What I'm reading now...

Genevieve Cogman's Invisible Library series

I read the first in this series soon after it came out, as the premise intrigued me. I mean, a librarian with magical powers who works in a library that maintains the balance between Chaos and Order in the universe - who wouldn't be intrigued?

                

  
Cogman's novels are set in a universe consisting of numerous parallel worlds which exist on a spectrum from those entirely ruled by the Dragons (who represent Order) to those entirely ruled by the Fae (representing Chaos).  The Invisible Library is the human institution that exists in the middle, the librarians acting as spies, diplomats and book thieves in order to maintain balance on all the different worlds.  Librarians live much longer than normal humans, as they don't age within the library itself; they also learn the use of the Language, a magical form of speech which enables them to control the world around them to a limited extent, though its use exhausts them and causes headaches.

The Dragons are a formidable bunch who can look entirely human, though they are much better looking than the average human and most of the powerful Dragons have affinities with specific elements.  Our heroine, librarian Irene Winter, is given a young Dragon prince, Kai, as her apprentice in the first book in the series, and as the novels progress they eventually become lovers, though not without the disapproval of Kai's high status family.  Dragons in this universe are clever, wily, political, and weirdly they all seem to be Chinese.  The Fae, on the other hand, are creatures of narrative, generally taking on the personalities of fictional archetypes such as 'the innocent princess' or 'the manipulative cardinal'.  One of my favourite characters is Lord Silver, a Fae with the persona of a libertine - louche, libidinous, seductive, often very funny.  Another of my favourite characters is Vale, a Sherlock Holmes-type human detective from a steam-punk world where the Fae exist.

I have enjoyed the novels, which is why I'm now reading Book Six, The Secret Chapter, which promises to be a heist story with a James Bond-type super-villain, so therefore a variation on the previous six stories.  Perhaps Cogman intends it as a little light relief.  Which brings me to my criticism of the novels.  I downloaded Book Five, The Mortal Word, when it first came out, but I was reluctant to start reading it.  I kept putting it off and reading other things instead, and I made a couple of false starts.  I finally read it in the past few weeks and it was pretty good overall, but I realised that what I was finding difficult were the very long stretches of dialogue - the long speeches about political nuances that I can't really follow (not because they are too complex but because I am not prepared to put in the mental effort required for a series of novels I'm reading as light entertainment over my lunch or to help me nod off at night).  Don't get me wrong, Cogman can write action sequences brilliantly and the novels often begin with gripping fast-paced escapes and daredevil feats.  They don't lack verve and dynamism. But they do contain a lot of scenes where characters discuss things at length and, between the bits of speech, there is a lot about Irene's thoughts and reactions, and who she needs to be polite to and what such-and-such truly meant by the words he's just uttered.  Often, these long scenes of jibber-jabber end with a revelation that is intended to be shocking but often I can't really understand what the big deal is.  

I think my lack of understanding is because I haven't fully committed myself to this Dragon-Fae continuum, original and imaginative as it is. I don't really understand why the theft of certain books from certain worlds helps to restore the balance, or how ordinary human beings don't appear to have cottoned on to the nature of the world in which they are living.  I'm not fully invested in the universe Cogman has created.  Which isn't to say that the books don't have their strengths - the villainous ex-librarian, Alberich, who first appears in Book Three, for instance.  Cogman is great at writing action scenes and the characters are mostly well-drawn, some very well-drawn, others more off-the-peg.  When she lets herself be funny, the novels come alive, and it is nice to have a feisty, clever, able female protagonist who takes the lead in every adventure. 

The Invisible Library (book 1)

The Masked City (book 2)

The Burning Page (book 3)

The Lost Plot (book 4)

The Mortal Word (book 5)

The Secret Chapter (book 6)


RATING:
The Invisible Library    The Masked City     The Burning Page    The Lost Plot      

****                             ****             ****             ***

The Mortal Word           The Secret Chapter

***                 Not yet finished but so far ****

Key:
*****      highly recommended - a 'must-read'
****         good - well worth taking the time to read
***           ok - will help to pass the time in a boring situation
**            not very good -  just about readable but flawed
*             not recommended - boring, offensive, badly-written or deeply flawed in some other way