The Masked City, Genevieve Cogman
The Masked City is a sequel to The Invisible Library, following the same characters… With possibly even less time in the actual library, which is my only real disappointment here. Technically, I received it to review — but only the day after I’d already bought a copy. I was eager to get my hands on it; the first book was a lot of fun, even if I didn’t enjoy it as much as, say, Bastian’s Book Reviews did. (Trivia: a quotation from his review appears on the back cover, and in the first couple of pages!) I’m actually thinking that based on reading The Masked City, I might have judged The Invisible Library too harshly — I think it quite likely deserved four stars, rather than the three I gave at the time.
The Masked City is a worthy sequel, with all the same intriguing worldbuilding, interplay between characters, and the sense of fun. It’s fast-paced and plays with all kinds of tropes along the way — the master spy, the great detective, the enemy operative… and even fairytales. And dragons; non-conventional dragons, but dragons nonetheless.
And let’s pause for a second to appreciate once again that Irene, the main character, is an undercover Librarian who is protected from deceitful Fae magic by her Library brand, who is tasked with stealing books to strengthen the connections between worlds and stabilise them, and whose magic and ways of travelling and understanding the world all revolve around books.
Sign me the heck up.
Plus, of course, the main character is a woman who knows what she’s doing, who rescues her (male) apprentice and generally plays the hero’s role with aplomb, and knows the power of words — and a good book. Hurrah, say I.
My only quibble is that the extra material at the back isn’t that interesting. If you’re going to give me Irene’s best heists, I need at at least a short story. Not a paragraph!
I picked up the first book this winter – this sounds really good!
It’s fun! I do recommend it, especially if you need something light and fast paced.
You were definitely too harsh on the first one! It deserved four stars or more!
But yeah, the extra material in this book was a bit pointless. Also, by listing Irene’s biggest heists, it unfortunately didn’t match her career history from the first book – based on those extras, she would have been a much more experienced Librarian than the early-career one we first meet.
I’m thinking so… I must’ve been cranky that day!
Well, sounds like I’m going to have to read this one too! Like you, I’d have hoped for much more actually about libraries in the first book, but if all the other tropes are there again then I’m not going to grumble too much!
I think it was a lot of fun! Possibly more so because I wasn’t expecting to see much more of the Library, based on the first book.
(P.S. Sorry this comment got spammed, no idea why I didn’t see it before. Also, have you checked your email? You were one of my giveaway winners!)
So glad I have my copy already! I also gave the first book 3 stars (well, 6/10) – enjoyed it, but felt it could have been more, especially those tantalising little glimpses of the library! Okay – shifting this one up the 2016 reading pile 🙂
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Unfortunately, there’s not much more library in this one either! But it is fun.