Genevieve Cogman
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Synopsis:
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.
My thoughts:
Well, I had moderate expectations. I've heard a number of great things about Genevieve's debut novel, some were met, others were not.
Genevieve Cogman definitely encapsulated what it means to be a reader:
"Right now, she wanted nothing more than to shut the rest of the world out, and have nothing to worry about, except the next page of whatever she was reading."
"The atmosphere of the place soothed her automatically; the rich lantern lights, the sheer scent of paper and leather, and the fact that everywhere she looked, there were books, books, beautiful books."
And there is plenty more quotes not far off from this. If I were to be jealous for anyone writing this story before I had the chance, Genevieve Cogman--- I'm coming for you.
JK. JK.
This book is everything I could want combined. Fast paced, fantasy-steampunk-sci-fi crossover, with everything being subjective to Irene getting this particular version of The Brothers Grimm manuscript.
Now, speaking of our protagonist this is where I got let down. I found Irene dull. She didn't bring anything of interest to the narrative. In my honest opinion, this could have been much more effective in a third person narrative than first. I sympathized with her because of this, but she bought the enjoyment down from the amazing plot sequences that were taking part. I think I was just hoping for a little more sass, yet it never got to that point.
If 'The Library' is hiring, I would love to volunteer. It's not quite a boring job as everyone might think, who else gets to interact with dragons and cyborg centipedes?
This is definitely a book to recommend to all my fellow fantasy bibliophiles.
JK. JK.
This book is everything I could want combined. Fast paced, fantasy-steampunk-sci-fi crossover, with everything being subjective to Irene getting this particular version of The Brothers Grimm manuscript.
Now, speaking of our protagonist this is where I got let down. I found Irene dull. She didn't bring anything of interest to the narrative. In my honest opinion, this could have been much more effective in a third person narrative than first. I sympathized with her because of this, but she bought the enjoyment down from the amazing plot sequences that were taking part. I think I was just hoping for a little more sass, yet it never got to that point.
If 'The Library' is hiring, I would love to volunteer. It's not quite a boring job as everyone might think, who else gets to interact with dragons and cyborg centipedes?
This is definitely a book to recommend to all my fellow fantasy bibliophiles.
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