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Magic Ex Libris #3
Unbound
For five hundred years, the Porters have concealed the existence of magic from the world. Now, old enemies have revealed the Porters’ secrets, and an even greater threat lurks in the shadows. The would-be queen Meridiana, banished for a thousand years, has returned in the body of a girl named Jeneta Aboderin. She seeks an artifact created by Pope Sylvester II, a bronze prison that would grant her the power to command an army of the dead.
Michigan librarian Isaac Vainio is powerless to stop her, having been stripped of his power and his place among the Porters by Johannes Gutenberg himself. But Isaac is determined to regain his magic and to rescue his former student Jeneta. With no magic of his own, Isaac’s must delve into the darker side of black-market magic, where he will confront beings better left undisturbed, including the sorcerer Juan Ponce de Leon.
With his loyal fire-spider Smudge, dryad warrior Lena Greenwood, and psychiatrist Nidhi Shah, Isaac races to unravel a mystery more than a thousand years old as competing magical powers battle to shape the future of the world. He will be hunted by enemies and former allies alike, and it will take all his knowledge and resourcefulness to survive as magical war threatens to spread across the globe.
Isaac’s choices will determine the fate of his friends, the Porters, the students of Bi Sheng, and the world. Only one thing is certain: even if he finds a way to restore his magic, he can’t save them all…
Michigan librarian Isaac Vainio is powerless to stop her, having been stripped of his power and his place among the Porters by Johannes Gutenberg himself. But Isaac is determined to regain his magic and to rescue his former student Jeneta. With no magic of his own, Isaac’s must delve into the darker side of black-market magic, where he will confront beings better left undisturbed, including the sorcerer Juan Ponce de Leon.
With his loyal fire-spider Smudge, dryad warrior Lena Greenwood, and psychiatrist Nidhi Shah, Isaac races to unravel a mystery more than a thousand years old as competing magical powers battle to shape the future of the world. He will be hunted by enemies and former allies alike, and it will take all his knowledge and resourcefulness to survive as magical war threatens to spread across the globe.
Isaac’s choices will determine the fate of his friends, the Porters, the students of Bi Sheng, and the world. Only one thing is certain: even if he finds a way to restore his magic, he can’t save them all…
390 pages, Hardcover
First published January 6, 2015
69 people are currently reading
2748 people want to read
About the author
Jim C. Hines
96 books2,373 followersJim C. Hines began his writing career with a trilogy about the irrepressible Jig the goblin, which actor and author Wil Wheaton described as "too f***ing cool for words." He went on to deconstruct fairy tales in his four-book Princess series, made all the world's literature a grimoire in the Magic ex Libris series, and explored the heroic side of spacecraft sanitation in his Janitors of the Post Apocalypse trilogy. His short fiction has appeared in more than fifty magazines and anthologies. Jim has been outspoken about topics like sexism and harassment, and was the editor of the Invisible series—three collections of personal essays about representation in sf/f. He received the Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer in 2012. Jim currently lives in mid-Michigan.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 346 reviews
September 28, 2015
The third in this very clever series about libriomancers (wizards who pull their magic out of books). This one is action packed and the author never holds back in his inclusion of magical characters. There are fire spiders, dryads, a gorgon, a harpy and of course vampires and were wolves and lots more besides. All good fun. I also love the constant literary references when Isaac uses books to source his power. Usually of course they are fantasy novels - is there a Wheel of Time reader out there who could resist the idea of using bale fire in an emergency! Keep writing this series please Mr Hines.
October 6, 2018
This series is very addictive and so much fun. I love the concept of libriomancy (the magical ability to pull useful items out of books) and the references to popular fantasy and sci fi books (guaranteed to have most nerds drooling!)
Isaac Vainio, the main character is a librarian and libriomancer. He used to work as a field agent for the powerful libriomancy group called the Porters, but then he had his magical ability taken away. Now he's depressed and concerned about Jeneta, a young girl entrusted to him to train in the skills of libriomancy who has been kidnapped by an evil woman. Entrapped in a magical device for over 1000 years, Meridiana has escaped and wants to rule the world with her army of the dead and has released magic into the world. Isaac and his friends, including his Dryad girlfriend Lena and powerful sorcerer Juan Ponce de Leon, must find a way to trap her back in her prison before she destroys it.
This is an action packed book with Isaac and his band of friends on the run, trying to work out how to restore Meridiana to her prison. Isaac may be restricted by his loss of libriomancy but he has several other magical tricks up his sleeve and needs more than a little of help from his friends to face the challenges and monsters Meridiana throws at him.
Isaac Vainio, the main character is a librarian and libriomancer. He used to work as a field agent for the powerful libriomancy group called the Porters, but then he had his magical ability taken away. Now he's depressed and concerned about Jeneta, a young girl entrusted to him to train in the skills of libriomancy who has been kidnapped by an evil woman. Entrapped in a magical device for over 1000 years, Meridiana has escaped and wants to rule the world with her army of the dead and has released magic into the world. Isaac and his friends, including his Dryad girlfriend Lena and powerful sorcerer Juan Ponce de Leon, must find a way to trap her back in her prison before she destroys it.
This is an action packed book with Isaac and his band of friends on the run, trying to work out how to restore Meridiana to her prison. Isaac may be restricted by his loss of libriomancy but he has several other magical tricks up his sleeve and needs more than a little of help from his friends to face the challenges and monsters Meridiana throws at him.
December 13, 2020
Qué ocurriría si un ser de 500 años, extremadamente malvado y con un Ejército de Fantasmas amenaza con liberarse de su prisión?
En torno a este argumento se desarrolla la tercera parte de la Saga Magic Ex Libris. Pero aquí nos encontramos a un Isaac Vainio sin magia que fue castigado por el líder de los Centinelas y expulsado de la organización secreta de los libromantes.
A pesar de ello, el bibliotecario está obsesionado con detener a Meridiana y no va a acatar las órdenes de Gutenberg de mantenerse al margen.
Estoy sorprendida porque el autor va superándose a sí mismo e hilando historias cada vez más originales dentro de la trama. Las posibilidades que le da el sistema mágico que ha creado le permiten encontrar recursos únicos que son atrapantes.
Es una obra ágil, que no pierde nunca el ritmo y aquí aparecen con mayor protagonismo algunos personajes muy interesantes, como Ponce de León quien de algún modo comparte algunas vivencias con Isaac y comprende las contradicciones que le generan tanto la organización de los centinelas como el propio Gutemberg.
Recomiendo este libro por su originalidad y le doy cinco estrellas porque Hines logró entusiasmarme con el texto.
En torno a este argumento se desarrolla la tercera parte de la Saga Magic Ex Libris. Pero aquí nos encontramos a un Isaac Vainio sin magia que fue castigado por el líder de los Centinelas y expulsado de la organización secreta de los libromantes.
A pesar de ello, el bibliotecario está obsesionado con detener a Meridiana y no va a acatar las órdenes de Gutenberg de mantenerse al margen.
Estoy sorprendida porque el autor va superándose a sí mismo e hilando historias cada vez más originales dentro de la trama. Las posibilidades que le da el sistema mágico que ha creado le permiten encontrar recursos únicos que son atrapantes.
Es una obra ágil, que no pierde nunca el ritmo y aquí aparecen con mayor protagonismo algunos personajes muy interesantes, como Ponce de León quien de algún modo comparte algunas vivencias con Isaac y comprende las contradicciones que le generan tanto la organización de los centinelas como el propio Gutemberg.
Recomiendo este libro por su originalidad y le doy cinco estrellas porque Hines logró entusiasmarme con el texto.
February 18, 2018
Thanks to Gutenberg, I could no longer pull wands, potions, and light sabers out of books, but when it came to research, give me a well-stocked library and I was a goddamned Merlin.
Isaac Vaino has lost his magic - right when he needs it the most, because without it, how is he going to find his student, Jeneta, who was possessed by a queen hellbent on ending the world?
Oh, and save the world. That too.
In this third book of the Magic Ex Libris series, we meet a more desperate Isaac than in the previous books. He has lost a vital part of himself, been cut off from the Porters, and blames himself for Jeneta Aboderin's disappearance and possession. And when Isaac gets desperate... well, he uses magic tools that are probably not a good idea to use. He attempts to access parts of his locked brain by use of a siren's song, breaks into a satellite blood bank owned by vampires, drinks blood to be able to communicate with a dead Pope... honestly, all signs of a desperate man with knowledge of magic. And all possibly deadly.
At the same time, Gutenberg and the Porters try to minimize the damage wrecked by those who exposed magic to the world. A race against time, as their opponents only need to cause a bit more magical chaos to make people ignore the Porters' attempts at assurance that magic is not real. Eventually, even Gutenberg finds himself needing help.
Specifically; he needs Isaac's help.
This book is written in the same entertaining way as the previous ones - and a lot easier to read than book #2, which I found a tad bit confusing. It has just as many geeky references and witty comments, but also a certain darkness. Isaac has changed. The world has changed. And it will probably never go back to being the same way as before. The story is fast-paced and intriguing and fun, and it feels like it could be something that happens in the world we know today. As if it is actually happening.
Maybe libriomancy is actually real and this is one of the clues left by the Porters' enemies, to expose them...
February 7, 2017
Sometimes you go into a book with expectations, and the book blows those expectations all to hell.
