Rating: 
Summary: This one blew me away!!!
Review: Rare books, a codex, a computer game that becomes an obsession! Wow, this book is awesome. Edward Wozny, an investment banker, who is taking a new job in England from New York, becomes enmeshed in a quest to find a rare book by Gervase of Langford...a codex that may cause upheaval in the house of the Duke and Duchess Went of Bowmry. We never know if the codex is a fake or reality. He enlists the help of a young graduate student, Margaret, who may be with him or against him. He plays a computer game, MOMUS, that takes him to sites that are scarily related to events in his life. Only at the very end will you find out the answers to all these mind-boggling questions. A
most entertaining book, especially for lovers of rare books.
PS...two books in one week with the title CODEX...also read
"The Codex" by Douglas Preston...another awesome read!!!
Rating:
Summary: surprise & delight
Review: If there's a school of Uncanny Realism, then "Codex" is its new avatar - and a reader's delight, too. The ghost of Lewis Carroll's Alice haunts Grossman's Manhattan - it's a maze of high-rise rabbit-holes, leading to encounters with equally scary/seductive Old Money and Tech Wizardry. Edward, the hero, is no innocent (an investment banker, yet) - but in a new twist, betrayal shocks him into a kind of innocence.Oh, and page for page, Lev Grossman writes with more wicked charm than any novelist I've read since Michael Chabon's debut.
Rating:
Summary: A winner
Review: Lev Grossman's CODEX drew me into the surprisingly enchanting world of Medieval texts and a modern world of bizarre computer games. The likeable hero Edward Wozny is often endearing and funny to me as he gets entangled in the mystery of the CODEX. What a ride - suspenseful, innovative, a winner!
Rating:
Summary: a delightful read
Review: A smart, highly caffinated page-turner set in New York with a literary McGuffin, a self-effacing hero, a charming love interest and a twisty plot that keeps you guessing. I couldn't put it down.
Rating:
Summary: a vacation in dreamy realism
Review: I don't read thrillers, so I haven't a clue whether this really is one, but I do love being seduced into the unfamiliar territory of a brilliant and perceptive and unsettling new novelist - literary novelist - and that's what I've found in Lev Grossman's CODEX. Grossman writes with such patience and mastery that you are already deep within Edward Wozny's world, taking a vacation in his dreamy realism, when you realize that you have been entangled in a readerly conspiracy of cryptological texts, computer games, and egghead scholars who serve as the cats paws to two elegantly vindictive and sinister nobles. Is it a thriller? Is THE CRYING OF LOT 49 a thriller? In any case, I was thrilled by CODEX - an excruciating round of intellectual strip poker that claims your shorts on the very last page.
Rating:
Summary: book lover's delight
Review: Codex reminds me in some ways of the Da Vinci Code; much of its appeal comes from the fascinating historical information the author makes integral to the page-turning plot. I've been reading books all my life (with the occasional off year) but had no idea the history of book creation had so much to it, especially in the immediate post-Gutenberg years. Codex(which takes place in the present day) has an absorbing plot and builds to a pay-off that genuinely pays off. If you're a person who likes books, you'll enjoy your time with this one.
Rating:
Summary: Astonishing
Review: The most compelling, absorbing book I've read in years. Couldn't put it down. Da Vinci Code, feh, this is the real deal.
Rating:
Summary: Great
Review: I'm one for books off the beaten path: "The Clothes They Stood up In," "Bark of the Dogwood," and yes, even this one, "Codex." And by off the beaten path, I mean books that are unusual and that not everyone is going to get. "Codex" is one such book. Take an interesting and unusual premise, add some wonderful writing, and throw in some secrets and codes, and you've got this great book. I was so strongly reminded of McCrae's "Bark of the Dogwood" while reading this, even though that novel is completely different in subject material, setting, and mood. But the ease with with Grossman handles styles and materials is similar. The swing back and forth between the pragmatic and the purple. As I said, I like something that's not too commercial--this is it.
Rating: 
Summary: close to great, but not quite
Review: I picked up Codex the same day I put down The Rule of Four, so it already had some tough competition. If you're hungry for this kind of fiction and your expectations are in line, by all means read it and you'll enjoy it, but don't expect it to operate like some of my favorites: Rule of Four, Foucault's Pendulum, Name of the Rose, or even Instance of the Fingerpost. Codex's beginning promises so much for those of us who love books about old books with big secrets, but it took me about thirty pages to feel hooked. Maybe the premise of an investment banker being asked to sort a client's old and valuable books just didn't work for me. But I suspended disbelief and continued to read. When Edward earnestly begins the search for the codex it looks like that promise will be fulfilled... maybe. When Edward then stumbles into the subculture of the computer game MOMUS, I just thought we'd add another element into the mix and stir well. More layers to enjoy, yes? No. Unfortunately, the game MOMUS just doesn't feel truly integrated into the narrative. At times it seems little more than a vehicle, like an addiction problem, to explain why the narrator (or the author) seem to have such poor judgement (poorly explicated plot lines). The last fourty or so pages truly disappoint and color my whole opinion of the novel. The narrative devolves into a swirl of white rabbits, unexplored motivations, and (I swear) even a deus ex machina in the form of Edward's friend Zeph appearing at just the right time to save him from a menacing by two not-so-menacing characters. I spent more time wondering about these weaknesses than enjoying the actual text. It was those loose ends and glaring unanswered questions that marred an otherwise enjoyable reading experience.
Rating: 
Summary: Not Ready for Prime Time Reading
Review: As I read this book I kept turning each page feeling the potential that at some point I would become engaged in the story, but it never materialized. None the characters are ever fully developed. I never felt like I was rooting for Edward Wozny, the young investment banker turned medieval book sleuth, or developed any emotion against the antagonist, a super-wealthy aristocrat who everyone says is a jerk. The plot tends to drag on without any real drama, never hooking the reader in to the story. There is quite a story-line investment in Edward playing a dream-like computer game called MOMUS. I kept wondering how the game would tie into the rest of the story, but was left disappointed when it finally occurred. He never is given the chance to apply what he learns from the game about being a hero. Even Edward's love-interest comes across awkwardly and is never fully developed. As the reader limps into the ending, he or she is left with a bit of a hollow feeling that mirrors the development of the characters and the plot. Calling this a thriller is a bit of an exaggeration. Lev Grossman shows promise as a young author, but he should have taken one or two more stabs at the plot and characters to make this a more compelling novel.
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