus Code.jpg | ||
|series = [[BBC Torchwood novels|BBC ''Torchwood'' novels]] | |series = [[BBC Torchwood novels|BBC ''Torchwood'' novels]] | ||
|number = 19 | |number = 19 | ||
|main character = [[Jack Harkness|Jack]], [[Gwen Cooper|Gwen]] | |main character = [[Jack Harkness|Jack]], [[Gwen Cooper|Gwen]] | ||
|featuring = [[Rhys Williams|Rhys]], [[Andy Davidson|Andy]], [[Rex Matheson|Rex]], [[Mary Cooper|Mary]], [[Anwen Williams|Anwen]], [[Jack Harkness's mother|Jack's mother]], [[Vlad Lidenbrok|Vlad]], [[Dana MacLeish|Dana]], [[Hollis Jefferson Albert|Hollis]], [[Mary Shelley (Exodus Code)|Shelley]] | |||
|enemy = | |enemy = | ||
|setting = {{il|[[Peru]], [[1930]]|[[Swansea]], [[Peru]] and the ''[[Ice Maiden (ship)|Ice Maiden]]'', [[2010s]]}} | |setting = {{il|[[Peru]], [[1930]]|[[Swansea]], [[Peru]] and the ''[[Ice Maiden (ship)|Ice Maiden]]'', [[2010s]]}} | ||
|writer = [[John Barrowman|John]] and [[Carole E. Barrowman]] | |writer = John Barrowman, Carole E. Barrowman | ||
|contributors = [[John Barrowman|John]] and [[Carole E. Barrowman]] | |||
|read by = [[Daniel Pirrie]] | |read by = [[Daniel Pirrie]] | ||
|publisher = BBC Books | |publisher = BBC Books | ||
|release date = | |release date = 13 September 2012 | ||
|cover = [[Danny Grogan]] | |cover = [[Danny Grogan]] | ||
|format = Hardback book, 368 pages | |format = Hardback book, 368 pages | ||
|isbn = ISBN 978-1-846-07909-8 | |isbn = ISBN 978-1-846-07909-8 | ||
|prev = The Men Who Sold the World (novel) | |prev = The Men Who Sold the World (novel) | ||
}} | |||
'''''{{StoryTitle}}''''' was the first ''[[Torchwood (TV series)|Torchwood]]'' novel published following the conclusion of ''[[Series 4 (Torchwood)|Torchwood: Miracle Day]]'' in [[2011 (releases)|2011]]. It was the second ''Torchwood'' collaboration between [[John Barrowman]] and his sister, [[Carole E. Barrowman|Carole]], following the comic story ''[[The Selkie (comic story)|The Selkie]]'' in [[2009 (releases)|2009]]. | '''''{{StoryTitle}}''''' was the first and, {{as of|2024|lc=y}}, only ''[[Torchwood (TV series)|Torchwood]]'' novel published following the conclusion of ''[[Series 4 (Torchwood)|Torchwood: Miracle Day]]'' in [[2011 (releases)|2011]]. It was the second ''Torchwood'' collaboration between [[John Barrowman]] and his sister, [[Carole E. Barrowman|Carole]], following the comic story ''[[The Selkie (comic story)|The Selkie]]'' in [[2009 (releases)|2009]]. | ||
After its release, no further ''Torchwood'' stories were produced until the release of the audio story ''[[The Conspiracy (audio story)|The Conspiracy]]'' in [[2015 (releases)|2015]]. | After its release, no further ''Torchwood'' stories were produced until the release of the audio story ''[[The Conspiracy (audio story)|The Conspiracy]]'' in [[2015 (releases)|2015]]. | ||
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The crashing biplane is seen by the people of a secret [[Cuari]] village and the [[High Priestess (Exodus Code)|High Priestess]] sends [[Gaia (Exodus Code)|Gaia]], the star guide, to meet the [[deity]] that they believe has arrived as [[prophecy|prophecied]] and guide him back to [[Uku Pacha]]. Gaia witnesses Jack's resurrection and has him trapped in a [[grotto]] from which Renso saves him some hours later. The [[volcano]] starts to erupt and Gaia tries to keep Jack from leaving, but Resno, who sees her as a [[mountain lion]], shoots her and Jack records his experiences in his [[notebook]] before his fading [[memory|memories]] disappear completely. When he realises that a fissure created by the volcano seems to be targeting him, he sends Resno to safety. | The crashing biplane is seen by the people of a secret [[Cuari]] village and the [[High Priestess (Exodus Code)|High Priestess]] sends [[Gaia (Exodus Code)|Gaia]], the star guide, to meet the [[deity]] that they believe has arrived as [[prophecy|prophecied]] and guide him back to [[Uku Pacha]]. Gaia witnesses Jack's resurrection and has him trapped in a [[grotto]] from which Renso saves him some hours later. The [[volcano]] starts to erupt and Gaia tries to keep Jack from leaving, but Resno, who sees her as a [[mountain lion]], shoots her and Jack records his experiences in his [[notebook]] before his fading [[memory|memories]] disappear completely. When he realises that a fissure created by the volcano seems to be targeting him, he sends Resno to safety. | ||