The first two books in the Magic Ex Libris series were fun, pulpy romps through the Upper Peninsula of Michigan (and through the annals of great fantasy and sci-fi literature). We followed librarian cum libriomancer, Isaac Vainio, a man who can use magic to pull things out of books, as he fought off all mess of troubles. As a member of the Porters, a secret society of magic users developed by Johannes Gutenberg, inventor of the printing press, in the 1400s, Isaac and his compatriots were responsible for regulating the magical world and keeping safe the boundaries between fiction and reality. All that went to hell last book when Isaac made some critical errors, a bunch of people he knew were killed and untold damage caused to his town, and was ultimately stripped of his magic by Gutenberg himself. So that's where Unbound opens, with Isaac in the worst emotional place of his life: mourning the loss of his magic, angry and clinically depressed over everything, and guilty over the abduction of his young student, Jeneta, who is now being used by a 1,000 year old sorceress intent on ruling the realms of both life and death using her own terrifying brand of magic, which is like libriomancy times a million.
It's actually pretty dark for a series previously only featuring fun and pulpy romp type stuff. But the dark stuff, instead of weighing it down unnecessarily, gives the story an extra heft. Isaac's emotional life as a character is much, much more interesting in this book than in the first two. For the first time, I can see why he's the POV character in these books, if this was where Hines was planning taking him.
The stakes in this book are also crazy high, and Hines surprised me by not backing down on any of them and not taking the easy way out. The book was fun, yes, but also unexpected, which is always an accomplishment when your readers are so well-versed in the types of stories you want to tell. I thought I had this series (and Hines as an author) pegged, but I was wrong.
Probably the most notable thing about this book and its plot is that what happens in it is going to have far-reaching consequences for the remaining book (books plural if DAW contracts more in the series from him, which I gather is an actual possibility from some comments he's made on his blog). This book changed the world of the series permanently in a huge, huge way, and the possibilities of how the books will allow us to play in that world as readers are practically endless. I hope I'm not setting myself up for disappointment by saying that.
(Literally my only complaint about this book was that the editor and copy-editors didn't catch the all but one instances of 'yeah' being spelled 'yah.' It about drove me up the wall every time I saw it, and completely pulled me out of the story. Since I was really enjoying myself while reading, this was an especially egregious crime. I hope they fix that in future printings, and never again will I have to see that awful non-word in a professionally printed context ever again. Shudder.)
[4.5 stars]
The first two books in the Magic Ex Libris series were fun, pulpy romps through the Upper Peninsula of Michigan (and through the annals of great fantasy and sci-fi literature). We followed librarian cum libriomancer, Isaac Vainio, a man who can use magic to pull things out of books, as he fought off all mess of troubles. As a member of the Porters, a secret society of magic users developed by Johannes Gutenberg, inventor of the printing press, in the 1400s, Isaac and his compatriots were responsible for regulating the magical world and keeping safe the boundaries between fiction and reality. All that went to hell last book when Isaac made some critical errors, a bunch of people he knew were killed and untold damage caused to his town, and was ultimately stripped of his magic by Gutenberg himself. So that's where Unbound opens, with Isaac in the worst emotional place of his life: mourning the loss of his magic, angry and clinically depressed over everything, and guilty over the abduction of his young student, Jeneta, who is now being used by a 1,000 year old sorceress intent on ruling the realms of both life and death using her own terrifying brand of magic, which is like libriomancy times a million.
It's actually pretty dark for a series previously only featuring fun and pulpy romp type stuff. But the dark stuff, instead of weighing it down unnecessarily, gives the story an extra heft. Isaac's emotional life as a character is much, much more interesting in this book than in the first two. For the first time, I can see why he's the POV character in these books, if this was where Hines was planning taking him.
The stakes in this book are also crazy high, and Hines surprised me by not backing down on any of them and not taking the easy way out. The book was fun, yes, but also unexpected, which is always an accomplishment when your readers are so well-versed in the types of stories you want to tell. I thought I had this series (and Hines as an author) pegged, but I was wrong.
Probably the most notable thing about this book and its plot is that what happens in it is going to have far-reaching consequences for the remaining book (books plural if DAW contracts more in the series from him, which I gather is an actual possibility from some comments he's made on his blog). This book changed the world of the series permanently in a huge, huge way, and the possibilities of how the books will allow us to play in that world as readers are practically endless. I hope I'm not setting myself up for disappointment by saying that.
(Literally my only complaint about this book was that the editor and copy-editors didn't catch the all but one instances of 'yeah' being spelled 'yah.' It about drove me up the wall every time I saw it, and completely pulled me out of the story. Since I was really enjoying myself while reading, this was an especially egregious crime. I hope they fix that in future printings, and never again will I have to see that awful non-word in a professionally printed context ever again. Shudder.)
[4.5 stars]
January 6, 2019
I have to admit that Isaac Vainio is one of my all time favorite characters. I mean, he's a librarian and fan of sci-fi and fantasy, and he can magically pull items out of books. And, he has a pet fire spider. How cool is that?! The tables are turned here as Isaac can no longer access his powers. Given the circumstances, this makes him a little desperate and reckless. Even though Unbound is a bit different than the previous installments, I still enjoyed it just and I particularly liked getting to meet Juan Ponce de Leon here. Anyway, if you can't already tell I love this geeky series so much! I can't wait to read book four, Revisionary.
September 21, 2016
Ok. Esto definitivamente es una adicción. Me sorprende libro a libro el ingenio del autor, como incorpora elementos de otros libros a su universo de forma original y la magia que presenta.
Es muy creativo y único. Hacía rato que no leía tan buen fantasy!
Es muy creativo y único. Hacía rato que no leía tan buen fantasy!
August 15, 2016
Unbound is the third book of the Magic ex Libris series by American author, Jim C. Hines. Isaac Vainio feeling guilty and depressed that a young teen in his care, Jeneta Aboderin has disappeared. And because Johannes Gutenberg has locked his magic, his efforts to find her need to be even greater. But, as handicapped as he is, Isaac’s determination, with a lot of help from his dryad lover Lena Greenwood and her lover, Dr Nidhi Shah, finally leads to the identification and location of the spirit which has possessed Jeneta’s body, a woman who has control of the multitudinous Ghost Army and intends rule the world.
Isaac just has to work out how to stop her and save Jeneta, all without the support and approval of the Porters. Luckily, he has managed not to alienate everyone, despite seeming to be a magnet for trouble. Certain werewolves assist, and eventually the fugitive Spanish magician, Juan Ponce de Leon comes to his rescue. Also useful are a Mary Poppins umbrella, a disco ball, a Triumph that converts to a space ship and mirror sunglasses, although none of these prevent a certain Copper River house from being burnt down.
With the premise of magically extracting objects and creatures from the printed page, it is soon apparent that the potential for magic and tricks is as endless as the imagination of fantasy authors. Hines once again fills his tale with plenty of humour, and manages to include a Siren, vampire satellite blood banks, an rather nasty angel, a fake new eighth Harry Potter book, wood-and-metal automatons, Death, and much more. Isaac has to suffer becoming a newt, and both he and Smudge feel the effects of looking into a gorgon’s eyes.
Between the chapters, Hines uses a series of emails, promotional fliers, press releases, news reports, web posts, an FBI file, news items and letters as a device to detail background events and public opinion. Once again, his plot is original and imaginative, with an exciting climax; his characters are appealing, and the nett result is a clever, witty, laugh-out-loud funny read. Some editions feature an extract of the 4th book in the series, Revisionary
Isaac just has to work out how to stop her and save Jeneta, all without the support and approval of the Porters. Luckily, he has managed not to alienate everyone, despite seeming to be a magnet for trouble. Certain werewolves assist, and eventually the fugitive Spanish magician, Juan Ponce de Leon comes to his rescue. Also useful are a Mary Poppins umbrella, a disco ball, a Triumph that converts to a space ship and mirror sunglasses, although none of these prevent a certain Copper River house from being burnt down.
With the premise of magically extracting objects and creatures from the printed page, it is soon apparent that the potential for magic and tricks is as endless as the imagination of fantasy authors. Hines once again fills his tale with plenty of humour, and manages to include a Siren, vampire satellite blood banks, an rather nasty angel, a fake new eighth Harry Potter book, wood-and-metal automatons, Death, and much more. Isaac has to suffer becoming a newt, and both he and Smudge feel the effects of looking into a gorgon’s eyes.
Between the chapters, Hines uses a series of emails, promotional fliers, press releases, news reports, web posts, an FBI file, news items and letters as a device to detail background events and public opinion. Once again, his plot is original and imaginative, with an exciting climax; his characters are appealing, and the nett result is a clever, witty, laugh-out-loud funny read. Some editions feature an extract of the 4th book in the series, Revisionary
March 8, 2015
Pretty good continuation of this contemporary fantasy series - at least this one didn't end on a near-cliffie like the previous book.
May 6, 2015
For some reason, this book is not as good as the first two in the series. It’s not a bad book, but there is something almost lacking. I can’t quite put my finger on it.
The really great thing about the book is that Isaac is surrounded by strong women who are strong in different ways, but none of whom needs Isaac to save them. In fact, he usually needs them. (And before someone starts wondering about why Isaac is the central character – well Hines did do the Princess novels).
It’s an enjoyable book, in particular with a good ending. Hines is also a writer who is not afraid to take risks, so he gets points for that as well.
May 19, 2015
4.75 stars
Unbound is the best book in the series so far and a game changer - and Porters fight to keep the things under control.
There is so much to like about this book. Like previous two books, it is catnip for geeks. From Firefly to Back to the Future, from Star Wars to Star Trek, from Ray Bradbury to Frank Herbert, the novel will make you insanely happy if you have a single geek bone in your body. The very idea of libriomancy is absolutely fantastic - imagine just reaching into the book and getting you own lightsaber!
