Codex

By: Lev Grossman

Narrated by: Jeff Harding

Length: 11 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's summary

About to depart on his first vacation in years, Edward Wozny, a hotshot young investment banker, is sent to help one of his firm's most important and mysterious clients. His task is to search their library stacks for a precious medieval codex, a treasure kept sealed away for many years and for many reasons. Enlisting the help of passionate medievalist Margaret Napier, Edward is determined to solve the mystery of the codex-to understand its significance to his wealthy clients, and to decipher the seeming parallels between the legend of the codex and an obsessive role-playing computer game that has absorbed him in the dark hours of the night.

The chilling resolution brings together the medieval and the modern aspects of the plot in a twist worthy of earning comparisons to novels by William Gibson and Dan Brown, not to mention those by A. S. Byatt and Umberto Eco. Lev Grossman's Codex is a thriller of the highest order.

©2005 Lev Grossman (P)2012 Random House

Critic reviews

"A genuine treat, with its sneaky plot and richly textured storytelling. Moves so fast that readers won't realize how smart it is." ( San Francisco Chronicle)

"Fascinating, compelling, and deliciously disturbing." ( The Boston Globe)

"Takes its place on the shelf of self-referential, bibliophilic page-turners like The Name of the Rose, Possession and A Case of Curiosities, and it's as entertaining as any of them." ( The New York Times Book Review)

Gender garbage was hard, story still compelling

The bit where our dudebro goes to a library, rudely asks for a resource someone else was using, gets it and still thinks she was being "an incredible bitch" nearly made me put this down, but as long as you're willing to get past that and many other little things, the story was kind of fun.

groan

I???m a Lev Grossman fan. His earlier works, ???The Magicians??? and ???The Magician King???, are two of my favorite audio books. So, when I saw that recently he had a new book published I eagerly purchased it. I was disappointed.

The story is set up as a literary ???thriller???. While there is an ambiance of darkness and danger it never materializes. There are multiple twists and turns throughout the story but each twist and turn is easily anticipated. I had the story figured out less than half way into the book.

The main character is a young narcissist who postures as if he is the next best thing to James Bond???or Stephen Langdon of "DaVinci Code" fame???but who misses every telegraphed clue that Grossman so abundantly provides. The protagonist seems to be a caricature of Langdon. While Langdon rushes from one life threatening danger to another, all the time figuring out subtle clues and saving the day, as well as the beautiful girl along the way, Edward Wozny has the clues shoved in his face almost every step of the way. It is the homely but brilliant girlfriend who figures almost everything out. There is no action in the story. There appears to be no real danger. There is no confrontation with the ???bad guy???. As a literary send up of the ???thriller??? genre, I admit that it works. I give it an admiring groan, with an emphasis on the groan. However, I found the book irritating and the main character so much of a narcissist and so blind to what is going on around him that the story lost the patina of credibility. Even a good send up should keep the reader/listener engaged.

The narrator was decent.

Underwhelming

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Not really, no. By the end of book I was more annoyed than anything.

Would you ever listen to anything by Lev Grossman again?

The Magicians and The Magician King are both enjoyable and I'm interested in the continuation of that series.

What three words best describe Jeff Harding’s voice?

Not a fan.He does female voices well but he has an odd way of finishing sentences that started to grate on me after awhile.

Do you think Codex needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

No. There is not enough here to justify a sequel.

Any additional comments?

I enjoyed The Magicians and The Magician King so I figured I would check out this one. It's got an interesting premise and, given the tone of the other two books, I expected something similar with this. I was disappointed. I'd almost say the synopsis is misleading. The game, while taking up a good portion of the narrative, isn't all that important to the plot. By the end, the game is really superfluous to the overall story arc. And there are a few tense moments where you're expecting something to happen and nothing actually does. He builds a lot of moments that should have some kind of thrilling ending but they never materialize. The two man characters sneaking around in the dark, tension builds and then... nothing. They walk away with nothing at all happening. Once or twice that's okay but he does that in just about every instance. The other shoe that's waiting to drop does not only never drop, it doesn't even exist. No more is this apparent than in the ending. It's completely anti-climatic. All the energy put in to the game story arc has no bearing on the conclusion, the codex itself is nothing what you expect and it all boils down to family politics. If you're thinking of getting this book for some sort of supernatural thriller, don't waste your time. It's not a supernatural thriller and it's certainly not fantasy. Not in any sense. At best it's an uninspired novel of the garden variety fiction novel.

Tedious

Tedious & somewhat boring. Takes forever to get to the end. Not really worth the trouble.

Loved The Magicians. This isn't The Magicians

Loved the Magicians series so tried this after reading the description. The description makes it sound like the book is contemporary fantasy about reality and MMORPGs blending together. Sounds reasonable after reading The Magicians. Something I'd definitely be interested in reading.

However, this is probably the single most boring novel I have ever read. Very disappointed. Kept waiting for the MMO to have a point but all I got was a bunch of spoiled shallow characters I didn't care about looking around for some old book. I will probably try the author's next book, if there is one, based off the quality of The Magicians, but I truly wish I'd never bothered with this book.

Not The Magicians

I loved The Magician series so I gave this a chance. I listened to the entire book, hoping it would get better. It was ok but if you’re expecting the fun of the Magicians it’s not there.

Worth It - If you're willing to put in the time

What did you love best about Codex?

There's a lot to unwrap in Codex but if you liked the magicians or anything by Neal Stephenson you can probably hack it. If not go find a more straight-forward thriller.

Have you listened to any of Jeff Harding’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

The narrator does a fantastic job.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Lev Grossman is a fantastic writer. He excels at turning the banal into the macabre. I feel more observant after listening to his books.

Great story, terrible ending

What disappointed you about Codex?

The ending. At best, this book was intended as a first book in a series, because the ending is a complete let down. It's as if the author just gave up and left the characters standing where there were in the story. Because of this huge flaw, I would not recommend this book.

Any additional comments?

This is a well imagined story, with rich characters and an unconventional storyline in the world of rare books. Jeff Harding does a great job creating a distinct voice for each character. Too bad about the ending.

A long journey to nowhere

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

Provide an ending commensurate with the buildup. The author takes great pains to develop the central character, but does little to hold up an interesting story as it relates to the title. The ending is akin to driving though a small town with one stop light...if you blink you'll miss it.

One man's journey from someplace to someplace else....

What do you think your next listen will be?

Kim Harrison's new book

Have you listened to any of Jeff Harding???s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Delivery was fine...no complaints

Had great hopes...

What disappointed you about Codex?

Story line fell apart at the end with unbelievable outcomes. It was like the author spent a great deal of time thinking and writing for the first half of the book, and then rushed to complete it without much thought. I was very disappointed.

Would you be willing to try another book from Lev Grossman? Why or why not?

I would hesitate to try another because I felt so let down.