Book Review: "Libriomancer" by Jim C. Hines
Libriomancer is the first book in Jim C. Hines' newest series, Magic Ex Libris. It's also Jim's first foray into the urban fantasy field. It certainly adds a new and unique twist to that field, even if it does still have vampires in it.
The basic premise is there's a special type of magician in the world, ones who are able to essentially "reach" into the magic created by the readers of books and draw out aspects of that book and make those objects, items, etc, real. These magicians are called libriomancers, and the main character in Libriomancer, Isaac Vainio, is one of those magicians. Unfortunately, he's been put into retirement after he lost control of his magic while in the field protecting the world from this magic while hiding the magic's existence at the same time. Now, he's nothing but a librarian, use of the magic forbidden to him, even though he's still tagging those books with ideas and items that are far too dangerous to be used by libriomancers and so must be "locked". This exile from the field abruptly ends, however, when he's attacked by vengeful vampires, saved when he's forced to use his magic and by the arrival of a longtime dryad "friend". This attack starts Isaac on the road to a return to using magic . . . and opens up the possibility of a war waged between the vampires and the libriomancers. Isaac appears to be the only one willing or able to stop it.
I liked this book, especially as an entry into the urban fantasy field. Yes, it has vampires, but the vampires aren't the main focus of the novel. Instead, the focus is on Isaac and the magic itself, as Isaac first returns to using the magic (thus introducing us to it) and then finding that there are depths to the magic that he never suspected and must explore if he's going to survive and stop the war. So the vampires in the book are mostly being used as tools, which is good, since the urban fantasy field is filled with far too many vampire books in my opinion. This novel--and this series--will have massive appeal to the geek audience out there, the "readers since childhood" who have long wished that they could reach into the books they love and pull out that phaser or that sword or perhaps that crown or ruby necklace. Jim uses that long-lived and buried-deep obsession of the true SF&F fan to capture our imaginations and draw us into the story, having Isaac use it to defend himself, heal himself, and fight for his own survival all at the same time.
If that were it, then the book would be a one-trick pony and could easily be set aside. The saving grace of this book is that there's more. As I said in the summary, Jim takes that basic and powerful idea and then goes beyond it. There are more depths to the magic than simply drawing magical object from the books for use in the modern day world. Isaac discovers that there's more going on with the libriomancers and their powers than he thought. At the same time, he's forced to deal with his relationship with the dryad Lena who saved his life; more importantly, he's forced to deal with her magical nature. Everything he encounters brings up moral questions about the magic and its use, questions that do not have simple or easy answers. In fact, most of those questions aren't really answered, at least not in this book.
Which brings up the ending of this book. I've read some reviews where the readers loved it, and others where readers hated it. My opinion is that it ended exactly the way it should have ended, especially considering the moral questions mentioned earlier. Will the solution work long term? I don't know. I guess we'll have to read book 2 to find out. *grin*
In the end, I think this book is a great entry into the urban fantasy field and its magic will appeal to all of the true reader geeks out there. It's different, fun, yet serious at the same time.
The basic premise is there's a special type of magician in the world, ones who are able to essentially "reach" into the magic created by the readers of books and draw out aspects of that book and make those objects, items, etc, real. These magicians are called libriomancers, and the main character in Libriomancer, Isaac Vainio, is one of those magicians. Unfortunately, he's been put into retirement after he lost control of his magic while in the field protecting the world from this magic while hiding the magic's existence at the same time. Now, he's nothing but a librarian, use of the magic forbidden to him, even though he's still tagging those books with ideas and items that are far too dangerous to be used by libriomancers and so must be "locked". This exile from the field abruptly ends, however, when he's attacked by vengeful vampires, saved when he's forced to use his magic and by the arrival of a longtime dryad "friend". This attack starts Isaac on the road to a return to using magic . . . and opens up the possibility of a war waged between the vampires and the libriomancers. Isaac appears to be the only one willing or able to stop it.
I liked this book, especially as an entry into the urban fantasy field. Yes, it has vampires, but the vampires aren't the main focus of the novel. Instead, the focus is on Isaac and the magic itself, as Isaac first returns to using the magic (thus introducing us to it) and then finding that there are depths to the magic that he never suspected and must explore if he's going to survive and stop the war. So the vampires in the book are mostly being used as tools, which is good, since the urban fantasy field is filled with far too many vampire books in my opinion. This novel--and this series--will have massive appeal to the geek audience out there, the "readers since childhood" who have long wished that they could reach into the books they love and pull out that phaser or that sword or perhaps that crown or ruby necklace. Jim uses that long-lived and buried-deep obsession of the true SF&F fan to capture our imaginations and draw us into the story, having Isaac use it to defend himself, heal himself, and fight for his own survival all at the same time.
If that were it, then the book would be a one-trick pony and could easily be set aside. The saving grace of this book is that there's more. As I said in the summary, Jim takes that basic and powerful idea and then goes beyond it. There are more depths to the magic than simply drawing magical object from the books for use in the modern day world. Isaac discovers that there's more going on with the libriomancers and their powers than he thought. At the same time, he's forced to deal with his relationship with the dryad Lena who saved his life; more importantly, he's forced to deal with her magical nature. Everything he encounters brings up moral questions about the magic and its use, questions that do not have simple or easy answers. In fact, most of those questions aren't really answered, at least not in this book.
Which brings up the ending of this book. I've read some reviews where the readers loved it, and others where readers hated it. My opinion is that it ended exactly the way it should have ended, especially considering the moral questions mentioned earlier. Will the solution work long term? I don't know. I guess we'll have to read book 2 to find out. *grin*
In the end, I think this book is a great entry into the urban fantasy field and its magic will appeal to all of the true reader geeks out there. It's different, fun, yet serious at the same time.
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