The Codex

by Douglas Preston

"Greetings from the dead," declares Maxwell Broadbent on the videotape he left behind after his mysterious disappearance. A notorious treasure hunter and tomb robber, Broadbent accumulated over a half a billion dollars' worth of priceless art, gems, and artifacts before vanishing---along with his entire collection---from his mansion in New Mexico.

At first, robbery is suspected, but the truth proves far stranger: As a final challenge to his three sons, Broadbent has buried himself and his treasure somewhere in the world, hidden away like an ancient Egyptian pharaoh. If the sons wish to claim their fabulous inheritance, they must find their father's carefully concealed tomb.

The race is on, but the three brothers are not the only ones competing for the treasure. This secret is so astounding it cannot be kept quiet for long. With half a billion dollars at stake, as well as an ancient Mayan codex that may hold a cure for cancer and other deadly diseases, others soon join the hunt---and some of them will stop at nothing to claim the grave goods.

The bestselling coauthor of such page-turning thrillers as Relic and The Cabinet of Curiosities, Douglas Preston now spins an unforgettable tale of greed, adventure, and betrayal in The Codex.

Genres: Thriller, Fiction, Mystery, Adventure, Suspense, Mystery Thriller, Action

396 pages, Hardcover

First published December 17, 2003

About the author

Douglas Preston was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1956, and grew up in the deadly boring suburb of Wellesley. Following a distinguished career at a private nursery school--he was almost immediately expelled--he attended public schools and the Cambridge School of Weston. Notable events in his early life included the loss of a fingertip at the age of three to a bicycle; the loss of his two front teeth to his brother Richard's fist; and various broken bones, also incurred in dust-ups with Richard. (Richard went on to write The Hot Zone and The Cobra Event, which tells you all you need to know about what it was like to grow up with him as a brother.)

As they grew up, Doug, Richard, and their little brother David roamed the quiet suburbs of Wellesley, terrorizing the natives with home-made rockets and incendiary devices mail-ordered from the backs of comic books or concocted from chemistry sets. With a friend they once attempted to fly a rocket into Wellesley Square; the rocket malfunctioned and nearly killed a man mowing his lawn. They were local celebrities, often appearing in the "Police Notes" section of The Wellesley Townsman. It is a miracle they survived childhood intact.

After unaccountably being rejected by Stanford University (a pox on it), Preston attended Pomona College in Claremont, California, where he studied mathematics, biology, physics, anthropology, chemistry, geology, and astronomy before settling down to English literature. After graduating, Preston began his career at the American Museum of Natural History in New York as an editor, writer, and eventually manager of publications. (Preston also taught writing at Princeton University and was managing editor of Curator.) His eight-year stint at the Museum resulted in the non-fiction book, Dinosaurs in the Attic, edited by a rising young star at St. Martin's Press, a polymath by the name of Lincoln Child. During this period, Preston gave Child a midnight tour of the museum, and in the darkened Hall of Late Dinosaurs, under a looming T. Rex, Child turned to Preston and said: "This would make the perfect setting for a thriller!" That thriller would, of course, be Relic.

In 1986, Douglas Preston piled everything he owned into the back of a Subaru and moved from New York City to Santa Fe to write full time, following the advice of S. J. Perelman that "the dubious privilege of a freelance writer is he's given the freedom to starve anywhere." After the requisite period of penury, Preston achieved a small success with the publication of Cities of Gold, a non-fiction book about Coronado's search for the legendary Seven Cities of Cibola. To research the book, Preston and a friend retraced on horseback 1,000 miles of Coronado's route across Arizona and New Mexico, packing their supplies and sleeping under the stars--nearly killing themselves in the process. Since then he has published several more non-fiction books on the history of the American Southwest, Talking to the Ground and The Royal Road, as well as a novel entitled Jennie. In the early 1990s Preston and Child teamed up to write suspense novels; Relic was the first, followed by several others, including Riptide and Thunderhead. Relic was released as a motion picture by Paramount in 1997. Other films are under development at Hollywood studios. Preston and Child live 500 miles apart and write their books together via telephone, fax, and the Internet.

Preston and his brother Richard are currently producing a television miniseries for ABC and Mandalay Entertainment, to be aired in the spring of 2000, if all goes well, which in Hollywood is rarely the case.

Preston continues a magazine writing career by contributing regularly to The New Yorker magazine. He has also written for National Geographic, Natural History, Smithsonisan, Harper's,and Travel & Leisure,among others.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/dougla...

Reviews

[Paul Weiss · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'll be at the front of the line for the movie version!

