white_hart (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
white_hart) wrote2018-03-31 01:47 pm
white_hart) wrote2018-03-31 01:47 pm
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Reading: The Masked City
I wasn't completely sold on Genevieve Cogman's The Invisible Library when I read it a year or so ago, but I thought at the time that might have been because I was expecting it to be about the Library and the Librarians and their quests to retrieve obscure and magical books, whereas in fact the Library simply provided the backdrop for an alternate-reality, steampunky romp. In any case, my suspicion that I might have been a bit harsh in my judgement led me to buy the second book, and in fact I enjoyed it a lot more than I enjoyed the first one.
This book takes Irene from the steampunk alternate universe she has been living in to a Fae-controlled alternate Venice where it's always Carnival, in pursuit of her apprentice, Kai, who has been kidnapped by a powerful Fae lord. Like the first book, this is a romp, with Irene having to use all of her intelligence and resourcefulness to survive in a city full of enemies and find her way to where Kai is held. I'm not entirely convinced by Irene's ability to win out against daunting odds, which seems to owe a lot more to luck than careful planning, along with her general likeability and ability to talk her way out of tricky situations; I can't help feeling that the highly trained professional she's supposed to be shouldn't give quite such an impression of making things up as she goes along, although she is operating quite a long way outside the parameters of her job in this book. In any case, I found it a fun and enjoyable read and am glad I gave the series a second chance.
This book takes Irene from the steampunk alternate universe she has been living in to a Fae-controlled alternate Venice where it's always Carnival, in pursuit of her apprentice, Kai, who has been kidnapped by a powerful Fae lord. Like the first book, this is a romp, with Irene having to use all of her intelligence and resourcefulness to survive in a city full of enemies and find her way to where Kai is held. I'm not entirely convinced by Irene's ability to win out against daunting odds, which seems to owe a lot more to luck than careful planning, along with her general likeability and ability to talk her way out of tricky situations; I can't help feeling that the highly trained professional she's supposed to be shouldn't give quite such an impression of making things up as she goes along, although she is operating quite a long way outside the parameters of her job in this book. In any case, I found it a fun and enjoyable read and am glad I gave the series a second chance.
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