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    Codex: A Novel
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    Codex: A Novel
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    Codex: A Novel
    Audiobook11 hours

    Codex: A Novel

    Written by Lev Grossman

    Narrated by Jeff Harding

    3/5

    ()

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    Currently unavailable

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    About this audiobook

    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.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateFeb 7, 2012
    ISBN9780449011065

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    Reviews for Codex

    3/5

    491 ratings40 reviews

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    • 3/5
      Meandering and meaningless, there are some really beautiful bits of book here. I think if you keep your expectations low (as I did going into it), you might find this enjoyable.

      The characters are paper thin, and the main character especially, swings wildly from incompetence to thinking himself near genius (though we have only some flimsy back story as evidence for this opinion).

      The central plot revolves around an improbable quest dolled out to the hero for mysterious (and no doubt nefarious) purposes, to procure a mid-evil era manuscript. This actually does resolve itself fairly interestingly, and about the last third or fourth of the novel becomes pretty easy to get sucked into. (That's about the point at which I read to completion in one late-night sitting.)

      But the thing I found most interesting was a strange and beautifully depicted video game, seemingly transplanted into the novel, and which the main character gets rather hopelessly (and a characteristically) addicted to for the duration of the novel's timeframe (a few weeks). It's not really realistically depicted, though probably enough so for non- (or casual) gamers, but the plot of the game, when it's finally revealed, is pretty interesting. I would probably have rather read an entire novelization of its contents than the rest of the book, to be honest.
    • 2/5
      Supposedly a thriller. Not very.
    • 3/5
      In that this is a tale of a modern quest for a medieval book that purports to be about the Quest for the Holy Grail, Codex is undoubtedly an Arthurian novel. We are treated to circumstantial details about A Viage to the Contree of the Cimmerians by Gervase of Landford (the codex of the book's title) and much about encoded messages, bookbinding and medieval manuscripts. This reveals the author's intention to impress us with the depth of his research, as details of a virtual reality game later impress us with the breadth of his online experience.Sadly, in common with many such thrillers (the paperback cover of this edition is a homage to the original The Da Vinci Code jacket) there is little about the characters to empathise with or care about. The final nail in the coffin, for me, is the totally surreal view of modern England that is conjured up in the closing pages as the North American hero, the archetypical innocent abraod, chases after his chimaera.Still, as a thriller it does its job, pulling the reader along at breakneck speed with reflective edisodes interspersed, and is intriguing enough to keep you mostly enthralled almost through to the end. There is affection enough in the asides about medieval literature and the physicality of ancient tomes; a pity then that there is an unreality about the concluding events.
    • 4/5
      not quite as good as his Magicians' trilogy, but still a fun read.
    • 5/5
      Encryption for Bibliophiles:"Codex" caught my attention when seeking additional reads like, "Erebos." I cannot speak highly enough of, "Codex." This creation was the perfect blend of historical mystery and techno-fantasy with a labyrinthine plot.Upon arriving here today to write this review, I was positively puzzled to read some of the reviews warning readers to bypass, "Codex" in favor of books with a tidier, more opportune, resolution. My rebuttal to these reviews is simply that this is a book for true bibliophiles, and more specifically, those who are seeking an intelligent thriller with elements of history and fantasy as well as mystery.In literature, as in life, endings are not always dandy. Our paths are as winding and convoluted as the maze that held the Minotaur, so to speak. These paths are irrevocably altered by our choices, and those choices are shrouded in everything from belief and preference to human nature, desires, and bad judgement. If a reader goes into, "Codex" with the mindset that these characters can be as human as we are, then the read will be as thrilling for them as it was for me.Having read authors such as Dan Brown, Arturo Pérez-Reverte, Steve Berry, and Matthew Pearl, I can say that, "Codex" is among my top five and very highly recommended by this reviewer.
    • 3/5
