The Invisible Library (The Invisible Library #1) by Genevieve Cogman

The Invisible Library (Invisible Library #1)

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.

My Review:

 

The Invisible Library

By Genevieve Cogman

The Invisible Library is the debut Novel by roleplaying game writer turned book author, Genevieve Cogman. The author claims to have started out on works by Tolkien and Arthur Conan Doyle, and this style is very evident in her writing. The Invisible Library is hailed by critics, as a mixture of Harry Potter and Doctor Who and is in many ways a refreshing take on magic and interdimensional travel.

Many authors have written books in the genres of Science Fiction and Fantasy, and over time, it has become increasingly challenging to create a world or magic system that is unique. The author was very successful in creating something very original here. Very interesting are the Librarians of an invisible Library, located out of time (and in a unique location) that travel though gates to alternate worlds and collect books that are unique to that alternate world. An example would be, additional plays from Shakespeare that were never written on our world. Naturally, such things would be highly coveted and the Librarians of this invisible Library are sent out on missions (many of which are highly dangerous) to retrieve and collect these books.

The author achieves very good character delineation in her book, causing the characters to act in a very natural, multifaceted and three-dimensional way. The antagonists do not seem stereotypical, but are well thought out and engaging.

The author wanted to create a new magical system, and tensions between order-loving Dragons and chaos-infested Fae, and succeeded very well in her world building. The plot moved at a steady pace and it wasn’t slowed down by wordiness or the overuse of description or superfluous dialogue. The book had plenty of action and a good amount of mystery and suspense. These elements show that the author was indeed influenced by Tolkien and Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock.  

The Invisible Library is an extremely well written and enjoyable book. It is not fraught with the usual errors that many debut novels suffer from. I attribute this to the author’s extensive writing history in roleplaying games. Ms. Cogman was further able to create a unique world consisting of many new types of characters and a very intriguing magical system. The book flows naturally from the first page to the last and leaves the reader with a sense of wonder. It also made me want to devour the second book in the series as quick as possible. Genevieve Cogman’s second book, The Masked City, is already available in paperback by Tor. Happy reading!