Magic Ex Libris

[Argent he/him]

It's sometimes funny how Brandon reigns over my life...

 

A while back it was a particular Writing Excuses episode that introduced me to Patrick Rothfuss and his Kingkiller Chronicle. Spectacular books, but there is already a thread for them. The reason I bring this up is because it was Pat who introduced me to Jim C. Hines' Magic Ex Libris series.

 

Magic Ex Libris, the first book of which is Libriomancer, is a really geeky fantasy, very similar to the Dresden Files. Like, very. I thought that might be a problem when I was reading Libriomancer, and boy was I wrong about it. Yes, it's a modern day urban fantasy whose main protagonist is a young male with access to magic and pop culture references. Which is similar to Dresden, yes, but it's also very different. I won't go into specifics - I say all this to ease your fears of plagiarism and repetitiveness, and convince you to give the series a shot. 

 

Now, the books themselves. The thing I loved the most about the magic system is how impossibly appealing it is. It's brilliant really. Because in its core, libriomancy allows its users to pull objects out of books. For example, you are a libriomancer and you love Brandon's books (and money) so very much, you go grab a hardcover of The Way of Kings and you pull a few diamonds out of it. Feeling sick? Just grab that healing elixir from Narnia. In great danger? Nothing a lightsaber won't fix! Curious about how The Stormlight Archive will end? Reach into Robin McKinley's Beauty, in which the Beast's library contains every book that has been or will be written! You are starting to see how this is a series by a book geek, for book geeks, with the main character being a book geek. Thinking about it is a vicious cycle, I'll tell you that.

 

Oh, also Jim Hines is a really cool dude. Cool in a "I made a Facebook post about him and he randomly showed up and replied" kind of way. Or "we chatted on Facebook for a little bit and then he made this post and tagged me." So instead of discussing his books, I'll send you to go read them

Edited October 14, 2013 by Argent

[Gamma Fiend he/him]

Sounds like a good recommendation. The magic is pretty nifty, and can lead to a lot of possibilities it seems like, and the author sounds like a really cool dude. Will eventually check it out next time I need stuff to read. Upvoted.

[Argent he/him]

They also read quickly, so you could stick them in a gap between bigger series.

[Joe ST he/him]

Its pretty great yeah, I won the first one in last year's Worldbuilders, I'm definitely gonna read the second one.

[Thorontir he/him]

I have read the first book this week. So great Nowadays it's hard to find a fantasy book that has less than 1000 pages, or it seems so, and even if I don't mind reading huge books, it is refreshing when you find one shorter and well done. It is the same I though when readed The Emperor's Soul... Even if it has not a "close ending" (Being the first of a series, that is logic) the story works perfectly.

 

On the story, it was cool to read some thoughts of the main character (Not only things that worked, but also things that do not, and why it did not work) about books I readed: seems us fantasy/Scifi guys think alike  And seems mr Hines loves those books as any of us. I will be reading the next books for sure

 

Talking about the book with a friend of mine, the only flaw we could find is that it will be still cooler if Vainio had taken Lerasium beads and a pair of shardblades from Brandon's books 

[Argent he/him]

That's what I kept thinking - that he could pull so much awesome stuff out of the Cosmere!

[Thorontir he/him]

Well, readed the second book. While I enjoyed it (And it's cool to know more of the characters) I felt that it was "just more of the same". These are short books, so I am reading the third when it's out, but my feelings about the series are a bit worse than after reading the first one. Let's see if the third is better

 

One question maybe Argent has the answer for (Thanks in advance )

Is the book that Ponce de Leon took at the end of Libriomancer similar to those of the of Bi Wei and her companions? It seemed weird to me that there were no references to that, but maybe it's something Hines will use in the future...

[Argent he/him]

I don't remember anything specific about that book, but I was left with the impression that it's something else entirely.