Publisher:
Orbit
Reviews & Overviews by Rod Cameron
Publisher: |
Orbit |
|
Date: |
2005 |
|
Size: |
375 Pages |
|
Format: |
Paperback |
|
Price: |
£6.99 |
|
ISBN: |
1-84149-298-1 |
|
Reviewed by: |
Rod Cameron |
|
Review Date: |
May 2007 |
Richard Paul
Russo has written a number of science fiction novels, including Ship of
Fools, also known as Unto Leviathan which won the Philip K. Dick
award in 2002. The Rosetta Codex is a novel, as the title suggests, about
translating alien artifacts. Cale was five years old when he was marooned on
Conrad’s World, and captured by nomads many miles from civilisation. He grew up
as a slave, but knew that he is a member of the wealthy Alexandros family. He
manages to escape back to civilisation and on his travels, he sees a strange
book with metallic pages covered in an unknown script. Of course, there are
others out to acquire this book…
The Rosetta Codex is reasonably well written, and is full of imaginative and
novel ideas, but the plot is a trifle loose. As a result, I found the climax to
be ultimately unsatisfying. This is quiet a short book by today’s standards and
would perhaps have benefited from additional descriptive passages to fill out
the background story.