Lexicon

A Novel

By: Max Barry

Narrated by: Heather Corrigan, Zach Appelman

Length: 12 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's summary

At an exclusive school somewhere outside of Arlington, Virginia, students aren't taught history, geography, or mathematics - at least not in the usual ways. Instead, they are taught to persuade. Here the art of coercion has been raised to a science. Students harness the hidden power of language to manipulate the mind and learn to break down individuals by psychographic markers in order to take control of their thoughts. The very best will graduate as "poets": adept wielders of language who belong to a nameless organization that is as influential as it is secretive.

Whip-smart orphan Emily Ruff is making a living running a three-card Monte game on the streets of San Francisco when she attracts the attention of the organization's recruiters. She is flown across the country for the school's strange and rigorous entrance exams, where, once admitted, she will be taught the fundamentals of persuasion by Brontë, Eliot, and Lowell - who have adopted the names of famous poets to conceal their true identities. For in the organization, nothing is more dangerous than revealing who you are: Poets must never expose their feelings lest they be manipulated. Emily becomes the school's most talented prodigy until she makes a catastrophic mistake: She falls in love.

Meanwhile, a seemingly innocent man named Wil Jamieson is brutally ambushed by two strange men in an airport bathroom. Although he has no recollection of anything they claim he's done, it turns out Wil is the key to a secret war between rival factions of poets and is quickly caught in their increasingly deadly crossfire. As the two narratives converge, the shocking work of the poets is fully revealed, the body count rises, and the world crashes toward a Tower of Babel event which would leave all language meaningless.

©2013 Max Barry (P)2013 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"A dark, dystopic grabber in which words are treated as weapons, and the villainous types have literary figures’ names. Plath, Yeats, Eliot and Woolf all figure in this ambitious, linguistics-minded work of futurism." (Janet Maslin, New York Times)

"Imagine, if you will, a secret group of people called Poets who have the power to control others simply by speaking to them. Barry has, and the result is an extraordinarily fast, funny, cerebral thriller." (Time Magazine)

"An extremely slick and readable thriller." (Washington Post)

Written and narrated well but ...

Too many good/bad guy flip-flops near the end and, regrettably, the ending was was really a bit of a let-down.

An interesting story but beginning and end are meh

Rated R for graphic violence, language and sexual content

While the story begins in the middle of an action scene, it took me multiple times to finally get into it. Once into it, I enjoyed the architecture of how the special powers work. However, I felt the main characters could have been better developed. The ending felt sloppily thrown together and not very fulfilling.

this was an excellent book

I did get lost in the chronology somewhere in the third quarter but still an excellent story

Amazing...you've got to listen to this book!

What made the experience of listening to Lexicon the most enjoyable?

Amazing! Other than some course language, I can't find any faults with this book. Intelligently written with a great plot and concept that keeps you thinking and reading. There are multiple story lines that gradually intertwine the characters, but they shift back and forth in time...so you put the pieces of the story together like a puzzle as you go.

What other book might you compare Lexicon to and why?

It engaged me the same way "Gone Girl" did...just really sucked you into the story, kept you thinking, and you weren't ever sure who was the good guy and who was the bad guy. I do think "Lexicon" had a more satisfying ending.

Have you listened to any of Heather Corrigan and Zach Appelman ’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No, but I thought they did a great job voicing all the characters.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes, after I got through the first few chapters I was totally hooked, but I forced myself to stretch it out and only listened in the car.

Any additional comments?

I highly recommend this book...I was excited and sad to finish it, all at the same time!

Conceptually excellent

The premise of Lexicon is clever and Barry really put some research into the history of language and linguistics. The effort shines through, even though he really tried not to overdo it for the average reader. The only drawback to that strategy is that the implementation of "linguistic magic" is very limited in the story. It feels like a first-step story that introduces the audience to a new universe before ramping up the potential in a sequel. I get that the author's intent was to give this story a foundation in reality that would make it potentially viable in reality, but that should have been tossed aside when events in the novel did not clearly happen in real-life.

Heather Corrigan and Zach Appelman were solid in their portrayals. Corrigan definitely gave off a teenager-feel for Emily that she gradually discarded as the character aged in the story. Appelman's performance was also excellent, even with abrupt changes to the character he was presenting.

My only real complaint about this novel is the abrupt ending. There's a rising climax that is clearly leading to a confrontation, but the thrill is simply lost as if Barry decided to shift his attention to another book and this one was given a "good enough" ending.

I'll rate this one, "I was really interested in the premise and it mostly delivered until the final act."

Innovative, clever, exciting, violent, SF

Max Barry is now one of my "I think I'll read everything he's written" authors.

I've been reading science fiction for decades, so I know how rare it is to come across a book like "Lexicon" which has not just a new ideas, but a clever, well-thought through plot, written by someone who is skilled at dialogue, characterisation and action scenes and who can unfold the story in a way that engages the reader's intellect and emotions.

