Wednesday, June 5, 2019

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Masked City by Genevieve Cogman




The Masked City is the second book in Genevieve Cogman's "Invisible Library" series, which began naturally with "The Invisible Library" (Review Here).  I enjoyed that first book quite a bit - it wasn't anything clearly special but it was a lot of fun as a multiverse-based SF/F book featuring Fae, Dragons, a Sherlock Holmes-esque character, and a heroine who is adventurous and creative in her main goal: obtaining rare books throughout the multiverse for the eponymous library.  That book ended with this "world" established, as well as its three biggest characters all set for new adventures, so I've been looking to read the sequel for quite some time, when I could sneak it in.

And The Masked City is again a really fun adventure, using the series' premise to take us to more places than before, and providing more challenges and adventures for our heroine.  Whereas the first book kept our protagonists entirely within a single world, this type we journey through several (including the titular "Masked City"), and Cogman makes great use of that to weave a plot that kept me guessing but no matter what kept me reading - I finished this book in a day and wasn't really trying to do that.  Definitely will be picking up book 3 in this series at some point.


-----------------------------------------------Plot Summary---------------------------------------------------------
Irene, along with her apprentice (and "secret" dragon) Kai, have found themselves generally at home as the Librarian-in-Residence in their alternate version of London (Vale's world), along with their friend, the Sherlock Holmes-esque detective Vale.  So when a recent book acquisition ends with them being followed and attacked by werewolves, Irene thinks nothing of it.  But then Lord Silver, leader of the local Fae, (and never a friend to the Library) starts passing along obtuse warnings, and Irene begins to think something could be up.....

And then Kai is lured into a trap and kidnapped.

It soon becomes clear to Irene that the most likely suspects are the pair of mysterious married Fae who showed up recently in Vale's world, and that their intentions towards Kai are not good.  Even worse, Kai's status as dragon royalty in disguise threatens to result in the renewal of a multiversal war between dragons and fae, and Vale's world is likely to be destroyed in the crossfire.

To try and prevent that, Irene will be forced to use her wits, and allies she absolutely cannot trust, to get Kai back safely.  And even worse, Irene will be forced to act without the support of the Library, deep in a world where she may find herself wrapped in someone else's story - one in which she may be playing the antagonist to be squashed......
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The Invisible Library seemed to set up its immediate sequel to take place mostly if not wholly in one world in this series' multiverse - Vale's world of Fae-infested London.  The Masked City however doesn't follow that path at all, taking Irene to one new world for a small bit before showcasing a quick tour of the multiverse en-route to the much more Fae crazy world that contains the title city.  We're still mostly following Irene's point of view throughout - although we do have some short interludes from another point of view - but the setting for this book moves into a more crazy (well, different kind of crazy) world, keeping the reader on their toes.

And it works really well.   Irene remains a fabulous main character - a really well done example of the resourceful secret agent - here in the service of a fun fantasy purpose - who is far from omniscient or omni-capable, but is quick thinking and innovative in her use of resources and her daring, while also being believable in what she cares about.  It'd be easy for the book to feel like it's repeating itself with how she deals with situations, but it actually doesn't here, and I hope that continues, but for this book at least, her reactions and abilities always seem fresh and fun.

The book's secondary characters remain fun, even if they are rarely built up to even close to Irene's level - Kai is mostly off-page in this book for obvious reasons, though Vale remains a fun enjoyable sidekick for Irene (having the Sherlock Holmes character as essentially a sidekick is the type of fun move that exemplifies this series).  And the fae and fae-servants, as well as the few other dragons, who Irene meets and has to deal with as the story goes onwards may each individually have very little page-time, but manage to be interesting in their own small ways.

And the plot's a fun roller-coaster, with a really interesting idea about the Fae that Irene has to navigate - that when one is inside their chaos-infested worlds, they have to be careful not to become part of someone else's narrative which the world will essentially reality warp them into.  I'm describing it poorly, but it's a cure trick that gives some extra tension to these scenes that I enjoy.  If there's a negative about this book, it's that the new antagonists aren't nearly so interesting as Alberich (the antagonist of the first book and perhaps of the overall series) - but they're kind of besides the point, so it doesn't really matter that much.

All in all, I'm really enjoying this series - again, it never reaches must-read or blows my mind or anything, but it's a lot of fun and this is the second time in two books I've found myself rushing through it to a very quick completion just because I couldn't put it down.  I'll be continuing with it soon enough.
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