But, Hines isn't afraid to take risks - not only by changing his world, but forcing his protagonist to take on a great threat without his powers and while suffering from depression. Isaac has to put his knowledge, his imagination and, yes, geekiness to use. The sense of guilt and responsibility makes him want to solve all the problems alone, distancing him from his friends, but the situation is too dire and he has to accept help even from some unsavory creatures. Lena, Nidhi and Smudge (go, fire spider!) are once again at his side, but Ponce de Leon brings additional depth (and humor) to the team and the story. Additional points to Hines to making De Leon's relationship with Johannes Gutenberg a non-issue and Triumph convertible that turns into .
The novel is suspenseful, emotional, humorous, a celebration of books and imagination in general. It wraps up some major character arcs and opens a world of possibilities for the future books. I could write so much more about it, but I'll just tell you - read this series NOW!
Unbound is the best book in the series so far and a game changer - and Porters fight to keep the things under control.
There is so much to like about this book. Like previous two books, it is catnip for geeks. From Firefly to Back to the Future, from Star Wars to Star Trek, from Ray Bradbury to Frank Herbert, the novel will make you insanely happy if you have a single geek bone in your body. The very idea of libriomancy is absolutely fantastic - imagine just reaching into the book and getting you own lightsaber!
But, Hines isn't afraid to take risks - not only by changing his world, but forcing his protagonist to take on a great threat without his powers and while suffering from depression. Isaac has to put his knowledge, his imagination and, yes, geekiness to use. The sense of guilt and responsibility makes him want to solve all the problems alone, distancing him from his friends, but the situation is too dire and he has to accept help even from some unsavory creatures. Lena, Nidhi and Smudge (go, fire spider!) are once again at his side, but Ponce de Leon brings additional depth (and humor) to the team and the story. Additional points to Hines to making De Leon's relationship with Johannes Gutenberg a non-issue and Triumph convertible that turns into .
The novel is suspenseful, emotional, humorous, a celebration of books and imagination in general. It wraps up some major character arcs and opens a world of possibilities for the future books. I could write so much more about it, but I'll just tell you - read this series NOW!
ugh
November 27, 2018DNF - PG 107
Why?
*weeps inconsolably*
I consider Hines one of my favorite authors. This dud hasn't changed that - though it has cooled my burgeoning interest in urban fantasy.
Anyway, Isaac Vainio annoys the stuffing out of me in this book. In the previous two, he was mostly likable in a typical 'aw-shucks, nothing special but really superspecial' typical UF lead. His friends, who he was seldom away from, humanized him. But in this book... He's depressing, depressed, got his head shoved up his own ass, and is going to get himself and everyone around him killed. I hate him. And considering how little time he spends in the first hundred pages around his 'friends' - without paying a sanguinist in their blood - there is little redeeming qualities to Isaac. He even repeatedly leaves Smudge behind. Oh, but only after actually making the spider afraid of him.
So... Yeah. Looking forward to the next in the Janitors of the Post-Apocalypse, even if I do have to wait til next year. I know Isaac won't be keeping me company until then.
Why?
*weeps inconsolably*
I consider Hines one of my favorite authors. This dud hasn't changed that - though it has cooled my burgeoning interest in urban fantasy.
Anyway, Isaac Vainio annoys the stuffing out of me in this book. In the previous two, he was mostly likable in a typical 'aw-shucks, nothing special but really superspecial' typical UF lead. His friends, who he was seldom away from, humanized him. But in this book... He's depressing, depressed, got his head shoved up his own ass, and is going to get himself and everyone around him killed. I hate him. And considering how little time he spends in the first hundred pages around his 'friends' - without paying a sanguinist in their blood - there is little redeeming qualities to Isaac. He even repeatedly leaves Smudge behind. Oh, but only after actually making the spider afraid of him.
So... Yeah. Looking forward to the next in the Janitors of the Post-Apocalypse, even if I do have to wait til next year. I know Isaac won't be keeping me company until then.
February 20, 2015
I tried, I tried. Maybe I should read it a third time just to make sure, but this was a very *very* disappointing third entry in a series that had the potential to be one of the best. I now see that a fourth entry is planned with a title that possibly suggests time travel? It would be the only way to undo many of the meta-plot occurrences, but I really hope that isn't the solution.
I was amazed at just how predictable Unbound was. I admit that I am hard on this series because of how cool the entire concept is. I just felt that it could've been something really really great, but I kept finding myself making little predictions as I turned the page, and more and more they kept turning out to be right.
When the next book comes out I will re-read all four of them together, and maybe the big picture will bring it all together, but this point I'm not sure it can.
April 17, 2015
As I recall, I thought the first two books in this series were entertaining, and at least somewhat original. This third, I think concluding, book, however, was pretty weak. Silly and contrived, and superficial its treatment of suddenly shallow characters, with far too much deus ex machina plot fillers and superpowered capabilities on the part of the suddenly heroic protagonist. Disappointing in comparison to the earlier books.
August 27, 2015
Issac Vainio, his fire-spider Smudge, and the tree dryad warrior Lena are back in a brand new adventure in the Magic Ex Libris Universe! When Issac's apprentice Jeneta is possessed by a magical ghost named Meridiana who plans to use her libriomancer powers to bring an army of the dead to life with the books through her e-reader, Issac must figure out a way to stop the ghoul before people die. Can he trust the Porters again after Gutenberg sealed his magic as well as the Sorcerer Juan Ponce De Leon to help him or will the world die? Read on and find out for yourself.
This was a great third installment of the magic ex libris series. fan of books about books and bringing things to life out of books definitely need to check this series out as I am still enjoying it. You can find this book as well as the rest of the series starting with Libriomancer at your local library and wherever books are sold.
This was a great third installment of the magic ex libris series. fan of books about books and bringing things to life out of books definitely need to check this series out as I am still enjoying it. You can find this book as well as the rest of the series starting with Libriomancer at your local library and wherever books are sold.
December 14, 2016
I enjoyed this much more than Codex Born as it was more about advancing the overall plot, than a running fight scene. It also did a lot more world-building and world-explaining than its predecessor. I'm looking forward to the final book in the series being published next year.
August 1, 2015
One of the hazards of being a bibliophile is that books one wants to read sometimes vanish into piles of other books one wants to read.
This is what happened with this ARC that I received last year. Sorry about that.
Anyway: I felt it dragged a bit during the middle, but it definitely made up for it by the end. Still very much a bibliogeek wish-fulfillment series. Not that there's anything wrong with that! Isaac's enthusiasm upon seeing amazing things is part of the book's charm, and I particularly enjoyed the relevance of teenage dungeon-crawling adventures in the climax and denoument.
Wait, this spellchecker doesn't recognize "denoument"? Bite me, Goodreads.
Anyway, the fact is that analyzing these books would just take all the fun out of them. Read 'em or not, depending on your personal level of sfnal geekiness.
This is what happened with this ARC that I received last year. Sorry about that.
Anyway: I felt it dragged a bit during the middle, but it definitely made up for it by the end. Still very much a bibliogeek wish-fulfillment series. Not that there's anything wrong with that! Isaac's enthusiasm upon seeing amazing things is part of the book's charm, and I particularly enjoyed the relevance of teenage dungeon-crawling adventures in the climax and denoument.
Wait, this spellchecker doesn't recognize "denoument"? Bite me, Goodreads.
Anyway, the fact is that analyzing these books would just take all the fun out of them. Read 'em or not, depending on your personal level of sfnal geekiness.
March 26, 2015
I really struggled with my feelings on this book. I can't help feeling that the author has lost control of his world. It's like he didn't want to write the series he started, so he's tried to morph it into something else. I can appreciate an author who resists milking a fat premise to death, but the massive changes and reveals in this book just seem too much to come back from.
(mild spoilers)
Aside from all of the world changing events, the main character is revealed to be just... not the man he was in book one. A brief blurb between chapters shows he has a niece who has been suffering from painful, life altering medical issues for years, yet he hasn't used his magic to help. I just can't reconcile that with the guy in books one and two.
I'll probably reluctantly read another in the series just hoping to be proved wrong.
(mild spoilers)
Aside from all of the world changing events, the main character is revealed to be just... not the man he was in book one. A brief blurb between chapters shows he has a niece who has been suffering from painful, life altering medical issues for years, yet he hasn't used his magic to help. I just can't reconcile that with the guy in books one and two.
I'll probably reluctantly read another in the series just hoping to be proved wrong.
March 4, 2025
Isaac and friends have returned in, “Unbound” , the third in the Libriomancy series. I will be one to say, I think this series gets better and better as the series goes on. This book was by far my favorite of the series. In this book, Isaac and the Porters are fighting enemies on both ends. They are fighting the rise of the Ghost Army and its mysterious leader, while also fighting off the rest of the world as Bei’s army has revealed the magic of the Porters to the rest of the world. Add to that, Isaac is no longer a Porter; he has no magic to use to help in this book. Will Isaac be able to stop the ghost army and get Jenetia back? Or will she be another casualty in the war against a magic so great, it may just be undefeatable?
