4.9 KiB
Book recommendation: Lexicon by Max Barry
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Author: u/alexanderwales Time flies like an arrow*
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Score: 3
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Created: 2014-01-14T04:36:21
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Comments:
u/alexanderwales [+2] Time flies like an arrow (4 minutes later)
I read this recently and thought that it might appeal to this crowd. The rules are laid out pretty clearly, and lots of the implications of those rules are explored by intelligent characters, with the central conflict mostly coming down to values (and some pretty intelligent explorations of the values of the characters). There are probably a few quibbles here and there, but it hits most of the bonus points in the sidebar. The blurb:
At an exclusive school somewhere outside of Arlington, Virginia, students aren’t taught history, geography, or mathematics—they are taught to persuade. Students learn to use language to manipulate minds, wielding words as weapons. The very best graduate as “poets,” and enter a nameless organization of unknown purpose.
Whip-smart runaway Emily Ruff is making a living from three-card Monte on the streets of San Francisco when she attracts the attention of the organization’s recruiters. Drawn in to their strage world, which is populated by people named Brontë and Eliot, she learns their key rule: That every person can be classified by personality type, his mind segmented and ultimately unlocked by the skilful application of words. For this reason, she must never allow another person to truly know her, lest she herself be coerced. Adapting quickly, 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 Parke is brutally ambushed by two men in an airport bathroom. They claim he is the key to a secret war he knows nothing about, that he is an “outlier,” immune to segmentation. Attempting to stay one step ahead of the organization and its mind-bending poets, Wil and his captors seek salvation in the toxically decimated town of Broken Hill, Australia, which, if ancient stories are true, sits above an ancient glyph of frightening power.
A brilliant thriller that traverses very modern questions of privacy, identity, and the rising obsession of data-collection, connecting them to centuries-old ideas about the power of language and coercion, Lexicon is Max Barry’s most ambitious and spellbinding novel yet.
u/Escapement [+1] Ankh-Morpork City Watch (a day later)
Just started it.
Things I noticed so far:
(Spoilers, obv, so rot-13; No spoilers of major plot points, but spoilers of setting details).
Gurer jvyy unir gb or n ernyyl nznmvatyl tbbq ernfba gung gubfr thlf svtugvat "cbrgf" nera'g hfvat rnecyhtf be rira zber fbcuvfgvpngrq boshfpngbel flfgrzf - sbe rknzcyr, n tbbtyr tynff rdhvinyrag ehaavat pbafgnag fcrrpu erpbtavgvba pbzovarq jvgu rkgerzryl gubebhtu rnecyhtf, rgp. Perngr lbhe bja fvta ynathntr naq qba'g grnpu vg gb bhgfvqref. rgp. V unir ab vqrn jung gurve rkcynvangvba jvyy or sbe jul gurl qba'g qb guvf, naq ybbx sbejneq gb frrvat vg.
V jbhyq or jnl unccvre vs gur cbrgf jrer zber yvxr gur Qhalnva bs E Fpbgg Onxxre'f obbxf. Gurl frrz gb bcrengr va guvf frggvat ol onfvpnyyl oynpx zntvp naq jvgpupensg, zhpu yvxr Qhar'f Orar Trffrevg. Gur Qhalnva npghnyyl vagrenpgrq jvgu crbcyr'f pbafpvbhf zvaq naq crefhnqrq gurz ol npghnyyl crefhnqvat gurz, rira jvgu hasnve nqinagntrf va creprvivat gurve oryvrsf naq zbgvingvbaf - vg jnf jnl pbbyre naq zber vagrerfgvat gb ernq nobhg. Uneqre gb jevgr, pregnvayl, ohg guvatf yvxr gur Genpxyrff Fgrccr Zrgncube zvaq-whqb-gevpx jnf nznmvatyl pbby nf n oryvrinoyr vzntr bs n jung n trargvpnyyl naq genvarq crefhnfvir crefba zvtug qb, juvyr "zlfgvpny onooyr sbyybjrq ol vafgehpgvbaf gur pbafpvbhf zvaq unf ab ernfba gb sbyybj" ernyyl, ernyyl vfa'g.
That said, the plot seems interesting so far. I may return to this post when I am further/ have finished the book.
u/Escapement [+1] Ankh-Morpork City Watch (a day later)
Self-reply: Having finished the book, I like that 1) from above is somewhat addressed (but not as fully as I could have hoped for, and not for several specific instances it likely would have proved helpful). That said, I have come to the realization that most of the central plot of this book is basically Snow Crash, which was more original, was better written, and is overall a stunning novel that I will treasure to the end of time. So if you haven't, go read Snow Crash, because much of the central plot of this book is a rehash of a few of Snow Crash's many ideas. That said, if you wanted something else in the same subject matter as some of Snow Crash (having already read that book) then you could do worse than to look at Lexicon.