      I can't believe I wasted time on book that started off fairly interesting, but was ruined by the ending. I'll admit... This isn't great literature. Characters were flat, the reason for the main character, Edward to do blow off his high pressure job in private banking made no sense, or his attraction to Margaret, an expert on rare antique books. Nor the reasoning of the duke and duchess for wanting to possess the book wasn't very clear, but over all, it was a fairly enjoyable book, the mystery of the codex was interesting. The side story of the computer game was rather pointless... The author spent some effort on making sure that Edward experiencing the game was both connected to the codex, but at the same time Edward finding the Easter egg was just random. The history of books in in the middle of the dark ages is interesting and felt well researched (not my expertise). And, the story of Gervase is interesting. Honestly, the mystery of the codex had more character than any other character. And from a writing standard, it's a solid book. Nothing spectacular, but keeps you reading. And than you get to the end. And the story stops, without any resolution. I'm think it might be an allegory about something... But I really don't know. Nor do I care. I want the time spent wasted on this book back.
    • 5/5
      Brilliantly bizarrely, or bizarrely brilliant? Either way, an addictive page-turning mystery.
    • 2/5
      This book is not badly written but it never quite comes together. The end is a terrible let down. It made me ask myself why I struggled to finish the book when at the end I found out nothing about what it all meant, why the characters acted the way they did, etc. I was going to read the author's Magician trilogy but now I won't. That one may be better but this one left a bad taste in my mouth. The reason I am giving this book 2 stars not one is that I enjoyed the discussion of medieval books, private library cataloging, and other areas I'm not familiar with.
    • 2/5
      The premise is this: Edward Wozny, a young (very young) investment banker has two weeks' down-time before he is to leave New York to report to his new position in his firm's London office. First, though, he has been asked to "look in" on clients, the Duke and Duchess of Went, whose wealth is beyond comprehension, and who need to be kept happy. When he arrives at their Manhattan apartment he is greeted by an elegant woman (housekeeper? secretary?) in their stead, who offers him a very odd proposal that he should immediately set to cataloging several crates full of ancient books comprising a library sent to America before World War II for safekeeping, and untouched for over 60 years. Furthermore, he should keep his eyes open for one particular book by a 14th century monk named Gervase of Langford. Edward has no qualifications or interest for such a project, and he doesn't strike the reader as a wimp, but somehow he can't get the word "No" past his lips. Neither can he summon up the gumption to call the firm and ask his boss if there's been some kind of communication failure. He just lets himself be relegated to a huge room full of shelves, dust and crated books, and begins unpacking. Now, you and I might consider this a heaven-sent opportunity. But absolutely nothing we have learned (or ever do learn) about Edward suggests that he would have that reaction. He has an undergrad degree in English from Yale, and admits to having concentrated, if at all, on 20th century literature. So why him? He doesn't ask. He sets off to research Gervase, happens on a female graduate student using the very material he needs, and persuades her to assist him with the books. Although she is snarkily unpleasant and superior, she agrees, apparently swayed by the hourly fee he offers her (without any authority whatsoever). And the game is on. Oh...the "game". Did I mention the computer simulation game our hero plays (and becomes totally lost in) during his off moments? Well, it's interwoven with the real-life story line, and obviously we're meant to make associations, but neither Edward nor I seemed to get it until we were told what to get, and even then my response was "So what?" I came very close to skimming through those sections, and it probably wouldn't have mattered if I did. Edward and Margaret, the graduate student, become totally obsessed with finding the medieval codex, although initially Margaret had dismissed it as a well-known academic hoax--a book that never existed. There's some cloak-but-no-dagger stuff; the Duke insists the search be stopped; the Duchess insists it go on. No real suspense is ever generated. Some of Edward's colleagues, whose connection to the whole business is never explained, warn him he's messing with something that could turn ugly. Apparently, there's a centuries-old family secret in that book that could destroy the Duke. Really? This story could have been a rip-snorter. Unfortunately, it reads like an unedited first novel, and it just doesn't work. The ending is a total fizzle. I had a lot of issues with the The DaVinci Code, but at least that one was written by a master story-teller. It's cruel, I suppose, but based on this effort, I don't think Lev Grossman can hold a candle to Dan Brown when it comes to getting the pages to turn.
    • 3/5
      No supernatural or magical explanations needed, all rationalised within real world.
    • 1/5
      They say everyone has a book in them. This one should have remained inside the author. It is truly dreadful. Everything about it made me want to find someone to slap. Trees were wasted for this book. I grieve for these trees.
    • 1/5