Although I was furious at Gutenberg for taking away Isaac’s magic in the last book, this book was amazing in that we get to see how amazing Isaac is even without magic. He can’t use book magic, he is cut off from the knowledge of the porters, he is about to lose his job and only source of income, and he has made so many enemies that he doesn’t have alot of places to turn to for help. And yet, he is the first of everyone to figure out Meridiana’s identity. He is the first to gain access to the poetic prison Meridiana’s mentor, Gerbert, put her in. He is the only one who researches and figures out the answer to defeating her. Time and time again, Isaac has put himself in danger to essentially save the world. And time and time again, he is smacked down for doing what nobody else has the ability or guts to do. Many times in the book, Nidhi and Lena are understandably worried about Isaac. He has been taken on more than he should be able to handle. The fact that he gets rid of Meridiana, saves Jenetia, and kills half the ghost army with essentially no help from the Porters just shows me how awesome of a reader Isaac is. And I love that the hero of the story time and time again is not someone big or buff. It’s not the most powerful character either. But Isaac by far is the most read, and that fact saved the day every single book. He was honestly awe inspiring.
Another thing I really loved about this book was the face that we got to see Juan Ponce de Leon come out of retirement. Juan Ponce was always an interesting character; an elusive sorcerer who always seemed to know what was going on despite being exiled year prior. Because of the danger Isaac and his team were facing, Ponce steps in and assists. I truly hope this is not the last we will see of him though, because he was such a bad-ass and so easily a bad-ass. Him and his cane reminds me of the blind dude from the John Wick movie. He started moving that cane around and anything was possible. He was able to shove an adult devourer back to where it came from and explode the source so it could not come back! I was like, dude, where have you been the entire series? I also thought the relationship between Ponce and Gutenbergy was eerily similar to that of Dumbledore and Grindelwald, two of the most powerful wizards in the HP universe. Like Dumbledore and Grindelwald, Ponce and Gutenberg appeared to be lovers. I wish that was explored more before Gutenberg was killed. Gutenberg was a pain in my ass most of the book for wanting to assume total control over magic, however, we seen his more human side in this book, and his death did shock me because it was so sudden and he just always seemed too powerful to be killed so easily, But like Dumbledore, he let his ego cause his demise. Dumbledore believed himself able to handle a Horcrux without issue, and Gutenberg under-estimated how libriomancy could be used and turned against the user.
Lastly, I really loved how this book explored what would happen if magic was known as a sure thing around the world. The book brought up some really good points: Magic could cure so many people if allowed to be used, nobody would ever have to die of diseases; people’s general well-beings would be improved. However, we also saw how scared that made people of the unknown and how quickly that fear could turn to resentment and anger. We saw with Gutenberg’s demise that those who wanted control over magic may not have wanted control of it for the best of reasons. We also saw why Gutenberg locked some books; kept them from being used for libriomancy. Some things should only exist in fiction, bringing them to the real world can have dire consequences. But who were the Porters to play God and make those choices? Very interesting questions. It looks like that’s what alot of the next book follows up on. I’m curious where this will lead the series. I wasn’t originally going to continue; this book ends on a nice enough note that I didn’t feel inclined to continue, however the subject of the next book has intrigued me enough to want to finish it out.
One thing that made me rate this book a 4 star and not a 5 star was the world building. I didn’t quite understand how Gerbert locked Meridiana into a poem that Isaac was able to somehow re-create. The magic of that never made alot of sense. There are other parts of the book where it’s heavy in theorizing about the way that magic works, and it made me realize how little I actually understood about the world/universe of the book. There were also some things that happened, like Isaac flying into space to retrieve blood from an interspace vampire blood storage, that felt like the last “Fast & Furious” movie. It was over the top and sometimes unnecessarily involved when it would have been easier to understand if the author just kept it simple. I didn’t feel like it took too much away from the book overall. I still understood what was happening enough to enjoy reading, but it was something that was frustrating at times.
Book Quotes:
“Modern fantasy is little more than juvenile escapism and anachronistic longing for a time that never existed. I’ve never understood the appeal.”
Although I was furious at Gutenberg for taking away Isaac’s magic in the last book, this book was amazing in that we get to see how amazing Isaac is even without magic. He can’t use book magic, he is cut off from the knowledge of the porters, he is about to lose his job and only source of income, and he has made so many enemies that he doesn’t have alot of places to turn to for help. And yet, he is the first of everyone to figure out Meridiana’s identity. He is the first to gain access to the poetic prison Meridiana’s mentor, Gerbert, put her in. He is the only one who researches and figures out the answer to defeating her. Time and time again, Isaac has put himself in danger to essentially save the world. And time and time again, he is smacked down for doing what nobody else has the ability or guts to do. Many times in the book, Nidhi and Lena are understandably worried about Isaac. He has been taken on more than he should be able to handle. The fact that he gets rid of Meridiana, saves Jenetia, and kills half the ghost army with essentially no help from the Porters just shows me how awesome of a reader Isaac is. And I love that the hero of the story time and time again is not someone big or buff. It’s not the most powerful character either. But Isaac by far is the most read, and that fact saved the day every single book. He was honestly awe inspiring.
Another thing I really loved about this book was the face that we got to see Juan Ponce de Leon come out of retirement. Juan Ponce was always an interesting character; an elusive sorcerer who always seemed to know what was going on despite being exiled year prior. Because of the danger Isaac and his team were facing, Ponce steps in and assists. I truly hope this is not the last we will see of him though, because he was such a bad-ass and so easily a bad-ass. Him and his cane reminds me of the blind dude from the John Wick movie. He started moving that cane around and anything was possible. He was able to shove an adult devourer back to where it came from and explode the source so it could not come back! I was like, dude, where have you been the entire series? I also thought the relationship between Ponce and Gutenbergy was eerily similar to that of Dumbledore and Grindelwald, two of the most powerful wizards in the HP universe. Like Dumbledore and Grindelwald, Ponce and Gutenberg appeared to be lovers. I wish that was explored more before Gutenberg was killed. Gutenberg was a pain in my ass most of the book for wanting to assume total control over magic, however, we seen his more human side in this book, and his death did shock me because it was so sudden and he just always seemed too powerful to be killed so easily, But like Dumbledore, he let his ego cause his demise. Dumbledore believed himself able to handle a Horcrux without issue, and Gutenberg under-estimated how libriomancy could be used and turned against the user.
Lastly, I really loved how this book explored what would happen if magic was known as a sure thing around the world. The book brought up some really good points: Magic could cure so many people if allowed to be used, nobody would ever have to die of diseases; people’s general well-beings would be improved. However, we also saw how scared that made people of the unknown and how quickly that fear could turn to resentment and anger. We saw with Gutenberg’s demise that those who wanted control over magic may not have wanted control of it for the best of reasons. We also saw why Gutenberg locked some books; kept them from being used for libriomancy. Some things should only exist in fiction, bringing them to the real world can have dire consequences. But who were the Porters to play God and make those choices? Very interesting questions. It looks like that’s what alot of the next book follows up on. I’m curious where this will lead the series. I wasn’t originally going to continue; this book ends on a nice enough note that I didn’t feel inclined to continue, however the subject of the next book has intrigued me enough to want to finish it out.
One thing that made me rate this book a 4 star and not a 5 star was the world building. I didn’t quite understand how Gerbert locked Meridiana into a poem that Isaac was able to somehow re-create. The magic of that never made alot of sense. There are other parts of the book where it’s heavy in theorizing about the way that magic works, and it made me realize how little I actually understood about the world/universe of the book. There were also some things that happened, like Isaac flying into space to retrieve blood from an interspace vampire blood storage, that felt like the last “Fast & Furious” movie. It was over the top and sometimes unnecessarily involved when it would have been easier to understand if the author just kept it simple. I didn’t feel like it took too much away from the book overall. I still understood what was happening enough to enjoy reading, but it was something that was frustrating at times.
Book Quotes:
“Modern fantasy is little more than juvenile escapism and anachronistic longing for a time that never existed. I’ve never understood the appeal.”
February 25, 2015
This is the third installment of this book series- Magic Ex Libris. For those readers that are not really a fan of Science Fiction / Fantasy, this is a "must" read series (best to start from the first one). The imagination that Jim Hines used to intertwine his stories with history is absolutely superb and brilliant. Who would have thought to use the words of a book as magic to wielded by someone.
You have an evil woman trapped within a very intricately designed metal sphere of bronze that was designed by Gerbert d'Aurillac!
This storyline is outstanding and is one that cannot be missed. The cover art of the book cover is the best so far!
You have an evil woman trapped within a very intricately designed metal sphere of bronze that was designed by Gerbert d'Aurillac!
This storyline is outstanding and is one that cannot be missed. The cover art of the book cover is the best so far!
January 15, 2016
Originally published at Reading Reality
I love this series. But then, I would. It is an urban fantasy where the hero is a librarian who loves SF and fantasy. Isaac Vainio is someone who I would want to know. Hell, someone I would want to be, as long you throw in a gender swap.
This series is all about the magic in books, and the way to literally draw that magic out and make it act in the real world. Unfortunately, not all magic users, just like not all people in general, are hero material. Some are anti-hero material, and some are unequivocally villain material.
Unbound, which follows directly from Codex Born is an even darker book than its predecessor. And now that the fourth book in the series, Revisionary, has come out, I’m starting to think that we have two middle books, Codex Born and Unbound. While the immediate evil is vanquished in Unbound, things still feel kind of bleak.
(Confession, I started Revisionary the minute I finished Unbound, and the situation just keeps getting darker. This may be reflecting on my sense that Unbound is darker than Codex Born.)
In Unbound, Isaac is trying to clean up the mess he feels he created at the end of Codex Born. He is also battling extreme depression through the first half of the story. At the end of Codex Born, a young girl that he was mentoring was captured by an evil sorceress and would-be empress of the world. That sorceress, Meridiana, has take control of Jeneta Aboderin’s body and magic, in addition to the Ghost Army she already controlled.
