Librarian-spy Irene and her apprentice Kai are back in the second in this “dazzling”* book-filled fantasy series from the author of The Invisible Library. The written word is mightier than the sword—most of the time… Working in an alternate version of Victorian London, Librarian-spy Irene has settled into a routine, collecting important fiction for the mysterious Library and blending in … important fiction for the mysterious Library and blending in nicely with the local culture. But when her apprentice, Kai—a dragon of royal descent—is kidnapped by the Fae, her carefully crafted undercover operation begins to crumble.
Kai’s abduction could incite a conflict between the forces of chaos and order that would devastate all worlds and all dimensions. To keep humanity from getting caught in the crossfire, Irene will have to team up with a local Fae leader to travel deep into a version of Venice filled with dark magic, strange coincidences, and a perpetual celebration of Carnival—and save her friend before he becomes the first casualty of a catastrophic war.
But navigating the tumultuous landscape of Fae politics will take more than Irene’s book-smarts and fast-talking—to ward off Armageddon, she might have to sacrifice everything she holds dear….
INCLUDES AUTHOR INTERVIEW
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Hooray – it’s almost as good as the first in the trilogy! I say hooray and sound surprised because, in my experience, the middle books in trilogies are often necessary evils – they need to say what they do to set up the finale, but are often not the best stories to read by themselves… This one has some moments that clearly feel like setup – the pacing slows, the exposition grows, paragraphs feel just that little bit out of flow – but on the whole it also still reads like a really good story. Now I DEFINITELY can’t wait for the final installment! Unfortunately I have to wait until January… Blecch.
Here’s a taste of the writing in this one. I just love the straightforward, no-nonsense personality of Irene – this scene sees her facing off against one of the villains of the piece. This burst of villainous loquaciousness is a prime example of Cogman’s magnificent use of language and spot-on ability to nail the human condition:
“People want stories. You should know that more than anybody. They want their lives to have meaning. They want to be part of something greater than themselves… Most people don’t want a brave new world. They want the story that they know.”
If you haven’t started the series, you really should!
I picked this up on sale hoping for the best. Instead, I found a surprisingly well written story with a complex plot and well defined characters. By the end of the tale, the book went from “let’s give it a chance” to “I’ need to pick up the rest of this series”.
I enjoyed this book enough that I ended up ordering the others in the series, and look forward to the next one
The Masked City continues the story begun in The Invisible Library about the mysterious Library and the multiple worlds where it collects books. Irene and her assistant/trainee Kai have established themselves in an alternate Victorian London and just when Irene is sure things have settled down- they get interesting again. Kai is abducted, and chances are good its about more than their latest book acquisition. Irene and Vale (this world’s Sherlock Holmes) have to face magic, mystery, and chaos to try and get him back and head off a war. Caught between the dragons on one side and the Fae on the other, Irene has to decide how far she is willing to go, and how much she is willing to give up, to balance the Library’s neutrality with a very personal situation.
Readers who start with this book instead of The Invisible Library will be able to catch up on main characters and basic world building pretty quickly. The Masked City pitches Irene, Vale, and Kai straight into danger and never really lets them catch their breath as they travel to a high-chaos realm of old Venice constantly in Carnival season. It’s a world poisonous to dragons and closed off from the Library. Along with Irene we meet several dragons and learn more about the Fae. Not only does Lord Silver play a slightly larger role here, but new Fae- both enemies and potential allies- are introduced. Because this Venice is so high-chaos, the power of stories plays a large role in the adventure. The trick is hoping the story works in your favor: making you the hero, having someone helpful appear just when needed, etc. Irene needs to not only figure out Fae politics and alliances but also how to manipulate the story to work in her favor.
The Masked City is a fast-paced, witty, clever adventure. I didn’t find it quite as absorbing as The Invisible Library but I enjoyed delving more into Cogman’s world(s). This Venice was a perfect version of everyone’s image of Old Venice. The Fae were a lot of fun, and it was nice seeing a few become allies (at least temporarily). Irene continues to be wonderful- practical, clever, and great in a crisis. She may not think of herself as a heroine but I certainly do!
Although there were sadly no remote controlled alligators- or their Venice equivalent- in The Masked City, it was still a great continuation of the series. Readers be warned, while it doesn’t end on a cliff-hanger, The Masked City will definitely leave you desperately waiting for the next book!
Enjoyable book. Great character. Interesting to see alternative worlds.
I truly enjoy her writing… wish she created series with more books
If you haven’t read the first volume in this series, then … what are you waiting for? You’ll find my review here:
https://www.amazon.com/review/R3A42HO9DSJ5HC/
[SPOILERS]
This second volume is again a fun romp, full of ideas. Irene’s dealings with the Train are especially clever. But this volume also suffers from some flaws the first didn’t have:
1. Info dumps. The first volume did a great job at weaving into the story a great deal of background information. The second volume doesn’t have as much new information to communicate, yet it does so more blatantly.
2. Repetitions. The same information gets repeated, often more than once. Sometimes we get several versions of the same info dump. Sometimes Irene reports the same events to different characters. It gets tiring.
3. The characters do stupid things to facilitate the plot. Right from the start, Irene and Kay, who’ve been attacked already, then warned they were in danger, decide to split for no good reason (just so that Kay can start reporting to Vale first before Irene joined them, which could only save very little time—and there was no countdown involved at this point of the story). Of course, one of them gets kidnapped. And toward the end, Irene lets an enemy inch closer and close to her, during negotiations. Of course, the enemy ends leaping at her. And after beating this enemy, she and Vale let her leave unharmed after she swore to take revenge; Irene even unlocks the door for her! This enemy is a Fae, and if they didn’t want to kill her, they could at least have forced her to promise she would not seek revenge, neither directly nor indirectly, through neither action or inaction. But no. They let her leave, just so she can come back in another book to threaten them and their loved ones.
4. Information gets forgotten. At some point near the start, Vale and Irene discuss Kay’s kidnapping (I like this passage a lot: it *shows* that both characters are smart) and conclude he couldn’t have been kidnapped by his family for several reasons, the clinching one being that a Fae was involved (as Vale found out) and that no dragon would work with a Fae. But then, surprisingly, Irene and Vale get back to discussing the “Was Key captured by a member of his family?” hypothesis, then Irene delivers the same hypothesis to her supervisor (never mentioning Fae involvement), and then again to Kay’s uncle (again, never mentioning Fae involvement).
5. The Language (the “Librarian magic”) gets broader and broader, its limitations vaguer and vaguer. At some point Irene mentions she could just tell a knife to leap to the eye (or heart? I can’t clearly remember) of her enemy, since she knows his name. So why didn’t she do something like that in past, similar circumstances? Also, she did show she could tell an object to find another (or a place). So, can’t she also do the same with a person? Does it mean that no one she knows the name of can ever hide from her? Why didn’t she even try to use this power to find Kay?
Wow. It sounds like I hated the book, doesn’t it? I didn’t. I still intend to read the next opus in the series. But yes, I must admit, after the first volume, I expected better from this one.
How do you save a dragon in choas? Read and find out.