Codex

Review by Booklist Review

Grossman, book critic at Time, adds a new twist to the emerging bibliothriller subgenre by combining rare books with computer gaming (something old, something new). The book at the heart of the mystery is a medieval codex by one Gervase of Langford. Edward Wozny, a fast-track investment banker, is about to leave New York for a new job in London when he is asked for help by one of his firm's important clients, who wants him to catalog a collection of rare books. Edward is aghast: a banker asked to do librarian's work! Inevitably, though, he is drawn into the project and the multiple mysteries it holds, but there is another distraction: his computer-geek friend has hooked Edward on a bizarre, interactive computer game that may be more than it seems. There's a lot going on here, both online and in the library, and most of it is thoroughly fascinating. We never quite believe that banker Edward would so quickly become a biblio-detective-cum-computer-gamer, but we're glad he did. Pair this with Zafon's Shadow of the Wind BKL Mr 1 04. --Bill Ott Copyright 2004 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.

---

Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

A young investment banker burrows deep into a labyrinthine world of computer games and literary riddles in this captivating thriller by Time book critic Grossman (Warp). On a two-week vacation before he heads for a new post in London, 25-year-old golden boy Edward Wozny volunteers his services to the Wents, the duchess and duke of Bowmry, two of the firm's biggest clients. Since he assumes they require his financial expertise, he is exasperated-and then intrigued-to discover they wish him to catalogue a collection of ancient books in the attic of their New York apartment. Captivated by the library of rare manuscripts, Edward finds himself oddly content in this mystifying world of words. A special request adds extra urgency to the assignment: he is asked to find a possibly mythical codex by 14th-century monk Gervase of Langford, A Viage to the Contree of the Cimmerians. Most scholars believe that the text-which predicts the coming of the apocalypse and may conceal Went family secrets-never existed, and that view is shared by Margaret Napier, a hard-nosed graduate student whom Edward enlists to aid him in his daunting task. Fixated on locating the codex, Edward becomes equally preoccupied with MOMUS, an intricate, frighteningly vivid computer game. Cyberworld and real world are more connected than Edward realizes, and he gradually discovers that the game is intimately related to his literary sleuthing. A trip to England and a well-orchestrated final twist bring this intelligent, enjoyable novel to a fittingly understated conclusion. Author appearances in Boston, New York and Washington, D.C. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

---

Review by Library Journal Review

During a two-week hiatus between jobs as an investment banker, Edward Wozny finds himself plunging down a rabbit hole when a wealthy British client asks him to sort out a room full of old books. Among them may reside the sole copy of a fabled and vaguely portentous 14th-century romance, A Viage to the Contree of the Cimmerians. Grossman (book critic, Time magazine) echoes Edward's desultory hunt for the manuscript in the picaresque plot of the viage itself-as explicated by ice-queen medievalist and not-quite-love-interest Margaret Napier-and in the strange virtual world of MOMUS, a computer game devouring increasing chunks of our hero's time and mind. As literary thrillers go, this is pretty slim stuff, plotted with a dreamy gamer's logic that lacks the complexity, plausibility, or stakes found in works by Ross King, Iain Pears, Arturo Perez-Reverte, or Umberto Eco. Yet it is hard to resist joining in the quest for such a tasty maguffin. A wealth of diverting book lore and fanciful arcana conveyed in engaging, accessible prose helps to make this an engrossing, if ultimately unsatisfying, read. Recommended for larger public libraries. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 11/1/03.]-David Wright, Seattle P.L. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

---

Review by Kirkus Book Review

Computer games, medieval texts, a corrupt duchess, and library arcana derail a young investment banker from the fast track. Awfully young meritocratic Yale alum Edward Wozny, having just cleared his New York desk in order to take on a dream assignment in London, accidentally, or perhaps not, encounters the Duke and Duchess of Bowmry as they are decamping from their New York residence. In the weird way of the computer game that follows Edward through his forthcoming adventures, the Bowmrys (family name: Went) are clients of Edward's employers and owners of a fabulous flat at the top of an otherwise tatty building, an apartment Edward comes to know when his employers inform him that he is to do a bibliosearch for their lordly clients who, when their library was shipped to the States to escape the Nazis, lost track of A Viage to the Contree of the Cimmerians, a book that might not actually exist, or, if it does exist, might be a fake. Edward, under whose Hugo Boss suit beats the heart of the juvenile chess prodigy who burned out at puberty, takes on the quest, enlisting the help of Margaret Napier, a quietly sexy and terribly serious medieval scholar he meets in the library where he's gone to research the author of the Viage. In his off-hours, when he should be packing for London, Edward ineptly follows the paths of MOMUS, a computer game full of subtle parallels to Edward's life and the plot of the Viage. Sleep-deprived, confused, but utterly absorbed in his quests, Edward is unwilling to be called off when ordered to quit by the Duke's emissaries. He is, after all, getting conflicting orders from the very sexy and considerably younger duchess. As in cyberfantasy, there are side trips and narrow escapes and dwarfish types with helpful tips, and if Time book critic Grossman (Warp, 1997) weren't so smooth and dry, one might think about hitting esc. Sophisticated, scholarly fun and games. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

---

EDWARD WOZNY STOOD squinting at the sun as crowds of people excused themselves past him in both directions. It was hot and bright. He was wearing a very expensive gray handmade suit, and he had to check what seemed like dozens of inside and outside pockets of various sizes and shapes before he found the scrap of paper he was looking for.He turned it over. It was roughly triangular, with one clean right angle and one ragged edge, the corner of a piece of copier paper rescued from the recycling bin at his office. On one side was a fragment of a xeroxed memo beginning "...insofar as all holders of any equity funds..." On the other side was a name and an address written in blue ballpoint pen. He folded it neatly in half and put it back in the tiny inside pocket-within-a-pocket where he found it.Edward checked his watch and set off up Madison Avenue, stepping over a NO STANDING sign that had been wrenched out of the concrete and lay across the sidewalk. In front of the corner bodega a man was spraying down trays of cabbage and lettuce and Swiss chard with a hose, filling the air with a ripe, wet, vegetable smell. A branching delta of glittering rivulets ran down toward the gutter. He stepped fastidiously between them and turned the corner onto Eighty-fourth Street.He felt good-or at least, he was doing his best to feel good. Edward was on vacation, his first time off since he'd started work four years ago, and he'd forgotten what it was like. He was free to go wherever he wanted, whenever he wanted, and could do whatever he wanted when he got there. He thought he would enjoy it, but he felt unsettled, disoriented. He didn't know what to do with himself, with this blank, unscripted, in-between time. Yesterday he'd been a hard-charging, highly paid investment banker in New York, and two weeks from now he'd be a hard-charging, highly paid investment banker in London. For now he was just Edward Wozny, and he wasn't totally sure who that was. Working was all he did, and it was all he could remember doing. What did people do when they weren't working? Play? What were the rules? What did you get if you won?He sighed and squared his shoulders. It was a quiet block, lined on both sides with expensive limestone townhouses. One of the facades was completely overgrown with a single fantastic vine as thick as a tree and twisted like a rope. A crew of overalled workmen was wrestling a white upright piano down a flight of steps into a basement apartment.Watching them struggle with it, Edward almost stumbled over a woman who was crouched down on the pavement."You know, if you're going to use that word with me," she said crisply, "you'd better be sure you mean it."The woman was squatting down on her haunches, her dress stretched taut between her thighs, one hand on the pavement for balance like a sprinter ready to burst out of the starting blocks. Her face was hidden from him by the wide brim of a cream sun hat. A few yards behind her stood a white-haire Excerpted from Codex by Lev Grossman All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

---