      Investment whizkid Edward is offered a prestigious transfer from NYC to London, and decides to take a couple of weeks off in between the two positions. He's asked by his employers to do one thing during this fortnight -- a quick favour for a rich client, a pair of English aristocrats. This proves to be a request to catalogue the family's ancestral collection of rare books -- a major task rather than the quick service advertised. Before he can refuse, though, he inexplicably decides to go through with it. He is particularly requested to keep an eye out for a 14th-century codex by one Gervase of Langford, a book believed to be a ghost title invented by a much later manuscript forger. Of course, Edward gets it into his head that -- as the family has always maintained -- the codex really exists, and his obsessive quest for it, alongside the near-autistic post-doc medievalist Margaret, forms the basis of this tale.

      Woven through the central plot is a secondary one about Edward's increasing addiction to a virtual-reality game called MOMUS (after the Greek god thrown out of Olympus for his habit of pointing out all the ways creation could be improved). All kinds of parallels between and intersections of his adventures within the game and those outside it appear with a tacit sounding of portentous chords, although in the end all these come to nothing: they're just unnecessary plot complications.

      But these aren't as irritating as all the plotting lapses, mostly involving Edward's motivations. As noted above, it's inexplicable why he should take on a task that's completely alien to his interests, experience and expertise: he just does, because it suits the author's purposes that he should. Likewise, throughout the book it's occasionally trotted out as a motivation for this or that action that Edward is infatuated by the Duchess, co-owner with her despised husband, the Duke, of the book collection; yet Edward has met the Duchess only briefly, she's of an older generation, there was no spark of attraction between them during that meeting, and the relationship between Duchess and Duke was portrayed at the time as testily affectionate. In the end we are supposed to believe that hotshot Wall Street high-flyer Edward is prepared to throw away his entire career, not to mention his belatedly burgeoning love for Margaret, in hopes of a life with an older woman he's barely met and for whom he seems to have any warm emotion only when the author finds it convenient. I kept expecting some final revelation of the reasons why these two enormous plot implausibilities (there are others) should somehow make sense, but it never came.

      The first chapter or so of Codex is written in the Dan Brown textual mode: a sort of determined mediocrity. Thereafter, though, things improve a lot, and much of the book is definitely compelling, especially the passages dealing with true and invented literary history, the contents of the supposed codex, the nature of the medieval mind, etc. (For a while I thought this book might be the antithesis of the student-writer cliche "show, don't tell" because I was enjoying all the genuine or imitation infodumping so much.) In other words, after its rocky beginning, Codex is a good fast read, but at it's end I felt I'd somehow been cheated.

      I'm planning, because of multiple recommendations, to read Grossman's The Magicians soon, and hope I enjoy it better.
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed this book. The computer game plot woven through was much less gee-wiz seven years after the publication of this novel. A bibliophilic page turner.
    • 2/5
      This was the oddest book. I felt as if I had just fallen down the rabbit hole or eaten some funny brownies. I finished it because I don't like to quit but I kept waiting for it to make sense. Once it did I didn't find it to be any more enjoyable. Overall I would recommend skipping this book unless strange and not plausible is what you are looking for in a book.
    • 3/5
      I picked this up at Sam's Club for super-cheap, so I wasn't expecting much out of it, and for starters, I was pleasantly surprised. While not utterly brilliant, Grossman's writing is interesting and his characters not all too bad. I was interested all the way up to the last page, at which point I started to wonder where the rest of the book went. Answer: that was really the end. It's like Grossman got tired of trying to tell his story and just gave up a couple chapters before the logical conclusion. Instead of trying to finish off those chapters, he went back through the book and inserted a theme of "not all stories have perfect endings." If that was supposed to satisfy me, he missed the mark. I find books where the characters say "happy endings only happen in books, not real life like THIS is!" to be annoying and pretentious. Guess what book? You're not fooling me! If the first part of the book hadn't been so UNLIKE real life, I would buy more into an unsatisfactory conclusion.
    • 2/5
      I was all set to give this book a higher rating, really. The writing is not uncompelling -- I wouldn't say it's slick and fascinating prose, but it's not a turn-off, either. It's okay for lazy reading, and the descriptions are pretty good. Some parts are quite fascinating, particularly the descriptions of MOMUS.

