{"id":650,"date":"2018-11-27T09:03:57","date_gmt":"2018-11-26T23:03:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jcreid.net\/blog\/?p=650"},"modified":"2018-11-27T09:03:57","modified_gmt":"2018-11-26T23:03:57","slug":"review-the-invisible-library-series-by-genevieve-cogman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jcreid.net\/blog\/2018\/11\/27\/review-the-invisible-library-series-by-genevieve-cogman\/","title":{"rendered":"Review &#8211; The Invisible Library Series by Genevieve Cogman"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>The Invisible Library<\/li>\n<li>The Masked City<\/li>\n<li>The Burning Page<\/li>\n<li>The Lost Plot<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Writing a book that appeals to bibliophiles seems to me to be the easiest sell in the world.\u00a0 If the idea of an infinitely sprawling library, filled with unique books salvaged from across the multiverse, where time doesn&#8217;t pass for you while you are within its walls doesn&#8217;t appeal to you, I don&#8217;t know why you would read fantasy books at all.\u00a0 Fortunately, the Invisible Library is more than just a good premise.<\/p>\n<p>We start with a cold open of a book heist at an evil Hogwarts, and it manages to give us both a kinetic introduction to the series, and establish Irene as a formidable protagonist unfazed by wizards, gargoyles or hell hounds.<span id='easy-footnote-1-650' class='easy-footnote-margin-adjust'><\/span><span class='easy-footnote'><a href='https:\/\/www.jcreid.net\/blog\/2018\/11\/27\/review-the-invisible-library-series-by-genevieve-cogman\/#easy-footnote-bottom-1-650' title=' Librarians of course name themselves after book characters. '><sup>1<\/sup><\/a><\/span>\u00a0 Over the course of the series there are any number of spins on iconic locations, and Cogman clearly revels in the opportunity to mix magic, technology, and iconic literary and pop culture settings.\u00a0 Our &#8216;home&#8217; setting is a steampunk with vampires Victorian England,<span id='easy-footnote-2-650' class='easy-footnote-margin-adjust'><\/span><span class='easy-footnote'><a href='https:\/\/www.jcreid.net\/blog\/2018\/11\/27\/review-the-invisible-library-series-by-genevieve-cogman\/#easy-footnote-bottom-2-650' title=' More World of Darkness than Study in Emerald.\u00a0 '><sup>2<\/sup><\/a><\/span>\u00a0 and even the Library is a mixture of old shelves, computers, and pneumatic tubes that give it a timeless quality.<\/p>\n<p>The settings however, are just window dressing.\u00a0 What really makes the Invisible Library series are the character relationships.\u00a0 The first book rapidly establishes the mysterious student, an aloof supervisor, a collegiate rival, a thematically appropriate detective, and a not very committed antagonist, and all of these characters are given time to develop personality and connections with each other and Irene.\u00a0 Importantly these characters are allowed to be more than their archetypes, more than one thing.<span id='easy-footnote-3-650' class='easy-footnote-margin-adjust'><\/span><span class='easy-footnote'><a href='https:\/\/www.jcreid.net\/blog\/2018\/11\/27\/review-the-invisible-library-series-by-genevieve-cogman\/#easy-footnote-bottom-3-650' title=' Except for the fae &amp;#8211; in world they literally embody narrative, so are literally just one thing. '><sup>3<\/sup><\/a><\/span>\u00a0 So the evil rival can also be good at her job and share the same goals as Irene, and we can respect her abilities if not her methods.\u00a0 Irene herself is an unusual character, someone in the middle of their career: confident in her abilities, senior enough to supervise, but with room to grow before they reach the top of their profession.<\/p>\n<p>These books are also noteworthy for their tone.\u00a0 Serendipitously, I picked up the Invisible Library straight after finishing <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jcreid.net\/blog\/2018\/11\/27\/review-just-one-damn-thing-after-another-by-jodi-taylor\/\">Just One Damn Thing After Another<\/a>.\u00a0 Both are books where the tone varies between light comedy and violent drama, but only the Invisible Library manages to merge these tones cohesively.\u00a0 Irene can be charmed by a narcissistic fairy or discover a victim skinned alive, and it all feels of a piece.\u00a0 It&#8217;s a universe that spans the breadth of literature, and it therefore feels like anything can happen.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Recommended for bibliophiles everywhere.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If the idea of an infinitely sprawling library, filled with unique books salvaged from across the multiverse, where time doesn&#8217;t pass for you while you are within its walls doesn&#8217;t appeal to you, I don&#8217;t know why you would read fantasy books at all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":672,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,8],"tags":[24,13],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jcreid.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jcreid.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jcreid.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jcreid.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jcreid.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=650"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.jcreid.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":676,"href":"https:\/\/www.jcreid.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650\/revisions\/676"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jcreid.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jcreid.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jcreid.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jcreid.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}