Lexicon

This book was so well written and such a great read that I regretted reaching the end of it. I thought that it raised some really good issues in addition to the plot: about language, about love, about privacy, all really important and I was blown away by how well Mr. Barry was able to integrate them into such a good tight action novel.

Started out fun but sort of dragged in the last 100 pages

As Wil and Eliot ran away from so-called poets for their life, Woolf kept inching towards them. Their only chance of surviving seem to be a “word,” one with tremendous power, but somehow Wil could not remember it.

Spells, incantation, persuasion, rifle and blood, Lexicon is a thrilling book jam-packed with interesting concepts and gripping actions. The book blasts off with a good ol chase scene, and then alternates between two timelines effortlessly.

However, it was disappointing to see that not much is known about these poets, their jobs, their purpose, and the world they operate in. It is as if Harry Potter had ended in book 1. The ending was kind of a trope, and while it makes sense for the book to end that way, I could not help but to feel amiss after rooting for Eliot so much.

Overall, I still enjoyed the book, but I would probably like it even more had it been a trilogy, and not a one-sitting read.

rlly good.

Interesting, engaging, worth reading

This book is extremely fast-paced, and it is easy to get sucked into the plot. I enjoyed learning about the world and the significance that the author places on words and dissecting typical human behavior and perception. All the while, the plot takes you along two points of view: Wil, who just got kidnapped from an airport, and sixteen-year old Emily, who lives on the street and makes her money playing card tricks on tourists. The writing leaves a lot to be desired because while the author places an importance on words, he does it with a very staccato-like pacing in his writing with short sentences to convey more significance than is actually portrayed. The other thing that left me wanting were the characters themselves; neither of whom were the least bit interesting or empathetic. I didn't care what happened to either of them and ultimately what kept me reading was the inverse storyline: how did they get to where they are? Which I suppose is what the author intended, I just wish the book had more going for it than the quest to answer one question.

More than anything else, the execution was lackluster. The author crafted the story very much like a B-rate action movie, and I think it could be a good potential for an adaptation. It was so full of plot holes, however, that you would be enjoying the momentum more than you would the actual story as is common of most action movies. The romantic element seemed just that, a plot device to conveniently wrap the story around these characters. There were two romantic storylines, one of which was so completely absurd and thrown in at the last minute as two explain the motivations of one of the more prominent characters. When he revealed he truly did have feelings I was a bit shocked, mostly because there was absolutely nothing that even hinted he could have an emotional tie to his romantic interest.

I'm giving this book a likable rating for the concept and creative narrative the author constructed around lexicons and his more than overt commentary on a right to privacy in an increasingly digitalized and surveilled world.

Overall, I would only recommend this if you're looking for a fast-paced read with a cool idea; not looking to get invested in the characters or legitimate answers. (This book left me a bit salty, can you tell? Because while it was a relatively action-packed story, it didn't actually feel like it went by quickly. Since I didn't really enjoy a lot of the author's directions for where he took the story, I spent more time thinking about the negatives than I did enjoying the read.)

Lexicon has one of the most gripping beginnings I have ever read. It's creepy, it hits the ground running, and the combination of a familiar setting and horribly fucked up situation is incredibly compelling.

Emily is a clever street kid who makes a living from conning people out of their money. She draws the attention of a mysterious organization's recruiters and is flown out to take the entrance exams at a school for learning the magical art of persuasion.

Wil is missing significant chunks of his memory and is the key to a secret war between rival factions of poets—those who have survived to graduate from the strange school of magic and learned to control others.

Their two stories slowly begin to interweave as the novel progresses, often skipping around in time to tell things in a nonlinear order that maximizes suspense. I'm a huge fan of Claire North's works, and Lexicon reminded me strongly of books like The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August and Touch.

If you're interested in linguistics, nonlinear storytelling, or a darker take on magic schools, you're in for a treat with this book. For those of you who enjoy audiobooks, both narrators were fantastic. The audio was also able to pull off some neat tricks that normally wouldn't be possible with a single narrator.

Overall, I loved this book. It was by no means perfect (one particularly unpleasant near-rape scene comes to mind), but I enjoyed it immensely.

Find this review and more at The Fantasy Inn

I was hoping for something well written and thought provoking, however this just reads like an average YAF book but with sex scenes and swearing. I really did not enjoy it.

There is something slightly hilarious about the fact that I just read a book about manipulation because of a Reddit book club. Reddit. The site that is spiralling out of control when it comes to bullshit, agenda-driven, manipulative corporate fuckery. Ha. But hey, I just got tempted by the cool cover and... I need more books that are not part of a 34829374 books long series. Those are my excuses, I guess.
Also, Mr. Barry was genuinely really nice during his AMA thing. Seriously, he sounded extremely pleasant.

