Book 12: Libriomancer, by Jim Hines
If there is one place I take book recommendations seriously from, it is my favorite authors. When I saw this was recommended by Patrick Rothfuss (The Kingkiller Chronicle, which I’ve written a review for), and then discovered it was considered “urban fantasy”, a genre I haven’t explored but have wanted to try, I figured it was worth a read.
Isaac Vainio is a libriomancer working in a bookshop. One day a group of vampires attacks the shop, and with the help of his friend Lena–a dryad–they barely escape alive. Until now, the vampires have been peaceful enough, so the two of them set out to discover why the Porters, the organization of libriomancers, are being targeted. On top of it all, Isaac has been in trouble for using his magic too recklessly, and is not allowed to use it anymore. That doesn’t last very long…
The magic in this story is very original. A libriomancer is someone who can literally pull things out of books–but the things must fit through the pages. For example, you couldn’t pull a full-sized person out of a book unless the book itself was wide enough (and this large book was widely distributed and read; there are many rules). You could say it’s a bit like Inkheart, where things from books will appear in this world if the person reading it has the required magical ability, but it’s not quite the same, and it leads to some unique, interesting problems.
It’s also refreshing to have a book that contains vampires where that is not the central part of the story. It is not a “vampire book” in any way, there are plenty of other interesting creatures. And there is literary reference after literary reference, most of which I understood, since Isaac’s favorite genres of books to use are Fantasy and Sci-Fi! The stories of Doctor Who and Sherlock Holmes even make an appearance.
This book was fun, different, and engaging. I’ll likely be reading the sequel.