Barry is getting better and better and with Lexicon, he has achieved something quite good.

On one level, Lexicon is an action/adventure story about Emily Ruff and the terrible circumstances that beset her. On another level, it is a book that puts a unique spin on two things: the power of words, and the practice in this Information Age of gathering massive amounts of information on peoples habits and personalities. It is also a love story that shows love in an incredibly powerful light.

While the idea of the poets is quite fantastic, I think the issues that Barry raises are quite relevant and important. The book explains the widespread practice of gathering personal information and using it to determine who we are and what we like as being linked to the poets and their whole business. Through this fictional world, we see parallels to the real world and how vulnerable we are when so much of our private information is out there.

Barry managed to create a fictional organisation complete with fictional powers in a very convincing way. Everything seemed so plausible that I found myself thinking (even hoping) that such things were real. The relationship that emerged was believable, something that Ive found to be quite rare in a lot of fiction these days. The love here didnt just spring up overnight, but grew over time. I was very glad for this because it added an entire level of realism to the novel.

One of the best things about Lexicon was that it felt real. The characters, and even the far-fetched idea of the poets all felt real. Its a good book, and I recommend it.