      Characterisation is shaky, though. I don't particularly care about any of the characters, or feel convinced by their relationships to each other. Edward, the main character, was blandly unobjectionable, really, and Margaret was no better. The Duchess could've been interesting, but there wasn't much of her. I didn't believe in any of Edward's motivations, either: it didn't make any sense.

      And then the ending... nothing has changed since the first page of the book, really. Edward hasn't grown as a character at all. The status quo hasn't shifted so much as an inch. All the potentially interesting characters and plot exits stage left. It's an utter anticlimax. It's infuriating.
    • 3/5
      Two comments about this author. Say what you like about Rowling's Harry Potter books, no one can take from her the gift she has for naming characters. Grossman, unfortunately, lacks a similar talent. The best a name does is not detract from the character; often it seems shallow and pedantic. More seriously, he seems unable to sustain consistent character developments For example, we're supposed to believe that the same person who, with drive and brilliant performance has succeeded in the high stress world of banking in a matter of days becomes a layabout, sleeping well into the afternoon, and becoming addicted to computer games, something he showed no inclination or interest in to that point. We're also supposed to believe that someone who is obsessed with her academic success and interest in the physical book will, with no explanation, chuck it all, and hand over a priceless, one-of-a-kind manuscript to someone certain to destroy it in order to protect his ego. Still, despite these flaws, and a weak ending, the parts about the sought after text are interesting.
    • 4/5
      Edward Wozny, young investment banker, is sent to help one of his firm's most important clients. His task is to search their library for a medieval codex, a book kept sealed away many reasons. Edward meets Margaret Napier,an academic, who he enlists to help him to solve the mystery of the codex-to understand its significance to his clients, and to decipher the seeming parallels between the legend of the codex and an obsessive role-playing computer game, MOMBUS, that has absorbed Edward's time and mind. I found the plot intriguing and the history of the book collection fascinating. Still unsure of the ending--in someways it was a surprise, and at the same time somewhat disappointing. Still I would give it a 4 out of 5 stars.
    • 4/5
      A five-star book except that either the main character did some far-too-dumb things to make the plot work out, or the author is far too clever for me and I missed why the main character would have done . Plus a star if you're a (physical) book person, which more than likely you are.
    • 2/5
      Disappointing. It seems as if the author couldnt decide on either a cycber punk book, or a historical-bent investigation book, decided on combining the two, and failed at both.
    • 1/5
      How disappointing! I can only conclude that the many, many book critics who gave this glowing reviews either (1) didn't read the book, or (2) felt like they had to say nice things since the author is fellow book critic. (Grossman is Time Magazine's book critic, and has written for the New York Times & Salon ... according to the book bio). I count on book reviews & blurbs to help point me to things worth reading, but in future I will have to remember to take their advice with a grain of salt when they are blurbing each other! Here's what's good about the book: Interesting, apparently authentic scholarship & insight into medieval literature. If that's one of the things you like about Dan Brown or Umberto Eco, you'll find parts of this worthwhile. Here's what's disappointing about the book: thoroughly unengaging & unbelievable characters, poor pacing, sloppy plotting, several entirely unnecessary & silly subplots, almost no conflict to speak of, and an ending that's about as dramatic & suspenseful as an episode of Murder, She Wrote. Basically, the book is about a young professional, Edward, who is asked by the Dutchess of Mowbry (for reasons never satisfactorily explained) to catalog an old library & find for her a book that may or may not exist. The conflict is that the Duke does not want the book found - again, for reasons that are never satisfactorily explained. Because Edward is basically clueless & unmotivated (and yet we are supposed to believe this guy is a hotshot young banker?), he enlists the help of a female academic, Margaret, who treats Edward with deserved scorn, does pretty much all of the work (leading us to wonder why the author bothered with Edward at all) - and then sleeps with Edward anyway, for reasons which are never satisfactorily explained. Do you see a theme emerging? In the end they find the book but the "reveal" is rushed, underwhelming and ... yes ... never satisfactorily explained. There's also a subplot about a computer game which (unintentionally, I presume) reinforces the book's overarching theme, which appears to be: "The answers you seek are there to find - but by the time you find them, they won't matter and you won't care." I've read The Name of the Rose, A Case of Curiosities, The Club Dumas and most of the other books to which the critics refer when heaping praise upon Codex. It disappoints me to report that - in my humble opinion - Codex does not deserve to share a bookshelf with these infinitely superior tales. I suspect any one of these authors could have shaped this admittedly intriguing and promising raw material into a story much, much better than this.
