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    Lexicon
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    Lexicon
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    Lexicon
    Audiobook12 hours

    Lexicon

    Written by Max Barry

    Narrated by Heather Corrigan and Zach Appelman

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    At an exclusive school somewhere outside of Arlington, Virginia, students aren't taught history, geography, or mathematics-at least not in the usual ways. Instead, they are taught to persuade. Here the art of coercion has been raised to a science .Students harness the hidden power of language to manipulate the mind and learn to break down individuals by psychographic markers in order to take control of their thoughts. The very best will graduate as "poets": adept wielders of languagewho belong to a nameless organization that is as influential as it is secretive.

    Whip-smart orphan Emily Ruff is making a living running a three-card Monte game on the streets of San Francisco when she attracts the attention of the organization's recruiters. She is flown across the country for the school's strange and rigorous entrance exams, where, once admitted, she will be taught the fundamentals of persuasion by Brontë, Eliot, and Lowell-who have adopted the names of famous poets to conceal their true identities. For in the organization, nothing is more dangerous than revealing who you are: Poets must never expose their feelings lest they be manipulated. Emily becomes the school's most talented prodigy until she makes a catastrophic mistake: She falls in love.

    Meanwhile, a seemingly innocent man named Wil Jamieson is brutally ambushed by two strange men in an airport bathroom. Although he has no recollection of anything they claim he's done, it turns out Wil is the key to a secret war between rival factions of poets and is quickly caught in their increasingly deadly crossfire. Pursued relentlessly by people with powers he can barely comprehend and protected by the very man who first attacked him, Wil discovers that everything he thought he knew about his past was fiction. In order to survive, must journey to the toxically decimated tow nof Broken Hill, Australia, to discover who he is and why an entire town was blown off the map.

    As the two narratives converge, the shocking work of the poets is fully revealed, the body count rises, and the world crashes toward a Tower of Babel event which would leave all language meaningless. Max Barry's most spellbinding and ambitious novel yet, Lexicon is a brilliant thriller that explores language, power, identity, and our capacity to love-whatever the cost.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateJun 18, 2013
    ISBN9781101620328
    Unavailable
    Lexicon
    Author

    Max Barry

    Max Barry began removing parts at an early age. In 1999, he successfully excised a steady job at tech giant HP in order to upgrade to the more compatible alternative of manufacturing fiction. While producing three novels, he developed the online nation simulation game NationStates, as well as contributing to various open source software projects and developing religious views on operating systems. He did not leave the house much. For Machine Man, Max wrote a website to deliver pages of fiction to readers via e-mail and RSS. He lives in Melbourne, Australia, with his wife and two daughters, and is thirty-eight years old. He uses vi. www.maxbarry.com

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    Reviews for Lexicon

    4/5

    813 ratings85 reviews

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    • 3/5
      I love the premise behind this book, that words have power. Not just "the pen is mightier than the sword" power, but magical power. And I very much love that some words--barewords in the book's terminology--have ultimate power. Power that may be tied to the many Tower of Babel like myths throughout the world.

      I found the early parts of the book to be confusing in that scenes switched back and forth between people in the book's present and people in its past. It took until the two times merged for me to realize this. When I did, it was a sudden click that provided me with a lot of enjoyment, but I can't help but wonder how the book would have read to me if I'd figured it out earlier.

      The main characters are not nice people. But some are nicer than others, and some have motivations for what they do, and that's what intrigues me.



      ARC provided by publisher.
    • 3/5
      [Cross-posted to Knite Writes]This story had a lot of potential. Unfortunately, most of it didn’t pan out. I thought the plot of this book was strong overall, but there were times when the constant back and forth between timelines became somewhat confusing and frustrating. The pacing of the book’s main plot was so fast that whenever it was disrupted by a past event scene, it became incredibly difficult to get back into — it was pretty annoying. The flip-flopping between two story lines with very different paces just didn’t work for me.Additionally, the world-building was severely underdeveloped, and that was really disappointing given the premise of this book. While the nature of “persuasion” was clearly explained, the resident mysterious organization remained, unfortunately, mysterious. We never found out what it was for, what it did on a regular basis, how it influenced the world. All of that was left on the sidelines in favor of the far more limited Emily and Wil plot. At its core, this was a love story with a sci-fi/thriller twist as opposed to a sci-fi/thriller with some romance, and that focus greatly diminished the story’s scope. In the end, I learned very little about the things I wanted to learn about the most.I think the strongest aspect of the novel was the characters. All the major players were very well fleshed out. I appreciate that the author took time to dig into the motivations of several of the characters even though the plot was moving so quickly. And this was done without derailing the action. A lot of the characters’ personalities were revealed through dialogue and interactions with other characters, so there was rarely a pacing disruption caused by excess characterization or backstory description.Like my last few books, this one was a mixed bag. Great idea. Great characters. Not-so-great execution._____WritingNothing exceptional about the writing style. I think it could have been a little more generous on the description at times without risking the pace, so some of the passages were a bit sparse for me. Overall, though, I didn’t have any major issues with the writing._____Is It Worth Reading?Hard to say. If you like really fast-paced books with some cool sci-fi elements, perhaps. But if you love your world-building, then perhaps not. This book has its strengths, but it’s not a knockout.
    • 2/5