Mayan ruins; anacondas and bushmasters; cougars, piranhas, agoutis and macaques; bloodthirsty mosquitoes; poison darts and arrows; vine bridges over impossibly deep chasms and raging torrents; Indian mummies; lost tribes; impenetrable, steamy rainforest and jungle; buried treasure, machetes; dugout canoes; heroes and villains; plus an earthy, eco-friendly but suitably gorgeous love interest - Indiana Jones and Raiders of the Lost Ark certainly had nothing over Douglas Preston's rollicking thriller The Codex.

During his life, Maxwell Broadbent, billionaire art and antiquities collector and noted treasure hunter and tomb robber, thought his three sons, Tom, Philip and Vernon, misguided and lacking in the drive and ambition to be the best they could be. So, when he was diagnosed with terminal cancer, he decided to set them a quest whose successful completion would prove them worthy of earning their fabulous inheritance. Emptying his vast estate of all of its treasures, Broadbent left behind a video for his sons reporting his impending death and informing them that he was burying himself and all of his art, jewels, artifacts and trinkets in a carefully concealed tomb whose location of course was not disclosed. The clear directive was "Come and get me. If you find it, you earned it"! And, of course, as Sherlock might have said, the game was definitely afoot!

One of the artifacts - a 9th century Mayan manuscript called a codex - is a 2000 page catalog of rainforest drugs and medicines together with instructions on how to extract and use them. Its almost incalculable value to the pharmaceutical industry provides an exciting sub-plot and gives Preston the opportunity to showcase his well known ability to provide readers with interesting technical sidebars that inform and entertain without disrupting the flow of a wonderful, high speed thriller. In this case we savour juicy tidbits about medicines, stock manipulation, corporate malfeasance, the pharmaceutical industry and the history and practice of archeology and treasure hunting.

The climax and ending is pure Hollywood entertainment and suitably over the top. But, what the heck, it's warm and satisfying without being hopelessly sappy and will bring a smile to every reader's face. I will definitely be at the front of the line to see the movie version when it's released!

Definitely recommended.

Paul Weiss

[Jason Anthony · Rating 1 out of 5]

If you read Dan Brown's books and thought, "You know -- I'd like this more if the writing was poorer, the plot structure less interesting, and the anthropological assumptions weaker and more stereotypical" then this is the book for you.

I have read most of Dan Brown's work and I find it an amusing distraction that often teaches me something I then cross reference. The only thing "The Codex" taught me is that Dan Brown is deserving of a bit more respect because his books are fast-paced and keep you interested to the last page. This one did not.

NOTE: I listened to this book on an audiotape and it was the only one I had, so I listened to the entire book.

[Cheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun adventure tale set in the rain forests of Honduras. An Indiana Jones type of plot, looking for an ancient codex of plant medicines. Some jungle scenes went on a bit long, but the characters were interesting.

[João Jorge · Rating 2 out of 5]

To make my feelings perfectly clear about “The Codex” I should start by mentioning that my favorite character in the novel was a monkey! That is how uncompelling, boring, bland and completely devoid of any interest, the rest of the characters are.
The plot of the book is extraordinarily stupid. You get that just by reading the back of the cover. I was ready for a fun romp through the jungle, a kick-ass adventure full of dangers and perhaps some ancient ruins with traps and improbable but cool action scenes. What I was not expecting was how a book so blatantly “stupid” in its plot and “screaming” fluff entertainment on the cover could be so utterly boring and devoid of any charm.
Every character is either bland or amazingly annoying. The few characters that appear with some degree of interest are quickly killed off. The others range from a hero so bland and “Mary Sue” I could hardly remember his name to a woman spouting feminist propaganda in the middle of the jungle, a spoiled rich guy and a wimp. These people were so painfully tedious I was actually rooting for the bad guy, who at least was somewhat funny in his absolutely evil actions. I mean this guy is really evil, greedy and what I enjoyed was that he really did not care. He embraced it and enjoyed his evilness and he had fun in his evil deeds and a few times I almost expected him to twirl his mustache and give an evil laugh! But at least this guy was cool. The others were just plain cardboard caricatures.
The book has horrible pacing. Preston spends 70% of the book going on and on about the jungle, the rain, the bugs, the trees, the rivers... on and on and on! Lots about mountains and mud and how our “heroes” are suffering and being bitten by mosquitoes and flies and... are you bored yet? Imagine that for hundreds of pages. Its like a really creepy and dull travel guide about life in the deep jungle! Every once in a while there´s a bit of action but its all very “by the numbers”, no excitement, no fun!
The end of the book does pick up a bit but still manages to ultimately fall flat. The story is wrapped up in a few pages and that´s it.
This was a complete chore to go through and I honestly cant remember a single positive thing to say about the book!
Hey at least the monkey gets out alive! There´s one! Too bad he´s suffering from “Stockholm Syndrome”! I mean they killed his mother and threw her dead body overboard in front of the poor hairy bastard. That would screw up anybody, right?
Stay away!

