Book Review: The Invisible Library Doesn't Hide Its Wonder
If you’re a bibliophile who likes reading books about books, then this series is for you. Rare books, spies, murder, and mayhem await those who are ready for a fantastic eight part story that is both relaxing and intriguing. One of the things that I love most about this series is that while the entire series follows an underlying arc, each book is mostly self-contained, which means that you don’t need to remember the details of the last book to continue on with the next; and for any details carrying over into the next book, author Genevieve Cogman does a good job reminding you of what you need to know.
The world-building of this series is absolutely its greatest strength. The story uses the trope of a multiverse to create complex characters and events. There are essentially hundreds of thousands of versions of Earth, all of which have a slightly different level of progress and technology depending on what kinds of choices were made in each. The different versions are all balanced by order and chaos, so a world with higher levels of order will have more advanced technology, and a world with higher levels of chaos will have more mystery and complexity in its society. But since the fabric of a world is more stable the more balanced it is, a place outside of space and time helps to anchor the worlds. The Library maintains order in the multiverse by housing rare books from each world, creating a link between each world and the stable Library. Working for the Library, its Librarians are tasked with finding those rare books and bringing them back for safe-keeping. Because people don’t take too kindly to their rare books being stolen, not knowing the real reason for the theft since ordinary humans aren’t aware of the multiverse, the Librarians operate as spies on their travels to avoid detection.
The Invisible Library’s heroine most commonly goes by the name Irene Winters, though her parents called her Ray growing up. Irene is a rare instance of a child of two Librarians, so her future was practically predetermined by her parentage. She is proud to be a Librarian, though as we get deeper into the series, she questions the institution to which she has so faithfully devoted herself. The other two protagonists of the series are Kai, a dragon who can take human form, and Vale, a private detective from a 19th century style London. These men help Irene on her various book-finding quests, as well taking down villains of the Library. The villains sometimes change from book to book, but some are recurring- especially Alberich, a former Librarian who turned his back on the Library and is known to have killed several Librarians.
What I most like about this series is that Irene doesn’t feel tied down to any one definition of herself. She mostly feels like Irene, but sometimes feels like Ray, and also likes taking on wildly different personas in her spy work. It’s almost unheard of for a human and a dragon to become lovers, and yet she doesn’t hesitate to be honest about her feelings and relationship with Kai. She enjoys the clothing from all time periods and locales, and easily adapts to the food and customs as well. She is so many things and yet still remains resolutely herself, so strong-willed and confident in everything she does. While we can’t all be spies masquerading as dozens of different personality types, her choices provide a good example of how a person can be fluid in their desires without compromising their character. And of course, it doesn’t hurt that this kind of development takes place in a realm where you can travel between dimensions with dragons and the Fae. A book series about magic-wielding Librarians who work as spies to steal rare books for the greatest Library in existence? Yes, please!
All eight books are available now, the last having been published December 28, 2021. They were originally published in Britain but also all have US editions now, so they can be found quite easily. I read most of them in print but I did listen to one narrated by Susan Duerden and she did an excellent job. Cogman has stated that while she’s currently done with the series, she is open to writing more, “Don’t think of it as necessarily the end of the series; just think of it as the end of the current season. There may be more, later – but I have to finish the new trilogy first . . .” I agree that there is still plenty of room to grow with Irene and Kai and the future of the Library. Her new trilogy is set in Revolutionary France and is a reimagining of The Scarlet Pimpernel, this time featuring vampires. The first book, Scarlet, will be released in Fall 2022. Considering how much I loved The Invisible Library series, I will definitely be checking that new book out.
