Codex

© 2004 Dru Pagliassotti
All rights reserved.

Codex
David Drake
2003, Sidecar Preservation Society
$9, limited-edition chapbook

Codex is one of David Drake's very early stories, written in his first semester of law school and after his second story sale. Drake, who has written or co-written over 56 books and sold over 100 stories, may be best known to readers for his science fiction and fantasy. This 22-page, mildly Lovecraftian horror story will be of obvious interest to his fans, but should also be read by struggling writers still trying to break through. It's a rare glimpse at a well-established writer's early work, never before published and left unrevised for this publication.

In Codex, Latin Survey student Carter discovers an unusual block-printed book about commerce in his friend's collection of ancient volumes. The commerce described, however, involves people, places, and products very different from those he'd expected to find. When Carter realizes that he and his friends have an item one of the mysterious races desires, the question arises: is trade still possible?

Codex offers a possibility-laden premise but is clearly the work of a beginner, with awkward pacing and too little foreshadowing of significant developments. Drake's decision to leave the story as-is for his readers could only have been made by an author confident in his abilities and aware that new writers might find comfort in seeing that their idols started in the same place they did. Potential collection value aside, that insight, in itself, may well be worth this chapbook's $9 price tag.

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