The Codex

By: Justin Swapp

Narrated by: Steve Barnes

Welcome to The Codex - Omnibus edition.

This special edition includes the epic origin story, Failed Crusade, that inspired five volumes of demon hunting across the multiverse (and multiple genres.) This fantasy story has an amazing twist ending.

The original Codex stories appeared in The Crimson Pact anthologies as The Transition and The Merging. These stories are connected to each other, and to Failed Crusade at their roots, but occur many years later. They follow an unsuspecting foreign exchange student named Sloan Boyle. A seemingly innocent interaction with a stranger in a Spanish Cafe leads to a dangerous series of events, and a weighty discovery that threatens everything Sloan ever knew about this world and his role in it.

Club PK2 is written in the same Codex universe as the other stories but is a separate adventure with distinct characters. The voice is reminiscent of Supernatural. It follows a hardened cop named Tray sent undercover on special assignment to expose a dangerous underground fight club. The cop discovers much more than a bunch of thugs trying to make a buck, and he learns something about The Codex, and the demon's master plan in the process.

P.S.

The Codex ended up playing a pivotal role in the final story, Sealed with Fire. This epic final battle between The Crimson Pact and the demons pays tribute to the best stories and characters in the series. As you finish listening to this omnibus edition, I hope you'll be interested in learning how The Codex impacted the final fight. If that's the case, you'll want to pick up The Crimson Pact, volume five.

©2012 Justin Swapp (P)2016 Justin Swapp

A great listen for a long drive!

I like that this has the "Supernatural vibe" to some of it. It certainly fits my universe, being interested in both sci-fi and fantasy, but no too much of each at once.

Confused

This is an original scary book. At first I was confused but I hung in there and got that this was a good story. Exciting stretches your mind this puts it in the Spiderman type. A good book, for young minds.

Short Story Fantasy

I wanted to enjoy this story but the narration did not help the story. It was if the narrator was trying too much to add a scary effect to the reading by whispering. That made the story harder to listen to. I also had the /Shadow Magic series by the same Author and Narrator combo and was worried about starting it after this. I am glad that I did as the narration is much better in The Magic shop and they work as a pair to pull you into the world and story, something that just did not happen with these short stories. This may be better read on Kindel then listened on Audible. But don't let this put you off of the Shadow Magic series as that is a much better selection of work from this pair.

Note at the time of this review audible did not have chapter titles for this title.

The book was provided for free, however, this is my honest opinion and review.

Bazinga

I enjoyed this audiobook. The narrator did a great job. I'm interested in more of The Crimson Pact anthologies based on this sampling. This was a couple short stores from a larger volume and they went well together. The pacing of the story was good and sucked me in. I'd recommend this book to anyone interested in fantasy.

Disclaimer: I've been listening at 2x speed for so long anything else sounds like slow motion. My enjoyment of the narrator is based on my listening speed. I only leave 5 stars for books I've listened to multiple times. I'll update my review if I listen again.

I requested this book from the author, narrator, or publisher in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

The Codex

I enjoyed the stories in this book.I found Steve Barnes to be a good narrator. I especially liked the Codex itself.I was given this book free for an honest review.

It was short but I enjoyed it

this was an interesting storyline. It was a little too short but I still enjoyed it. I'm interested to see other stories in the series.

Slow to start bring very enjoyable

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I will admit it was a bit hard to follow at first. That being said, after a while it became very engaging, and certainly made me want to listen to more. At the end, I felt like it was left very open, but it being a collection of short stories, that's understandable. Not a bad book at all.

Great listening

Great Sunday afternoon listening, the story line is pretty exciting. Also the narrator is able to make you actually "feel" the thrill, which is really nice.

Intriguing Anthology set in a great universe

I enjoy the universe that these sets of stories are played out in. The centuries long war of humans vs demons, but riddled with complexities that make the stories more engaging. I would definitely be interested to hear more of these tales if a full volume, or all of the volumes were to be released in audiobook form.

I wasn't a fan of the narration for the entire first story of this series. I found the narration in the first story to be highly distracting, and made following along with the story more difficult. I will say things improved in the other stories afterwards, so it was just the main voice decision in that first tale.

Overall I would say this is worth a listen as you will get a compelling universe with unique stories that all share commonality of combating the demonic threat to humanity.

Great writing style and ok narrator

The narrator's voice is a bit hard to listen to at time because of the trailing off in the volume.
The story is a bit darker than what I was looking for but I like the author's style of writing. The writing is very descriptive and if you pay attention, you can get lost in a different world; remind me a bit of Stephen King in that way but not quite at the same level.