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Codex
Codex is a fun book, compelling enough to keep me reading even when I was occasionally sick of the characters. The book can be especially fun for a Slashdot reader when it refers to open-source software, but I didn't find Grossman's breadth and depth of nerd knowledge to be particularly satisfying.
The story and style of this book may remind you of The Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown, because it's also about a search for an old thing through a maze of clues. The writing style is similar too, clearly aimed straight at the popular market, but lacking in the chapter-ending cliff-hangers of The Da Vinci Code. If you enjoyed that book, I recommend picking up Codex, though it's not as powerful a page-turner. I enjoyed The Da Vinci Code, even though the snobbish part of me thought it was pretty silly. Snobbery has rarely kept me from enjoying something, though, and I liked Codex as well.
Codex is interesting and fun to read, but has a lot of weak points. I liked the female supporting character in many ways, but hardly liked the main character at all. I very much enjoyed the stories-within-the-story, and the low-tech and high-tech elements weaving back and forth. Read on if you don't mind minor SPOILERS.
Codex takes place in present day New York. Edward, the main character, is a guy with a great job who finds himself compelled to deeply change his lifestyle and behavior for reasons he cannot himself understand. In fact, Grossman doesn't ever quite manage to endow his characters with believable motivations, one of the major faults of this book. The reader knows what Edward's motivations are, since Grossman tells us, but I never found them very convincing. Edward is often inexplicably compelled to do things that he doesn't want to do, and gets drawn into situations that most people could easily walk away from.
Edward is also a very unlikable character. Even the other characters in the story dislike him, and point it out frequently. It's easy to see their point; the reader is left with the feeling that there's not much to like. This makes it a bit hard to get into his character, and though Edward makes some progress throughout the book, it isn't nearly enough.
Open-source software, and in particular an inexplicably compelling game called MOMUS, is featured throughout the plot, but it is not actually central to the story. The central story is about the search for a codex, which can perhaps be found in a family library that Edward has been manipulated into organizing.
The sense of immersion in new things is part the charm of Codex. I may not really believe that a man like Edward would get drawn into a computer game and a library with such complete abandon, but I'm glad that he did. Codex itself can draw the reader in at times, and I took several train rides where I didn't want to reach my destination because I wanted to keep reading.
While Grossman writes about nerds and open-source software, he doesn't write like someone who has ever been a part of it. He doesn't write about software the way Neal Stephenson does. Grossman writes about software as though he had some good ideas, and a friend or editor who knows about computers to keep him from getting it too badly wrong. That said, there are a few very annoying bits for us nerds. A scene where the main character enters the wild and strange world of a LAN party would have been almost bearable if it weren't for the secret handshake. At another point, a hacker tells Edward that he needs to get in touch with a super-hacker, but "He won't accept [your e-mail]. Your crypto isn't good enough." As if cryptography were an 31337 skill that some possess and some do not. Edward already knows how to use software, and he is a reasonably intelligent guy. I'm sure he could learn to encrypt an email.
Despite these weaknesses, Codex is a good read. It's creative, interesting, and occasionally suspenseful. It's the kind of book that you can get through pretty quickly, and though you may not be completely satisfied at the end, you will probably spend some time thinking about some of the Grossman's ideas.
You can purchase Codex from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
You know, DIVX 6 just came out. That kicks this book's @ss!
It's not really a 404. The site is secretly refusing you because your crypto isn't good enough. :) Learn the secret three-way handshake and try again.
Did he just go crazy and fall asleep?
Codex is a fun book, compelling enough to keep me reading even when I was occasionally sick of the characters.
Codex is interesting and fun to read, but has a lot of weak points.
etc.
Summary: I LOVE IT, I HATE IT! ABSOLUTELY!
Sehr geehrter Toilettenbenutzer!
Got this book last weekend at a garage sale for US$.50. Worth every penny, especially considering the ending is a total letdown.
Isn't that the mark of a good writer/journalist, that they can disassociate themselves from an onject/event/movement and discuss it objectively?
"I am a patient boy. I wait I wait I wait. My time is water down the drain..." Fugazi
Does it end with the end of the world caused by a new variant of Netsky?
If we like books other than sci-fi or tech books, does that mean that we're going to have our geek licenses revoked?
