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)

finally fun new sci-fi

I'm terrible at explaining why I like certain books, especially since my tastes are all over the place. just try and take my "word " (here used in the context of a promise and in the positive).sorry about words using words and existing because and for them, while keeping a superb amount of realistic sci-fi in the works as well. story can be a little confusing at times, jumps back end forth between times, but is always fascinating and the concept brilliant. All I know is, I've hated the past 30 books I've read; I loved this one.

Very pleasantly surprised!

Where does Lexicon rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

That's a lot of books to rank, but I would put it in the second highest echelon. Not the very best, to-die-for, books I've ever read/listened to, but really very good.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Lexicon?

The very beginning grabs your interest. At first I was angry when the perspective changed to a new character, but lo and behold, the next segment turned out to be just as interesting and mysterious.

Which character – as performed by Heather Corrigan and Zach Appelman – was your favorite?

Emily was very interesting; I think you get to know her a little better than Will, and she's very realistically complicated and flawed, but very engaging.

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

I don't recall laughing out loud, though there were some very witty parts; and I rarely cry at audiobooks, but this did have some very sad moments where I was entirely too distracted to do anything but listen and see what would happen...

Any additional comments?

I could see this book launching a sequel or series, and I would love to follow the story further.

Action!

This is a fast paced, surprising story. I liked it because it didn't unfold as expected and because the action kept moving.

After listening to this (but before writing a review, obviously) I listened to a second Max Barry novel because I liked this one. Just now I had to double check that it (Machine Man) was by the same author. The story in Lexicon is interesting and it moves along quickly. Te concept is new and unexpected. Machine Man was slow and a bit annoying, though the concept was new and somewhat unexpected.

The moral or parable in Lexicon is subtle (if it is intended). I thought the writing here was much better.

I recommend this one.

Ridiculous.

You know how agitating it is when a villain in any movie or book insists on having a long conversation before inevitable duel, only for the hero to use this time to somehow turn things around? This entire book is basically a series of those kind of events. Some scenes even include SWAT Team Armies of soldiers with guns who- for some reason- insist on trying to have a conversation with someone and use magical words on them instead of pulling the trigger from 20 yards away. I suppose this type of nitpick wouldn't bother me had something else hooked meat, but nothing really did.

reconsider the power of words

this storyline is more like an action movie than a novel, something a little extra fun to have plugged into your ear. I love audio books that captivate attention and this one certainly does just that. it will make you reconsider the power of language and what it means to be right, wrong, or maybe just human.
The narrators do a fine job, my only complaint was some potentially inauthentic Australian accents that sound a bit off kilter at certain moments.
I think you'll really enjoy this one, action packed, unique story conceot, good narration. check it out!
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a walk into human psyche

I thought it was a fun interesting ride. good pace and narrations. it felt a little anticlimactic but worth a read for the ideas and entertainment.

Imaginative

Lexicon: [singular] “all the words and phrases used and known by a particular person or group of people”
- Oxford Dictionary.

This is the second book I’ve enjoyed from Max Barry.
Lexicon is the manifestation of a child’s imagination inked down by an adult’s hand.
Mr. Barry certainly isn’t hesitant to torment his characters for our amusement.
I was able to predict most of the plot twists throughout the book and I blame my extensive media consumption habits.

Lexicon is a solid 4 star listen.

Poets and Words

This feels like a novel to appeal to marketers who can picture a world with a bit more action. Key words open the subject's mind. It felt very reminiscent of another story I had listened to about words of power and the Tower of Babel. I enjoyed the novel though it had some holes in the ways things worked that would sometimes break the illusion (I don't want to give anything away but the physics of how the lexicon worked seemed to evolve into something different during the story). I do not know Australian accents well enough that I should be the one to judge them but one of the narrators in particular Ms. Corrigan really didn't seem to sound like the native Australians she was portraying. I do appreciate it when there are multiple voices and for the most part the voices were good. My biggest reason for a 3-star overall rating is that things seemed kind of thrown together at the end more than organically coming together.

Poor reader choice unfortunately

This is my favorite book, and I’ve read it countless times. I thought it’s be nice to get the audio book for myself for when I’m cleaning. Unfortunately, I can’t easily get beyond the female narrator. Her voice is nice, but not for this book. She sounds like she’d be nice for children’s books, very soft and nurturing, but maybe not sci-fi, and definitely not for Emily/Virginia. A stronger voice would have been preferable.

ummmmm

I liked some aspects of it but mostly the writing itself was choppy, the sexual fantasy scene that Eliot was in gave me majorly creepy vibes (dangerous territory to pay with consciousness levels as a kink), and the ending was rushed.