[Glen · Rating 3 out of 5]

A rich man who tore his wealth away from the jungles and deserts of the world, attempts to raise his sons the way Doc Savage was raised. It fails completely, and all the sons are upper class losers.

Then the rich man disappears. And so does all of his wealth. The sons pursue the riches into the jungle, finding themselves in the process of dodging all the dangers of the jungle, plus some other people hunting the riches, and a priceless Mayan Codex.

Not bad at all, but not as great. Lincoln Child really contributes a lot to their co-writing.

[Skyw4lker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Did the first 24 chapters - everything has been set; the search, the place, the swamp, and the help from local villages. There are 3 teams in search of the buried treasure; Tom & Sally, Philip and his father old friend, Vernon and the Teacher. Along with couple of strong armies. Seems more a race to the treasure buried by Max. The only gift given to the 3 sons - is it worth the challenge...
Yup is worth the challenge...not to spoil your reading. But is something you must read on to find out. We see reunion and understanding what senior Broadbent has come to with his sons making the way to fight for father's treasures and how the 3 plus 1 son work for it hard. There are much life-to-death situation for all of them, including Sally herself. They managed to pass the many difficult swamps and wild lifes without decent food and rest with the help of an old friend at 100 over years of age...and much later another help and savior from a much younger friend whom you will know the connection to this reunion

Good read, great story. About sons and dad right to the end. Some what like the other book i read 'Temple' by Matthew Reilly, but without all those creatures. Rate this 5 stars.

[K. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Trigger warnings: violence, graphic animal death, death of a parent, cancer, colonial bullshit, corporate espionage, shitty relationships.

2/10/2021
Needs more female characters, but still a pretty fun time.

30/11/2016
I stand by pretty much everything I said last time. It's pretty fast paced. It's fun if a little dumb. In short, pretty solid airplane fiction.

30/11/2014
On reread, I'm bumping this down to three stars. It's a fun story - rich old man decides that his sons aren't worthy of inheriting so takes himself off to Central America to be buried with his art collection, like Mayan royalty. The sons have to decide if they want to go after him and become tomb robbers (which is how their father got rich in the first place) or if they want to lose their multi-million dollar inheritances. Obviously, the three brothers go about things in very different ways, none of them working together as their father wanted.

So yeah, it's a fun story full of unexpected twists and turns. But the characters are fairly two dimensional, as is often the case with adventure novels. There's not really any space in a story of this type for character development because the story is so plot driven. And you just know from the get-go that things are going to turn romantic between the sole female character of any significance and one of the brothers. There were a few subplots that I didn't really care about, and on the whole a lot of it was fairly predictable. But it's still a fun, action-packed read.

[Robin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Right after I started this one, it seemed familiar. I think my dad listened to it on audio when it came out in hardback and told me about it. Three sons, an inheritance, and their crazy old man who decides to make them prove themselves by burying himself and his "treasure" in a tomb for them to seek out and claim. Action-packed, psycho bad-guy, lots of jungle adventure, and even a little romance. A quote on the cover compares it to Indiana Jones and the Amazing Race, and it's not too far off. Fun stuff.

[✨ tazannah ✨ · Rating 5 out of 5]

This read was such an adventure! Packed with adventure, suspense, different POVS, and of course, treasure, The Codex will keep you hooked from the first page to the last.
_____________________

I absolutely loved this book! And if you’re craving a good adventure read, this is perfect for you :)

[Olethros · Rating 3 out of 5]

-Aventuras y evasión.-

Género. Novela.

Lo que nos cuenta. Los hermanos Broadbent, Tom, Philip y Vernon, se encuentran en la mansión familiar tras haber sido convocados a una misteriosa reunión por su moribundo padre, saqueador de tumbas y restos arqueológicos en otros tiempos, para descubrir que la enorme casa parece haber sido completamente saqueada y sus contenidos de arte y antigüedades, valorados en varios cientos millones de dólares, robados a pesar de las fuertes medidas de seguridad. Pero una grabación de video con un mensaje de Maxwell Broadbent les aclara el destino de la colección: su propia tumba oculta en algún lugar al que sólo podrán llegar colaborando entre ellos, algo que en principio no resulta muy natural debido a las difíciles relaciones entre los hermanos, que comenzarán a recorrer caminos diferentes. Pero ellos no serán los únicos interesados en encontrar el lugar de reposo de su padre.

¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:

http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although this book kind of started slow, it finished quite well. It involved what I would call the predictable romantic attraction of individuals in extream environments; however, it also had some quite interesting and funny turns and twists. Towards the end it was good enough that I would sit and listen to what was happening instead of just turning off the car and going to whatever. The story (spoiler): a very rich man goes off to bury himself with all his riches - gives his three sons a challenge to find him and take what is theirs, but they have to work together. Well - they don't initially, but do end up all together. Like life, each son is very unique and motivated by different things. Most of this takes place in a jungle, so if you like the outdoors, you would like what they have to go through. Add an evil character and a smart blond you get the rest of the story. I'd recommend it if you like the Preston books - and the audio is read by the same as the Pendergast books.

[China · Rating 5 out of 5]

THIS BOOK WAS AMAZING. I loved it from start to finish. It was action packed, puzzling, exciting, romantic and hilarious! It is seriously one of the best books I've ever read. Preston has a way of keeping the story moving quickly, but still delivering minute and important details without letting the story drag. After the first page I was hooked. The characters he described and introduced in the book were so easily for me to see in my head. I was able to connect to them in such a heartfelt way that I felt as though I could experience what they were just by reading the novel. I am just blown away by this book. Preston has now joined the list of my most favorite authors; I will be reading all his books. If you want a rip-roaring, action-packed fun read -- this is the book for you!

ABSOLUTELY AWESOME.

[Jeff Dickison · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one is just too silly for words. Almost every cliche ever used in a jungle/lost treasure book is used here. The only saving grace is that a few scenes, although horribly predictable, are a little interesting, and I am a fan of Preston & Child.

[Soo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Notes:

The story was like an action movie full of family squabbles, lure of wealth, backstabbing losers and a couple of light bulb moments of goodness. Good popcorn story!

[Don · Rating 2 out of 5]

An excellent read for those days when you have just a minute or two here or there - the chapters are that short. An overlong, forgetable adventure story deep into the heart of the Honduran jungle. Clumsy dialogue surrounds a ridiculous story, complete with a gratuitous (and very un-tittilating) sex scene.

Douglas Preston doesn't think much of his audience (or maybe the trash compactor scene from Star Wars overly impressed him) - how else to explain a character's emergence from a sealed crypt, where he'd been left to die, with the comment "I feel like I've died and been reborn." Fifty-six pages later, Preston reasserts his theme as another character realized "he had died and been reborn."

The upsot? I too have suffered a sort of literary death and am now reborn. Unfortunately, my past literary life may not be putting me on the road to Nirvana and I'm likely to make the same mistakes all over again.

[Justin Lambert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here's hoping this Preston novel is as fantastic as the last. I'm only on page 7 so far, but I've got high hopes!

So I finished The Codex in record time, but not for the reason I would hope. See, I was sick for a few days so I pretty much did nothing but sit and read and cough and blow my nose and read some more.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the book, but I've kind of developed a Douglas Preston addiction of late and the book kind of felt a touch anti-climatic to me. Maybe it's just a matter of being a hair too long. The ending felt predictable when it finally came, even though now that I'm looking back on it, it was full of really great moments. So maybe Preston just needed to apply the old red grease pencil a little more liberally and cut it down to 350 taut pages instead of 404 pages with a few extra pounds on them.

All in all, though, I still recommend The Codex as a good read on a rainy day. And I hope someone makes a movie of it at some point. It seems photogenic to me.

[Rocio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow! Ha sido una auténtica sorpresa. Siendo un libro que estaba en la estantería abandonado me ha gustado un montón y me alegro de haberlo leído por fin.

La historia parte con Tom, Vernom y Philip, tres hermanos que cuando van a casa de su padre encuentran un video de él en el que les comunica que, se va a morir en breves, tiene cientos de millones de doláres como obras de arte y antigüedades y se va a enterrar con ellas en una tumba a lo faraón. ¿Qué ocurre con esto? Esa es la herencia de los hijos, pero si quieren llegar a ella deben encontrar la tumba de su padre trabajando juntos.

Una historia muy dinámica, con muchos giros y con un final muy diferente a lo que imaginamos.

Los únicos fallos que le saco son, por un lado el título, ya que me esperaba más sobre el códice, y por otro lo surrealista de la historia, no en cuanto a la aventura en la que se ven envueltos los hermanos, sino el hecho de que para ser unos mimados que no saben cuidarse, cazan, matan fieras, etc. Así que son detallitos, pero que no me cuadran.

