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Loading... Codex Derynianusby Katherine Kurtz
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Belongs to SeriesDeryni Novels: chronological order ((Reference) 0)
References to this work on external resources. Wikipedia in English (18)In 1998, the first edition of Codex Derynianus was published in a limited edition that quickly became astronomically expensive. Now fans can have the entire text of that edition along with extensive new material. This encyclopedic overview details Katherine Kurtz's Deryni world, the setting of her 17-book saga that began with Camber of Culdi. and reveals many never-before-told details of the people, places, and objects of importance to the world of the magic-wielding Deryni. The book is packed with chronologies of events, genealogies of the peoples, and colorful maps of the Deryni world, exploring every aspect of the Eleven Kingdoms. In addition to being an authoritative reference, Codex Derynianus is also an ambitious work of creative fiction as penned by Brother Theophilus from within the setting of the Eleven Kingdoms, providing original stories, vignettes, humorous pieces, serials, and poems that expand and enrich the Deryni universe. No library descriptions found. |
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The book’s conceit is that it is an actual historical manuscript discovered in the “present” in the Deryni setting. But what is it exactly? This is a thick, meaty tome primarily containing alphabetically-organized, encyclopedia-style entries of all the people and places (and a few things) mentioned in the Deryni Chronicles. It includes all the major entries you’d expect (Camber of Culdi, Alister Cullen, etc.) and all of the minor ones you don’t remember – anyone recall who Robard was? Nope? Me neither. As it turns out, he was one of Kelson’s scouts during his visit to Trurill in The Bishop’s Heir. Learn something new every day. Each entry also includes a listing of the books and stories the character or place is mentioned. That’s about the first 250 pages. After the encyclopedia portion, we have an equally thorough chronology (year, month, and day, where possible) of every major and almost every minor event that happened in all the stories. That covers the next 80 pages or so. The final section contains a Deryni liturgical calendar, bibliography, genealogies of the royal families, and maps. Whew! Can you imagine how much work went into assembling this reference. The mind boggles.
Negatives on this one are very minor (though I will be nitpicky for the sake of completeness): it’s a bit dry – as one might expect – though the text is certainly not flavorless, and it’s probably not the kind of book that anyone would sit down and read cover-to-cover. But it’s a reference book, so that’s to be expected as well. A listing at the top of each page showing the first and last entries contained on each page (like what traditional dictionaries and encyclopedias do) would have been nice, but probably a layout nightmare. I’d also have liked to see a few more entries on things like Wards and other magical practices, but we can always fall back on Deryni Magic for more information on those sorts of things. Also, the maps included in the back of the book aren’t great. I’m sure the cartography itself is fine, and it had to appear that they were drawn by hand to maintain the illusion that this was an actual manuscript, but “high-tech” looking cartography would have been a plus.
I give this one 4.5 stars out of 5. It’s a great reference work for anyone who enjoys Katherine Kurtz’ Deryni series and it did the one thing that works like this should do: it made me want to pick up the series again and reread them! Highly recommended for fans of the Deryni series.
Review copyright 2011 J. Andrew Byers ( )