This... well, it's not open to the accusation of being the same-old same-old. Amish bioengineers help protect a New York forensic scientist from a kind of retrovirus created by Neanderthals. Who are still around, and still fighting us. In the middle of the book, we go back to the 7th century, where a Tocharian druid, a Jew, a Byzantine Greek and a Moslem walk into a bar... sorry, I mean, circumnavigate Africa in search of the Singers, another name for the Neanderthals. Silk is all over the place, and the codes in DNA, music, language, and woven fabrics are freely convertible into one another (which is pretty obvious nonsense).The science is... unlikely, and I found my suspension of disbelief tested beyond destruction a few times. I chose to regard it as more a technothriller than SF (the echo in the title of another well-known thriller involving dubious ancient mysteries helped with that). As a thriller, it kind of works. As a mystery, it very much doesn't; we're not given the clues to figure it out, and it has to be unwound in a big infodump at the end. There are scientific, or scientific-adjacent, infodumps throughout, usually short enough not to be too tedious.The main character, the forensic scientist, unfortunately isn't very protagonistic. The author even hangs a lampshade on this early on, pointing out that he's just been reacting to events, but it doesn't improve all that much. Secondary characters drop dead around him with alarming frequency, he is apparently given a lot of latitude by his department to investigate the mystery, but his inquiries are not that effective, hence the need for the final infodump. He falls back on wild speculation as a substitute for any kind of scientific effectiveness (for a forensic scientist, he's very bad at finding evidence).This isn't remotely a feminist book. A couple of the older female characters manage to be actual characters, but the younger ones are mainly objects of the male gaze. That includes Jenna, the MC's girlfriend, who, to me, never seemed to have any characteristics of her own; she was someone for him to have sex with, worry about and engage in expository dialog. Nothing really hung together for me. Were the Neanderthals 30,000 years old, or was it just some technobabbled effect of the virus that made Neanderthal remains look that age? Apparently, both. Was the main Neanderthal character 300 or 30? What was the deal with the silk? Butterflies to carry messages, really?Adding to the annoyance, I listened to this in the Podiobooks version. The narrator frequently fumbles words, and should not attempt an English accent; his attempt sounds like nothing on earth, but the closest comparison I can make is a Bostonian who's just lost a drunken brawl. The author shows off how well-connected he is in the SFF world by having well-known writers introduce each chapter. That all makes it sound as if I hated it, and I didn't. I listened all the way through, and was entertained. It's just that the many issues eventually outweighed the entertainment factor, and apart from the chutzpah of even attempting something like this, there wasn't much to make it stand out.
The Silk Code has the dubious distinction of being the worst-written book I've read in some time.I blame my undergraduate training in English Literature, but I can read a book and address the workmanship of a book or story separate from how I experienced it as a reader. (I've read books that were well-written, even if I personally didn't *like* it. And I've read books that I enjoyed, even loved, that had serious stylistic or grammatical issues.) So it wasn't that I didn't like The Silk Code, although I didn't really care for it, the book was badly written. It was very obvious that The Silk Code was the first novel by Levinson, and it would have benefited from a more proactive editor.The characters are flat and shallow, even the main character from whose POV most of the book is narrated. While most of the book is written in first-person POV, Levinson randomly jumps to a limited third-person POV on several occasions. Neither I nor my book group members could see any advantages to the scenes in third person, and I found the changes jarring.Levinson divided the book into four parts. The first part was a slight rewrite of a previously published short story. Other than introducing the main character and a minor character of parts 3 & 4, part 1 had nothing to add to the (putative) main storyline. Part 2 was more interesting, but also served little purpose. Parts 3 & 4 tied together fairly well.The dialogue ranged from painfully stilted to ridiculously awkward. The action was more confusing than suspenseful. The basic premise was promising, but the plot as written was pretty absurd and not in a good way.
What do You think about The Silk Code (2012)?
While I liked the story and the characters, I felt disoriented when I was reading this. The first part is alright, the second one changes time and appears completely unrelated to the first part, to the point I though it was a short story book and not a novel. Then the third part takes us back to present day and about the middle of it there are some references to the second part. I think if after that references are done we are introduced to the second part story it would have made complete sense, but as it is, it sounds disorganized, and it's completely unconnected until the third part kicks into high gear. But as I said, the stories are good and the characters feel right, and it was entertaining enough to win 3 stars.
—Gustavo
Fooled again. I thought I was picking up a procedural detective mystery and ended up with far more. If I tried to describe its maze of modern day Neanderthals, Amish gangs, & an ancient silk cure for what ails our DNA many would think I was joking. In structure it's almost like it's 2 or 3 different books. An Amish murder mystery, an ancient chronicle, and a scifi world jaunt in search of the modern Neanderthals. Yet they are somehow all tied together. I've got a feeling that no matter what I say positive about it one will either love it or hate it. No middle ground on this one. All I can say is give it a try & see which one you are.
—Ed Mestre
The Silk Code left me with mixed feelings. I am generally fascinated by anything featuring Neanderthals, especially living ones in a modern setting. That was inventive but I didn't like the ending of the story and the final portrayal of the Neanderthal(s).Some reviewers didn't care for the Tocharian interlude/sub-plot in the second part of the book. In my view, the rest of the story would have been meaningless without that part. Plus, it was a fascinating story in itself. I don't know how to address the whole "Amish as genetic super scientists" concept. But this is a work of fiction so I suppose the author can do as he chooses and it did pull the story together.Overall, I enjoyed this book. There were some fascinating ideas in it. Now that I'm winding up this review, I think I'll go put on my silk robe and have a cuppa tea in my butterfly garden... just in case...
—Jim Kratzok
