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The Invisible Library ( Book 1)
9
9.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
116 of 230
Kindle
The Invisible Library ( Book 1)
By Genevieve Cogman
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

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.

The Invisible Library is followed by the second adventurous title in the The Invisible Library series, The Masked City.



I thought this was brilliant! It was definitely an appealing concept. Librarians crossed with Sherlock Holmes set in a steam punk environment with supernaturals what’s not to love? This is a new author for me too and I just loved her style. I’m so looking forward reading the rest of this series and more from the author too. I’m a sucker for Dragons too and this has powerful Dragons!
  
The Rage of Dragons
The Rage of Dragons
Evan Winter | 2019 | Science Fiction/Fantasy
7
8.3 (3 Ratings)
Book Rating
Good Africa-inspired fantasy but nothing original
This book takes place in alternative version of pre-historic Africa. The Omehi race were seeking to escape turmoil in their homeland and have invaded a nearby land. They have historically used their magical and strategic advantages to keep the more savage natives, who have significant numerical advantages, at bay.
The story follows the development and move into manhood of one of the lower social classes of the Omehi.
Tau is nothing special, one of the lower classes and only mediocre with a sword. He is hoping to get into the army and find himself so badly injured he can be honourably discharged and have the social standing to ask his love to marry him.
However, early on in his testing for acceptance into the army, he wins a fight with a pathetic noble and his father is subsequently murdered for justice.
The story then follows Tau's travels and training in order to be accepted on his own merit. He is quickly accepted into an experimental set of trainees and his development picks up a gear, thought he keeps hidden his secret desire to kill those nobles responsible for his father's death. Through mixing with magic and extreme training, Tau becomes a force to be reckoned with, but is still to pick the right side to fight against.
The writing style is good, however a number of made-up (I presume) terms are used throughout the book, and it can be quite hard to determine what they mean and who they refer to. This covers the different ranks of the armies, so can largely be ignored, but it is a little jarring for the reader.
The pacing was all over the place. It was slow to get moving, and when it did it quickly ground to a halt again, as we suffered through days and weeks of training. While this was generally for the benefit of the overall story as a whole, it did take some effort to get through. If this was a film, it would have needed a montage for sure.
The plot itself starts fairly basic - one man out for revenge against people he can't possibly beat and using this as motivation to better himself. However the final quarter of the book brings in another aspect and the book significantly improves for that.