      My first Max Barry. Maybe my last...

      Suspension of Disbelief necessary to read the book.

      The characters are overall pretty weak. The rest of the novel is not solid enough to compensate for this shortcoming. The particular of the central plot device is also way, way over the top.

      This is one of those books where the sum does not equal some of the good of its parts. The idea is brilliant, the writing is somewhat solid, but the execution is quite flawed, and left me wanting.

      Lexicon's gimmick plays on a premise that any lover of language will enjoy (I surely did), ie, that words have power, literally.

      Unfortunatelly getting into the science of this magic system quite in depth was not enough to save the novel. In fact, repeating this over and over again throughout the book became quite exhausting. While some of the ideas regarding how this magic system worked were quite scientific, the restatement of the details ad nauseum got exhausting.

      I was constantly hammered over the head with all the nuances and details that went into how words functioned, and whatnot. By the end of it, I felt like I was reading more about psychology than magic. I like my magic systems to be logical and have science behind them, but I don't want to read a treatise on how they work.

      Now, let's digress a little on the power words used in the book. On this topic the novel also fails miserably. Some of the power words throughout the book are just plain ridiculous and completely unutterable. They look like someone (a 5-year old...?)just put together a bunch of random letters together. That's why I've started this review by talking about the necessity of Suspension of Desbelief being necessary to try enjoying the novel. All this takes away the believableness of the magic system and the seriousness of it.

      In this internet age is language mightier than the sword...? The answer is no, if you go by this novel.
      "
    • 3/5
      Mostly compelling but a disappointing finish.

      Pleasantly surprised with the plotting. Moved along well and I was intrigued by the word based "magic". Was disappointed by the ending, though. The internal logic and consistency broke down to deliver an oddly happy ending that was very out of tone.
    • 4/5
      Syrup will probably remain my favorite Barry book, but Lexicon is fighting for that position. There is a secretive school that looks for the best of the best - at least among the skimmers, swindlers, and natural-born salesmen. These people are taught everything about language, but not in the way you'd think. They're taught sounds and what involuntary reaction those sounds evoke; they put those sounds together to make code words. These words are coded according to your personality type - another thing the students are taught to recognize. As a result, they can meet someone and, after exchanging few words and watching facial muscles, the students can pinpoint a phrase that will put the person under their control. It's persuasion to the extreme, can be used for good or evil or anything in between. Which makes it especially alarming when Emily Ruff, a star student, goes rogue.
    • 4/5
      Great read - excellent pacing. This is a complex book and I love teasing out the puzzles in complex books, so well done, Max Barry. The idea behind Lexicon, and the many ways in which that idea is handled throughout the book make excellent late-night mind-candy.
    • 3/5
      Man, I really wanted to like this book more. The whole concept of words that kill was one I loved. The first 60 pages were dynamite and then it just lost steam for me. It took forever to get where it was going. The ending was bang up and redeemed it a little for me. All in all it was enjoyable but left me feeling like it could have been more.
    • 4/5
      Good entertaining read

