Genevieve Cogman

The Masked City by Genevieve Cogman is a wonderful read for all those who enjoyed Mr Penumbra's 24 hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan, Jasper Fford's The Eyre Affair or Ben Aaronovitch's Rivers of London.Librarian-spy Irene is working undercover in an alternative London when her assistant Kai goes missing. She discovers he's been kidnapped by the fae faction and the repercussions could be fatal. Not just for Kai, but for whole worlds. Kai's dragon heritage means he has powerful allies, but also powerful enemies in the form of the fae. With this act of aggression, the fae are determined to trigger a war between their people - and the forces of order and chaos themselves. Irene's mission to save Kai and avert Armageddon will take her to a dark, alternate Venice where it's always Carnival. Here Irene will be forced to blackmail, fast talk, and fight. Or face death.

The Masked City

The second title in Genevieve Cogman's The Invisible Library series, The Masked City is a wonderful read for all those who enjoyed Mr Penumbra's 24 hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan, Jasper Fforde's The Eyre Affair or Ben Aaronovitch's Rivers of London. Librarian-spy Irene is working undercover in an alternative London when her assistant Kai goes missing. She discovers he's been kidnapped by the fae faction and the repercussions could be fatal. Not just for Kai, but for whole worlds. Kai's dragon heritage means he has powerful allies, but also powerful enemies in the form of the fae. With this act of aggression, the fae are determined to trigger a war between their people - and the forces of order and chaos themselves. Irene's mission to save Kai and avert Armageddon will take her to a dark, alternate Venice where it's always Carnival. Here Irene will be forced to blackmail, fast talk, and fight. Or face death. The Masked City contains bonus extra content - secrets from the Library!

Amina Madadi (ⴰⵎⵉⵏⴰ)

Kai is kidnapped and emprisoned in a high chaos world, he's gonna be sold at an auction. Irene has no idea where he is and has to save him with the help of Vale of course.

The begining was very slow, but I kept reading, true, after a while, things started to move and got very interesting.


Two reasons The Masked City didn't do it for me:

First: "Irene", she's not the same librarian I knew in book one. Maybe the conditions weren't the same, Kai's life being at stake, but this doesn't mean going into an unknown world, without even a tiny plan knowing how powerful and dangerous the kidnappers were. She could've been killed and KAi's fate sealed.


Second: A a ghost of a love triangle hovering on the whole thing and God knows how they spoil books! Irene, please, pick one man and stop torturing me!!


I loved the setting, guandolas, masks, masquarades and everything an alternate "Venise" can offer.
  

  

  

I'll be picking the next one for sure, hoping it'll offer more!

Becky

Cliffhangers! Why do the reviews not warn of cliffhangers? Why do I have to wait until December???

I will write a better review but be aware it's a long wait for the next book and there are things which require resolution here!

Sahi K

The exciting new sequel to The Invisible Library starts off with Irene’s usual task of acquiring a book – this time in a not so legal auction. Irene and Kai intend to find the persons who are trying to steal the book from them but before they do, Kai is kidnapped by the Fae. The remainder of the book deals with how Irene navigates the extreme chaos infested city of Venice where the lines between reality and fantasy are blurred and eventually rescues Kai, preventing a war between the dragons and the Fae in the process.

Irene was delightful in the first book but we get to know her more in this adventure. She is so brave, responsible and thinks quickly on her feet to get out of tricky situations. Her thoughtful words when dealing with Kai’s royal uncle or the Fae kidnappers Lord and Lady Guantes are a treat to read. The innovative ways in which she uses the Language to help Kai and escape Venice is also very interesting. Irene is turning into a great literary heroine and hopefully, we will see her in more adventures in the series. There is not much to any of the other characters except some interesting conversations which are few and far between.

Overall, the book is an enjoyable adventure with a female protagonist we can root for and the multiple worlds in the series are quite fascinating. The only disappointment with the book is that we get to know hardly anything more about the Library and there is not much plot revolving around books (which is what I was really hoping for).

Jennifer

This is an improvement from the first book. I think the magic system associated with Dragons and Fae are better fleshed out here. I also enjoyed the description of the alternate Republic of Venice. The transition between the ordered and chaotic worlds felt pretty seamless. While the writing still suffers a bit from the purple prosing (in attempt to paint the alternate historical world), I find the story more engaging in thsi book and I'll certainly read the remainder of the series. Again, this is a pretty fast and easy read packed with a lot of cool concepts.

Pam Sartain

An entertaining sequel, and I think I'll go back for more!

Nona G

3.5 

Better than the first one, in my perception, or at least more entertaining. We have Irene travelling to different worlds, as opposed to having her stay in one world for an entire novel. We have exciting pursuits, we have interesting characters and a main character who gets a little bit more of a development.

There's also the plus of being given more details about the interactions between Library, dragons and fae and how each of them sees the world.

The setting is another plus, as most of the action is placed in Venice - be it a weird Venice where people wear masks all day long, but Venice nonetheless.

There are also points I'm not particularly happy with. First of all, I have not been able to engage with the Vale character. I have not been able to see it's particular usefulness, all his interventions seem forced. While in The Invisible Library he was sort of a Sherlock Holmes character, in this novel he is out of his world and completely out of place. I am pretty sure Irene could have been ok without him, maybe with the assistance of local characters (there's a whole bunch of them who were introduced but were given only marginal roles); and then there's the minor aspect of a human turning up in a world where he does not belong, after being told that he could not resist such a world, and magically not being affected by the high chaos of that world. 

There's also a little bit too much action, to the point where it gets confusing. While I loved the alertness of the events, something that really kept me going, I feel it just went overboard a little bit. I'm in it for the fantasy, I don't want to be reading what is essentially a Sylvester Stallone movie with a female lead. More character development and less roller-coaster would be welcome.

annika

Krystal

Rochelle Butcher

Grace Piper

Nora 

Monique Baham

Jeff James

Sian

Laura

Karolina Södergren

Vilde

Alexandra Dawning

Daria Ioana Gheorghica

"The written word is mightier than the sword--most of the time... Working in an alternate version of Victorian London, Librarian-spy Irene has settled into a routine, collecting important fiction for the mysterious Library and blending in nicely with the local culture. But when her apprentice, Kai--a dragon of royal descent--is kidnapped by the Fae, her carefully crafted undercover operation begins to crumble. Kai's abduction could incite a conflict between the forces of chaos and order that would devastate all worlds and all dimensions..."--

The Masked City

Reviews