A good finish to the series. But, it also leaves the door open for more books to be written in the same universe.

If you're looking for a fun series of books about books, this fits the bill nicely. ( )

For security reasons, no books will be permitted in the chamber during your testimony.

Revisionary is a fascinating work. It takes the world building of the first three Magic Ex Libris books and explores what happens when magic comes out in the modern world. It's probably the best example I've seen of this, right up there with the Mercy Thompson books (and honestly does a better job of showing the changes from the point of view of humans dragged into a new world).

There are a number of really interesting ideas in this book.

How do you treat magical beings such as vampires? Are they legally the same as ordinary human beings?

How would inheritance work? Taxes--on beings that can and may have already lived for centuries?

How do medical regulations interact with magical healing? Do you need to go through human trials and years of other studies for a magical healing vial pulled out of a book?

On top of that, we get a bunch of new magical bits and bobs that the Libriomancers have put together now that they don't have to completely hide what they're doing. In particular, I found it particularly interesting how they dealt with the interaction of magic and computer systems, particularly in the case of the Kiyokos--a series of clones acting as networked biological computers. All together, the new magical tech leads to some pretty crazy (and weird at times) action scenes especially towards the climax of the book.

As one downside, Gutenbern only barely shows up (being dead) and de Leon isn't in the book at all. I get that they're a bit over powered being around for so long... although Bi Wei shows up. At least we still get plenty from the main characters we've come to know over the series. Isaac is still my favorite. I see more than a bit of myself in him.

“That’s . . . that’s magic.”

“Pretty cool, isn’t it? If I had more time, I’d tell you how it worked.”

“He would,” Lena said. “Even if you asked him to stop.”

Overall, a fitting end to the series even if I wished it weren't the end. Worth the read.

Random awesome thing: an uplifted crow. I find the idea of uplifted animals fascinating although it has an unfortunate tendency to overpower the story.

He’d discovered his abilities a year and a half ago, and was still in that overenthusiastic phase where he was likely to blow himself up along with everyone within a hundred-foot radius if you didn’t keep a close eye on him.

( )

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher, Berkeley Publishing Group DAW, in exchange for a review, through Netgalley.com.

This is book four of the the Magic Ex Libris series, and I have anxiously awaited it's coming. Isaac and many of the other regular characters are back, taking on 'the World' as countries try to gain military superiority using magic/magical creatures. All while trying to run New Millenium, a facility to help introduce the good aspects of magic use into the world.

Hines has done a wonderful job continuing this story line. Main character development as he gains more responsibilities, and the after-effects of his actions, are good things that the readers should learn for use in their own lives. That whole cause and effect thing.

I have no idea if there will be more to this series, but it would be nice to maybe see some small stories spun from the same line. ( )

This makes a pretty good conclusion to the story, and does a better than average job of wrapping up the big story threads. I'm not sure about the feasibility of the final conclusion - it seems like the sort of thing that would fall apart given a little time - but I still think it's about as good as it could get. I've really enjoyed these books, I absolutely loved the magic system introduced in them, and if I don't get any more I can be content with where the story has ended up. ( )

Loved it. This book was something I wish more authors would do. Give us a final book that shows what happens in the world after the main events; especially with something so world shattering as magic being real. The government investigations, the mystery that the main character has to solve on a deadline, it was all so delightful.

I would love to see more stories from this world, but if there isn't any to come, I feel the author wrapped things up nicely. ( )