The Riddle of the Labyrinth

The Quest to Crack an Ancient Code

By: Margalit Fox

Narrated by: Pam Ward

Length: 7 hrs and 44 mins

Publisher's summary

In the tradition of Simon Winchester and Dava Sobel, The Riddle of the Labyrinth: The Quest to Crack an Ancient Code tells one of the most intriguing stories in the history of language, masterfully blending history, linguistics, and cryptology with an elegantly wrought narrative. When famed archaeologist Arthur Evans unearthed the ruins of a sophisticated Bronze Age civilization that flowered on Crete 1,000 years before Greece's Classical Age, he discovered a cache of ancient tablets, Europe's earliest written records. For half a century, the meaning of the inscriptions, and even the language in which they were written, would remain a mystery.

Award-winning New York Times journalist Margalit Fox's riveting real-life intellectual detective story travels from the Bronze Age Aegean-the era of Odysseus, Agamemnon, and Helen-to the turn of the 20th century and the work of charismatic English archeologist Arthur Evans, to the colorful personal stories of the decipherers. These include Michael Ventris, the brilliant amateur who deciphered the script but met with a sudden, mysterious death that may have been a direct consequence of the decipherment; and Alice Kober, the unsung heroine of the story whose painstaking work allowed Ventris to crack the code.

Download the accompanying reference guide.

©2013 Margalit Fox (P)2013 Tantor

Critic reviews

"Fox is a talented storyteller, and she creates an atmosphere of almost nail-biting suspense. . . . This one deserves shelf space along such classics of the genre as Simon Singh's The Code Book." (Booklist Starred Review)

Knossos mystery

Linear B uncovered. It’s a good lesson on how being obsessed with a goal to get it done.
Good story with plenty of background info on Knossos.

Fascinating

Enjoyable telling of the history of the discovery and deciphering of the Linear B tablets of Crete. The explanations of linguistics and the techniques used by decipherers were clear and very exciting. Highly enjoyable for anyone interested in the unraveling of ancient mysteries or code breaking.

Highly recommended

Ms. Fox did a wonderful job in bringing the Linear A and B tablets alive! I commend her for also bringing to life the efforts of Alice Kober, an American genius, in deciphering the macenian tablets

Unforgettable Journey

Here is the story of the ancient past as it slowly and so painstakingly returned to our view. I've long been passionate and Linear B and A. I had the privilege of viewing a few of the tablets on display in Greece. This story made them all the more real to me.

Significant content in an interesting story

What did you love best about The Riddle of the Labyrinth?

The riddle of this language was suspenseful

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

I was pleased to see the strength of the conclusion

What about Pam Ward’s performance did you like?

it was fine

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

perhaps, many parts moved slow but the book was not overly long

Any additional comments?

Anyone interested in languages would be fascinated to learn the lingual history of Greek and Minoan peoples revealed here.

Fascinating Detective Story of Ancient Languages

Fox weaves a compelling story about some ancient tablets inscribed with a long forgotten language called Linear B and three people who helped decipher and reveal it to the world. The book is very instructive of the methodology involved in language deciphering and the discipline it takes to succeed where others have failed.

Highly recommended! Enjoyed it as much as "The Woman who Smashed Codes"!

interesting subject. well written.

a well balanced tale of historical facts and human storyline.
very interesting subject matter.
almost like a good Sherlock Holmes case

Deciphering needs a process

The author tells the story in three acts: the discovery of the tablets, the unsung heroine, Alice Kober, striving to crack the code, and the actual code cracker Michael Ventris.

There's so much of human nature tied up in this story. You have the discover of the tablets, Arthur Evans, not wanting to share the tables as a whole and wants to keep them as esoterica for his own attempts at solving them. The story of the obsession and logical approach that Alice employs is inspiring and is tinged always with the fact that we the listener knows she will be dying soon.

This story completely held my interest and my mind did not wander while listening, because I was riveted by the details and the process. As the author kept explaining the task at hand I saw the main story as a metaphor for how we learn in life. There's two kinds of approaches to learning (cracking the code of nature), one is deductive (reason) and the other inductive (empirical). To crack the code it first took faith in a deductive approach and certain assumptions needed to be made. But reason alone was not going to crack the code. That's why so many crackpots kept showing up in this story. Coherent stories explaining nature can be told, but coherence alone is not a sufficient condition to explain nature, but coherence is a necessary condition to explain. The crack-pots and amateurs used coherence but not a consistent solution corresponding to reality. The code cracking needed knowledge beyond the tablets themselves for the ultimate decipherment.

The topic is exciting, well explained and the main character and the process they used were inspiring.

Gives Alice Kober her due

The whole story is fascinating, but my favorite part of the story is Alice Kobers passionate and tireless work towards deciphering linear B. She is an unsung heroine of academia!

Good points and bad

This is not so much a story about how the mystery of Linear B was solved as it is about how a woman could have solved it, probably years earlier, if the world hadn't been so prejudiced against her. And, as an older woman who remembers those times, I am sure that is true. But I lived that story and really didn't need it rubbed in my face again. I'm glad someone finally gives her the credit she is due, but I would have liked more about what she actually figured out and how as opposed to the litany of how she got @#$@# over.