Isaac has been working as a librarian for the past two years, cataloging works for both his small-town library and the secret society of magic users that he used to be part of. After over-using his magic, he almost got kicked out, but was allowed to remain on the fringes in this auxiliary role. All of that changes when a couple of vampires show up at the library and try to kill him. He's fortunate that Lena, a dryad, is following the vampires. Between Isaac and Lena, the vampires are dispatched (including the other vampires that were waiting at Isaac's house), and the two set out to figure out what's gone wrong with the treaty that usually keeps the vampires more or less in check. They discover that the aforementioned secret society, the Porters, is in disarray, with agents killed or kidnapped, including 400-year-old Johannes Gutenberg, the founder of the Porters. Could a rogue agent or former agent be behind it all?

That's kind of a sloppy summary, as I don't want to give too much away. There's a lot going on in this book, with the sort of plot that dashes from one big fight or disaster to another, with some witty quips in between. I loved the idea of Libriomancy, the magical ability to reach into books and pull out anything small enough to fit within the book's covers, though I am still confused, after finishing the book, about some of the rules and limitations of the magic. This is straight-up mind-candy, with not a lot of substance behind the flash -- and that's just fine; sometimes one needs just that kind of read. If it's what you're looking for, go right ahead. I probably won't read more in the series, but I don't regret having read this one. ( )

Remember the Pagemaster? The 1994 American live-action animated film starring Macaulay Culkin where he gets transported into the realms of famous books? Well, Libriomancer plays with a similar concept: What if books were actually magic and one was able to harness their power to pull out objects to defend themselves from vampires?

Okay. So its not exactly like the Pagemaster but both share the share theme: both the Pagemaster and Libriomancer are about the magic of books. Being a librarian, like the main character of Libriomancer, I loved this book.

Jim Hines has created a system where the magic of books becomes real, usable, and not always safe. Isaac is a libriomancer, a member of a secret organization founded by Johannes Gutenberg to protect the world from supernatural threats. Able to magically reach into books and pull forth objects, libriomancers are the protectors of our world. When vampires leaked from the pages of our world attack Isaac, he teams up with a ass-kicking dryad named Lena to slay some vamps and to unravel the supernatural mystery lurking in the UP.

This is a book written for geeks like me, who've always dreamed of holding Excalibur, a light saber, a ray gun and fighting evil. It combine witty pop culture references with urban fantasy quite nicely and is a fast-paced adventure/supernatural thriller.

recommended for fans of: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Librarians, Terry Pratchett, and Patrick Rothfuss. ( )

3.5 ( )

3.75 stars

Isaac is a librarian (a cataloguer), and is horrified when a few vampires come into his library and destroy it (and try to destroy him)! Isaac was also once a libriomancer and a Porter. He was banned from using magic a couple of years back, though, by the secret society of Porters. As a libriomancer, he is able to reach into books and pull things out to use in this world.

It seems that vampires have been hunting down Porters and are trying to start a war (or something) with them. But who is controlling them and why is this happening? Can Isaac help find out what’s going on (with the help of Lena, who herself has come out of a book)?

I enjoyed this. I’m not always a fantasy fan, but as a librarian (and cataloguer), I quite enjoyed that part of the book, and the fact that Isaac (and other libriomancers) was/are able to pull things out of books. That’s pretty cool. I really liked Isaac’s pet fire spider (pulled from a book, of course). I was also a bit amused by the bibliography at the end, which included made up titles in the book. I’d have given it 3.5 stars (good), but wanted to give the extra ¼ star for the librarian who loves to research! ( )

I am torn about this one.

The author is obviously very aware of a lot of the typical UF and sci-fi clichées and goes out of his way to dodge or subvert many of them, but the entire book falls victim to ridiculous plot conveniences anyway.
Power levels are completely arbitrary and are entirely defined by the author's needs. Not only that but they are being adjusted constantly by large margins, creating obvious plot holes and contradictions.
I think the biggest problem of the entire book is that the premise is just too powerful. The author imposes various limitations on Libriomancy but even with this severely limited potential it still is far too powerful to work within this plotline. The only solution the author has found to further restrict the magic is stupidity.
It's frustrating to see how little the MC utilizes the huge range of options he has, even while staying well within all these imposed limitations. Especially because the tools he chooses are just enough to keep him alive but never enough to end a confrontation in his favor. This character is supposed to have experience with this talent for half his life. I am familiar with this concept for about 4 hours now and am already able to apply it more effectively. Granted, I have read a lot of fantasy but so has the MC. This makes it very hard to take his increasingly deteriorating situation seriously. I can't stop being angry at the MC and mentally shouting "this is your own damn fault!"
I dropped the book at 50% almost exactly.

The other big problem I had was the narrow-mindedness and stubbornness of other characters that were ambiguous in their alliances. Their behavior was entirely determined by plot needs which made them feel two-dimensional and unbelievable.

I enjoyed the romance and sexual tension between the MC and the dryad as well as the... love triangle? It's not really that, don't worry, but I can't think of a better description. It's more a kind of difficult supernatural problem than a traditional love triangle.
I liked a lot of the ideas of how these various magic systems from all these books merge together into a kind of meta-magic system and I was very intrigued by the concept of different kinds of vampires for example. It's really obvious in retrospect. I mean... depending on the lore there might be just one species of vampire possible but there really is no reason in 99% of vampire UF to just have one kind.
Sometimes there is a good and an evil kind but usually, they are just different families or religions or corrupted by their magic something of that sort.
While I wasn't super happy with the depth of the discussion, I liked that the book questioned the morality of exploiting the involuntary nature of magical creatures. He didn't just take it at face value and ran with it which is another reason I generally liked the MC.

Basically, the world-building and the character work were great but the blatant plot steering ruined my enjoyment because it caused inconsistencies and plot holes.

I really wanted to like this book and there are many aspects that deserve praise, but the flaws I pointed out above just frustrate me too much regardless of how good the rest is. ( )