Months after [[Miracle Day|the Miracle]], Renso's granddaughter [[Isela Castenado|Isela]] finds his journal and the unsent [[letter]]s that he wrote for Jack. She has the opportunity to escape her life at [[Hacienda del Castenado]] if she | Months after [[Miracle Day|the Miracle]], Renso's granddaughter [[Isela Castenado|Isela]] finds his journal and the unsent [[letter]]s that he wrote for Jack. She has the opportunity to escape her life at [[Hacienda del Castenado]] if she helps kidnap [[Olivares Donoso]], a man with connections to the [[Three Families]] and whom [[Rex Matheson|Rex]] has sent [[Carlisle (Exodus Code)|Agent Carlisle]] after. She succeeds in shooting and flipping the [[minibus]] he is in and [[Darren Crowder]] updates Rex, showing him the footage and telling him that it gets worse. | ||
=== Part two === | === Part two === | ||
[[Gwen Cooper|Gwen]], whose [[temper]] has been worsening, meets [[Elizabeth Newman|a woman]] who seems to be mentally unwell whilst shopping with [[Anwen Williams|Anwen]] and attacks the [[shop manager (Exodus Code)|shop manager]] when he moves Anwen and reaches for the woman's arm. The woman rips off her own ear and Gwen looks into the incident further using from the burnt [[Torchwood SUV]], during which she has a vision of a [[puma]] which leaves her knuckles bleeding. The next day, a voice in her head which she tries to resist makes her slice three circles into her arm and try to kill Rhys, but Jack arrives after receiving a strange [[email]] and shoots her in the shoulder before she can do so. | [[Gwen Cooper|Gwen]], whose [[temper]] has been worsening, meets [[Elizabeth Newman|a woman]] who seems to be mentally unwell whilst shopping with [[Anwen Williams|Anwen]] and attacks the [[shop manager (Exodus Code)|shop manager]] when he moves Anwen and reaches for the woman's arm. The woman rips off her own ear and Gwen looks into the incident further using from the burnt [[Torchwood SUV]], during which she has a vision of a [[puma]] which leaves her knuckles bleeding. The next day, a voice in her head which she tries to resist makes her slice three circles into her arm and try to kill Rhys, but Jack arrives after receiving a strange [[email]] and shoots her in the shoulder before she can do so. | ||
[[Andy Davidson|Andy]] [[arrest]]s Gwen for her attack at the [[supermarket]] and has her taken to a psychiatric ward, explaining that she is one of several women who have been involved in unusual attacks by self-harming women. Jack researches the phenomenon, which is worldwide, and sees an image of Gaia in the [[mirror]], but he has no memory of her or the three circles in Peru. The SUV disappears during a tremor before Jack can make use of the Torchwood software and Gwen manages to escape from the ward, after which Jack deduces from the affected women hurting their ears, tongues and and eyes that they are [[synaesthete]]s. | [[Andy Davidson|Andy]] [[arrest]]s Gwen for her attack at the [[supermarket]] and has her taken to a psychiatric ward, explaining that she is one of several women who have been involved in unusual attacks by self-harming women. Jack researches the phenomenon, which is worldwide, and sees an image of Gaia in the [[mirror]], but he has no memory of her or the three circles in Peru. The SUV disappears during a tremor before Jack can make use of the Torchwood software and Gwen manages to escape from the ward, after which Jack deduces from the affected women hurting their ears, tongues and and eyes that they are [[synaesthete]]s. | ||
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=== Part three === | === Part three === | ||
Jack contacts the crew of the ''[[Ice Maiden (ship)|Ice Maiden]]'' [[trawler]] and takes a [[sedation|sedated]] Gwen aboard to keep her under his observation. [[Vlad Lidenbrok|Vlad]] and [[Eva Giles|Eva]] have been monitoring eruptions in the ocean floor and the [[geyser]]s they have created which are desalinating the oceans, releasing [[pheremone]]s and will turn the Earth into a [[bomb]] when the hydrothermal chimneys seal over. | Jack contacts the crew of the ''[[Ice Maiden (ship)|Ice Maiden]]'' [[trawler]] and takes a [[sedation|sedated]] Gwen aboard to keep her under his observation. [[Vlad Lidenbrok|Vlad]] and [[Eva Giles|Eva]] have been monitoring eruptions in the ocean floor and the [[geyser]]s they have created which are desalinating the oceans, releasing [[pheremone]]s and will turn the Earth into a [[bomb]] when the hydrothermal chimneys seal over. | ||
