Book Review: Libriomancer, by Jim C. Hines

This was the first book by this author that caught my eye.  I've grown tired of waiting for the next Dresden Files book to come out.  Skin Game came out three years ago and there is no sign of a release date for Peace Talks yet.  I miss the days when there was a new Dresden book just about every year.  I had a need to feed my fantasy appetite with something similar.  During my search, the first book I came across was Black Spark, by Al K. Line.  It was difficult to get into at first, but got much better by the end.  My review is here on my blog:

The second series I discovered was Magic Ex Libris, to which Libriomancer is the first book.  The concept intrigued me - I'd never seen anything like it before.  The fact that a major author like Patrick Rothfuss (The Name of the Wind) enjoyed this book and found it original helped fuel my desire to read it.  I read a sample chapter and found it interesting.  Then I came across a blurb somewhere which made a reference to Goblin Quest, also by Hines.  In this blurb, it was mentioned that Wil Wheaton (yes, Wesley Crusher from Star Trek: The Next Generation, and host of the Tabletop web series on Geek & Sundry) called Goblin Quest, and I quote:  "Too f***ing cool for words!".  I immediately had to shift gears and check this book out.  I enjoyed Goblin Quest immensely, and my review can be found here.

Afterward, I got distracted by a few other books, and when I came across a reduced price for Libriomancer I grabbed it immediately.  It does not disappoint.  The magic employed by the central character Isaac Vaino and his fellow Porters is very unique indeed.  I like to think of this book as a cross between The Dresden Files and Silverlock (or for modern day readers, perhaps Ready Player One, but change the video game references into references to fiction novels).

When you were younger, did you ever dream that elements of science fiction novels or films were real?  Did you ever wish you could wield Luke Skywalker's light saber from Star Wars?  Or use a phaser from Star Trek to vaporize a Klingon on the warpath?    Or wield King Arthur's legendary sword Excalibur?  Or have your own pet Mogwai from the Gremlins film?

Well, a libriomancer could live out such fantasies.  Put simply, a libriomancer has the ability to pull objects, and sometimes small creatures, from the pages of a book, and use them in the real world.  As long as it is smaller than the pages of the book, it can be pulled from the book and used.  This is an amazing concept!  And, we quickly start to learn that while this type of magic is useful, it is also incredibly dangerous.

The story started off a little slowly, but rapidly picked up speed and wouldn't let me go.  Someone has been killing Porters and vampires, seemingly in an attempt to start a war.  Isaac pairs up with a dryad named Lena Greenwood to try and learn who is behind the murders.  We learn some amazing things about Lena and her origins, about libriomancy and the Porters in general, and about the large community of vampires in the Michigan area.  I found the ideas in this book just as interesting and engaging as anything I've read in The Dresden Files series.

This book even contains a bibliography at the end which includes many of the books referenced (though certainly not all of them).  I'm hoping the additional volumes do the same thing.  A few other novels which are referenced include:

•    Dune
•    The Odyssey
•    The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

The bibliography also lists references to fictional novels which were invented by the author for use in the story.  I went hunting for one of them, because the concept sounded cool, and I couldn't find it.  I learned later that the book was fake from its appearance in the bibliography!

This was a fantastic read and I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series.  I would highly recommend this book to anyone who has enjoyed The Dresden Files and feels that Jim Butcher is writing too slowly.

As always, if you have read this book, I'd be happy to hear from you.