Compass & Codex

Reed Sterling
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Adventure history and adventure science — fiction stories for boys. Compass & Codex is a serialized storytelling podcast for boys ages 8–14 and the families who read with them. Every episode is a chapter of an ongoing story: fire ant scouts, Roman legions, pirates, and more — told with real biology, real history, and real stakes.  We explore the unknown, every time. Current series: - Colony in Danger (fire ant adventure fiction) - Eagle's Edge (Roman historical fiction).  New chapters every week.  Subscribe and start from Chapter 1.  Hosted by Reed Sterling.  For fans of Watership Down, Redwall, the Warriors series, Empires of the Undergrowth, and anyone who wants adventure fiction that respects the reader.

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  1. Brickhaven: CH 1 | Boy Wakes Up Inside His Own LEGO World | A LEGO Fan Fiction Adventure Story

    EPISODE 1

    Brickhaven: CH 1 | Boy Wakes Up Inside His Own LEGO World | A LEGO Fan Fiction Adventure Story

    Max built a LEGO town called Brickhaven. Every wall, every street, every guard. Then he woke up inside it — one-and-a-half inches tall. And they closed the gates. Brickhaven Ep.1 follows Max across the vast landscape of his bedroom floor — now a wilderness at minifig scale — to the walls of the town he built with his own hands. When he gets there, the guards raise their spears. For fans of the LEGO Movie and Minecraft.  Fan fiction at it's best. ▶ Start the series from Ep.1: You're here! --- LEGO fans — if you woke up inside your own build, what's the first thing you'd fix about it? Minecraft players — Max is about to discover his world has expanded beyond what he designed. Sound familiar? --- Brickhaven is a LEGO adventure story for boys 8-14. Max, age 10, built a LEGO town called Brickhaven. When he wakes up inside it at minifig scale, he discovers his creation has come fully to life — and locked him out. A story about building things and refusing to be told you don't belong in what you made. New chapters every Monday on Compass & Codex. Read by Reed Sterling. Never Stop Exploring Unknown Worlds. #LEGO #LEGOAnimation #LEGOAdventure Send us Fan Mail Remember: Never stop exploring unknown worlds!

    38 min
  2. Colony in Danger: CH 9 | Trapped in Beetle Territory | Fire Ant Adventure Story

    EPISODE 2

    Colony in Danger: CH 9 | Trapped in Beetle Territory | Fire Ant Adventure Story

    Fire ants don't enter beetle territory. Cinder Marlowe just did — and now his whole team is locked in a hollow log while the beetles prepare to use them as bait at dawn. This fire ant adventure story follows Cinder, Blaze, Thistle, and Silas as they cross the border, face Rook Calder, and discover something nobody expected: the beetles are starving too. For fans of Empires of the Undergrowth and AntsCanada — Colony in Danger is built on real fire ant science. The border marking system, territorial behavior, and colony starvation dynamics in this chapter are all grounded in how fire ant colonies actually work. ▶ Start from Chapter 1 of this story: A Colony In Danger 📧 Get the Free Ant Codex Field Report: compass-codex.kit.com/ant-codex-subscribe --- Colony in Danger follows Cinder Marlowe, a fire ant scout who discovers his colony's food stores are being systematically stolen — and nobody in charge will listen. Every chapter is grounded in real fire ant science: colony structure, forager behavior, territorial marking, predator threats, and the biology of how fire ant colonies actually survive. For boys who love ants, insects, and real-world science wrapped in a story that doesn't talk down to them. New chapters weekly on Compass & Codex. Read by Reed Sterling. Never Stop Exploring Unknown Worlds. #FireAnts #AntColony #ColonyInDanger Send us Fan Mail Remember: Never stop exploring unknown worlds!

    33 min
  3. Treasure Island: CH 1 | A Scarred Pirate Moves Into a Cliffside Inn | Classic Pirate Adventure Audiobook

    EPISODE 3

    Treasure Island: CH 1 | A Scarred Pirate Moves Into a Cliffside Inn | Classic Pirate Adventure Audiobook

    Jim Hawkins has never left the Admiral Benbow Inn. Then Billy Bones arrives. He’s a weathered, scar-faced pirate who takes the corner table by the window and never takes his eyes off the road. He pays in strange foreign coins, drinks rum from morning to night, and whispers warnings about a seafaring man with one leg. Jim takes his money. And watches the road too. Treasure Island — Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic adventure retold for boys ages 8-14.  New chapters weekly. Narrated by Reed Sterling. For fans of pirates, buried treasure, and stories where ordinary kids get pulled into extraordinary danger. Never Stop Exploring Unknown Worlds. Send us Fan Mail Remember: Never stop exploring unknown worlds!

