Libriomancer by Jim C. Hines, Magic Ex Libris #1Isaac Vainio is a Libriomancer, a member of a secret society founded five centuries ago by Johannes Gutenberg. As such, he is gifted with the magical ability to reach into books and draw forth objects.
But when Gutenberg vanishes without a trace, Isaac finds himself pitted against everything from vampires to a sinister, nameless foe who is bent on revealing magic to the world at large... and at any cost.
How cool is this? Please read the second sentence of the synopsis: "gifted with the magical ability to reach into books and draw forth objects" if this doesn't get you excited to read Libriomancer as an SF/F fan I frankly have no idea what will! Libriomancer is the first book in the Magic Ex Libris series written by Jim C. Hines who is well known for his other series that include Jig the Goblin and Princess. The Magic Ex Libris is his latest series that takes place in an urban fantasy setting with an element that you haven't read anything about, pulling objects out of books just awesome!
From the start Jim C. Hines throws you directly into the action packed storyline of Libriomancer. The focus is directly on the main protagonist, Isaac Vainio, who currently serves as an librarian at the local library of an small town. Isaac is casually helping some customers of the library checking-out books, with his pet, an fire-spider called Smudge, safely hidden out of sight when all of a sudden Smudge causes an ruckus. This alarms Isaac as he can not directly find a cause... until three sparkles appear in library. Sparkles are a type of vampire, who start questioning Isaac in a rather confronting and direct way as to who is behind attacks against their kind. Before Isaac isn't able to retell these events he is saved by an old friend the dryad Lena. Lena has some information about several other attacks on different porters (Libriomancers like Isaac) that didn't end as well for them as it did for Isaac. But it isn't just these attacks that cause worry, the founder of the organization of Libriomancers, Johannes Gutenberg is missing. With a war starting to unfold between the vampire and the porters it seems that no one is safe. It is up to Isaac and his trusty fire-spider friend Smudge and the dryad Lena to find out first off all where Johannes Gutenberg is and to stop an dangerous war from starting. In finding who is behind this war, Isaac has no clue as to where to start and all clues do start to point towards Johannes Gutenberg, but why would this famous man start it in the first place... Many believe him to be innocent but the involvement of the Automatons that only Johannes can control tells something different... It's a roller coaster of events that follow up on each other from start to finish!
The protagonist of the series, Isaac Vainio, is on the first take a true geek. He is a big fan off all things science fiction and fantasy and this is also his expertise when doing his Libriomancer thing. He knows several books by heart and uses this to draw forth weapons when he needs them. Isaac is also a big fan of Doctor Who and, Jim C. Hines uses several references to create humorous settings. The geekiness in Isaac's character was for me very well developed, he isn't that confident on several fronts and would rather spend a night with his book or playing videogames than a wild night out. What might not be notable from the introduction to Isaac is that there is much more going on. Isaac was one of the better Libriomancers but due to a certain miscalculation while he was on a job he did something unforeseen and is now banned from the field and forced behind a desk. I like reading about Isaac's character he is a funny guy especially when you look at the interplay between him and Lena, however it did feel in the end that his character became a bit bland and the same, perhaps it was by the non stop action in the end that took over the story. A second character that you follow pretty closely through the story is that of Lena the dryad/ wood nymph. I don't think I can recall to have read about this type in urban fantasy. Lena is a kick-ass wood nymph together with her wooden bokken (swords) she doesn't shy away to give a beating with them. She has a lot of virtues of a true heroine which makes her character fun to read about. Like I said on Isaac's part, Lena and Isaac know each other from way back and there is a nice interplay between them that verges on the romantic side. Only Lena does have someone else close to her as well that could complicate matters... Besides these two there are quite a few secondary characters that you get to meet all throughout the book like the banned sorcerer and the leader of the vampires. In just a few sentences, Jim C. Hines manages to capture most of a background surrounding these character directly giving them a solid place in the storyline.
Now for the a very clever and inventive thing. The whole porting/Libriomancer thing. Pulling forth objects from books wouldn't that be super awesome if you could do it in real life!? In the beginning of the book you already get to see Isaac in action when he pulls forth an blastgun from one of his favorite SF books. If you just take it as it is you can quiet imagine that this is powerful magic, and yes it is, so I was very pleased to see that Jim C. Hines put some restraints on this magic system. There are plenty of books that feature weapons that have the potential to decimate the Earth. Books that have such a weapons are "locked" they have a blockade that doesn't allow said weapons to be drawn from the books. Also the weapons have to fit through the pages. So you wont be able to draw the batmobile for example... too bad though! Another clever adaptation of this kind of magic was that certain things from books can influence the real world. Isaac early on tells that there are many different strains of vampires... well take for example if you have a person reading a book, experiencing the magic, reaches into the book and nicks her finger on the fang of a vampire... and there you have it a new vampire in the real world. pretty cool isn't it! Ow and yes, what if you could draw Excalibur!
The ending of the book was something that I hadn't foreseen. The startup of the story shows both the sides and stories of the Porters and the vampires but is seems that an unforeseen invisible force is at play. Introducing this plot twist was done in a smart way, Jim C. Hines weaves some strand here and there and creates and exciting new plot. The best thing here is that Jim C. Hines forties and explains a lot about this plot twist, it might come a bit unexpected but later there is a good a solid elaboration of the how's and the why's behind it all. And finally finding out what happened to Johannes Gutenberg,and how he reacted was done in a neat and inventive way.
Magic Ex Libris is definitely a cool new Urban Fantasy series, it has a very clever and awesome magic system that should speak to every science fiction and fantasy fantasist out there. Libriomancer is a fine showcase of the many possibilities that are set in this amazing world. Jim C. Hines liters (in a positive way!) his world with references to popular fiction books and uses them for Isaac to draw from like the potion that cures everything from The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe or Excalibur! The main protagonist of the series, Isaac, is your typical geek that I think many readers will be able to relate to we all have these quirky habits, well at least I do... the additional character cast all had a nice emphasis to them, short explanations of several past events neatly places them in the story of Libriomancer. Now that Isaac is back in the ranks of the Porters as an field agent, I think this series will be taken up a notch in the sequels to come, lets see what kind of problems Isaac will have to fend of next time around! The second book in the Magic Ex Libris, Codex Burn, is out already and the third book, Unbound, is planned for later this year!
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