    • 2/5
      This is about a guy cataloging a hidden collection of rare books. It is the only novel I've ever read that uses the abbreviations AACR2 and ISBD. Plus, it's got a touch of fantasy. By all objective measures, this book is right up my alley. And yet I did not love it.
    • 2/5
      This is a new author for me. I wanted to read his 2nd book, The Magician, but decided to try his 1st book. I was really disappointed with the book. It took more than half the book to get my interest and then the ending was really blah. I'm not sure if I will try the 2nd book.
    • 5/5
      I enjoyed the prose in this book quite a lot. Grossman's protagonist is a focused young professional that starts to lose his drive during a furlough between jobs, and the story of how he becomes engrossed in the legend of an author that might not exist is well told opposite a story that unfolds in a video game written by a man who also might not exist. The themes of discovery and internal reflection resonated with me, and "the journey being its own reward" was also an ongoing theme in this book that worked well. If anything, the ending of this book left me unsatisfied and wanting no ending at all. Having the story wrap up so conveniently seemed counter to the rest of the book.
    • 3/5
      what was this book about? I gave it 3 stars due to the fact that I could read through it and it kept my interest fairly well. But it was a little forgettable.
    • 3/5
      While not as good as The Magicians, this book was at least entertaining. I expected to like it more, after all it's a book about books, but that wasn't the case. It was a mediocre read about a mysterious book, an ancient library and, well, romance. Kind of. Not recommended.
    • 3/5
      Lev Grossman has written a novel, CODEX, which is at once a mystery about books, coincidences, deception and very old secrets. The protagonist is Edward Wozny, a young investment banker who has just begun a two week hiatus before moving from New York to London. During this hiatus he is drawn to the home and library of one of his clients and becomes involved, along with an eccentric young scholar, Margaret Napier, whom he enlists to help him catalog the books. Most important is one particular ...more Lev Grossman has written a novel, CODEX, which is at once a mystery about books, coincidences, deception and very old secrets. The protagonist is Edward Wozny, a young investment banker who has just begun a two week hiatus before moving from New York to London. During this hiatus he is drawn to the home and library of one of his clients and becomes involved, along with an eccentric young scholar, Margaret Napier, whom he enlists to help him catalog the books. Most important is one particular book, the Codex of the title, which becomes the object of their quest. It seems the library, belonging to the Duke and Duchess of Bowmry, may contain a book invaluable to the aristocratic family. And as much as the Duke wants it to remain hidden, the Duchess wants it found. Soon, Edward also wants to find the book, as he is pulled deeper into the search.As the search develops Edward becomes obsessed with a computer game, MOMUS, and apparently the game and the search for the Codex are connected. The tale spins out questions as to the existence of the book and the reason for the interest of the owners in it. While the mystery grows the book, thankfully, develops neither in any particular dangerous nor violent directions. There is simply an air of mystery and a few, perhaps a few too many, coincidences as the story develops. The author inserts dream sequences into Wozny's story which I found a bit cumbersome, but, ultimately the story was entertaining with an interesting blend of the modern and medieval that works surprisingly well. There are sufficient details about medieval books to keep bibliophiles happy while the writing style is pleasant and never too heavy. I found Codex a thought-provoking tale for relaxation and enjoyment.
    • 3/5