      really enjoyed this one, kind of close to horror and in some places reminded me of Stephen King. looking forward to more from this author.
    • 4/5
      Members of a shady, secret organization can control people using only words, but when one of them gets hold of a bareword, which has the power to compel everyone who sees it, an internal war breaks out.A cinematic page-turner of a book. There are chases and shootouts galore. The story moves at a dizzying pace between past events and what's happening now, and into and out of the heads of various characters. Unlike many reviewers, I didn't find these shifts at all confusing. On the contrary, I thought Barry handled them eloquently, and I never felt lost in the timeline or point of view. My favorite character was Eliot, not one of the two protagonists but, I felt, the most deeply developed and relatable of the characters. I wish the story had focused more on him and his relationship with Emily rather than being what it was, which at heart is a love story. Love stories are invariably tricky, because if the reader doesn't wholly and completely buy into the romance, then the major characters' decisions seem rather pointless. No, I didn't buy the love story here. Harry comes across as someone incapable of feeling deep love--in fact, that's a major plot point--and Emily's version of love, as consistently portrayed, skews much closer to dangerous obsession. I mean, she's stalker-ish. By focusing on the love story, I think Barry omits the most interesting part of his premise, which is the organization of "poets" he has created. Who are they? What are their origins? What are their goals? Barry avoids answering these oh-so-interesting questions and leaves the reader wondering, if we don't know what the stakes truly are, then why should we care. This deficit keeps a good book from being a truly great book, unfortunately.
    • 4/5
      Can we control others with our words? We can, and we do. It's a basic principle of cognitive psychology that the way you word something effects how the audience perceives and ultimately reacts to it. Max Barry took this concept to the nth degree. In Lexicon, people can be controlled by the use of nonsense syllables that bypass basic thought in the brain. The neuroscience is farfetched (mostly impossible, actually), but the concept is not so far removed from reality. Lexicon is more than the normal thriller - it forces the reader to think and illuminates how language can and does effect our behavior.
    • 3/5
      Fast and fun read. Thought the ending was hurried.
    • 3/5
      Really cool idea, but has a lot of flaws in the plot.
    • 4/5
      Power words and Love.
    • 4/5
      As it starts off, it's kind of Harry Potter like as the main character is recruited, but then it becomes very thriller-like. Many twists and turns. Very enjoyable read. The language science in it is light (and sometimes a little off): more psychology.
    • 3/5
      I sped through this book and I enjoyed the story but just didn't feel like there was anything especially spectacular about the writing. The plot line was a nice nod to magic but with much more intrigue and maturity, and I actually found most of the characters to have a nice balance of likability and flaw. I would have liked a bit more time spent in the school or with the other poets/students, but I did appreciate the switching between past, present, perspectives, and location. Overall it was an enjoyable read and a fun take on the power of words, magic, and kicking ass.
    • 4/5
      Great premise, well researched, entertaining.
    • 4/5
      I am admittedly a Max Barry fan after my first read of Jennifer Government. If you have experienced his writing style and enjoy, then this one will also not disappoint. As a logophile myself this one was of particular interest.The power of words is strong and Barry takes it to w hole new level. I did figure a couple twists out but only just before they were revealed. A solid read in the speculative fiction category that I can heartily recommend.
    • 5/5
      This book makes you wonder -- and fear -- what rough beast might be slouching toward Bethlehem to be born.And regarding the ending: when I am told that two competing desires will always try to express themselves, and when one of those desires is love, it satisfies me very deeply that love, on a primal level, wins.
    • 5/5
      I originally rated this book four stars. I really liked it, but there are a few things about it that left me wanting. Since that original reading, though, I've come back to this book at least three times and unless I die in the very near future, I will definitely reread it yet again. Any book that can elicit four or more rereadings from someone with kids and a grad degree in the works deserves the full five stars.
    • 5/5
      I liked this so much I want to see it on TV, a sequel and comic adaptations.
    • 3/5
      Smart, fun sci-fi tinged thriller.
    • 4/5
      Fast paced, well written, realistic fiction, a compulsive read, and based on an interesting underlying idea if you don't think about it too closely: What if there exists an underlying language that is the equivalent of machine language, that gives direct instructions to the brain? And what if people learned to use that language? Yeah, it's the good old "true language" staple of so much fantasy literature about magic. However, though it's basically popcorn, it's really good popcorn.
    • 5/5
      I've been a Max Barry fan since he was Maxx Barry. I loved Jennifer Government, and I've made it a point to read every book he's written. Max's infectious, dark humor has always been a hallmark of his work, but the tone of Lexicon surprised me. It feels like an older, more mature brother of his other works. It's a blisteringly brilliant book. I was a fan before this novel came out but this new book puts Max into a different tier.

      Be careful...reading Lexicon will compromise you, turning you into one of his proselytes for this heart-stopping thriller. It's a profoundly intelligent tale that covers a global conspiracy to use words as keys to unlock the human mind.