The basic premise of "Lexicon" is that words have the power to control how we think and behave and that this power can be shaped into a weapon by those with the right skills.

The characters constantly explain how influence and manipulation work: get someone to pay attention to the wrong thing, play on their emotions to shape their perception of good and evil, understand their personality and then pry their psyche apart. Despite this, it took me several chapters to realize that Max Barry had been manipulating me from the first page onwards.He did it by controlling the order in which I received information, who I received it from and the emotional terms used to convey it. At least twice in the novel I had to reset what I thought I knew to be true. Barry didn't cheat. All the information correctly to understand what is going on is there but my own assumptions make me see one thing and read another.

A book that is about weaponising words is likely to appeal to those of us with a recreational addiction to fiction. We KNOW words have power, so we are ripe for the ideas in this novel. If, like me, you've been trained in NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming), public speaking, influencing skills, psychometric assessment and you read tarot cards and palms as a party trick, then the early parts of this book are frighteningly familiar. The book takes what I know I can do and then asks me to imagine what a motivated person, with REAL talent, no social ties, no inhibitions and the support of an organization with generations of research at their disposal, could achieve.

"Lexicon" is filled with coercion, violence and killing from the first page. Max Barry doesn't pull his punches but he doesn't turn the violence into pornography either. He makes it too real and too repulsive for that.

His main evil-incarnate character is suitably chilling but I could write that off as stereo-type. Elliot and Emily I got to know and like and care about, so what they did, to others, to each other and to themselves had much more impact.

My only niggle with the book is the last chapter. It's not where I would have gone with this. It felt like the kind of thing Hollywood might have changed in the movie version to ensure they stayed firmly in the summer blockbuster segment. But then, I'd never have thought up something as clever and powerful as "Lexicon" in the first place, so I'll go with Barry's judgement.

I listened to "Lexicon" as an audiobook, which, I think, made the book even more exciting. Zach Appleman did a splendid job as the rugged, world-weary, Elliot. His American accents are perfect and he at least managed to sound like he'd been to Australia. Heather Corrigan was marvellous at evoking Emily's vulnerability and her strength but her attempts at Australian accents ranged from unconvincing to inappropriately hilarious. Nevertheless, both narrators kept me listening, often on the edge of my seat.

Captivating and enchanting!

A very timely book that I rather wish had been a read than a listen. Narrators are quite good, but this is a book I think would be more enjoyable (and easier to track) if page-flipping and back-tracking were possible. Is this what Edward Snowden is reading in Moscow?

Not my favorite

A great premise, but a confusing timeline. not one of my favorites, but worth the credit.

Dystopian Thrill Ride With Big Exploding Words

As I began listening to "Lexicon," I couldn't help but draw parallels to "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins. In both books, the protagonist is a disadvantaged teenage girl using her smarts to beat the elite who control the masses in a near future dystopian society. I enjoyed "The Hunger Games" a lot. I enjoyed "Lexicon" almost as much.

The difference is, Lexicon kept me hankering after details and information that would explain exactly where these characters came from and how they tick. Author Max Barry knows how to tell a story - and crafting a tight, exciting plot is clearly his strength. I wonder if he's written screen plays because that's the flavor of this book every once in awhile. And yet I have to concede, Max Barry is a talented wordsmith, so why not use some of those words to explain some "whys" in addition to the "whats" and "whens?" Maybe clue us in on how the characters became who they are before they hit the ground running for the thrill ride of "Lexicon." The characters seemed almost incidental to the story, if that makes any sense. The author's amazingly creative idea of a world where words are weapons and transparency is weakness, intrigued me. However, in his excitement to show the reader all the cool stuff that happens in this world, characterization suffers. Barry glosses over details that would give the story more poignancy and heart. The biggest explosion or gun battle ends up sort of "meh" for me if I'm not significantly invested in the person in peril.

All in all, I liked "Lexicon." The ideas and themes of the novel are worth pondering. The warning bell sounded in response to our society's propensity for sharing information way too easily (but wait a sec! I got 10% off at Macy's just for signing up for their emails!) is ample food for thought. It's just that in the real world, providing personal information for your novel's protagonist elevates the book from "good" to "great."

Good Story, Good Performance

Would you listen to Lexicon again? Why?

I really don’t’ listen to books twice, once is enough- but that’s not to say this wasn’t very enjoyable.

What did you like best about this story?

It’s a new premise, I haven’t encountered a story like this before. Very clever. You really can’t guess where it’s going, but the plot turns are not so bizarre that it seems like the author was just trying to get write themselves out of a corner. It was very enjoyable.

What about Heather Corrigan and Zach Appelman ’s performance did you like?

They were both very good, able to distinguish between a multitude of characters. The only thing that grated a bit was the female Austrian accent, it just did not seem right, and it was distracting. The male accent was perfect, not overdone, but very distinguishable.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

No, but I did finish it in record time because it was very interesting.