So I should actually talk about the book now, eh? In Lexicon we have an organization that is all about manipulation through words. They get to know who you are, then shout words at you, which make you easy to turn into a little slave to do their bidding. The magic word is NOT please. I don't care what your mother told you. One girl, Emily, gets taken to the magic word school and... she is one spectacular repulsive little fuckup. More of that later. The other story like is about Wil, who gets kidnapped from an airport by the word woodoo people, because they assume he is... someone. Storylines connect, hell breaks lose.

Rant begins here. Emily is such a gigantic selfish asshole I couldn't handle her. Now people who are specially picked because they are manipulators don't sound brilliant from the get go, but Emily is the worst. She had a hard life, being a runaway kid, but you know what? NOTHING makes it okay for you to run around murdering and raping, which is what our lovely protagonist does. She doesn't even act bothered by it, because... she gets away with everything. And the worst is... at the end she lives happily ever after with her very lovely, loyal and wonderful true love, without any punishment or consequences I will be honest, the reason why I didn't love this book was her. Maybe I am a dick, but I don't care.

Wil is... Wil. He's fine. He spends most of his time with another another dude, Eliot (word magic dude). They have some pleasant banter, good action scenes. They were a fine pair of individuals being forced to run together from awesome people trying to murder them. Later on he makes decisions that I found incredibly dumb. Again, annoyance, but it's complicated, so read it. Not spoiling it, ha.

The story was pretty original, which I could appreciate. To me it was getting a bit flat towards the end, so the last 20% took be about 2 days. I would even say it felt a bit rushed and I wasn't as affected by it as I expected to be. But I will give it to Mr. Barry, he really managed to suck me in at the beginning. That is how a lot of books go wrong for me; I can't get invested and it becomes a chore. This one? Made me want to read it in no time at all.

The topic was interesting. Some reviews talk about wanting to get into the actual theory of language and manipulation with some studying thrown in there. Personally I don't feel like doing anything like that now, but somehow the book managed to involve enough science for the science-y people and enough “magic” and action for me. Not sure how deliberate it was, but it did it so well. Technically it's probably a bit more sci-fi than fantasy, but from the side that could really work with fantasy people.

I will probably read more things from the author if I find anything catching my attention. Hopefully with less repulsive protagonists, haha.

Good night and think for yourself, kids.

Really well done. I always appreciate a book that sets rules and gives explanations to the fantastic events it imagines and this one did just that. The pacing is well done and although I guessed the ending earlier than I would've liked to, I was still intrigued and dying to find out what happens next.

While it's nothing new to manipulate people with well chosen language, Max Barry takes this concept one step further. By learning primal words, words that affect people at their very core, and using them to control others, The Organization has created and army of what they call “Poets”.

This is a fascinating and exciting story that I'm happy I took the time to read.

I really liked this. I don't want to get too deep into the plot; I was advised to go in blind and I make the same recommendation to you. I'll just say that it's a modern-day thriller premised on the idea that persuasion on the level of magic is a skill that can be taught.

Occasionally heavy-handed, mostly a great read. I generally like it when books explore the mechanics of the systems they create; I got a lot of that here, and it was great, but I would have liked even more of it. The ending hurts the book for a few reasons.

Once in a while I find myself slowing down when I read a book because I just don't want it to end. This is one of those books. I'm not used to high action novels, but this one kind of grabbed me and would not let go. Emily Ruff is quite the character, street smart and clever. Eliot, the teacher responsible for a loose cannon student, and poor, poor Wil (who will remind anyone of one of Gaiman's poor schmos in the wrong place at the wrong time). What fascinated me was the idea that words could be so powerful. This is not a new idea to a reader, but it is much, much bigger. Here, words work more like extreme hypnosis or dare I say it? Magic.

A warning: I wish I had not read the jacket description when starting this book. I felt is was inaccurate (especially concerning Emily's early years), gave too much away, and just sucked. If you can avoid it, it's best to go into the story raw.

So, why not a five star review? There is a bit of disjointing in the flashbacks I found a bit frustrating. I felt out of order and lost in time in some of the sections and as Emily goes through several personality transformations, I just felt ripped out of the story and thrown to the side.

Also, I wanted more about Eliot. It is my great hope that there is either a prequel featuring Eliot and Bronte or a sequel featuring what is next for the organization. As it is world wide, I don't see what the problem would be continuing the tale.

It's a world where “poets” can hack the primitive linguistic centres of the brain to directly access our human OS. Once an individual's numerical segment is identified, base words can bypass our natural defences and render us compliant to command.

And segmenting has become easier in this connected world of online quizzes, Facebook likes and browsing patterns. We are ripe for coercion. The more data we willingly hand over, the easier we are to categorize and mould.

