I wanted to be a librarian until I learned that they had to work, not read the books. Ugh. Surrounded by books and not one to read, like a castaway with salt water everywhere and not a drop to drink. The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman solves the problem of working vs. reading. Librarians work until they get too old or die or are too badly injured, then retire to read as much as they want as long as they want. Their library is The Library, the library that connects all the worlds by holding books from every world on its shelves.
The catch is the “work” that Librarians do. Stealing, buying, stealing, copying, stealing, absconding with, stealing, trading, acquiring books, however it takes to get those elusive copies into the Library. Think of Shakespeare’s Agamemnon, yes, that type of book, books that are rare even in their home worlds. Which is why stealing is such a handy skill. I can’t think of too many other libraries that hire Librarians for their martial arts skills and none where death in the line of duty is common.
If this sounds fascinating, well, it is. Cogman hit the trifecta on this novel: Intriguing back story, solid writing, interesting characters. And it’s all tied up in a nifty plot.
Backstory
There are many worlds that span from extreme reality with order and logic, to extreme chaos with magic and unusual creature. Dragons rule the reality worlds and Fae own the chaos worlds. Humans exist in all but are basically powerless in the worlds at either end. Fae are completely engrossed in their own, individual stories and humans play bit roles controlled by glamour and the Fae will. Dragons enforce Reality with a capital R; I’m not sure what that would look like other than probably not a lot of fun.
Cogman contains the action in the Library (briefly) and in the London of a single world, one with roughly 19th century technology and considerable magic, also lots of dirt and smoke. Women wear long skirts and aren’t supposed to be in charge.
Cogman uses the characters to show the world and the magic that underpins this London and the Library. It takes skill to show a complicated world and backstory without pages of tedious explanation and she does so.
Characters
Heroine Irene is a young Librarian, sent to acquire a version of Grimm’s fairy tales that is unique to one world. This world is on the normal/chaos boundary, where humans have self will, Fae abound and rule certain countries and London is full of vampires and werewolves. Irene has a new apprentice, Kai, a very young dragon, which is helpful in this London as otherwise no one would take her seriously. Irene loves Sherlock Holmes and is excited to meet Vane, a Sherlock look-alike who wants to solve the mystery of the book’s location after it is stolen (although not by Irene). Irene, Kai and Vane are helped and thwarted by Silver, the Fae ambassador from Lichtenstein (a major power in this world).
As you can see from the characters The Invisible Library is complicated. And it is delightful.
4+ Stars
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