She is using Jeneta for her unique skill – Jeneta is the only libriomancer, so far, who can draw magic out of ebooks. One of the limits on the power of most libriomancers is that they are limited to the books that are available to tham at any given time. Even a long coat with LOTS of pockets has some practical limits on how many paperbacks it can hold. Jeneta can carry the entire Library of Congress in her ereader.
And after the debacle where Isaac lost Jeneta, Gutenberg chose to punish him by throwing him out of the magic-wielding Porters and taking away his magic, but not his memory of it. So Isaac remembers everything that he has lost, and it’s killing him. He goes on a mad, obsessive quest to undo the wrong he has done by finding and saving Jeneta. He doesn’t seem to care whether he survives.
Instead, in battle after battle, whether magical, physical, or merely bibliographic, Isaac gets closer to the secret of Meridiana and her possession of Jeneta than the entire collective efforts of the Porters manage to do.
The price of expiating Isaac’s guilt is going to be very, very high – and it will change the world. Whether for better or for worse is a story that will be told in Revisionary.
Escape Rating A: The pace of this story is utterly relentless — breaks for breath are few and far between, both for the reader and for the characters in the story. At first, that’s because Isaac feels so guilty that he can’t let himself stop, and later it’s because once he gets close to the forces of evil, they don’t let up on their attacks on him.
This is not a place to start this series. That would be the first book, Libriomancer. The action in Unbound, and the way that the backstories of all the characters influence that action, are necessary in order to be fully invested in the events of this story. Also Libriomancer is just plain fun, even though the shadows on Isaac’s horizon are definitely forming by the end of that story.
In Unbound, we get a much deeper view of the way that the Porters both do and especially don’t work. In suppressing the knowledge of magic for five centuries, Johannes Gutenberg has also successfully suppressed humanity’s ability to deal with the existence of magic. And his autocracy within the organization he created has also suppressed the Porters ability to deal with the real world around them, and with each other.
In Unbound, as the title indicates, everything fall apart. The structures and restrictions that the Porters have relied upon for centuries all come unglued. And while in the end that might be a good thing, in the short and medium term, all that results is chaos. It’s ugly. Well written and totally absorbing, but ugly to watch. It’s obvious that the future is not going to be pretty, even if everyone survives to see it.
Isaac, as usual, generally goes in with half a plan, half a prayer, and a whole lot of luck. Sometimes he doesn’t so much succeed as fail upwards. He also has no compunction about sacrificing himself for what he sees as the greater good, even if he might be wrong. One of the interesting things going on is that Isaac makes friends, where Gutenberg seems to have mostly made either enemies or sycophants. The contrast in those two styles is going to have a marked effect on the future.
Isaac has kind of an everyman, or at least every-magic-user quality to him. He’s not particularly handsome, and he doesn’t see himself as particularly brave. He doesn’t even see himself as especially intelligent, at least compared to the rest of the Porters. But he is always extremely determined, and that’s what usually wins the hour, which is enough to move to his next half-a-plan.
So we have an urban fantasy series with an everyman hero and a particularly cool kind of magic saving the world from the chaos that he creates as well as the evil that he is reacting to. And it will keep you on the edge of your seat every minute.
I love this series. But then, I would. It is an urban fantasy where the hero is a librarian who loves SF and fantasy. Isaac Vainio is someone who I would want to know. Hell, someone I would want to be, as long you throw in a gender swap.
This series is all about the magic in books, and the way to literally draw that magic out and make it act in the real world. Unfortunately, not all magic users, just like not all people in general, are hero material. Some are anti-hero material, and some are unequivocally villain material.
Unbound, which follows directly from Codex Born is an even darker book than its predecessor. And now that the fourth book in the series, Revisionary, has come out, I’m starting to think that we have two middle books, Codex Born and Unbound. While the immediate evil is vanquished in Unbound, things still feel kind of bleak.
(Confession, I started Revisionary the minute I finished Unbound, and the situation just keeps getting darker. This may be reflecting on my sense that Unbound is darker than Codex Born.)
In Unbound, Isaac is trying to clean up the mess he feels he created at the end of Codex Born. He is also battling extreme depression through the first half of the story. At the end of Codex Born, a young girl that he was mentoring was captured by an evil sorceress and would-be empress of the world. That sorceress, Meridiana, has take control of Jeneta Aboderin’s body and magic, in addition to the Ghost Army she already controlled.
She is using Jeneta for her unique skill – Jeneta is the only libriomancer, so far, who can draw magic out of ebooks. One of the limits on the power of most libriomancers is that they are limited to the books that are available to tham at any given time. Even a long coat with LOTS of pockets has some practical limits on how many paperbacks it can hold. Jeneta can carry the entire Library of Congress in her ereader.
And after the debacle where Isaac lost Jeneta, Gutenberg chose to punish him by throwing him out of the magic-wielding Porters and taking away his magic, but not his memory of it. So Isaac remembers everything that he has lost, and it’s killing him. He goes on a mad, obsessive quest to undo the wrong he has done by finding and saving Jeneta. He doesn’t seem to care whether he survives.
Instead, in battle after battle, whether magical, physical, or merely bibliographic, Isaac gets closer to the secret of Meridiana and her possession of Jeneta than the entire collective efforts of the Porters manage to do.
The price of expiating Isaac’s guilt is going to be very, very high – and it will change the world. Whether for better or for worse is a story that will be told in Revisionary.
Escape Rating A: The pace of this story is utterly relentless — breaks for breath are few and far between, both for the reader and for the characters in the story. At first, that’s because Isaac feels so guilty that he can’t let himself stop, and later it’s because once he gets close to the forces of evil, they don’t let up on their attacks on him.
This is not a place to start this series. That would be the first book, Libriomancer. The action in Unbound, and the way that the backstories of all the characters influence that action, are necessary in order to be fully invested in the events of this story. Also Libriomancer is just plain fun, even though the shadows on Isaac’s horizon are definitely forming by the end of that story.
In Unbound, we get a much deeper view of the way that the Porters both do and especially don’t work. In suppressing the knowledge of magic for five centuries, Johannes Gutenberg has also successfully suppressed humanity’s ability to deal with the existence of magic. And his autocracy within the organization he created has also suppressed the Porters ability to deal with the real world around them, and with each other.
In Unbound, as the title indicates, everything fall apart. The structures and restrictions that the Porters have relied upon for centuries all come unglued. And while in the end that might be a good thing, in the short and medium term, all that results is chaos. It’s ugly. Well written and totally absorbing, but ugly to watch. It’s obvious that the future is not going to be pretty, even if everyone survives to see it.
Isaac, as usual, generally goes in with half a plan, half a prayer, and a whole lot of luck. Sometimes he doesn’t so much succeed as fail upwards. He also has no compunction about sacrificing himself for what he sees as the greater good, even if he might be wrong. One of the interesting things going on is that Isaac makes friends, where Gutenberg seems to have mostly made either enemies or sycophants. The contrast in those two styles is going to have a marked effect on the future.
Isaac has kind of an everyman, or at least every-magic-user quality to him. He’s not particularly handsome, and he doesn’t see himself as particularly brave. He doesn’t even see himself as especially intelligent, at least compared to the rest of the Porters. But he is always extremely determined, and that’s what usually wins the hour, which is enough to move to his next half-a-plan.
So we have an urban fantasy series with an everyman hero and a particularly cool kind of magic saving the world from the chaos that he creates as well as the evil that he is reacting to. And it will keep you on the edge of your seat every minute.
April 2, 2017
This one marked a huge change in the order of things. Betrayals, turns, risks, trust, a whole range of things going on and secrets being revealed. Hines juuuust keeps things from feeling overpowered and ended on a fantastic note that leaves me wondering just what will happen next. I'm enjoying the direction of this series.
January 27, 2015
Isaac is in a difficult place – his magic bound by Gutenberg, he has suffered a terrible loss. Without his magic he is helpless but he is determined to try and find Jeneta, especially as the Porters are far more distracted by the Followers of Bi Sheng who have exposed them – and magic – to the world.
Meridiana, an ancient threat that has been long imprisoned, is using Jeneta to her own ends – the conquest and domination of the whole world with the aid of her Ghost Army. It’s a terrible threat to face with not even a scrap of power left to him
I have always loved this world on many levels. Of course, there’s the sheer imagination of it – the concept of magic drawn from books, the many creatures of mythology that both exist in the world and have also been drawn from books to create a near infinite pantheon from which to draw. I love the concept. I also really love the geeky shout outs – this series is a great big revel in genre fiction, full of references to books that so many readers will know and love. It’s an homage, it’s a celebration and in the middle of it is Isaac who is every bit as geeky and adoring of literature as we are. I love it.
I also like how the world has developed. In part we have the Ghost Army as antagonists – but their depiction is also woven into the world in general, suggesting old magical practices have had to alter and die because of the effect of the ghosts. It’s a personal taste thing but I love it when elements of a story have clearly shaped the world and we don’t have a plot that sits clumsily on top of the world.
There’s also a major change in this book – magic is being exposed, step by step. It’s not done in a major way and the main characters are definitely more distracted by other things happening – but its growling and we get blog posts, articles and news reports covering so many different ramifications of magic being revealed. We have laws being pushed to try and limit and restrict magic. We have author’s organisations suddenly realising they are responsible for producing devastating weapons and monsters with their works of fiction – what onus rests on an author who creates a weapon that can be pulled out of that book and used? And then there’s the realisation among many people that magic can perform miracles, cure devastating illnesses – which is definitely something to celebrate but also turns into the horrible question “well, why haven’t they?” If magicians could cure cancer but instead kept their magic secret, well that’s a terrible thing to absorb. Especially when magicians may be your closest family who let your loved ones suffer rather than use their magic to help. I think this is going to be a major element of the next book.