Based on what he was told by [[Sarah Jane Smith]] and the data in the email that [[Henry Collins|Cash]] sent him, Jack believes that his [[blood]] triggered a [[Helix Intelligence]] inside the Earth's core and that it needs his [[DNA]] to escape, leading it to release the pheremones to search for him with the women's behaviour being a side effect. Gwen comes around and insists that she help Jack in his mission to Peru, where everything started, as they are a team. | Based on what he was told by [[Sarah Jane Smith]] and the data in the email that [[Henry Collins|Cash]] sent him, Jack believes that his [[blood]] triggered a [[Helix Intelligence]] inside the Earth's core and that it needs his [[DNA]] to escape, leading it to release the pheremones to search for him with the women's behaviour being a side effect. Gwen comes around and insists that she help Jack in his mission to Peru, where everything started, as they are a team. | ||
=== Part four === | === Part four === | ||
''to | Isela's stepbrother, [[Antonio Castenado|Antonio]], betrays their father, [[Asiro Castenado|Asiro]], and saves Donoso from being captured by his men and Rex's agents. Jack uses the chaos to find out the whereabouts of his notebook from Asiro and retrieves it from Isela, who believed that it was her grandfather's and agrees to take him to her mother, named [[Gaia (Isela Castenado's mother)|Gaia]] like her own mother. Cash and [[Hollis Jefferson Albert|Hollis]] hold back the CIA agents hunting Isela whilst Jack, Gwen, Eva and Vlad climb the mountain with Isela and Gaia and Jack reveals that he was wrong about the Helix Intelligence; it needs a [[sacrifice]] to heal the Earth and not to break free. | ||
The ritual requires the sacrifice of someone of the [[underworld]], someone of the [[heaven]]s and someone of the Earth, the third of which is the true person that the hydrothermal vents have been releasing pheremones to find. Gaia is shot in the form of a puma as she attacks [[Anderson (Exodus Code)|Captain Anderson]] and is absorbed by the Earth, a process which starts to happen to Isela before Gwen pushes her out of the way to sacrifice herself in her place, thanking Jack for how he made the world better for her. The circles tighten around her and Jack. | |||
When Jack comes back to life, he learns that the woman who was sacrificed was actually [[Mary Shelley (Exodus Code)|Shelley]], the ''Ice Maiden'''s [[artificial intelligence]] which he upgraded with [[alien]] technology to help investigate the hydrothermal chimneys, in the form of Gwen and mimicking her genetic code. Two weeks after the ritual destroys the chimneys, he is welcomed aboard the ''Ice Maiden'' by Cash, [[Dana MacLeish|Dana]], Hollis and [[Sam (Exodus Code)|Sam]]. | |||
== Characters == | == Characters == | ||
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* [[Antonio Castenado]] | * [[Antonio Castenado]] | ||
* [[High Priestess (Exodus Code)|High Priestess]] | * [[High Priestess (Exodus Code)|High Priestess]] | ||
* [[Gaia ( | * [[Gaia (Isela Castenado's grandmother)|Gaia]] (Isela's grandmother) | ||
* [[Juan Cortez]] | * [[Juan Cortez]] | ||
* [[Darren Crowder]] | * [[Darren Crowder]] | ||
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* [[Bernie Sanger]] | * [[Bernie Sanger]] | ||
* [[Win (Exodus Code)|Win]] | * [[Win (Exodus Code)|Win]] | ||
* [[Anderson (Exodus Code)|Anderson]] | |||
* [[Gaia (Isela Castenado's mother)|Gaia]] (Isela's mother) | |||
== | == Worldbuilding == | ||
* [[Darren Crowder]] worked on the health desk of the ''[[Washington Register]]'' during [[Miracle Day|the Miracle]]. | * [[Darren Crowder]] worked on the health desk of the ''[[Washington Register]]'' during [[Miracle Day|the Miracle]]. | ||
* The [[Office of Geo-Global Affairs]] is an [[agency]] within the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]]'s [[Special Activities Division]] which deals with the fallout of the Miracle. It is colloquially known as the Morgue. | * The [[Office of Geo-Global Affairs]] is an [[agency]] within the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]]'s [[Special Activities Division]] which deals with the fallout of the Miracle. It is colloquially known as the Morgue. | ||
Latest revision as of 20:31, 3 November 2024
Exodus Code was the first and, as of 2024[update], only Torchwood novel published following the conclusion of Torchwood: Miracle Day in 2011. It was the second Torchwood collaboration between John Barrowman and his sister, Carole, following the comic story The Selkie in 2009.