The Organization trains individuals in this hidden language to persuade. They just need to find able prospects. Enter street hustler Emily Ruff, who is identified and offered the opportunity to hone her skills. Running parallel to her story is that of Will Park, who we meet in an airport bathroom with a needle jammed in his eye. The two are somehow connected to the complete and utter devastation of the town of Broken Hill.

Incredible conceit. My only complaint is that it couldn't maintain it's pace throughout. It's a jangled open and a weak close that bookends a meaty thriller in-between. A wild ride nonetheless. I always knew Eliot was a badass.

PS. I'm a cat person.

A solid sci-fi romp. I read this upon Cory Doctorow's BoingBoing recommendation, and, overall, I'm glad I picked it up. I breezed through, and generally felt that it sucked my attention and entertained me in the same way Harry Potter or The Time Traveller's Wife have. That is, this isn't necessarily a deep book, but it is a fun one.

Some bones to pick, though:

First, this book exhibits a VERY Neil Gaimany vibe. Which might be good, if you like Neil Gaiman. I don't. (At least, I didn't like American Gods.) Nothing to do with the story, it was just the... smugness? The hipness? I don't know. There's something about Gaiman - and this authorial voice has some of that too - which smacks of overconfidence. Like, yes, your ideas are good, but they're not THAT amazing.

Second: in fact, although the General Semantics-inspired “language can be so powerful that it's like magic!” idea is pretty interesting (but not mind-blowingly interesting; see above point), the section when our interesting anti-hero Emily visits the Academy felt SO. TEDIOUSLY. CLICHE. It was basically an American Harry Potter. Or Lev Grossman's The Magicians (aka a “sex and drugs and magic” high school). I liked the Boyfriend Drama plot (hey, I'll always go for that), but I didn't see anything new here. Here's an idea: why not do the magic high school in a John Hughes Pretty in Pink way? You know, James Spader as a Draco Malfoy-type bully. Or what about Ferris Bueller? Come on, people, I'm throwing out ideas here.

Third, and this is my biggest beef, is how incredibly culturally narrow this book is. The entire premise of the book rests on the assumption that English is the medium of communication. Which, yes, is true for most of the world, because English is our current lingua franca. But, OK - SPOILER HERE - the big revelation that the secret language-wizardry organization makes: “OMG, our magic is less effective when people are multilingual!” was VERY eye-rolly for me, as that basically excludes... hm... I estimate billions of people here: 1 billion for India, where the official languages are English and Hindi, even in states like Andhra Pradesh, where the local language is completely different and etymologically unrelated (Telugu). Several millions for basically all of Europe, especially places like Benelux. Or anywhere anyone speaks a dialect. Like Italy. (Yeah - WHAT ABOUT DIALECTS?) And then there's all of Africa, where people will speak their local language... plus English... plus another local language...

It was just so silly that multilinguism should have been portrayed as a revelation and magical antidote to the entire premise of their wizardry. I mean, this story takes place firmly in white America and white Australia: these two communities are pretty well-known as being stubbornly monolinguistic (all those jokes about “ugly Americans” getting angry when the local doesn't speak English well...). Move the story OUT of these two places, and into the wider world (heck, even just New Zealand - where they've got everything written in both English and Maori, for crying out loud!), and suddenly the whole plot seems to just deflate. At least, for me, because it made the “poets'” organization seem hopelessly naive. It's also surprising. Given that the “magical” words were all non-English gibberish, and based on the idea that different personalities responded - in a deep, brainy, chemical way - to different sounds in special ways, shouldn't they have been effective against everyone, regardless of language spoken? I guess not, given the whole discussion of words triggering special meanings in brains, etc.

ANYWAY. Just my $0.02.

Linguistics, secret organizations, mayhem... it's like this book was written specifically with me in mind!

My guess is that no one reading a book review needs to be convinced of the power of words, you probably know the power of words in your own life, not to mention the pen is mightier yada yada. Beyond the power of the written word, comes the power of the spoken word – a good speaker can bring along a group or an individual to a conclusion they'd never agree to were they reading the material – there's plenty of anecdotal as well as experimental evidence to support the power of the spoken word.

Max Barry takes things a step further, what if the power of the spoken word was actual Power – like magic. With enough of a veneer of science/pseudo-science to make Walter Bishop happy and make the whole thing seem grounded. It's one of the best “magic” systems I've come across lately (and there's been a lot of them)

After a brief – and pretty unconventional – enhanced interrogation scene that made me wonder what I was getting myself into, I came across one of those sentences (or four, in this case) that are enough to convince me that I'm in for the rest of the book. In this case, it was on page 8:

He [our protagonist, drugged and in the midst of being kidnapped] shook his head to clear it, but the world grew dark and angry and would not stay upright. The world did not like to be shaken. He understood that now. He wouldn't shake it again.

je ne sais quoi

Raiders of the Lost Ark