      The novel follows a young street hustler drafted into a secret organization, made into a weapon by careless inattention, and a seemingly innocent bystander, the only survivor of a horrific disaster. Usually his barb filled prose are more than enough for me but he goes for a different approach in this book. The normal tongue-firmly-planted-in-cheek style is set aside for a more serious tone, elevating Max Barry into the upper echelons of science fiction writers. He has obviously done a lot of historical research to ratchet this story up several notches and combined with the philosophical undertones, it really messed with my head. Barry jumps back and forth through the timestream, which serves to maintain a blistering pace and keeps you guessing who is one whose side and what's going to happen next.

      Equal parts smart, funny, and action-packed, it also has a heart, and a very satisfying finish. Barry has upped his game to the next level and I'm starting the bandwagon right now for Hugo. This novel is going to linger in my psyche for quite awhile.
    • 4/5
      This is one of the most unique and smart thrillers that I've read in a long time. Max Barry is extremely creative in the world that he builds. I love the importance of words. The convergence of his two narratives was brilliant. There were a couple of times when the narrative lulled and I'm still a little ambiguous about that ending but overall it was a great story.
    • 3/5
      The town of Broken Hill is closed off after an 'environmental disaster'. A handful of people know exactly what happened in there, one of them is Emily Ruff, a poet with a mastery of the the language of persuasion, and Wil, but he doesn't remember what happened there.

      Will is immune to the manipulations of the poets, and he is being hunted down by this nameless organisation of poets, as they think that his link to the 'bareword' in Broken Hill. As him and his protector stay one step ahead of this trying to kill him he starts to learn about his past and the power of the poets.

      As Wil and Emily's stories converge they are headed back to the town of Broken Hill both seeking this bareword and the chance for ultimate control.

      This book started really well, fast paced, secretive organisations, thrilling and a conspiracy of mass control of the population with a couple of likeable characters. But after about half way I felt that it had kind of lost the plot a bit, and I had too. It was a shame really as it was a really great concept. More 2.5 Stars.
    • 5/5
      Compelling and ambitious, I blew through this novel at a pace I hadn't expected. Well worth a read!
    • 1/5
      Made it about 1/4 of the way through this before throwing in the towel. You would think in a book about the power of words the author would have been able to find alternatives to using the "f" bomb every other sentence. The characters were not in the least likable, and the vulgarity was off-putting and did nothing to advance the plot. In truth, I was ready to stop reading by the 2nd chapter, but forced myself to give this book a chance since the plot seemed so interesting. Unfortunately, by the time I had heard my two-hundredth f*uck (I don't even have a problem with swearing, more unrefined repetitive use of the SAME WORD) I decided there were plenty of other things to read on my TRB and moved on.
    • 4/5
      Words are powerful. Wil is kidnapped in an airport bathroom for surviving something he can't remember a year before in the remote Australian town of Broken Hill. He and his kidnappers are then pursued by murderous people who seem to be acting through some will not their own. Meanwhile, a young woman named Emily is taken in to a secret school where she learns the power of certain syllables to control people. There's a lot of suspense, a lot of uncertainty as to who can be trusted. I really enjoyed it, even if "deadly words" premise felt a little unbelievable. I've already read Jennifer Government; now I think I'll have to pick up some of Barry's other works.
    • 4/5
      I have to admit, most of the pre-publication buzz I'd heard swirling around Max Barry's new novel related to a quiz about famous poets. It's a book pretty far outside my normal reading space and I had no plans to pick it up. Yet somehow, feeling slightly slumpy, I grabbed a copy last weekend and found I had lost an entire afternoon.

      Lexicon is set in a world seemingly identical to ours, with the addition of an agency specifically trained in the art of persuasion. Identified from a young age, talented students are schooled in linguistics and taught key words to help them persuade, aiming to eventually become an elite "Poet". The novel follows Emily Ruff, a student from the streets of San Francisco, and Wil Parke, a man the agency believes to be immune to persuasion, as their stories collide over a frighteningly powerful word.

      Though I was apprehensive at first, after letting myself fall into Max Barry's universe I was completely engrossed. With quick witted prose and fast paced changes, Lexicon is a novel that is easy to get lost in, particularly as Emily goes through her schooling and the training process. Perhaps this is why I much preferred the fist half of the book to the second, as I would have gladly read several chapters of persuasion techniques over the novel's climax, which seemed slightly rushed.

      Still, Lexcion was exactly the page-turner I needed for a quick, fun read. If you are looking for a great vacation book that will keep you thinking, puzzling and reading, Max Barry's Lexicon is the one to pick up.

      Blog: River City Reading
    • 5/5
      The author is way smarter than I am! This book has a little of everything - love, action, and more knowledge of language than most people even want to know. Still, satisfying from beginning to end