The Rosetta Codex
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3.8 • 12 Ratings
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
Cale Alexandros was five years old when the path of his life was irrevocably altered. As the scion of a wealthy and powerful family, he enjoyed a privileged existence—until his family’s starship was attacked en route to Morningstar, the lone outpost of civilization on a savage planet known as Conrad’s World. In an escape ship, Cale crash-landed in the wilds, and was picked from the wreckage by nomads.
For years, Cale is forced to endure life as a slave, sold and shuffled from one group of brutish thugs to another—until a trader recognizes a glimmer of promise in Cale’s eyes, and frees him. Cale travels far and wide, but he never forgets what happened long ago, in the desert wastes . . . when, in a strange, ancient temple, he found a book with pages made of a strange metal, and writings he could not identify.
When he finally reaches Morningstar, he comes to realize that the book is a key to understanding a language never heard by mankind, an alien dialect. It also holds a secret that some people want to learn, a treasure that some want for themselves, and a revelation that some will do anything to control.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this oddly old-fashioned and low-key space opera from Philip K. Dick Award winner Russo (Ship of Fools), Cale Alexandros, the heir to a great mercantile family who's abandoned at age five on a backwater planet, grows up among savages. Barely surviving into adulthood, Cale makes his way out of the wasteland to the planet's one civilized city, where he discovers the Resurrectionists, a cult dedicated to unearthing the ancient technologies of an extinct alien race, and begins to understand the meaning of the Rosetta Codex, a strange artifact he himself discovered in the wasteland. Cale must also deal with the mysterious Blackburn and his employers, the Borg-like Sarakheen, who want the artifact for themselves. After regaining control of the Alexandros family holdings on another planet, Cale sets off on a journey that will transform the galaxy, his goal nothing less than the resurrection of the ancient aliens who created the codex. Russo's landscapes and technologies are nicely alien, but readers will have trouble attaching to his somewhat flat protagonist, whose motives for bringing the aliens back to life remain unclear.
Customer Reviews
Too much narration, not enough character
This author has some interesting ideas, but ultimately fails to create characters that I care about. I’d like to see him tackle smaller and more human centered stories.