Monday, February 1, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Dark Archive by Genevieve Cogman

 



The Dark Archive is the seventh book in Genevieve Cogman's Invisible Library series.  This series is one of my favorite ongoing and long-running series that I have come across over the last few years, and I swear I devour each new one in the series I get my hands on in record time, within 24 hours of me picking it up.  The series' general plot of a Librarian working for a multiversal library trying to collect rare books from various worlds of magic and technology, all the while staying out of the way of conflicting Fae (beings of Chaos) and Dragons (beings of Order), has blossomed into a greater scope that has been fascinating to watch...but has not at all lost its core of fun dialogue characters and humor.  

And The Dark Archive is no exception to any of the above.  This book clearly marks the move into the series' endgame, as several ongoing plot threads are finally resolved, and Irene's supporting cast gets a new member....and yet the novel remains still fresh and fun throughout, with great immensely quotable dialogue and characters I really damn care about.  And Cogman's prose remains incredibly easy to read, to the point where I could barrel through it quickly and finish this book in just a few hours, even when I didn't intend to read so much so quickly.  I'd say oops, but that would involve me being sorry I did it, and with this series I never am.  

------------------------------------------Plot Summary----------------------------------------------
Life has gone back to normal for Irene in her dual role as Librarian-in-Residence in Vale's world and as the Librarian representative for the Fae-Dragon peace treaty.  Well as "normal" as it ever gets, complete with kidnapping and assassination attempts, and the new feature of Irene attempting to figure out how to teach her new Fae assistant Catherine when she can't even get a Fae into the Library itself.  But then Vale asks her for help with a spy mission and Irene finds herself face to face with one of her most lethal enemies:  the Mind Controlling Scheming Fae Lord Guantes.  

But Irene killed Lord Guantes herself, so how can he be alive?  And before she can figure out the mystery, he dies again, but not before leaving her with a chilling message: that someone has plans for Irene, plans more complicated than simple murder or kidnapping.  Soon Irene, Kai, Vale and Catherine find themselves one step behind a mysterious enemy with ties to Irene's past, and to stop him, she'll have to discover truths that will change her world forever....
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In my review of Book 6 of this series, The Secret Chapter (Review Here), I noted that that book was one of the more continuity heavy installments in the series.  That trend continues, and I'd say even accelerates, here, with a book that draws heavily upon multiple prior books in the series, featuring three villains of old as its central antagonists.  It also finally resolves one long running plot thread/reveal that every reader of this series will have guessed the answer to 6 books ago (and will surprise absolutely no one). 

But despite all that, this book still remains the same type of fun (and very witty) adventurous novel that readers should know to expect from this series.  The dialogue remains excellent and amusing, the addition of Catherine to the crew only adds to it all, and Irene's solutions using the Language remain fresh and exciting to read.  You might worry that adding a new member to the group wouldn't work 7 books in, but you'd be absolutely wrong, and despite the reappearance of three old villains, no part of this book feels like a retread.  And if you missed Vale, who was absent from the last book, he's back in full Holmes-ian fashion here. 

So yeah, more incredibly fun action with great dialogue and characters as we visit multiple more versions of Earth in this multiverse - although we don't quite get to fully explore a new world this time with more Fae, Dragon and Librarian action.  And we finally get some answers to mysteries that we have been waiting for for years at this point.  I only have two complaints about this book: First, as I've said before, I never really have bought into the romantic relationship between Irene and Kai, and there's a bit more of that here. 

Secondly....well, the cliffhanger epilogue of this book makes it seem like we're entering the series' endgame soon, and I do not want this series to end.  It's just so much fun and I enjoy devouring each book quicker than I do the last.  Sigh.   

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