The Invisible Library, by Genevieve Cogman

Today I'm looking at the first book in a series I'm actually looking forward to continuing when I get the opportunity, The Invisible Library. I ended up enjoying this book very much, although considering it's about dimension-hopping librarians who save books it's hardly a surprise that I'm a fan. Just checking on Goodreads it looks like there are three other books out in this series right now so hopefully the adventures will be just as enjoyable as this one was.

The protagonist of our novel is Irene, a woman raised within the Library which exists out of time and between worlds. Irene is just one of many Librarians, whose mission is to travel across the multiverse and retrieve books so the Library can keep them safe and ensure the books are never lost from reality. Sometimes this is as simple as walking into a story and buying a copy of the book, but more often than not it involves stealing irreplaceable manuscripts from highly guarded locations. And the newest mission for Irene promises to not be an easy one.

Irene is tasked with retrieving a copy of Grimms' Fairy Tales from a universe that has been infected by chaos. Reality doesn't work like it should and more closely resembles the worlds of fiction than properly organized universes. And the Library isn't the only faction interested in retrieving this copy of Grimms' Fairy Tales. A powerful Fae known as Lord Silver and a mysterious secret society known as the Iron Brotherhood are all interested in getting the book before Irene can. Even the Library seems to be working at cross purposes when another Librarian shows up to retrieve the book. And if that wasn't bad enough, Irene's been saddled with training a novice named Kai and as her first act has to bring him along on this mission. It certainly won't be a trip to the local bookstore.

Otherwise, there isn't a whole lot I can say other than that I liked this book a lot. Cogman takes the idea of an interdimensional library and manages to put her own unique twist on it. There aren't any new ideas that I haven't seen used before half a dozen times in other fiction, but Cogman manages to combine them in a manner that makes it a creation wholly her own. It felt like a universe I could totally enjoy climbing inside of and taking a look around. Possibly even staying to work for the library if I could get away with it, although I'm not super great at languages. I found this a very easy book to read and for people who like books, libraries, and alternate worlds this is definitely a great choice.

- Kalpar