Title: The Golden Codex
Author: William Sandberg
Publisher: Explora Books
ISBN: 978-1-83430-147-1
Pages: 314
Genre: Fantasy & Science Fiction
Reviewer: Jason Lulos

Read Book Review

The Golden Codex is an epic fantasy, coming-of-age story. It feels like a combination of Siddhartha and Harry Potter, and it is thematically reminiscent of films like Star Wars and Dune. But the most fascinating aspect of this novel is how Sandberg builds a complex world of spiritual and cosmic forces that lurk under the surface of traditional reality. These forces are only observable to the spiritually enlightened. Sandberg has mined truths from world religions and philosophies but converted them into coinages and concepts not unlike the world building seen in works by Lewis and Tolkien. It is a bewildering, but intriguing story told through the perspective of a young man who has no choice but undergo this journey.

The story begins with Jim Ralston and his fourteen-year-old son, Piers, in a mystical antique store. Tom Aimesworth, Jim’s old friend, runs the antique store with his daughter, Cynthia. Tom has summoned Jim and Piers to divulge that Piers is in danger. Years ago, Tom and Jim had both been educated by beings from higher planes of reality. Rather than serving those higher powers, Tom and Jim used their newfound mystical knowledge to rebel against their would-be masters. Those sinister forces have given up on Tom and Jim but are determined to go after their children, Piers and Cynthia. It has been decided that Piers will work in the antique store while Tom educates Piers. This acquired wisdom is Piers’ only chance to resist those forces and pursue a life of freedom.

While Piers receives his cosmic education, he finds an ancient piece of coal in the basement. He places it on a crate with a strange, circumscribed star. He returns the next day to find the coal inside the crate which then transmutes into a sheet of gold inscribed with strange hieroglyphics. This is a physical manifestation of his connection to the story of hidden worlds. Piers eventually becomes a high school English teacher and one day he has fittingly planned to teach Jorge Louis Borges’ short story “Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius,” an homage/allusion to literature of other worlds, magical realism, and different perspectives. Although acquiring much wisdom, Piers is still learning about these sinister forces he is always trying to understand and outsmart. He tries to live a normal life, but his fate is sealed by a series of conjunctions trials of enlightenment. Paradoxically, he needs to engage oppressive forces to gain their knowledge but must resist their influence. He will travel to remote times and places connected by “wahan” – a series of wormholes perhaps, but more like metaphysical interconnections to remote places and times. It is an imaginative yet systematic world, both physical and metaphysical, that the reader learns vicariously through Piers’ journey.

The Golden Codex is challenging but a rewarding read for its inventiveness. Sandberg has drawn from different stories and religious doctrines. Language plays a huge role in the novel. He has coined languages which are invented or made by combining different spiritual terms from Arabic, Latin, Hebrew, Norse, Buddhism, and I’m sure others that I missed. This is a world-building work of fantasy held together by a Joseph Campbell type of hero’s journey. I would call this a scholarly work of high fantasy given the work that must have gone into its construction. But the coming-of-age story is one that is accessible to any reader.

The Golden Codex is intriguing and mystifying, but that’s the point. The reader is enlightened along with Piers (I couldn’t help but sense an allusion to Piers Plowman) as he progresses towards a higher understanding. Readers who appreciate this mystical book will be happy to know that there is more to Piers’ story because this is the first of a three-book series.  Visually rich and philosophically layered, The Golden Codex blends science fiction with metaphysical intrigue in a story that feels destined for the big screen.