After its release, no further Torchwood stories were produced until the release of the audio story The Conspiracy in 2015.
Publisher's summary[[edit] | [edit source]]
From Torchwood star John Barrowman, and Carole Barrowman, an epic thriller that finds Captain Jack and Gwen in a race to save humanity itself.
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 is 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...
Plot[[edit] | [edit source]]
Part one[[edit] | [edit source]]
In 1930, Jack is flown over la Madre Montâna in Peru by Renso to see three spinning rings of igneous rock which he sketches, finding the patterns that they form somehow familiar. He hears music and a chorus of his own voice in his head telling him how things are and will be for him and sees his mother, but he is able to push them all away before having a fit. Renso's wrist inexplicably snaps in half, causing the biplane to go on a collision course.
The crashing biplane is seen by the people of a secret Cuari village and the High Priestess sends Gaia, the star guide, to meet the deity that they believe has arrived as prophecied and guide him back to Uku Pacha. Gaia witnesses Jack's resurrection and has him trapped in a grotto from which Renso saves him some hours later. The volcano starts to erupt and Gaia tries to keep Jack from leaving, but Resno, who sees her as a mountain lion, shoots her and Jack records his experiences in his notebook before his fading memories disappear completely. When he realises that a fissure created by the volcano seems to be targeting him, he sends Resno to safety.
Months after the Miracle, Renso's granddaughter Isela finds his journal and the unsent letters that he wrote for Jack. She has the opportunity to escape her life at Hacienda del Castenado if she helps kidnap Olivares Donoso, a man with connections to the Three Families and whom Rex has sent Agent Carlisle after. She succeeds in shooting and flipping the minibus he is in and Darren Crowder updates Rex, showing him the footage and telling him that it gets worse.
Part two[[edit] | [edit source]]
Gwen, whose temper has been worsening, meets a woman who seems to be mentally unwell whilst shopping with Anwen and attacks the shop manager when he moves Anwen and reaches for the woman's arm. The woman rips off her own ear and Gwen looks into the incident further using from the burnt Torchwood SUV, during which she has a vision of a puma which leaves her knuckles bleeding. The next day, a voice in her head which she tries to resist makes her slice three circles into her arm and try to kill Rhys, but Jack arrives after receiving a strange email and shoots her in the shoulder before she can do so.
Andy arrests Gwen for her attack at the supermarket and has her taken to a psychiatric ward, explaining that she is one of several women who have been involved in unusual attacks by self-harming women. Jack researches the phenomenon, which is worldwide, and sees an image of Gaia in the mirror, but he has no memory of her or the three circles in Peru. The SUV disappears during a tremor before Jack can make use of the Torchwood software and Gwen manages to escape from the ward, after which Jack deduces from the affected women hurting their ears, tongues and and eyes that they are synaesthetes.
After sharing his deductions with Dr Olivia Steele, Jack returns to Mary's and manages to track Gwen to a pier after she sneaks inside to leave her wedding ring behind for Anwen. He tries to stop her from committing suicide to protect Rhys and Anwen by jumping into the sea, but they both fall into the water and he has to knock her out with a punch to save her and get her home. There, he starts to remember that he saw the three rings on Earth and, when she becomes conscious again, Gwen asks Rhys to kill her.
