Buy the Codex Derynianus? Or not?

[tmcd]

There's a used copy of Codex Derynianus currently on offer, per @DerynifanK (thanks).

I'm dithering about whether to get it. It's not a lot of money, and it's the second edition. But I gather that a lot was composed by Rob Reginald, which drops the value for me. (Also I wonder about the puns. I make too many silly puns, but in an in-universe work, I suspect I would find them annoying. Especially when they're modern references, like Nelson's words paraphrased in King Kelson's Bride.)

For those who bought it, what did you find worthwhile about it, and how worthwhile?

[Bynw]

First of all. Both editions (hardback and softcover) were written by KK and Robert. There is no getting away from the Robisms, his puns and silliness are scattered throughout the Codex no matter which version one ones.

The mass market paperback edition is just easier to obtain than the 500 limited edition run of the hardback edition.

Despite the Robisms, the book is full of a lot of great information about the 11 Kingdoms and beyond in KK's world. Of course though it doesn't have any information and details for some things. The Childe Morgan Trilogy hadn't been written yet so that information is missing. The revised editions of the Chronicles wasn't written yet either.

But it's still a worthwhile purchase for any fan. And even more valuable if one is doing fanfiction or gaming in KK's world.

[Evie]

If it helps, the Robisms are mostly subtle enough that either you can miss them if not paying careful attention, or at least few and far between enough to ignore. They are mostly found in extraneous details like when he had to flesh out some families by creating a spouse or extra siblings for characters who presumably would have had such family members, or create causes of death for some. (For instance, besides mentions of actual period diseases such as the sweating sickness or yellow fever, you might get some mention of an infant dying of the purple ick. But it would be such a passing reference that it would be easy to miss if not paying attention to the details.) Many of the details in the Codex are taken directly from the canonical stories, while some can be extrapolated from what we know of the characters. (For instance, we meet Duke Ewan's heir in one book, I think KKB, so therefore we know Ewan had to be married at least at some point in order to have said legal heir. Also, in a medieval society, it is almost certain that Ewan, living as long as he did, had multiple children, whether or not they all lived to adulthood. So part of Rob's contribution seems to have been adding in some of those extra details to make the world of the Eleven Kingdoms feel more real and lived in.)

As a fanfic writer, I have found it to be an invaluable resource. Do I need to know the differences between Torenthi and Gwyneddan royal inheritance laws? That's in there. Do I want to remember specific details about a major character life without having to hunt through six different novels piecing it together or trying to find the exact book that mentions a certain event? Just look up that character. Do I need to know the character's hair and eye color, or details about a particular piece of jewelry they wear? If it was mentioned in canon, it's almost certainly in the Codex. Need to know what year or even month a specific event occurred in, and how much time passed between that and some other event? Check the timeline. Need to know the names of every king of Bremagne, or learn the history of the Forcinn States and why they are under the Hort's suzerainty? That's in there also. Those are the sorts of details that make having my own personal copy of the Codex worth twice its weight in gold for me, to the point that I scanned my paperback copy into PDF for personal use, just so I can keep the original book safe at home while using my searchable PDF copy that's on Google Drive so I can access it on my phone wherever I go. It is a treasure trove of story ideas just waiting to happen.

(BTW, if you do end up buying a copy and have access to a scanner, having a searchable copy of the Codex is a true godsend if you want to find every mention of a particular person or place in seconds. That helps with piecing together a broader picture from various Codex entries scattered throughout the book and seeing interelationships between things you might not notice if just reading the entries in alphabetical order.)

[Laurna]

I purchased the Codex, 2nd edition, when it came out, because it also came with the poster map; that would have been in 2005.  Need that map. Love it. I spent some time at first trying to follow Alaric's family line back to Rhys Thuryn. But I could not find the information. If you only follow the names going backward in time, the book has breaks and does not give you all the information. I got frustrated because I knew in my heart the connection had to be there.

That is when I wrote my first fan fiction story. The break was in the Earls of Lendour family line. I found a perfect WHOLE to fill with my own characters. Earl Muir died, and it was a nephew who became the next earl.  Therefore, Muir had to have a younger unnamed brother.  I turned that brother into one of my main characters. There is enough story in the codex about the kings and wars of that time period of 985, that it was easy to form up a background.

Many other fan fiction writers have used those codex brief stories to make up whole novels for their characters.

A few years ago I decided to read the codex by following the families from furthest in time and then come forward. I have learned that this is how the Codex was written. A single person's entry will give marriage, children, events and then sometimes include grand children and even great-grand children.  So one entry could fill in the breaks I had missed when trying to go back wards. So I spent months and months putting in most of the family into an ancestral software program.  Some of those results I have posted on the forum under the Codex topic. I have more than 2000 names in my ancestrial program.

But even if you have no intention of looking for that kind of detail, the codex still is great for just looking up: "who was that person I just read about, and can not remember what that person did in the last story," type info.

I now have a very beat-up codex that sits on my desk 24/7.  I have a better copy on my shelf.  And I have acquired the original hard copy version.  But I admit I only open that one up if I want to see the difference between the two editions. What I understand was that there were a few errors or omissions in the 1st edition, which KK then corrected or added info for the 2nd edition. The greatest of these omissions was Roger McLain, which was added in under Tambert I Fitz-Arthur Quinnell.  That is the key person to linking Alaric to Rhys Thuryn.

Just as a side note that is why Rebecca's Mindspring genealogies did not connect Alaric to Rhys  because the first edition did not mention Roger McLain as a family member. KK corrected that.

[drakensis]

I'd agree with the above.

My War of Three Kings fic wouldn't have been possible without the rich details about the events leading to the Battle of Killingford and the characters present that I found in the Codex.

[Laurna]

Drakensis, your novel was one of the stories I was thinking of. I absolutely love the way you evolved your characters around the short version of that is given in the Codex.  You wrote a wonderful version that had me surprised. More Please,  anytime.