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All Things Urban Fantasy's Reviews > Libriomancer
Libriomancer (Magic Ex Libris, #1)
by Jim C. Hines (Goodreads Author)
by Jim C. Hines (Goodreads Author)
All Things Urban Fantasy's review
bookshelves: august-2012-hotp, reviewed-by-abigail
Aug 09, 12
bookshelves: august-2012-hotp, reviewed-by-abigail
Read in August, 2012
Review courtesy of All Things Urban Fantasy
All kids long for special powers like the ability to fly, become invisible, or read minds. And while I dabbled with dreams of soaring into the sky, it’s the ability so lovingly described in Jim C. Hines’ LIBRIOMANCER that stayed foremost in my mind even into adulthood. Libriomancy is the unbelievably cool ability to reach into books and pull out objects. Hines treats this idea of libriomancy with as much realism as possible. For example, it would make sense that dedicated libriomancers would study books religiously looking for new and wonderful objects. Speculative fiction titles would be of special interest for magical and high tech items. Longtime lovers of SF&F will get a kick out of seeing Lucy’s magical cordial from THE LION, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE, and Paul’s shield belt from DUNE.
The same magic that enables libriomancers to create objects from books has more than a few pesky sideeffects. Reaching into a book with, say, vampires can be dangerous. While reaching for a weapon, the libriomancer is partially made real inside the book which can lead to biting. So not only do vampires run wild in LIBRIOMANCER, but there are different kinds depending on which book they came from. Hines details a number of them including Meyerii aka Sparklers from the Twilight series and a specific Southern variety courtesy of Charlaine Harris.
As much fun as this world was, and as many geektastic Dr. Who references that were packed in, that only really carried my enjoyment for about a hundred pages. After that, the story and characters were on the underwhelming side, specifically the attempted romance. Issac was fun in a beta Harry Dresden way–though not nearly as cool, but Lena was not. She’s a uber alpha dryad that shoulders her way in to rescue Issac early on and unfortunately never leaves. She’s got all the annoying characteristics of typical alpha males, but we’re supposed to be okay with it because she’s a female. Issac gets jerked around by her big time *SPOILER* (view spoiler)
Ultimately, I was left not liking this book. The world and magical ideas were so fantastic, but the story wasn’t anything special and the characters weren’t likable (in Lena’s case) or were too much of a doormat (in Issac’s case) to save it. This will be my first and last read in the Magic Ex Libris series which should see a sequel in 2013.
Sexual Content:
F/F/M Kissing
All kids long for special powers like the ability to fly, become invisible, or read minds. And while I dabbled with dreams of soaring into the sky, it’s the ability so lovingly described in Jim C. Hines’ LIBRIOMANCER that stayed foremost in my mind even into adulthood. Libriomancy is the unbelievably cool ability to reach into books and pull out objects. Hines treats this idea of libriomancy with as much realism as possible. For example, it would make sense that dedicated libriomancers would study books religiously looking for new and wonderful objects. Speculative fiction titles would be of special interest for magical and high tech items. Longtime lovers of SF&F will get a kick out of seeing Lucy’s magical cordial from THE LION, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE, and Paul’s shield belt from DUNE.
The same magic that enables libriomancers to create objects from books has more than a few pesky sideeffects. Reaching into a book with, say, vampires can be dangerous. While reaching for a weapon, the libriomancer is partially made real inside the book which can lead to biting. So not only do vampires run wild in LIBRIOMANCER, but there are different kinds depending on which book they came from. Hines details a number of them including Meyerii aka Sparklers from the Twilight series and a specific Southern variety courtesy of Charlaine Harris.
As much fun as this world was, and as many geektastic Dr. Who references that were packed in, that only really carried my enjoyment for about a hundred pages. After that, the story and characters were on the underwhelming side, specifically the attempted romance. Issac was fun in a beta Harry Dresden way–though not nearly as cool, but Lena was not. She’s a uber alpha dryad that shoulders her way in to rescue Issac early on and unfortunately never leaves. She’s got all the annoying characteristics of typical alpha males, but we’re supposed to be okay with it because she’s a female. Issac gets jerked around by her big time *SPOILER* (view spoiler)
Ultimately, I was left not liking this book. The world and magical ideas were so fantastic, but the story wasn’t anything special and the characters weren’t likable (in Lena’s case) or were too much of a doormat (in Issac’s case) to save it. This will be my first and last read in the Magic Ex Libris series which should see a sequel in 2013.
Sexual Content:
F/F/M Kissing
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Steven
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rated it 5 stars
Aug 09, 2012 02:59am
Aside from having a completely different experience with the book, your spoiler shows up regardless of the spoilers setting of the review, at least on mobile. You might want to double check that.
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Steven wrote: "Aside from having a completely different experience with the book, your spoiler shows up regardless of the spoilers setting of the review, at least on mobile. You might want to double check that."Fixed it :)
Tryingbto phrase this around the spoiler...i thought they all thought 3 at a time was icky and that only Lena made out on that deal (rather fade to black at that presumably as teaser for next book)
I find your description of Lena to be fairly spot on, but I can't say I found that to be a huge problem. There is really no shortage of helpless females in the SF/F genre, so something different is always welcome. However, did you really read the ending? I'm not entirely sure you paid that much attention to it, as there is zero f/f/m kissing as you put it. And certainly it did not seem as if any of the three characters were happy with the solution, other than Lena.
Angela wrote: "I find your description of Lena to be fairly spot on, but I can't say I found that to be a huge problem. There is really no shortage of helpless females in the SF/F genre, so something different is..."To me it read like Lena would be in the middle of that particular sandwich (not that the other two liked the idea), but it seemed to be going there.
