The Invisible Library – Genevieve Cogman

Irene must be at the top of her game or she’ll be off the case – permanently…

Irene is a professional spy for the mysterious Library, which harvests fiction from different realities. And along with her enigmatic assistant Kai, she’s posted to an alternative London. Their mission – to retrieve a dangerous book. But when they arrive, it’s already been stolen. London’s underground factions seem prepared to fight to the very death to find her book.

Adding to the jeopardy, this world is chaos-infested – the laws of nature bent to allow supernatural creatures and unpredictable magic. Irene’s new assistant is also hiding secrets of his own.

Soon, she’s up to her eyebrows in a heady mix of danger, clues and secret societies. Yet failure is not an option – the nature of reality itself is at stake.

 

Thanks to Tor books for my Netgalley copy for review.

I don’t know if Genevieve Cogman has plans to revisit The Invisible Library but I hope that she does! I loved the mysterious world that she has given us a glance into, a Library which spans space and dimensions and can open into any world to allow Librarians to collect rare and powerful books.

Anyone who has ever coveted a book will instantly connect with the concept of The Library. If you could step through a door to get an ARC of the first Harry Potter book, or visit Shakespeare and have your copy of Taming of the Shrew signed how could you resist?

Genevieve Cogman introduces Irene, an operative for the Library who is tasked with recovering specific titles from various dimensions and realities for the higher powers within the Library. Irene is resourceful, feisty and thoroughly delightful to accompany on an adventure. We first meet her at the conclusion of a mission and we get a glimpse of her skills and abilities as she escapes capture when her attempts to retrieve a rare volume do not go as smoothly as planned.

At the conclusion of her mission Irene returns to the Library and we first get a taste of this mysterious world. All too soon, however, a new mission is set and Irene travels to a version of London which is quite unlike our own world. Cogman does a fabulous job of merging the reality as we know it yet blending in Faery magic, vampires and Werewolves and also sets a new political power making the dynamics of the city we know so well appear in a very unnatural context.

Adding to the fun of the story is Irene’s partnership with her mysterious trainee, Kai. We have a nemesis for Irene too in the form of rival operative Brandamant – the scenes where they meet were high points in the story for me and the ‘catty’ tension was splendidly scripted. In addition to the personal nemesis was enemy of the Library: Alberich. His presence in the world Irene is operating is an unwelcome shock and adds a new element of danger. Alberich’s name is infamous within the Library and there is even doubt he actually exists – such is the extent of his nefarious reputation.

This is a fantastic fantasy story, and offers so much potential for further expansion. More books would be very welcome and (as I noted previously) I sincerely hope that Genevieve Cogman is going to revisit this world.

So in brief – great fun, humorous, frequently unexpected and leaves me wanting more. Definitely one for the lover of fantasy novels but a very strong 4/5 from this reviewer.