Rating: 
Summary: WOW!!!! I lost some sleep reading this one!
Review: I've been a fan of all the Preston/Child books. They are fun exciting reads. This is the first solo book I've read. I skipped Lincoln Child's Utopia. This is one helluva great adventure novel. I could not put it down. I read late into the night and then found myself taking it to work to read on breaks. I'm not going to bother describing the plot. Let me just say that this is actually a better book than the Preston/Child books. There is none of the supernatural crap that they always seem to throw in their books and no Agent Pendergast! I am not a great fan of that character.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely outstanding...
Review: I've read all of Preston and Child's works. I've liked each and everyone of them. That said, I feel that this solo effort by Mr. Preston is the stand out. It takes the reader on a hair raising adventure, it has an intriguing plot and, one of the rarest things you'll find in any book, an excellent ending. To help put things into perspective, I feel The Codex is a notch or two above The Da Vinci Code (another excellent work).
Rating: 
Summary: Formulaic, one-dimensional, no surprises
Review: If you're looking for a formula thriller with one-dimensional characters, no surprises, and a third-grade reading level, go for it. Otherwise, don't waste your money.
Rating: 
Summary: Enjoyable
Review: It will be impossible to review this book without a comparison to Lincoln Child's Utopia, so I'll do it first.This book is smoother than Utopia. The flow is quicker, the rhythm is more solid, and the book has much more of a brisk pace. Much of this comes from more dialogue and shorter paragraphs. Is smooth necessarily good? In this case yes. The book is an adventure book, through-and-through, and plays well with the speed. The characters are stereotypes, but they're supposed to be. The setup of the book, as you can already tell, is a tad contrived. Aren't they always? The rest of the book works, though, with little groaning or reason to complain. The largest groan, perhaps, could be sex between two people that have spent over a month in the wet, rain-soaked jungle without a proper shower or hygeine concerns. Oral sex, in fact. Improbable, unlikely, completely unbelievable. Overall, though, you can feel the lack of Child, especially after reading Utopia (which, in retrospect, has a lack of Preston). Child seems to be best at bringing slower points of the book - plot developments and information. Preston seems best at bringing the action and dialogue. Neither concentrates much on character development, even though the characters do evolve more here than other adventures they evolve very predictably (yet satisfyingly.) A solid read, great for the beach or a weekend trip. Recommended. On a side note: in the battle of the gimmicky, transparent sidekicks Preston takes the lead. Hairy Bugger isn't nearly as throwaway or one-dimensional plotwise as Wingnut was. Wingnut was a huge groan, Hairy Bugger just a mild one.
Rating: 
Summary: At least I'm encouraged about my own writing...
Review: Like other reviewers, I, too, am a huge fan of the Lincoln-Child collaboration (or, as they are known overseas, the individual Preston Child). I have thoroughly enjoyed all of their books, even the less-than-stellar "Still Life With Crows," mostly because these guys are such masters of atmosphere. Last year, I hungrily bought "Utopia," anticipating it to be another Preston-Child book until the next Preston-Child book arrived. Sadly, I found it lacking the great touches that made all the previous team books so fun- suspense, foreshadowing, creepy settings, etc. What I found instead was a "Die Hard" rehash with cardboard cutout characters and no compulsion to actually finish the novel, which I did, not without a certain sense of accomplishment. My thought was, (and my apologies to Mr. Child) "Now we know who the REAL writer of the team is!" So, with a silly grin, I dove into "The Codex" and was happily rewarded for my insight-- for about a hundred pages. It didn't take long, though, for my enthusiasm to wane as I met the same kind of cardboard characters and repetitive phrases. (Has anyone else noticed that these guys always have a favorite phrase that keeps getting repeated in their books? In RIPTIDE it was "a shocking glimpse of thigh..." , in THE CODEX everything is "the color of rich mahogany..." Just a thought.) But, I kept going, and going, and going... Maybe I was MEANT to be as tired of reading about the discomforts of jungle trudging as the characters in the book were supposed to be. I UNDERSTAND that there are biting, stinging insects in the jungle. I don't need to read it on 80 of 100 pages. The most irritating moment, though, came when Sally (how's THAT for a great name?)is relaxing in a hammock reading-- that's right-- UTOPIA. Tom asks her if it's a good book, and she replies that it's a GREAT book! Not only is that a blatant exaggeration, but that little bit of literary nepotism merly succeeded in yanking me right out of whatever little bit of immersion in the fictional world I had actually allowed myself to enter. (By the way, I feel the same about Clive Cussler's self-indulgent little "cameos" in the Dirk Pitt novels.) Okay, 'nuff said. Let's just say that in comparison to the Preston-Child novels I was embarrassed at my own attepmts at a novel. Now I think I'll work on it some more. I mean, if "The Codex" can be published...
Rating:
Summary: A tremendous read.
Review: Max Broadbent is a wacky old guy who made his money robbing tombs and collecting art. Now he has terminal cancer and decides to take a treasure trove of art worth $500 million to the grave with him - literally. Of course, Max does not choose the average plot down the street. Instead he decides to be buried in the White City (a legendary place high in the Central American mountains). If his three sons want to spend their inheritance, they need to find the tomb and raid it for all it is worth. But there are others who have heard about Max's treasure and they want it as well. Thus begins one of the best reads I have had in a while as they cut through the jungle and pole their way across uncharted swamps to adventure, mystery and death. A very good book.
Rating:
Summary: Not bad...
Review: Once you get past the premise that 3 brothers would go into the Honduran jungle having NO experience in jungle travel, NO idea where they were really going, and NO idea what exactly they were looking for, the book reads quickly and is pretty decent.
Rating:
Summary: Nifty Thriller of a Yarn But . . .
Review: Preston has written a tornado-paced action/thriller/mystery that kept me flipping the pages to see what next would befall the three disgruntled sons of Maxwell Broadbent, a wealthy dying ego-maniac, who has given them a quest. Maxwell has buried himself in a tomb with all his treasures in hopes that greed, if nothing else, will mold his sons into hardy men of action and adventure.
Now, I agree the plot sounds crazy, yet it's still worth the read because of Preston's flair for inventing and describing scenes so alarming and absorbing you almost don't notice the stand-up-ripples-of-hair-on-the-back-of-your-neck.
And although most of the characters are merely engaging two-dimensional people, Preston does gift the reader with a fascinating, eccentric fourth son and a scoundrel with a nice flair for the dramatic.
Rating:
Summary: How to insult your readers
Review: Readers over grade 4 level beware: this book will confuse you. Despite good media reviews, The Codex is so badly written it's almost impossible to read. The writer uses amateur writing techniques for descriptions, his dialogues are stale and inane, characters are unidimensional and cliché. The story is interesting, although hardly original. Even if the story were the best ever, this novel cannot be read but plowed through.
This is one case where the author's name, rather than the quality of writing and plot, is selling the book.
Rating:
Summary: grand adventure!
Review: Rebeccasreads highly recommends THE CODEX as a rip-snorting memorable read, about three brothers taunted into finding their dying father & the loot of a lifetime, secreted away in the Sierra Azul of South America, where the villains are crafty & deadly, the searchers are both fools & pragmatists, & the wildlife & the Natives are equal parts gloriously intelligent & liberally lethal!
Could not put it down!
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