    26 min
  4. Eagle's Edge: CH 1 | Roman Recruit Swears 25 Years to Caesar's Army | Roman History Boys 8-14

    EPISODE 4

    Eagle's Edge: CH 1 | Roman Recruit Swears 25 Years to Caesar's Army | Roman History Boys 8-14

    Marcus Aemilius Corvus is sixteen years old and about to swear twenty-five years of his life to Caesar's army. Once the sacramentum passes his lips, he belongs to Rome. In this episode, Marcus arrives at the legion camp outside Genava, joins the line of recruits, and takes the military oath that will define the next quarter-century of his life. He meets his contubernium — the eight men who will share his tent, his food, and his battles — and learns from the veteran Petronius exactly what kind of world he has entered. Eagle's Edge is a serialized Roman historical fiction for boys 8–14 and families. Every detail of military life is drawn from real sources — Caesar's war commentaries, the Vindolanda tablets, archaeological evidence from legionary fortresses.  Start here. For fans of Conn Iggulden's Emperor series, Bernard Cornwell, Simon Scarrow, Total War: Rome II, and Kings and Generals. 📖 Buy the Eagle's Edge audiobook: Coming Soon! Send us Fan Mail Remember: Never stop exploring unknown worlds!

    29 min
  5. Iron Rails & Ruin: CH 1 | A 14-Year-Old Engineer Drives a Steam Train Through a Montana Blizzard | Steampunk Adventure Audiobook

    EPISODE 5

    Iron Rails & Ruin: CH 1 | A 14-Year-Old Engineer Drives a Steam Train Through a Montana Blizzard | Steampunk Adventure Audiobook

    Three senior engineers refused to take this route tonight. That left Gunnar Harlan. He’s fourteen years old, running his late father’s steam engine through a Montana blizzard in 1879. The Widow-Maker knows every inch of this mountain. So does Gunnar. But when they arrive at Harrow Gulch, the Ironclad Syndicate is waiting — and the cargo they promised to deliver has been quietly rerouted. Gunnar opens his logbook and starts writing it all down. His father taught him that numbers don’t lie. Even when people do. Iron Rails & Ruin is a steampunk adventure series set in the American West for boys ages 8-14.  New chapters weekly. Narrated by Reed Sterling. Send us Fan Mail Remember: Never stop exploring unknown worlds!

    30 min
  6. Brickhaven: CH 2 | Max Is Taken Prisoner In The Town He Built | LEGO Adventure Audiobook for Boys

    EPISODE 6

    Brickhaven: CH 2 | Max Is Taken Prisoner In The Town He Built | LEGO Adventure Audiobook for Boys

    Max knows this LEGO town better than anyone alive. He built every brick, designed every guard, placed every lamp and fountain. But when he's escorted through the gates of Brickhaven under armed escort, the citizens look away and Krag — the champion Max designed himself — calls him confused, or dangerous. Max gets to see his creation alive for the first time at ground level: the bakery with real bread, the fountain with actual flowing water, the clocktower actually ticking. And then he's exiled through the east gate with nothing. New to Brickhaven? Start at Chapter 1... Brickhaven is a LEGO adventure story for boys 8–14.  00:00:00 — Max arrives at the gates of his own town — and the guards don't know him 00:00:30 — Chapter 2: The Gates of Brickhaven 00:08:15 — Escorted through Brickhaven as a prisoner — his own citizens won't look at him 00:18:15 — Face to face with Crag — the champion Max built to protect the town 00:28:45 — Expelled beyond the walls — into the Destroyer's territory 00:29:00 — CH 3 — What Comes Next New chapters weekly.  Narrated by Reed Sterling. Send us Fan Mail Remember: Never stop exploring unknown worlds!

