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Lexicon

Max Barry

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Jan 07, 2014 Erin rated it liked it

I thought I would love this book - I've read and enjoyed Barry in the past and based on the description it sounded like a thriller for word nerds - perfect! And it wasn't a bad book at all and there was some snappy conversation (I enjoyed the exchange where Eliot tries to explain the bareword to Wil), it just never really grabbed me - I couldn't connect with Emily, Eliot or Harry and didn't understand their motivations or the reason for the existence of the Poets. Plus, it was way more thriller ...more

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Aug 30, 2014 Nicole rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2014

My emotions while reading this book ran the gamut from engrossed to utterly confused to painfully bored and back to engrossed. I spent most of the time somewhere solidly in the middle, and thus rate Lexicon somewhere between 3 and 4 stars.

I've not read anything by Max Barry before reading Lexicon, but I was honestly impressed by the readability of this book. The subject matter would not have been something I'd have been interested in by itself, but this writing held my attention (for the most p My emotions while reading this book ran the gamut from engrossed to utterly confused to painfully bored and back to engrossed. I spent most of the time somewhere solidly in the middle, and thus rate Lexicon somewhere between 3 and 4 stars.

I've not read anything by Max Barry before reading Lexicon, but I was honestly impressed by the readability of this book. The subject matter would not have been something I'd have been interested in by itself, but this writing held my attention (for the most part). I am interested in other books he's written, hoping that maybe the subject matter is a bit more in line with my interests.

The basic story here is about a group of lyrical gangstas in our midst. They train together and work together, seek out new recruits to further their lineage, and educate them to the best of their ability. Language, they believe, has the ability to pierce the filters and walls of the human psyche. Every person alive is vulnerable to a specific subset of these "magical" words, depending on their personality "segment". This segment must be identified by the poet, or the linguist expert who'll be doing the compromising, and the education to do so is acquired at a special & secret Academy. Invitation-only.

In Lexicon, the focus shifts so much from character to character that you'll find yourself a wee bit whiplash-ed in deciding who you're rooting for. Emily? Wil? Eliot? Harry? You wouldn't believe it, but Bronte, too. Never Yates, though.

My biggest complaint about the book is the timeline. The two timelines in the book jump around quite a lot, with the endpoint being their convergence. I found myself believing that the converging had already taken place a couple of times only to realize that we were still in the past. It was at that point the "boredom" piece of this puzzle clicked in. If I was misunderstanding the time, then I was completely misunderstanding the events that just took place. I checked out for a bit, mentally.

But I returned. I completed.

The book ends with a bit of an eye roller about the depth of love and the vulnerability it brings. By this point I was D-U-N with the book and a bit relieved it was over. I wished that the love story had been a bit more developed, or the characters a bit more human. A couple of tangents about a brain tumor and delegates threw me for a loop, but overall this book is an engaging read written very well and worth the investment of time.

Maybe keep a piece of paper handy to keep the timeline written in visual form so that it's easier to follow. ...more

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Nov 05, 2013 Kate rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, sci-fi_fantasy, 2014

Lexicon got rave critical reviews and I had been wanting to read it since it came out. For a while, I wasn't sure what I thought, other than that it was well-written. The structure jumps between the past and present, and this confused me a few times -- I had trouble discerning whether it was the second or third time the setting was Broken Hill, for example. The final scene's timestamp is ambiguous, and alters the interpretation of a prior scene, but I think intentionally and to good effect. I ma ...more

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Jul 04, 2014 Laurie rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2014

Smart, crazy, and kind of creepy when you think about all the online quizzes you take. Basically, words are power and there is a secret school and organization that teaches those naturally gifted at persuasion to wield words to a crazy degree. I really enjoyed this.

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