The nature of the big bad was also an interesting twist I liked.
On top of the world we have Isaac who I really like – and not just because of him being an avatar of all things geeky. He spends a large amount of the book completely powerless and spending most of it in the presence of Gutenberg and Juan De Ponce de Leon and even Lena who are all immensely powerful people. But Isaac’s true strength shows through – he’s intelligent, very imaginative and has a brilliant but easily distracted mind and he is very very well read. He is a librarian and that is his power. Towards the end of the book, that imagination is what powers him back to magic – and throws in a nice level of epic in the final confrontations which I always appreciate.
We also have a lot of diversity in the book – and most of them are interestingly written to bring out some nuance to the characters. I loved the constant presence of Nidhi, a South Asian bisexual or lesbian woman in the book. As a non-magical human she seems to be the one with the least impact in the story – but as a therapist the other characters are constantly turning to her for both support but also advice. They rely on her a lot to hear about the condition of those around them – because all of them have been through such extreme stress and loss and are facing such a huge threat that many of them are hurting and close to breaking. Nidhi is an expert and everyone treats her as such. There’s none of the fictional trope of contempt for the therapist or disregarding the psychiatrist’s opinions – her input is welcome, needed and valued. I also like the growing dynamic between her and Isaac.
Lena, a dryad, women of colour and a bisexual woman is a power house of physical capability; she’s strong, clever, crafty and is constantly defining herself. It’s that last that makes me really like her – she is a creation of the worst kind of pulp fiction, created to be nothing more than a sex toy. But she has constantly defined herself beyond that origin – made to please one person she then sets out to attach herself to two to give herself greater choice and agency. Then she writes her own story so she can define herself. Even bound to a tree, she finds a way to bring that tree with her. She is constantly redefining herself, moving beyond what she is and towards the person she wants to be.
Read More
Meridiana, an ancient threat that has been long imprisoned, is using Jeneta to her own ends – the conquest and domination of the whole world with the aid of her Ghost Army. It’s a terrible threat to face with not even a scrap of power left to him
I have always loved this world on many levels. Of course, there’s the sheer imagination of it – the concept of magic drawn from books, the many creatures of mythology that both exist in the world and have also been drawn from books to create a near infinite pantheon from which to draw. I love the concept. I also really love the geeky shout outs – this series is a great big revel in genre fiction, full of references to books that so many readers will know and love. It’s an homage, it’s a celebration and in the middle of it is Isaac who is every bit as geeky and adoring of literature as we are. I love it.
I also like how the world has developed. In part we have the Ghost Army as antagonists – but their depiction is also woven into the world in general, suggesting old magical practices have had to alter and die because of the effect of the ghosts. It’s a personal taste thing but I love it when elements of a story have clearly shaped the world and we don’t have a plot that sits clumsily on top of the world.
There’s also a major change in this book – magic is being exposed, step by step. It’s not done in a major way and the main characters are definitely more distracted by other things happening – but its growling and we get blog posts, articles and news reports covering so many different ramifications of magic being revealed. We have laws being pushed to try and limit and restrict magic. We have author’s organisations suddenly realising they are responsible for producing devastating weapons and monsters with their works of fiction – what onus rests on an author who creates a weapon that can be pulled out of that book and used? And then there’s the realisation among many people that magic can perform miracles, cure devastating illnesses – which is definitely something to celebrate but also turns into the horrible question “well, why haven’t they?” If magicians could cure cancer but instead kept their magic secret, well that’s a terrible thing to absorb. Especially when magicians may be your closest family who let your loved ones suffer rather than use their magic to help. I think this is going to be a major element of the next book.
The nature of the big bad was also an interesting twist I liked.
On top of the world we have Isaac who I really like – and not just because of him being an avatar of all things geeky. He spends a large amount of the book completely powerless and spending most of it in the presence of Gutenberg and Juan De Ponce de Leon and even Lena who are all immensely powerful people. But Isaac’s true strength shows through – he’s intelligent, very imaginative and has a brilliant but easily distracted mind and he is very very well read. He is a librarian and that is his power. Towards the end of the book, that imagination is what powers him back to magic – and throws in a nice level of epic in the final confrontations which I always appreciate.
We also have a lot of diversity in the book – and most of them are interestingly written to bring out some nuance to the characters. I loved the constant presence of Nidhi, a South Asian bisexual or lesbian woman in the book. As a non-magical human she seems to be the one with the least impact in the story – but as a therapist the other characters are constantly turning to her for both support but also advice. They rely on her a lot to hear about the condition of those around them – because all of them have been through such extreme stress and loss and are facing such a huge threat that many of them are hurting and close to breaking. Nidhi is an expert and everyone treats her as such. There’s none of the fictional trope of contempt for the therapist or disregarding the psychiatrist’s opinions – her input is welcome, needed and valued. I also like the growing dynamic between her and Isaac.
Lena, a dryad, women of colour and a bisexual woman is a power house of physical capability; she’s strong, clever, crafty and is constantly defining herself. It’s that last that makes me really like her – she is a creation of the worst kind of pulp fiction, created to be nothing more than a sex toy. But she has constantly defined herself beyond that origin – made to please one person she then sets out to attach herself to two to give herself greater choice and agency. Then she writes her own story so she can define herself. Even bound to a tree, she finds a way to bring that tree with her. She is constantly redefining herself, moving beyond what she is and towards the person she wants to be.
Read More
December 3, 2017
Bazı yerler yavaş olsa da güzel bir hikaye anlatıyor. Kitap sevenler için ayrı güzel.
May 19, 2025
La verdad que me sorprendió y me gustó mucho, el como se desenvuelve la historia te deja pensando como va a arrancar y/o terminar el último. El final fue caótico y bonito, ni más ni menos.
Ya me emociona y entristece leer el último libro
Ya me emociona y entristece leer el último libro
February 9, 2015
The Magic Ex Libris trilogy about librarians who can do magic with books concludes with this book, and it's a solid finish! I really enjoyed the premise built around a love of reading and geek fun, especially when it could have gone a completely silly route with adventures solved by clever use of books, but Hines took a more serious approach instead. I appreciate the flawed magic system in this book, flawed because it's created by flawed people and because there is no way to please everyone. The Porters are not the good guys, necessarily, though they may try to be the closest thing. Hines explores interesting issues and asks a lot of "what if's" with this series.
Book 2 ended on a grim note, with Isaac losing his magic and being kicked out of the Porters, Jeneta being possessed by a thousand year old ghost with a god complex, and the Porters in disarray, so there's quite a lot to address going into book 3. Hines handled Isaac's character well, especially dealing with depression and not having magic to use without feeling too drawn out or belittled. I have to admire how Isaac's character is resourceful and clever, and having magical abilities enhanced what he could do. Even without magic and any support from the Porters, Isaac relies on his research skills, knowledge, resources, and his contacts, and he gets pretty far with his search for Jeneta and finding a way to stop Meridiana. It's a nice balance between how his magic defines him, yet he is still someone without magic who can make a difference.
The action moves pretty fast. Just like there is not too much wallowing and dragging out Isaac's depression, the events move quickly from one event to the next. Things get quite bad for Isaac, and the ending does not resolve or address everything that's happened to Isaac, it does leave with a hopeful note that things are not over and are in process of getting fixed. It almost felt like there were too many twists and turns without much time to take it in, leading to some huge changes. Maybe that's life there, though I do appreciate the story was taken seriously, dealing with matters in a meaningful way instead of just glossing them over: the Porters' questionable procedures and methods, the way "normal" people would react to the existence of magic, and how people deal with tragedy. Isaac has to live with the aftermath of the events from book 2, and the "normal" people he know no longer trust him. Hines gives a sense of how people would respond if magic existed with snippets and excerpts of news, articles, letters, and reports with each chapter, and they are humorous sometimes, but they sound like something plausible. It's not just "what if this kind of magic existed and how cool would that be" but "what if this kind of magic existed and what would that mean for the world." It's a more long range look at the "what if." The Porters were never quite the good guys, though they were a temporary hold on larger problems. They are a flawed institution, but this demonstrates more complexity than if they were simply and unquestionably good guys who know what they're doing.
I liked that Juan Ponce de Leon was a little move involved, though I thought book 1 revealed that he was banished with a magic geas that would prevent him physically from coming to the US (that's why he couldn't help with finding Gutenberg). He shows up, with no mention of his banishment or geas, though later on he avoids letting the Porters know he's there. Both he and Gutenberg add perspective, being longer-lived than their fellow humans and seeing things in the long term better, but, even better, they both have different approaches to the current problems and still don't agree on what to do. It adds to the sense that the world is complex and there is no one way to solve their problems. I enjoyed how their interactions were understated and hinted at their past relationship, so there was some tension and sense that there was still something between them, but it was not the angst found in teen books or romances.
As much as I enjoyed how Hines introduced and explored the "what if's", it felt like Meridiana as the villain was the weakest point of the story. It's the problem with ultimate supervillains--it's just one person who has to be beat. The first 2 books hinted at some larger, underlying threat that the Porters have been trying to hold back and even Gutenberg feared. The whole worldbuilding was great, but the final conflict was about defeating a thousand year old megalomaniac wannabe goddess, though it was clever how it was resolved. The ending does leave some loose ends and cleaning up, maybe hint that it's going to be an ongoing and imperfect process, but I kind of wished there had been more to Meridiana's threat.
