Hugo winner Jim C. Hines’s hilarious and clever Magic ex Libris series, where books come alive and libriomancer Isaac Vainio combats magical threats that spring from the pageIsaac Vainio is a Libriomancer, a member of the secret organization founded five centuries ago by Johannes Gutenberg. Libriomancers are gifted with the ability to magically reach into books and draw forth objects. When Isaac … forth objects. When Isaac is attacked by vampires that leaked from the pages of books into our world, he barely manages to escape. To his horror, he discovers that vampires have been attacking other magic-users as well, and Gutenberg has been kidnapped.
With the help of a motorcycle-riding dryad who packs a pair of oak cudgels, Isaac finds himself hunting the unknown dark power that has been manipulating humans and vampires alike. And his search will uncover dangerous secrets about Libriomancy, Gutenberg, and the history of magic. . . .
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As a retired librarian, the premise of this story – bringing the magic of books to life – intrigued me. I love the idea that the shared love, experience, and belief of a story is what creates its magic. I enjoyed this tale and seeing which books would be used to defeat evil and save the world. The author did a good job of developing the two main characters (plus the fire spider). Other characters weren’t developed quite as thoroughly. I did have to let go of reality completely to buy into so many different magical creatures and 500 year old people. There were times that the plot got bogged down in all these creatures and people – making it a little hard to follow. I also thought the “solution” to the love triangle at the end was hard to accept. For these reasons I would have given it 3.5 stars, but chose to round up because it did keep my interest. However, I’m not sure I’ll continue the series. But for anyone who enjoys an entertaining sci-fi/fantasy read, I would suggest you give it a try!
A Librarian with a magical ability to access everything on the pages of a book. The premise is fun, and almost plausible. Libriomancer was fascinating on many levels.
Great book. Felt like an aspirin novel. Light read with lots of entertainment. Other books in the series are to expensive to read so you might pass on this one if you don’t want to shell out big $$
Wonderful beginning of a series.
Just did not interest me. Sure tried and felt the author was trying hard as well
This isn’t Shakespeare but it was fun, easy to read, with a lot of interesting twists.
Quit reading due to focus on the spider.
Great fun to read, especially if you are a fan of Jason Fforde.
Being a book lover I’m particularly pleased that it combines magic and books.
Want to learn more about this world.
The idea is great, and the story has some funny moments, but the main enemy are vampires. I am not into vampire and zombie books.
Liked the premise of bringing items from books, kept thinking of great books to keep handy. Relationships with other characters not as compelling
A really different take on magic. It’s always great to find something different from the 16-18yo girl who must save the world except she doesn’t know there is magic/fairies/vampires.
Most original book I have read in some time. Storyline pulls you along. This was a fun and unique book and I look forward to reading more books on this topic.
I like that new refreshing take on the use of magic.
An absolutely fun read!
Enjoyed the main character and his flame spider familiar, the unique system of magic, and the fun of a good old-fashioned fantasy mystery. Looking forward to the other three books in the series.
This was a unique twist designed (I think) for those of us who love to read, research and generally enjoy books.
Imaginative and fun. There are more creatures in this than I thought possible. I enjoyed the characters very much and the action was nonstop. I was not too favorable of the Romantic side but still it was good. The magical Solutions were very innovative.
This book was an absolute romp I don’t want to say anything about it to spoil it or give any preconceived notion’s I enjoyed it immensely eight right through it I couldn’t wait for the next one and I was not disappointed.