Bookish Thoughts: The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman

Irene passed the mop across the stone floor in smooth, careful strokes, idly admiring the gleam of wet flagstones in the lantern light. ~ Opening from The Invisible Library

The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman

Roc, 2015

Fantasy (Crime Fiction, Urban); 352 pgs
Source: E-copy provided by publisher via NetGalley for an honest review.

Goodreads 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.

What a fun book! A couple people mentioned to me when I was starting this one that it got off to a slow start for them, but I did not find that at all. There was a bit of a slow down when Irene returns to the Library after the book's opening mission that had me trying to work out just what sort of "world" this Library was exactly, but once Irene, joined by her new apprentice Kai, steps into the alternate reality of their latest mission, I was definitely right there with them. 

There is so much to this world Genevieve Cogman has created! The Library itself is an amazing place. People do not age there and it seems endless, taking days and sometimes weeks or months to travel from one place to another. You can travel for days within the Library and not see a single soul. And then the many alternate realities outside the walls of the library--imagine all the directions Cogman can go with the series if she chose to. The Library's purpose seems a bit vague--meaning I think there is more to it than what our main protagonist Irene knows herself. Irene is one of many Librarians sent out on missions to retrieve books from various alternate realities. The Library helps maintain the balance in the world, trying to stave off chaos and help maintain order. 

Generally Librarians are chosen from various realities and bound to the Library and its mission--like Kai, an apprentice not yet Librarian, who was once a ruffian running and stealing with criminals and thugs. Very rare, is someone like Irene, who was born to two Librarians, and spent part of her growing up years in the Library itself. Her entire life has been spent in the service of the Library. She is very dedicated to her work and extremely capable. She has limited, but powerful, magical abilities, which she draws out using a special language only known to Librarians.

The reality Kai and Irene step into has a sort of Steampunk Victorian feel to it. There are Zeppelins flying overhead, vampires, werewolves, and the fae. The fae are a particularly chaotic force, making this version of London unbalanced--and dangerous. There's even a famous private detective who lives on Baker Street who Irene and Kai will have to decide to trust or not. 

This is a busy book in terms of the amount of action and events taking place. The analogy of a roller-coaster comes to mind, given all the ups and downs and the fast pacing. In search for the book, Irene and Kai encounter a number of obstacles, including the glamorous fae, Lord Silver, who also has an interest in the missing book. It seems a lot of people do, actually. I had a lot of fun reading The Invisible Library and getting to know the mysterious Kai, the well-read Librarian spy Irene, and Vale, the tenacious master of deduction. This will not be my last visit to the Library.

To learn more about Genevieve Cogman and her work, please visit the author's website. You can also find her on Twitter and Goodreads.

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