Book 2 ended on a grim note, with Isaac losing his magic and being kicked out of the Porters, Jeneta being possessed by a thousand year old ghost with a god complex, and the Porters in disarray, so there's quite a lot to address going into book 3. Hines handled Isaac's character well, especially dealing with depression and not having magic to use without feeling too drawn out or belittled. I have to admire how Isaac's character is resourceful and clever, and having magical abilities enhanced what he could do. Even without magic and any support from the Porters, Isaac relies on his research skills, knowledge, resources, and his contacts, and he gets pretty far with his search for Jeneta and finding a way to stop Meridiana. It's a nice balance between how his magic defines him, yet he is still someone without magic who can make a difference.
The action moves pretty fast. Just like there is not too much wallowing and dragging out Isaac's depression, the events move quickly from one event to the next. Things get quite bad for Isaac, and the ending does not resolve or address everything that's happened to Isaac, it does leave with a hopeful note that things are not over and are in process of getting fixed. It almost felt like there were too many twists and turns without much time to take it in, leading to some huge changes. Maybe that's life there, though I do appreciate the story was taken seriously, dealing with matters in a meaningful way instead of just glossing them over: the Porters' questionable procedures and methods, the way "normal" people would react to the existence of magic, and how people deal with tragedy. Isaac has to live with the aftermath of the events from book 2, and the "normal" people he know no longer trust him. Hines gives a sense of how people would respond if magic existed with snippets and excerpts of news, articles, letters, and reports with each chapter, and they are humorous sometimes, but they sound like something plausible. It's not just "what if this kind of magic existed and how cool would that be" but "what if this kind of magic existed and what would that mean for the world." It's a more long range look at the "what if." The Porters were never quite the good guys, though they were a temporary hold on larger problems. They are a flawed institution, but this demonstrates more complexity than if they were simply and unquestionably good guys who know what they're doing.
I liked that Juan Ponce de Leon was a little move involved, though I thought book 1 revealed that he was banished with a magic geas that would prevent him physically from coming to the US (that's why he couldn't help with finding Gutenberg). He shows up, with no mention of his banishment or geas, though later on he avoids letting the Porters know he's there. Both he and Gutenberg add perspective, being longer-lived than their fellow humans and seeing things in the long term better, but, even better, they both have different approaches to the current problems and still don't agree on what to do. It adds to the sense that the world is complex and there is no one way to solve their problems. I enjoyed how their interactions were understated and hinted at their past relationship, so there was some tension and sense that there was still something between them, but it was not the angst found in teen books or romances.
As much as I enjoyed how Hines introduced and explored the "what if's", it felt like Meridiana as the villain was the weakest point of the story. It's the problem with ultimate supervillains--it's just one person who has to be beat. The first 2 books hinted at some larger, underlying threat that the Porters have been trying to hold back and even Gutenberg feared. The whole worldbuilding was great, but the final conflict was about defeating a thousand year old megalomaniac wannabe goddess, though it was clever how it was resolved. The ending does leave some loose ends and cleaning up, maybe hint that it's going to be an ongoing and imperfect process, but I kind of wished there had been more to Meridiana's threat.
March 8, 2016
Questa recensione - ma che dico, questa dichiarazione d'amore e fangirlismo - attende di venire scritta e pubblicata da due settimane almeno, ma per tutti i motivi che sapete ho dovuto rimandare fino a oggi. Attenzione: qualche spoiler se non avete letto i precedenti volumi della saga, nessuna rivelazione sconvolgente se volete iniziare questo.
Il terzo libro della serie Magic Ex Libris (dopo Libriomancer e Codex born) è probabilmente il migliore della (finora) trilogia. Se il primo è stato fulminante e il secondo comunque molto buono, questo Unbound è semplicemente grandioso.
Isaac, il protagonista, comincia la storia in condizioni davvero pietose: roso dai sensi di colpa per la scomparsa di Jeneta alla fine del volume precedente, privato della magia da Gutenberg e, quindi, incapace di fare tutto quello che lo aveva sempre reso speciale - peggio ancora: incapace perfino di avvertire la presenza della magia nei libri che ha sfogliato per tutta la vita. Premesse che non possono che portare a una conseguenza: determinato a non arrendersi e a ritrovare la ragazzina scomparsa, Isaac tenterà di tutto per rintracciarla... anche cose estremamente rischiose. Questa volta, però, non avrà i suoi poteri ad autarlo a cavarsela.
Hines mette insieme una trama avvincente e senza momenti morti, costruita con un crescendo di sorprese e colpi di scena da pugno nello stomaco, arricchita da uno dei protagonisti che più ho amato negli ultimi anni. Isaac, nerd magrolino (sì, la copertina è fighissima, ma lui è disegnato un po' troppo belloccio) che anche di fronte a mostri e automi giganti vuole capire "come funzionano" prima di darsela a gambe, è un narratore ironico ma anche capace di trasmettere tutta la sua angoscia, la sua frustrazione, il suo bisogno di lottare e, allo stesso tempo, il suo amore per la driade Lena, con la quale ha costruito una insolita, ma salda, famiglia non tradizionale di tipo poliamoristico (Lena sta sia con lui sia con la psicologa Nidhi Shah) incomprensibile ai più ma che funziona a meraviglia e che viene rappresentata con estrema delicatezza e realismo, e risulta pertanto più credibile di tante relazioni da classico "romance". In questo romanzo hanno notevole spazio sia Gutenberg, il capo dei Porters (per lo più libriomanti come Isaac, ma non solo), sia Ponce de Leon, che si era solo intravisto nel primo volume e che qui si rende difficile da dimenticare. E sì, lui e Gutenberg per me sono una coppia fantastica. Where's the ship? I'm on board!
Magia, letteratura e storia si intrecciano alla perfezione, e le citazioni da nerd sono una festa per chi con quei libri fantasy e quei telefilm di fantascienza, citati, presi in giro con affetto, ribaltati e omaggiati da Hines, ci è cresciuto e li ama. Non riesco onestamente a trovare un difetto, in questo romanzo, e se potete leggere in inglese, non perdete l'occasione di innamorarvi di questa storia che ha tanto da dire e sa tenervi incollati alle pagine mentre lo fa. Non mi capita spesso di leggere l'ultima pagina e ardere dal desiderio di avere già in mano il libro successivo, ma con Hines capita. Con Hines capita di ridere, restare a bocca aperta e tremare per il magone.
E capita di venire travolti dalla gloria di un finale che apre scenari grandiosi.
"Magic is a gift. Like fire, it can burn. And like fire, it’s going to change everything.
You’re gonna love it."
Recensione pubblicata in origine su http://aislinndreams.blogspot.it/2015...
Il terzo libro della serie Magic Ex Libris (dopo Libriomancer e Codex born) è probabilmente il migliore della (finora) trilogia. Se il primo è stato fulminante e il secondo comunque molto buono, questo Unbound è semplicemente grandioso.
Isaac, il protagonista, comincia la storia in condizioni davvero pietose: roso dai sensi di colpa per la scomparsa di Jeneta alla fine del volume precedente, privato della magia da Gutenberg e, quindi, incapace di fare tutto quello che lo aveva sempre reso speciale - peggio ancora: incapace perfino di avvertire la presenza della magia nei libri che ha sfogliato per tutta la vita. Premesse che non possono che portare a una conseguenza: determinato a non arrendersi e a ritrovare la ragazzina scomparsa, Isaac tenterà di tutto per rintracciarla... anche cose estremamente rischiose. Questa volta, però, non avrà i suoi poteri ad autarlo a cavarsela.
Hines mette insieme una trama avvincente e senza momenti morti, costruita con un crescendo di sorprese e colpi di scena da pugno nello stomaco, arricchita da uno dei protagonisti che più ho amato negli ultimi anni. Isaac, nerd magrolino (sì, la copertina è fighissima, ma lui è disegnato un po' troppo belloccio) che anche di fronte a mostri e automi giganti vuole capire "come funzionano" prima di darsela a gambe, è un narratore ironico ma anche capace di trasmettere tutta la sua angoscia, la sua frustrazione, il suo bisogno di lottare e, allo stesso tempo, il suo amore per la driade Lena, con la quale ha costruito una insolita, ma salda, famiglia non tradizionale di tipo poliamoristico (Lena sta sia con lui sia con la psicologa Nidhi Shah) incomprensibile ai più ma che funziona a meraviglia e che viene rappresentata con estrema delicatezza e realismo, e risulta pertanto più credibile di tante relazioni da classico "romance". In questo romanzo hanno notevole spazio sia Gutenberg, il capo dei Porters (per lo più libriomanti come Isaac, ma non solo), sia Ponce de Leon, che si era solo intravisto nel primo volume e che qui si rende difficile da dimenticare. E sì, lui e Gutenberg per me sono una coppia fantastica. Where's the ship? I'm on board!
Magia, letteratura e storia si intrecciano alla perfezione, e le citazioni da nerd sono una festa per chi con quei libri fantasy e quei telefilm di fantascienza, citati, presi in giro con affetto, ribaltati e omaggiati da Hines, ci è cresciuto e li ama. Non riesco onestamente a trovare un difetto, in questo romanzo, e se potete leggere in inglese, non perdete l'occasione di innamorarvi di questa storia che ha tanto da dire e sa tenervi incollati alle pagine mentre lo fa. Non mi capita spesso di leggere l'ultima pagina e ardere dal desiderio di avere già in mano il libro successivo, ma con Hines capita. Con Hines capita di ridere, restare a bocca aperta e tremare per il magone.