[Swagato Barman Roy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Based on my presumption about a thriller, I expected a more hardcore mystery thriller with little or no emotional melodrama. Little did I expect it to be a book about life lessons and how (not) to raise children, how (not) to be a good son and a romance tale developing in the remotest latin American forest. The author seems more concerned about teaching moral lessons rather than developing the story. There is no plot twist, and in spite of a great start, the entire plot becomes too obvious in the first 20% of the book. Finally, the main character's sudden religious conversion and constantly associating his bad qualities to his supposed lack of belief smells very much like a propaganda. The only thing I can praise is the author's research regarding the geography of the region, his catchy description of the people and so on.

[Belinda Vlasbaard · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 sterren - Nederlandse paperback

De Codex deed me een beetje denken aan de verhalen van Indiana Jones. Spannend boek met leuke personages. Het speelt zich af in de jungle van Honduras. Drie broers gaan op zoek naar de erfenis van hun vader en tijdens deze zoektocht worden ze geconfronteerd met alle gevaren van de Zuid-Amerikaanse jungle.

Dit is een avonturenverhalen pur-sang. Een zeer vlot geschreven en zeer spannend verhaal. Ik was toch blij in een veilige omgeving te kunnen genieten van de gevaarlijke toch door de jungle...

[Larry · Rating 4 out of 5]

An intriguing, fast paced and suspenseful story set in the jungles of Honduras. After the introduction of 14 characters in the first 70 pages, things settle down and the plot develops nicely with a few twists and turns added to keep things interesting. Not a masterpiece, but a fun adventure to read.

[Ryan · Rating 2 out of 5]

it was better than the last indiana jones movie. if you liked that you would probably like this book.

[Melody · Rating 5 out of 5]

Grabs you from the first few scenes! Should be a movie!

[Suby · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is most certainly one of the best adventure novels I have read. As there are very few unexplored areas left in the world, Douglas Preston takes us on to a journey of Honduras. The inept parent who wishes to impose all his plans on his children to force them to be what what he wants them to be is the intrinsic theme of the story. When the self made father puts up challenges in front of the his sons to enable them to inherit his fortune is the theme. Some flashback on Mayan civilization is thorwn is as a bonus.
This is a highly readable book.

[David Schwan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Action packed stand alone book. A half billion dollars worth of precious artwork is hidden in the Central American jungle and three brothers are on a journey to find the art. What motives each of the brothers have is different, with one brother rather indifferent about the treasure. A fast paced story ensues and in the end the results made sense.

[Kachina · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great change of pace, and a real page-turner.

[Heather Koehler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great summer adventure read! Lots of details of the Central American jungles and Mayan temples and full of suspense! Colorful characters you love and just can’t stop at one chapter!

[Richard Dominguez · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fast fun read, that would translate better on the movie screen.

[Jacques Hollands · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Codex was not one of my favorite books by Preston. It wasn’t terrible, but it just never built up as one expects from Preston and Child. The storyline was not as well developed. It just seemed to amble along to its inevitable conclusion. The characters were vanilla and I didn’t care about any of them.

This book is like a toasted cheese sandwich. A bit bland and uninspiring. If you want to read about adventure in a rain forest, you will probably find this book to your liking. But if you want a treat for dinner, you best get something better.

[Brooke · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm a huge fan of the series of books co-authored by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. I also enjoyed Child's first solo novel, but Preston's The Codex left me wondering if Child is the heart of their writing duo (although Child's Utopia certainly had some plot holes).

In The Codex, Maxwell Broadbent is a multi-millionaire who is dying of cancer. Instead of simply leaving his fortune to his three sons, who were never able to live up to his unreasonably high expectations, he decides to seal himself away in a tomb with all his belongings. He leaves them a message instructing them to come find him if they want to claim their inheritance, sending them on a perilous journey through the jungles of Honduras.

It sounds really intriguing, but the entire book seemed to be one long description of boating and walking through the jungle. It was reminiscent of Child and Preston's Thunderhead, where a group of explorers take a perilous journey through the Southwestern deserts to find ancient ruins, but Thunderhead did a much better job of A) making the journey interesting, and B) devoting a large chunk of the book to what happened once they reached the ruins.

I'd recommend it to Child and Preston fans, just for completeness's sake, but if you've never read them before, I definitely suggest starting with their first novel, Relic, instead. I won't write off Preston's solo novels yet, as I have his Tyrannosaur Canyon sitting on my bookshelf, and I'm hoping it's better than this one.

[JWeiss · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy reading

This easy to read story is fun an quick paced. The story is not very complex or mysterious but it is entertaining.