What I've been reading lately...
The Invisible Library, by Genevieve Cogman.
(In which there are multiple worlds and a library sends out its agents to collect books from every single one. This does not always go smoothly.)
"She just wanted - had always wanted - a good book to read. The being chased by hellhounds and blowing things up was a comparatively unimportant part of the job."
"'She's one of the more...' Irene paused, considering what words she could use that wouldn't get her into trouble later if repeated elsewhere. She personally liked Copellia, but words such as Machiavellian, efficiently unprincipled, and ice-hearted didn't always go down well in conversations."
"'Have no fear!' Silver shouted, leaping onto a convenient table, bestriding a centerpiece of oysters. 'The powers of my kind shall scourge these creatures back to the slime from which they crawled -'
"Amazing grammar in a crisis, Irene couldn't help noticing."
There is an agreeably badass-and-bookish heroine, her new sidekick Kai is likable (and his backstory gets quietly weirder the more we find out about it), the supporting characters are good (obnoxious-but-skilled Bradamant, Lord Vale the Great Detective, the bad guy), and there are also zeppelins, cyborg alligators (unless they were crocodiles, I forget), hordes of silverfish the librarian's foe, a dab of eldritch horror, friendship, adventure, zeppelins, attention to grammar, and a pretty exciting conclusion that leaves lots of interesting plot hooks for the sequel.
Which I will have to wait for.
The horror, the horror...
**
In other news, the magic sliding bruise is starting to fade at the top. Still plenty of bruise to squick bystanders with, though. (Hey, I take my joys where I find my joys.)
(In which there are multiple worlds and a library sends out its agents to collect books from every single one. This does not always go smoothly.)
"She just wanted - had always wanted - a good book to read. The being chased by hellhounds and blowing things up was a comparatively unimportant part of the job."
"'She's one of the more...' Irene paused, considering what words she could use that wouldn't get her into trouble later if repeated elsewhere. She personally liked Copellia, but words such as Machiavellian, efficiently unprincipled, and ice-hearted didn't always go down well in conversations."
"'Have no fear!' Silver shouted, leaping onto a convenient table, bestriding a centerpiece of oysters. 'The powers of my kind shall scourge these creatures back to the slime from which they crawled -'
"Amazing grammar in a crisis, Irene couldn't help noticing."
There is an agreeably badass-and-bookish heroine, her new sidekick Kai is likable (and his backstory gets quietly weirder the more we find out about it), the supporting characters are good (obnoxious-but-skilled Bradamant, Lord Vale the Great Detective, the bad guy), and there are also zeppelins, cyborg alligators (unless they were crocodiles, I forget), hordes of silverfish the librarian's foe, a dab of eldritch horror, friendship, adventure, zeppelins, attention to grammar, and a pretty exciting conclusion that leaves lots of interesting plot hooks for the sequel.
Which I will have to wait for.
The horror, the horror...
**
In other news, the magic sliding bruise is starting to fade at the top. Still plenty of bruise to squick bystanders with, though. (Hey, I take my joys where I find my joys.)