The Invisible Library (The Invisible Library Novel)

Auch nach mehrfachem Lesen der ersten Kapitel bewundere ich den Einsatz der Sprache, amüsiere mich über die Andeutungen über Kai beim Kennenlernen mit Irene und mit den ersten Begegnungen mit dem Detektiv und dem Botschafter von Liechtenstein, die auch in den nachfolgenden Bänden auftauchen. Nett, wie Irene zum einen die Aufgaben der Bibliothek erklärt und zum anderen Kai von Anfang an eigene Aufgaben überträgt und sich für ihn verantwortlich fühlt. Auch der Detektiv, der an Sherlock Holmes erinnern soll, hat einen interessanten Charakter und seine Frage, was denn nun an der Bibliothek so bedeutsam sei, dass Irene ihr Leben für sie riskiert, wird nicht restlos geklärt. Geht es um mehr als um das Sammeln von Büchern, um die Ursprungswelten vor möglichem Verlust abzusichern? Warum ist Neutralität der Bibliothek und Nichteinmischung in die alternativen Welten so wichtig? Irene allerdings baut persönliche Beziehungen auf in den alternativen Welten, versucht möglichst wenig Schaden bei der Bücherjagd anzurichten und Verbündeten zu helfen.

This read proves how going in with the wrong expectations can hurt a book. I expected some urbanish fantasy with dash of romance instead got a bookish meta-verse with a strong dose of steampunk, fairy-tales and no romance (so far - still hoping for book 2). And I am not a huge fan of steampunk ... or detective stories.

I am not sure this series is for me. This one took too long to get into for me. The plot meandered at the beginning and only took off after the 50% mark and I am not really enamored of the protagonist Irene. At best I find her "student" Kai intriguing. He's got secrets. And that is my motivation to continue because I want to Know.Those.Secrets.

As for Vale ... also too many good Sherlock-filled TV series lately to appreciate yet another Great Detective as portrayed by Vale.

Alberich has potential for an interesting villain until he collapses into a seemingly one-dimensional trope as Irene banishes him from the alternate

I like the Language. The Library itself didn't appeal to me that much although I would like to know more about the its origin story as hinted at in #88... maybe I've had one too many books-meta.

So rather than a review these are more or less notes to myself and trying to understand why I feel the need to rate this with just 3* despite planning to read the next book at some point.

Imagine you could devote your life to hunting down and saving rare books to preserve them forever. Furthermore imagine you did not just search for them in one world, or one time... Imagine you could be a Librarian.

The first thing I noted about the setup was the new approach to the topic of magic. Perhaps the author's experience in roleplay game writing played a part here: The system of the two "magics" seems not only thought out and regulated, but also well-balanced. On the one hand, there is the more classical magic, aligned with chaos, and on the other hand, there is the Language, aligned with order, rationality - and the Library. But - as should be the casein any good story - there are more parties than just one to each of those magical sides.
What I also enjoyed is the amount of strong and sensible female characters in this book. The main character, Irene, is a comparatively young Librarian and decidedly not the perfect heroine. But she does have a string will, a good brain, and enough sense not to become the panting and sighing love interest of some male character or other. The arch enemy is a man, sadly, as are the other minor villains - but, well, you can't always get what you want...
The world of the story is populated by many well-known and beloved creatures of fantasy fiction, but mostly with a little twist, sometimes of a rather humourous nature. There are Fae, vampires, werewolves and - there be dragons.
Neither the reader, nor Irene should take anything at face value - not the good, not the bad, not the ugly.

What I found a little irritating at first was the use of brackets to add comments or background information. But I soon became too enthralled and the brackets got fewer as the story progressed.
Now and again I could guess a plot twist just a bit too soon. But this might be due to the amount of fantasy literature I've consumed in the past already.

I would recommend the book to fans of the "Rivers of London"-series, the "Seiten der Welt"-triolgy, as well as to anyone who enjoys a bit of mechanical apparati causing mayhem and some good zeppelin chases.

I don't know if anyone else bounced off of The Parasol Protectorate books as hard as I did. I wanted to like them, but failed to engage. This book, I think, is in the same niche as them, but I enjoyed it quite a bit, and read it in an evening.

Consider a sort of Thursday Next/Golden Compass pastiche, not too ambitious but determined to have fun. Irene is an agent of The Library, a murky institution at the nexus of worlds, and speaker of The Language, a vaguely defined mechanism for commanding reality. She has junior agent Kai foisted upon her, and goes to do The Library's bidding on a chaotic world, stymied by her old nemesis/mentor, only to discover things are much more dangerous than they seem.

Irene is fun, in that she is the cranky "fuck it!" type of hero, but also just really wants to steal good books and read them, and because she has a fascinating chemistry with her old mentor. Now, it is possible that Irene is not as queer as I want her to be, which would be sad, but she'll always be queer in my heart.

The Invisible Library was such a fun read, something I often think we need more of in our lives. Irene is loyal to her profession, and she is determined to do a good job, not sit around brooding about things. Books are her life. She is particularly fond of detective novels, so meeting and working with a Great Detective is a distraction for her but, ultimately, won’t get in the way of the mission.

There is a definite steampunkesque, Victorian vibe about the alternate she visits in this adventure. However the Library does have email so it’s not necessarily set in the past. Perhaps the Library is outside time, though there are plenty of mentions of long-distance communication devices in other alternates, so I think this one may just be one that hasn’t advanced so much. But they do have airships and clockwork alligators.

Once initiated into the Library, Librarians have the power to use the Language, which is pretty much telling things to do things but with the use of properly defined words and grammar. You have to be careful not to be sloppy with vocabulary and verb choice, as Irene often finds out. The idea is that something must be properly defined for it all to work; a bit like in stories where genies grant wishes but not in the way the wisher intended.

I liked the idea that chaos was what made some alternates more like fiction. The chaos infestation gives worlds things like fae, vampires and werewolves, but also means they have narratives and tropes that aren’t always logical in the real world. Although what exactly is the real world in this universe, who knows. Strangely enough dragons aren’t chaotic, quite the opposite…

The love child of Thursday Next and Gail Carriger’s Parasol Protectorate books, I highly recommend this to readers who love bookish books with a big dollop of adventurous escapism. It’s a bit silly in places but it’s half the charm. I definitely want to read more if this is going to be a series. Please, let it be!

Review copy provided by publisher.