Book Log 35/2015 - Genevieve Cogman: The Masked City. Invisible Library #2

My final book of 2015...

I really enjoyed the first Invisible Library book, and I was looking forward to this. It certainly didn't disappoint.

It continues the story of Irene, an agent of the Invisible Library which exists between dimensions, and has access to all the alternate earths in the multiverse. The library's purpose is to collect and preserve all the alternate versions of important books that have been published in the various dimensions and the librarians are, essentially, book thieves (or sometimes book-buyers). After the first book, Irene is now the resident librarian in a steampunky alternate London, with her assistant, Kai, and their friend, Vale, a Sherlock Holmesian figure. Their world does have some magic and the Fae are in evidence - mostly hanging out at the Lichtenstein Embassy.

The Fae pull worlds towards chaos, which the powerful dragons strive for order. Dragons can't live in high-chaos worlds while Fae are allergic to order, but there are worlds, such are Irene's, which have a helping of both.

Kai is a young dragon - in human form - which is somewhat unusual. Not only is he a dragon, but he's a dragon prince, with obligations. When Kai is kidnapped and whisked off world to a high-chaos Venice Irene must rescue him or risk an all-out war between the dragons and the Fae which will certainly destroy Vale's alternate world, and may well have far reaching consequences for other worlds and the humans caught in the crossfire.

With the help of the Fae, Silver, a rival of the Guantes (the Fae who have kidnapped Kai in order to start a war) Irene manages to get herself to the high-chaos Venice where Kai is due to be auctioned to the highest Fae bidder, triggering dragon wrath. She has a limited amount of time to spring him from his magical prison

There's a lot to like in here. The setting is imaginative, the pacing keen. Irene's character is resourceful and the supporting characters believable. Kai is out of it for most of the story, but there are hints that the attraction between Irene and Kai is rather more than a teacher-student relationship should be, which is why Irene is doing her best not to act on her feelings. I look forward to seeing how this develops in future books. There's at least one more to come.

Books Read in 2015 - A Retrospective

It's that time of year again. My fiction reading is always severely restricted when I'm writing, particularly when i'm at the first draft stage. I've done a lot of writing this year. I finished off Crossways, which came out in August and made a start on Nimbus which will be the third Psi-Tech book. Then I edited Winterwood, adding about 20,000 words of new material, then immediately began on the sequel, Silverwolf. I'm now 90,000 words into the first draft.

Surprisingly I still found time and energy to read and blog thirty five novels (okay, a couple of them were novellas, so, sue me!) This was the year I discovered Diana Gabaldon. Yes, I know a lot of you recommended her to me at least twenty years ago, and you were right - she knows how to keep the pages turning. New to me this year and authors who will definitely be on my future reading lists include C.E. Murphy, Judith Tarr and Genevieve Cogman. Old favourites included: Lisa Shearin, Joe Abercrombie, Patricia Briggs, Anne Aguirre, Kevin Hearne and Terry Pratchett.

I managed to get all the way through a graphic novel, the reprint of early Modesty Blaise strip cartoons, The Gabriel Set Up, written by Peter O'Donnell and illustrated by Jim Holdaway. I think I managed better with the spare style of black and white drawings originally done for newspaper publication, than I do with the lavish colour graphic novels of recent years where I often have difficulty interpreting what's happening.

My biggest disappointment was Erin Morganstern's The Night Circus, which I'd heard good things about. The writing itself was lush and sensual, but it was too plot-lite for me and I didn't feel deeply involved with the characters. I've never got on all that well with literary novels, but if that's your thing, then you may disagree with me completely over this book.

Anyhow, for better or worse, this is what I read in 2015. Each one of these is book-logged here.

1. Erin Morgenstern: The Night Circus


2. Lisa Shearin: Wild Card


3. Joe Abercrombie: Half a King


4. Jen Williams: The Copper Promise


5. Patricia Briggs: Dead Heat - Alpha and Omega #4


6. Genevieve Cogman: The Invisible Library


7. Octavia Butler: Dawn - Exogenesis #1


8. Jill Schultz: Angel on the Ropes


9. Peter Dickinson: The Changes Trilogy


10. David Barnett: Gideon Smith and the Mechanical Girl


11. Ian Whates: Pelquin's Comet


12. CE Murphy: Heart of Stone - Negotiator Trilogy #1 - Old Races #1


13. Terry Pratchett: Raising Steam - Discworld #40


14. Judith Tarr: Forgotten Suns


15. Peter O'Donnell and Jim Holdaway: Modesty Blaise - The Gabriel Set-Up


16. Winston Graham: Ross Poldark - Poldark #1


17. Various Authors: Firefly: Still Flying


18. Lia Silver: Prisoner


19. Lia Silver: Partner


20. Diana Gabaldon: Outlander - Outlander #1


21. Georgette Heyer: An Infamous Army


22. Diana Gabaldon: Dragonfly in Amber - Outlander #2


23. Georgette Heyer: Cotillion


24. Diana Gabaldon: Voyager - Outlander #3


25. Terry Pratchett: the Shepherd's Crown - Discworld #41 - Tiffany Aching #5


26. Ann Aguirre: Forbidden Fruit: Corinne Solomon #3.5 (novella)


27. Kevin Hearne: Hexed - Iron Druid #2


28. Toby Venables: Hunter of Sherwood: Knight of Shadows - Hunter of Sherwood #1


29. Diana Gabaldon: The Drums of Autumn - Outlander #4


30. Diana Gabaldon: Lord John and the Hand of Devils - Lord John #0.5


31. Diana Gabaldon: Lord John and the Private Matter - Lord John #1


32. Stella Duffy: Dr Who: The Anti-Hero - Time Trips


33. Diana Gabaldon: Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade - Lord John #2


34. Genevieve Cogman: The Masked City