Emily is picked off the streets because of her ability to read people and use the right words to persuade them to go along with her street cons. Wil seems to have been dragged into a nightmare. His girlfriend has tried to kill him and a stranger is dragging him across the country whilst also threatening to kill him and leaving a trail of bodies. These two characters are intimately linked, but you have to follow both of their stories before the big and terrifying reveal. This well-paced, intelligent thriller superbly blends science fiction with the possibilities of our modern communication age. All that information about us, how we vote, what we buy, what we watch, used by a secretive organisation to persuade us to act the way they want us to. They use the correct ‘magic’ words to get the right responses and results, sometimes with destructive results. Brilliant!

It’s hard to find contemporary literature that crosses over with Sci-Fi that produces satisfying results, yet Max Barry manages this and then some with his latest novel Lexicon. It starts at breakneck speed with the capture (and apparent torture) of male protagonist Wil as he fights against two agents determined to extract something via his eyeball (yeah…still uncurling the toes over that one) his subsequent escape and recapture while racing through an airport lounge. It appears the info the agents need could be vital in fighting an organisation known as The Poets, one in particular known only at this point as ‘Woolf’. Woolf’s done some bad things, some very bad things and it would seem only Wil can stop her. We then meet Emily a young fraudster living on the streets. She’s good at would she does; she can read and persuade people and this brings her to the attention of the Poets. She’s scooped up (almost literally) and taken to a unique training facility where among other things, she’s taught the power of words and to hone her powers of persuasion. We follow Wil, Emily, and an amazing cast of supporting characters as the novel gives us both the build-up as well as the aftermath of the ‘Very Bad Thing’. And that’s where Barry shines as an author. At no point is the reader patronised or spoon fed plot details; the chapters are simply numbered, there are no dates or locations as sub-headings and the book is merely separated in sections with only quotes from books or poems to guide the way. Barry acknowledges that the reader may well have the brains to work it all for themselves and this is so refreshing. It makes for a better novel too, as there are moments in the story that are genuinely jaw-dropping ‘did not see that coming’ affairs. Another excellent device is the use of other printed media at the end of each chapter; these range from memos to staff in the diner Emily has been using, news articles on incidents occurring in the story, even questionnaires used by the school to screen applicants. I borrowed this from the library (after a lengthy wait) but will definitely be buying a copy to keep as I feel it’ll be one of those novels that you gain a little something more from on each reading. Full concentration is required (this isn’t a doze off at bedtime book) but you will be handsomely rewarded with a clever, mature and thought provoking read.

Max Barry might not be an author that you are familiar with and you may have missed Lexicon when it came out in hardback last year but, out now in paperback, I urge you not to overlook this insanely clever novel. Set in a world where a language system can be used to control and coerce other human beings, we discover a secret agency that trains and employs ‘poets’: masters in bending others to their will using the secret power of words. Emily, who plays card-games on the streets, has a natural knack for influencing others. Wil wakes up to men threatening him with no recollection of his past. Their stories quickly collide when Emily unearths secrets whilst training with the elite organisation, and Wil fights to recover the memories that have been taken from him, to discover what he survived. As an avid book reader, I couldn’t resist Lexicon’s premise. After all, who hasn’t been moved in some way by a resonant storyline, a poignant sentence, a perfectly placed word? We also know that certain words can trigger memories, hold special significance and even change our immediate mood. How frightening would it be if we did not welcome this manipulation? If our actions were forced without our consent? It happens every day. Authors have the most magical ability to capture a world, an emotion, and translate it onto paper. That mysterious gift is what makes Lexicon so wonderful. Words have power, and so does Max Barry.

Words are powerful, words can be weapons. There is a class of elite linguists, the poets, who know certain words that can short-circuit filters in the brain which let them manipulate people. This is the story of Emily, homeless street kid, who gets the chance to study at the poet's academy. Her over-eagerness and lack of discipline soon gets her into trouble and her actions have consequences that soon spiral out of control. This is a gripping thriller, told in two narrative strands switching back and forth between the present and the past. It's a great mix of breathless action with snappy dialogues and slower flashbacks making up the back story. It's loosely classed as sci-fi, but don't worry, non-sci-fi readers, the main ideas are no more outlandish than anything Dan Brown has ever come up with. It's a well done thriller and very entertaining and who would have thought that linguistics could be that exciting.

Although Lexicon starts off fairly slowly, it's not long before it picked up and I completely engrossed in the story. This book has a great plot line that held my attention all the way through and I found myself fascinated by the concept that language can affect people in such dramatic and dangerous ways, and how certain words and phrases can be used to hot-wire our brains and make us behave differently.