Part three[[edit] | [edit source]]
Jack contacts the crew of the Ice Maiden trawler and takes a sedated Gwen aboard to keep her under his observation. Vlad and Eva have been monitoring eruptions in the ocean floor and the geysers they have created which are desalinating the oceans, releasing pheremones and will turn the Earth into a bomb when the hydrothermal chimneys seal over.
Based on what he was told by Sarah Jane Smith and the data in the email that Cash sent him, Jack believes that his blood triggered a Helix Intelligence inside the Earth's core and that it needs his DNA to escape, leading it to release the pheremones to search for him with the women's behaviour being a side effect. Gwen comes around and insists that she help Jack in his mission to Peru, where everything started, as they are a team.
Part four[[edit] | [edit source]]
Isela's stepbrother, Antonio, betrays their father, Asiro, and saves Donoso from being captured by his men and Rex's agents. Jack uses the chaos to find out the whereabouts of his notebook from Asiro and retrieves it from Isela, who believed that it was her grandfather's and agrees to take him to her mother, named Gaia like her own mother. Cash and Hollis hold back the CIA agents hunting Isela whilst Jack, Gwen, Eva and Vlad climb the mountain with Isela and Gaia and Jack reveals that he was wrong about the Helix Intelligence; it needs a sacrifice to heal the Earth and not to break free.
The ritual requires the sacrifice of someone of the underworld, someone of the heavens and someone of the Earth, the third of which is the true person that the hydrothermal vents have been releasing pheremones to find. Gaia is shot in the form of a puma as she attacks Captain Anderson and is absorbed by the Earth, a process which starts to happen to Isela before Gwen pushes her out of the way to sacrifice herself in her place, thanking Jack for how he made the world better for her. The circles tighten around her and Jack.
When Jack comes back to life, he learns that the woman who was sacrificed was actually Shelley, the Ice Maiden's artificial intelligence which he upgraded with alien technology to help investigate the hydrothermal chimneys, in the form of Gwen and mimicking her genetic code. Two weeks after the ritual destroys the chimneys, he is welcomed aboard the Ice Maiden by Cash, Dana, Hollis and Sam.
Characters[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Jack Harkness
- Gwen Cooper
- Rhys Williams
- Andy Davidson
- Mary Cooper
- Anwen Williams
- Olivia Steele
- Renso Castenado
- Isela Castenado
- Antonio Castenado
- High Priestess
- Gaia (Isela's grandmother)
- Juan Cortez
- Darren Crowder
- Rex Matheson
- Tommy Livesy
- Jan
- Sam
- Eva Giles
- Vlad Lidenbrok
- Cash
- Dana MacLeish
- Nick Finley
- Byron Austin
- Hollis Jefferson Albert
- Eva Giles
- Mary Shelley
- Olivares Donoso
- Phil Newman
- Elizabeth Newman
- Trimba Ormond
- Alan Pride
- Bernie Sanger
- Win
- Anderson
- Gaia (Isela's mother)
Worldbuilding[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Darren Crowder worked on the health desk of the Washington Register during the Miracle.
- The Office of Geo-Global Affairs is an agency within the CIA's Special Activities Division which deals with the fallout of the Miracle. It is colloquially known as the Morgue.
- Rex Matheson has been appointed Deputy Director of the CIA.
- Gwen, Rhys and Anwen are still living with Mary Cooper in Swansea.
- The Ice Maiden is caught in a storm on the Skaggerak Strait in the North Sea.
- Jack believes that Gwen is shouting about Suzie, but she is actually saying "SUV".
- Geologic time scale is mentioned.
Notes[[edit] | [edit source]]
- This story was released as an audiobook on 13 September 2012, read by Daniel Pirrie.
- This is the first Torchwood novel set after the events of Miracle Day.
Continuity[[edit] | [edit source]]
- The events of AUDIO: Fallout are referred to.
- There are numerous references to Miracle Day and the aftermath of it.
- Sarah Jane Smith has told Jack about the time she encountered the Helix Intelligence. (TV: The Masque of Mandragora)
- Vlad was one of the techs assigned to study the Mandragora Helix virus when it infected the internet in 2009. (PROSE: Beautiful Chaos)
- Gwen refers to Esther Drummond's death. (TV: The Blood Line)
External links[[edit] | [edit source]]
- Official Exodus Code page at Penguin Books
