The Invisible Library is a dense tale, a world building so immense it holds a veritable Library itself in it. Our heroine, Irene Winter, is a creature whose whole existence serves an entity called the Library. Her life has been given over to this service and her superiors expect her to do whatever it takes to complete the tasks they set for her.
This time it’s to retrieve a copy of Grimm’s Fairy tales from an alternative London. She is not told why this particular book is important, it isn’t for her to know. She has certain abilities that allow her to manipulate objects and people. She speaks the language of the Library, and though to others it sounds like their native language, to the Librarians, it allows them to open locks, freeze people’s actions; pretty much anything can happen if the Universe hears her voice speaking the command.
She is to fetch this book, a simple task, with her new assistant, Kai. What she finds, even before she walks into the alternative space, is a colleague who warns her off of the job, a cat burglar named Belphegor, dragons, a mythic Rogue Librarian, zeppelins, Magic, Fae, blackmail, mechanical alligators and centipedes, and all manner of obstacles. This is not turning out to be Irene’s week.
I liked this book but it is an intense experience. The troubles Irene faces don’t give her space to take a deep breath. It’s told entirely from her viewpoint. Irene doubts herself, but she really shouldn’t. She quite competent but in this world it is better that she appear to be Kai’s assistant and Kai be seen as the head of the investigation. The famous detective Vale joins their search for the book and a vampire named Silver is the main bad guy who sends wave after wave of henchmen and creatures after the three good guys. But Irene can’t be sure of anyone’s real motive, even Kai and Vale, as they have secrets.
I’m looking forward to the sequel.
I received this e-book for free in return for my unbiased review.
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