E capita di venire travolti dalla gloria di un finale che apre scenari grandiosi.
"Magic is a gift. Like fire, it can burn. And like fire, it’s going to change everything.
You’re gonna love it."
Recensione pubblicata in origine su http://aislinndreams.blogspot.it/2015...
July 14, 2018
I waited almost a year to read Unbound. Why? Well, the pesky #ShelfLove Challenge last year and then before I knew it I was being offered an ARC of Revisionary, book 4 in the Magic Ex Libris series, and I thought I had better get cracking.
First of all, I’m happy I waited because it meant I got to jump right into book 4 after finishing Unbound. Unbound doesn’t end on a cliffhanger, but a lot happens to crack magic wide open and there are lots of implications for non-magic users (muggles/mundanes), unhumans (i.e. vampires, werewolves, etc.) and magic users. After finishing Unbound, I simply had to know how the World was going to handle everything.
Reading this now, with politicians moving into Iowa in light of the presidential election screaming about what to do about guns and health care and refugees, makes the arguments about magic and how best to use and/or contain it all the more poignant. And that’s the big picture stuff.
As Issac struggles with the fallout from book 2 that directly affects how events play out in book 3, I was struck by my own search for purpose when a piece of you is stripped away. Issac borders on manic most of the novel. His obsession with finding a solution and attempts to rescue everyone don’t quite play out in his favor. At a few different points in the novel, I paused and reflected on those moments in my life when I felt burned out by trying to fix everything. Issac’s struggle is my own.
Even in the darkest moments in this novel, there is laughter. The final battle gets pretty heated and I found myself laughing out loud as Smudge, Issac’s fire-spider, came to the rescue. Plus all the pop culture references and hints at other novels and stories make this an all around solid read.
If you haven’t discovered the Magic Ex Libris series yet now is the time to pick it up. The final book in the series releases in February. Fans of science fiction, fantasy and paranormal novels will get a kick out Jim’s mastery at weaving elements from all these genres together. Issac is a down-to-earth hero that everyone can relate to and see a bit of themselves in. I’m sure that everyone will become quite fond of Lena and Nidhi who continue to amaze me in the growth of their personalities as the series has continued. Plus what bookworm doesn't believe that librarians are the most kickass people on this earth and that books are the most powerful weapon?
This review was originally posted on Second Run Reviews
First of all, I’m happy I waited because it meant I got to jump right into book 4 after finishing Unbound. Unbound doesn’t end on a cliffhanger, but a lot happens to crack magic wide open and there are lots of implications for non-magic users (muggles/mundanes), unhumans (i.e. vampires, werewolves, etc.) and magic users. After finishing Unbound, I simply had to know how the World was going to handle everything.
Reading this now, with politicians moving into Iowa in light of the presidential election screaming about what to do about guns and health care and refugees, makes the arguments about magic and how best to use and/or contain it all the more poignant. And that’s the big picture stuff.
As Issac struggles with the fallout from book 2 that directly affects how events play out in book 3, I was struck by my own search for purpose when a piece of you is stripped away. Issac borders on manic most of the novel. His obsession with finding a solution and attempts to rescue everyone don’t quite play out in his favor. At a few different points in the novel, I paused and reflected on those moments in my life when I felt burned out by trying to fix everything. Issac’s struggle is my own.
Even in the darkest moments in this novel, there is laughter. The final battle gets pretty heated and I found myself laughing out loud as Smudge, Issac’s fire-spider, came to the rescue. Plus all the pop culture references and hints at other novels and stories make this an all around solid read.
If you haven’t discovered the Magic Ex Libris series yet now is the time to pick it up. The final book in the series releases in February. Fans of science fiction, fantasy and paranormal novels will get a kick out Jim’s mastery at weaving elements from all these genres together. Issac is a down-to-earth hero that everyone can relate to and see a bit of themselves in. I’m sure that everyone will become quite fond of Lena and Nidhi who continue to amaze me in the growth of their personalities as the series has continued. Plus what bookworm doesn't believe that librarians are the most kickass people on this earth and that books are the most powerful weapon?
This review was originally posted on Second Run Reviews
January 10, 2015
So I want to state that I love this series if only because it reminds me of why I love books; it's the ability to take you away to other worlds and other lives, letting you live out fantastical adventures and meet amazing friends.
And frankly I love the idea of being able to pull items out of fiction and making them real because let me tell you my house would be wall-to-wall lightsabers, Lantern rings and power batteries if I could.
Now that being said, this wasn't my favorite book of the bunch. It's very clearly setting things up for the new status-quo of the series, but it does so almost at the expense of the actual plot and characters. In a lot of ways, it's a necessary change; there's a lot of fall-out to manage from the events of the last book, but there's just SO MUCH that I want to see more of that it feels frustrating not to watch it unfold on the page. There're a lot of interesting ideas (such as the vampire satellites), but much of the book is mostly Isaac moping and feeling guilty for not being able to save people and sitting around trying to solve a puzzle. There's still some fun action scenes but the majority of the book is run-wait-run-wait-run with musings about absurdly difficult riddles, and certain major plot points don't feel as climactic or important as they should have been.
(I think I may have just described the last FATE campaign I played, now that I think about it...)
Don't get me wrong: I enjoyed it. I just wanted to see more; there're so many moments that feel either abruptly shuffled off stage or otherwise not given enough screen time. I'd've loved to see more of Ponce De Leon in action, more of Lena, even more of Smudge... hopefully the next book will take care of it. I'm especially intrigued with the potential of what's going to happen now that the rules have all changed. I hope some of those consequences get to be brought to center stage instead of being hinted at via email snippets, forum posts and news reports.
And frankly I love the idea of being able to pull items out of fiction and making them real because let me tell you my house would be wall-to-wall lightsabers, Lantern rings and power batteries if I could.
Now that being said, this wasn't my favorite book of the bunch. It's very clearly setting things up for the new status-quo of the series, but it does so almost at the expense of the actual plot and characters. In a lot of ways, it's a necessary change; there's a lot of fall-out to manage from the events of the last book, but there's just SO MUCH that I want to see more of that it feels frustrating not to watch it unfold on the page. There're a lot of interesting ideas (such as the vampire satellites), but much of the book is mostly Isaac moping and feeling guilty for not being able to save people and sitting around trying to solve a puzzle. There's still some fun action scenes but the majority of the book is run-wait-run-wait-run with musings about absurdly difficult riddles, and certain major plot points don't feel as climactic or important as they should have been.
(I think I may have just described the last FATE campaign I played, now that I think about it...)
Don't get me wrong: I enjoyed it. I just wanted to see more; there're so many moments that feel either abruptly shuffled off stage or otherwise not given enough screen time. I'd've loved to see more of Ponce De Leon in action, more of Lena, even more of Smudge... hopefully the next book will take care of it. I'm especially intrigued with the potential of what's going to happen now that the rules have all changed. I hope some of those consequences get to be brought to center stage instead of being hinted at via email snippets, forum posts and news reports.
December 21, 2014
It should be noted that I have not yet read the first two books in this series, and so I can base my review on the book itself without truly knowing the full back story. I missed that this was the third book in the series, which was my mistake, but a happy one.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, even though I was a bit confused at first, due to not having read the prior two books in the series. However, Jim Hines did a very good job of providing enough back story to allow me to have an idea of what I had previously missed in the other books without summarizing the previous stories. This can be a difficult task as the author doesn't want to put too much information in a bore the experienced reader, while putting enough so someone not having read the prior books recently (or ever) so the reader would not be lost. A delicate balance that was achieved here.
I loved the idea of libriomancy; who has never wished they could literally pull an object/person out of a book to use or meet? To chat with King Aurthur, ride on the back of a dragon or heal the sick with a potion, these are the things dreams are made of for us book-lovers. The possibilities are endless, fantastic and mind-boggling. I do have to say that I found the main character, Isaac, a bit of a whiner for the majority of the book. But, considering I met him during the worse time of his life without having seen the prior, I will concede that I might be a bit biased. Despite this, I liked the book and plan on obtaining the prior two books, as well as any subsequent books in the series. I enjoyed the intellectual puzzles and thought processes posed in the story.
In compliance with FTC guidelines, I am disclosing that I received the book for free through Goodreads First Reads.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, even though I was a bit confused at first, due to not having read the prior two books in the series. However, Jim Hines did a very good job of providing enough back story to allow me to have an idea of what I had previously missed in the other books without summarizing the previous stories. This can be a difficult task as the author doesn't want to put too much information in a bore the experienced reader, while putting enough so someone not having read the prior books recently (or ever) so the reader would not be lost. A delicate balance that was achieved here.
I loved the idea of libriomancy; who has never wished they could literally pull an object/person out of a book to use or meet? To chat with King Aurthur, ride on the back of a dragon or heal the sick with a potion, these are the things dreams are made of for us book-lovers. The possibilities are endless, fantastic and mind-boggling. I do have to say that I found the main character, Isaac, a bit of a whiner for the majority of the book. But, considering I met him during the worse time of his life without having seen the prior, I will concede that I might be a bit biased. Despite this, I liked the book and plan on obtaining the prior two books, as well as any subsequent books in the series. I enjoyed the intellectual puzzles and thought processes posed in the story.
In compliance with FTC guidelines, I am disclosing that I received the book for free through Goodreads First Reads.
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