    29 min
  7. Colony in Danger: CH 10 - Ant Scouts Trapped | Can a Caterpillar Break Them Out? | Ant Audiobook Boys 8-14

    EPISODE 7

    Colony in Danger: CH 10 - Ant Scouts Trapped | Can a Caterpillar Break Them Out? | Ant Audiobook Boys 8-14

    Four fire ant scouts are locked in a jar with no way out. A strange caterpillar arrives with a deal — and the entire wild world hangs on it. Cinder, Blaze, Thistle, and Silas are prisoners in a cracked clay jar deep inside the beetle camp. Escape comes from the last place they expect: Miri Solace, a brightly colored caterpillar who slides through the glass with a proposition. Help her collect three rare leaves — red-veined, yellow-spotted, purple-curled — from dangerous territory, and she'll buy their freedom. But in the west, where the purple leaves grow, Cinder finds something else: a fresh pill bug shell. The enemy is closer than anyone knew. Colony in Danger is a serialized fire ant adventure for boys ages 8–14 and homeschool families.   Biology is accurate. Stakes are real. For fans of Watership Down, the Warriors series, and Empires of the Undergrowth. 📖 Buy Colony in Danger Part 1 audiobook: https://play.google.com/store/audiobooks/details?id=AQAAAEDanHPcuM 📱 Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBW5Z1VJRtjtf23nnptGwRA 📧 Free Ant Codex field reports: https://compass-codex.kit.com/ant-codex-subscribe 🎧 All episodes: https://compassandcodex.buzzsprout.com/ Cinder Marlowe and his crew thought the beetle camp was as bad as things could get — until Miri Solace appeared on the glass of their jar and offered them a way out. In this Colony in Danger chapter, the scouts scatter across hostile territory to collect three types of rare leaves for Miri's cocoon, each one guarded by a different danger. When Cinder reaches the purple leaf patch, he finds a molted pill bug shell — the enemy has been here recently. This homeschool audiobook episode explores real caterpillar metamorphosis, territorial insect behavior, and how butterfly larvae use chemical mimicry to survive. Who is Miri Solace, really — and what does a caterpillar want from a fire ant scout? Would you have taken her deal? Send us Fan Mail Remember: Never stop exploring unknown worlds!

    31 min
  8. Treasure Island: CH 2 | Black Dog Arrives — Then Blind Pew Brings the Black Spot | Pirate Adventure Boys 8-14

    EPISODE 8

    Treasure Island: CH 2 | Black Dog Arrives — Then Blind Pew Brings the Black Spot | Pirate Adventure Boys 8-14

    The pirates have found Billy Bones — and now everything Jim Hawkins knew about his quiet life at the inn is over. A thin, knife-like man named Black Dog arrives at the Admiral Benbow asking for Billy. The visit ends in a cutlass fight, a stroke, and Billy collapsed on his bedroom floor. That same evening, a blind man named Pew taps through the fog toward the inn and presses a black spot into Billy's palm — a pirate's death sentence. Billy dies on the spot. Jim and his mother take only what Billy owes them from his sea chest. But at the very bottom of that chest, Jim finds an oilskin packet sealed with black wax — and the pirates ransacking the inn are looking for exactly that. Treasure Island is Robert Louis Stevenson's classic pirate adventure, adapted for a new generation of boys 8–14.  Narrated by Reed Sterling. For fans of pirate stories, sea adventures, and classic literature brought to life. 🎧 All Compass & Codex episodes: https://compassandcodex.buzzsprout.com/ 📱 Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBW5Z1VJRtjtf23nnptGwRA In this Treasure Island chapter, the threat Billy Bones spent weeks fearing finally arrives — twice in one day. The confrontation with Black Dog establishes what kind of man Billy was and what kind of world Jim has stumbled into. Blind Pew's arrival through the evening fog is one of the most terrifying scenes in classic adventure literature, rendered here in full detail. Jim escapes into the night with a small oilskin packet pressed against his chest — one that pirates are willing to tear apart an inn to find. This pirate audiobook for boys stays faithful to Stevenson's original while making every scene land at full intensity. New chapters weekly! Send us Fan Mail Remember: Never stop exploring unknown worlds!

    34 min
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About

Adventure history and adventure science — fiction stories for boys. Compass & Codex is a serialized storytelling podcast for boys ages 8–14 and the families who read with them. Every episode is a chapter of an ongoing story: fire ant scouts, Roman legions, pirates, and more — told with real biology, real history, and real stakes.  We explore the unknown, every time. Current series: - Colony in Danger (fire ant adventure fiction) - Eagle's Edge (Roman historical fiction).  New chapters every week.  Subscribe and start from Chapter 1.  Hosted by Reed Sterling.  For fans of Watership Down, Redwall, the Warriors series, Empires of the Undergrowth, and anyone who wants adventure fiction that respects the reader.

Information

  • Creator
    Reed Sterling
  • Episodes
    22
  • Seasons
    2
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Compass & Codex
  • Show Website
    Compass & Codex