Sometimes when I talk to other technologically-oriented people, I feel like I'm the only one that likes regular literature. Am I the only one?
>sobs uncontrollably
The guy might have sent his message ROT13ed or something.
It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.
Sorry... couldn't resist. The phrase "with obvious affection" just makes it abundantly clear that the submitter was intending to write a book review and is blessed with obvious affection for the concept of book reviews.
Sounds like a good, if somewhat bad book though! %)
Akarsz Magyar Gentoo fórumot? Akkor
From TFR:
Honestly, do we really need another badly written techno-1337 thriller? After all, we all saw Hackers, didn't we?
____
~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey
Darn, when I saw the title I thought it was going to be a book about a guy who tries to decompress an unidentified file, leading to adventures galore.
Oh, well. I guess finding an old book would work too.
Do you need both lenses to see it?
Does anyone know that the hell this:
"I used to be a FUNDAMENTALIST, but then I heard about the HIGH RADIATION LEVELS and bought an ENCYCLOPEDIA!!"
means?
I tried to google it but I wasn't gaining any insights. Anyone?
I love my RoR!
Me thinks. SteveM
sounds like a zippyism... zippy is a cult hero comic strip by Bill Griffith (who I am pretty sure is the same Bill Griffith who is an anchor on CNBC) http://www.zippythepinhead.com/
Zippy is an idiot savant who burbles out odd amalgams of pop culture in a halucinogenically insightful manner.
What does it mean, indeed.
Look DEEP into the OPENINGS!! Do you see any ELVES or EDSELS... or a HIGHBALL??...
This came out last March. I read it over a year ago. Why is Slashdot reviewing old fiction? Would it review year-old technical books as if they were new?
Share and Enjoy!
Codex isn't a techno-thriller. Really, when I read it my immediate reaction was that it was part of this strange subgenre that seems to have popped up in "literary" fiction these days, namely suspense thrillers about books. I guess it's only natural, considering that the size of the reading populus seems to be ever-shrinking, that authors would eventually start writing fiction that involves characters who are more like today's readers -- in other words, people who are really into books.
Other books along these lines, off the top of my head, might include The Club Dumas by Arturo Perez-Reverte, The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, or The Rule of Four by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Tomason. I haven't read the last one but either of the first two is probably better than Codex, even though The Club Dumas has a notoriously frustrating ending.
Breakfast served all day!
You may be right, but they sure do look the same and it makes watching the show a lot more fun!
I always imagine James Cramer is Zippy.
If our behavior is strict, we don't need fun!!!
My only thought is that someone gave Lev Grossman a great storyline and let him run with it. Unfortunately, he stumbled right off the starting block.
I don't think the constant Dan Brown comparisons are fair though - it's bad, but not that bad.
Find it on Amazon and go straight to the "customers also bought" section - almost everything in there is better. I read Arthur Phillips' The Egyptologist (vaguely similar genre, from the Prague guy) right after it, and I'd say it's a much better read.
sic transit gloria mundi
When it comes to matters of taste you can't say that someone is wrong. Someone may think that gold and red velvet wall paper is the height of interior design. I think that it is ghastly, something only Elton John could love. But my opinion is no more valid that the person who loves the wall paper.
I thought that the review was far too kind to Codex. I thought that Codex was a terrible book. The characters were wooden and the plot was predictable and empty. Yes there was some open source software, but it really did nothing for the plot. As others have noted, when it comes to mysteries/thrillers involving rare books, Perez-Reverte's Club Dumas is much better (the movie made from Club Dumas, the Ninth Gate directed by Polanski is also excellent).
It is worth nothing that not only is the author of Codex a poor writer, he's a weasel too. He wrote an article in Salon about how he cooked his score on Amazon for his previous novel ( The Terrors of the Amazon ). He appeared to do this for Codex as well. There were a number of rave reviews by people who had never reviewed a book before on Amazon. Sure everyone writes their first review at sometime. But here is an admitted forger with a bunch of suspecious reviews.
My advice is that if you must read Codex, get it from the library. If you really must buy it, purchase the book used. But life is short and there are so many other good books. I recommend that you read something else.
But does it talk about the development of books from scroll/scrolls to codex/codices?
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