      Pretty decent most of the way through, although the writing style, in the tradition of Dan Brown, leaves much to be desired. For example, he clearly missed the 'kill all adjectives' class in English, and I swear I may vomit if I see the word 'the' one more time. As for characters, he gets points for originality, but most of them are merely sketches. Unusual sketches, but still; flat. The ENDING, on the other hand, was absolute bullshit. YES, I got the 'allegorical' and the 'metaphorical' connections to MOMUS and the codex, but please. Way to make the reader feel like the novel was a complete waste of their time, Grossman. Plus, I predicted the main twist 1/3 of the way through. I kept place, too, so I could go back and point out my brilliance (or, you know, Grossman's stupidity). In summation: decent, if you've got nothing else to read.
    • 2/5
      Banker, Edward, hired by wealthy (noble) client to search their private library for an ancient manuscript that may or may not even exist. There's something hidden within the manuscript that could be damaging. Parallel plot is that he's given a video game by his college friend which seems to parallel the history of the manuscript. Edward stumbles upon a scholarly girl, Margaret, who helps him.This was such a promising book---one of those 'hidden secrets in old books' sort of stories that I usually love! It started off well enough: 'unsuspecting protagonist that stumbles into a puzzle to be solved that comsumes his every thought'; except it didn't, really. He played the reluctant hero throughout, which only works if the reluctant hero only pushes on because something is at stake (either moral or financial would have been ok; but there was nothing---he had a good career already, he wasn't the least bit knowledgable or even interested in his quarry; he wasn't even in love with the girl.) It simply wasn't believable that this particular character would be drawn into this. Even towards the end, on one page he was ready to chuck his career, and on the next, he was saying he'd never let anything get in the way of it. He didn't know who he was. This would have been ok, had it been a growth process, but he was the same person in chapter one that he was on the last page. The plot concept was very promising! The whole ancient and modern parallel stories; one the historical account of a lost manuscript, the other the progression of a mysterious video game that 'fell' into Edward's hands. This part was frustrating to me. I thought that part of the plot would devolop differently, but it didn't. This would have been an awesome place for conflict that just never took place. The first half of the book did a good job of laying the foundations, but the second half just hurried through everything and ended without a notable climax in the story at all. We read every detail of how Margaret (Edward's Medieval expert) unobtrusively picked the lock on an ancient book, but skimmed through her cracking the code within a code (the main object of their search) on the first try. I guess that was the climax, because after that, everything just fell into place. Even the bad guys (if you can call them that--I'm not really sure), talked tough at one point; and I thought, oh, now we've got some conflict--I knew this would get better; only to be frightened off when Edward's college buddy happened to show up and say something to the effect of, 'leave him alone' (I knew he was in this story for some reason). That, apparently, was enough, even though a noble family's fortune, birthright, and reputation for all of history was at stake. You'd think they could have afforded better thugs. We saw no more bad guys for the rest of the novel. At this point, I was really hoping for the college buddy, or Margaret, or somebody, to be hiding something--throw me a curve, cause the story is flat. Even the explaination of the video game was dull, and I had high hopes for that. And as far as what was at stake--I don't get that, either. We weren't given sufficient background info on the Duke and Dutchess to warrent their quarrel. I'm not saying it couldn't have been, but the reader wasn't given enough to indicate a reason why one would turn on the other. AND, on top of all of that, the 'secret' they found within the manuscript--I'm not sure that it would have been solid enough to ruin a man. Alot could be read into what was found, but I don't think it would have held up without further documentation--just my opinion.There was no satisfying resolution to this story. Good didn't win, evil didn't win. Nobody won. It seemed to me the author may have been leaving options open for a sequil. There still needs to be some resolution. He could have left one little thread hanging that would have served as an invitation to write more later (Luke, I'm your father....sorry, I digress). It felt to me that the author got tired of writing, and wanted to 'wrap it up' and be done with it. This could have been great, but the plotline was under developed and the characters were flat. I give it two stars only because it was a good idea.
    • 4/5
      Well-written, and, at least first part, well constructed; ending less than satisfying or convincing.