Blog this item

Codex

By Lev Grossman

(32)

| Hardcover | 9780151010660

Like Codex?
Join aNobii to see if your friends read it, and discover similar books!

Book Description

About to depart on his first vacation in years, Edward Wozny, a hot-shot young investment banker, is sent to help one of his firm's most important and mysterious clients. When asked to uncrate and organize a personal library of rare books, Edward's indignation turns to intrigue as he realizes that tContinue

Critics

Codex

La trama e le recensioni di Codex, romanzo di Lev Grossman. Edward Wozny, giovane e affermato consulente finanziario di New York, decide di prendersi la prima vacanza in quattro anni di lavoro incessante. Ma alla vigilia della partenza una facoltosa ... (read full critics)

Qlibri published on Wed, 24 Nov 2010

Codex By Lev Grossman

Edward Wozny is an ambitious young investment banker with two weeks to kill until he's transferred from New York City to England to fill a coveted position in the bank's London headquarters. Before he leaves, however, the powerful firm has one last r ... (read full critics)

bookpage published on Fri, 17 Sep 2010

3 Reviews

1 person find this helpful

Back-cover review: "Codex takes its place on the shelf with The Name of the Rose, Posession and A Case of Curiosities, and it's as entertaining as any of them."
Well, at least I've heard of the first two, and I was really looking forward to some proper 'popular fiction' af ... (continue)

Back-cover review: "Codex takes its place on the shelf with The Name of the Rose, Posession and A Case of Curiosities, and it's as entertaining as any of them."
Well, at least I've heard of the first two, and I was really looking forward to some proper 'popular fiction' after a run of not-so-successful reads. I'm a sucker for thrillers and crime, and this one looked satisfyingly silly from the plot summary. So far, so good.
Unfortunately, though, the book didn't make it for me. I thought it had potential: young American banker gets caught up in intrigue over lost medieval book and also becomes involved in a strange parallel-universe computer game. But the story seems to be all over the place: I like pace and cliffhangers and interesting twists, whereas this was neatly done in longish chapters that ploddingly lead the story on, and the few twists that were used had me thinking 'that can't be possible,' and flicking back to see if it really was.
Potential yes, then, gripping no. Read it if you've nothing better, but there is much better than this if you ask me.

Is this helpful?

zbrntt said on Mar 10, 2008 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

The good: Codex does supply its moments of suspense and intrigue, and never lets the plot waver so long that the reader will lose interest. The bad: main character Edward's gulliblity grates after a while. For a hotshot banker, he lets himself be repeatedly bullied, and he accepts so much of what th ... (continue)

The good: Codex does supply its moments of suspense and intrigue, and never lets the plot waver so long that the reader will lose interest. The bad: main character Edward's gulliblity grates after a while. For a hotshot banker, he lets himself be repeatedly bullied, and he accepts so much of what the other characters tell him at face value that you begin to feel like it's the only way Grossman can pull off his narrative. While suspenseful there's never really any sense of danger in Codex. The duchess says she fears for her very life (because of the duke), and yet when Edward is set upon by the duke's hired hands there's nary a weapon or a threat in sight--if anything, they seem utterly incompetent. The ugly: The ending, which is neither clever nor a surprise. Grossman seems to want to make the point that everything doesn't wrap itself up tidily in life, the end result of which in Codex is essentially this: self-absorbed hotshot banker has wild adventure, considers changing life, adventure ends badly, after which...he goes back to being a self-absorbed hotshot banker. For a thriller to live up to its name, you ought to be able to do better than that.

Is this helpful?

Jason said on Jun 21, 2009 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

The lame main character lets another character do all the plot work while he gets addicted to a pointless computer game. Why bother?

Is this helpful?

Max said on May 21, 2007 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback