 extra-frustrials, adventurers, travelers of the multiverse, stowaways, rapscallions all. My name is Kim, this is Dustmoots in Velikor, and today I get to tell you about my most recent binge read, The Invisible Library Saga by Genevieve Cogman. I'm gonna come clean. It took me a long time to get into the first one. It took me a while to realize that Genevieve Cogman's brain can turn on a dime, and you cannot miss anything, like mid-paragraphed, like mid-claws. You can all of a sudden have a complete plot shift or a hint dropped that you absolutely need to make sense of the puzzle that is each one of these books. High stakes, constant twists and turns, an incredible adventure in every box. Above all, I love Irene. She is a complex, multi-faceted woman with clear purpose and a clear head. Though sometimes her loyalties lead her to not investigate things that merit investigation, but I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's start big picture. The Invisible Library is a transdimensional organization that collects unique books from different alternate worlds in order to stabilize the existence of those alternate worlds. Different worlds, different circumstance, different influences on the author, all leading to different, altered, longer, shorter, or even additional books. Mary Shelley's hand written manuscript for the sequel to Frankenstein? Done. Shakespeare's clearly stolen adaptation of Escalus? Done. Each book strengthens ties between its alternate and the library, like backing up hard drive. The more data stored outside the alternate, the less likely that world is to simply unravel. Which does happen, especially to worlds too close to either end of the spectrum. Chaos? Order. Excessive chaotic energy will manifest itself into dramatic storybook tropes. The Fae, vampires, werewolves, humans, will find themselves woven into stories that will fly dramatically out of hand. The Fae rule chaotic worlds by making themselves more powerful, by defining themselves in dramatic archetypes and building sympathetic storylines throughout their lives. Arch-hemesies, blood feuds, bizarre assassination attempts, all these things and more can be found in your local world ruled by chaos. Excessive orderly energy manifests in dictatorial rule and military oppression. The dragons rule orderly worlds, encouraging scientific and technological developments in those worlds. Dragons are more hands-off rulers. Worlds under their supervision barely know that dragons exist. They are also bound by a strict hierarchy and code of conduct. Not a lot is known about dragons and they like it that way. Due to their antithetical natures and to literally no one's surprise, the Fae and dragonkind are almost constantly on the brink of war. The invisible library trains its librarians in book acquisition. It is a task which often requires situation management, lockpicking, disguises, negotiation, an impressive on-the-go problem-solving ability, as well as the language, which lessened enlightened people might call magic. But librarians know the words whole power and that is the tenet intrinsic to the language. Our heroine is Irene, who as I have mentioned, I love. Her favorite tactic is to go utterly unnoticed. Given adequate time and the necessary tools, she is a chameleon. She can become exactly whoever she claims to be at the moment. She's a sign of apprentice Kai, who claims a partially criminal upbringing, but can't seem to hide his ease in high society. And to round out the party Peregrine Vale, a world-class detective on par with the great detective, and he becomes an ally and friend throughout the journey. A myriad of other characters fly in and out of the storm, but these three are the eye of the hurricane. I love. I love the idea of librarians as spies, secret agents, con artists. Genevieve Cogman has created a multitude of worlds that are very true to themselves. The first book gives you steampunk themes, detective stories, vampires, and murder most foul. The sequel, Masked City, dives deep into chaos and takes you to a fey Venice where every day is a masquerade and enemies come disguised as friends and as shadows. The burning page sees the library itself in danger against its oldest enemy, and the lost plot pits dragon against dragon set in prohibition New York with mobsters and speakeasies and ancient Chinese literature. Most of all, I love the bond between Irene and Kai. Throughout the series they become less student and teacher and more partners, teammates. Irene worries that she's not teaching him the things he needs to know as a potential future librarian because she does the quick thinking and he's her extra pair of hands. But he is learning and one of the things she's taught him is to rely on their individual skill sets. In the last book we also get to see him make a plan and stands Irene, and if that doesn't show the problem solving skills he's absorbed by osmosis, I don't know what will. There is also just a tiny bit of romance in these books and I really love how it's done. How can I tell you about this without spoilers? I'm just, I'm just gonna tell you about it. Okay, so in the first book a character called Bradamant is introduced. She was Irene's mentor back in the day. Irene doesn't look kindly on the time they spent together and it influences the way she teaches her own student. Since everyone is an adult before they even get recruited to the library, everyone's over the age of consent. But Irene is adamant that she will not go to bed with her student. It's a power and balance that she feels very strongly about. So even though Kai is very charming about it and there wouldn't be anything out of the ordinary if she did, she doesn't accept his advances. But despite this, throughout the four books even as they careen through adventures that take your breath away, you are still watching them fall in love very slowly. At least that's where I'm hoping this is going. It will be a love based on mutual respect and shared intellect, communication, respect for boundaries, and the unbending faith that comes with knowing someone will come through for you. So I'm in love with the Invisible Library series by Genevieve Cogman. Given the pattern of publications, I think we can expect the fifth book sometime around December of 2018, but no release date has been announced. They are fast-paced, heart-pounding, occasionally terrifying, occasionally hilarious, and just ludicrously intricate. If that sounds like something you'd be into, you should probably check them out. Oh, oh, oh, mini announcement for the channel. I'm moving my upload dates to Mondays because book releases happen on Tuesdays and that gives me a whole week to read a new release, write film, edit a video, and then upload it on Mondays just in time for the new set of releases to happen on Tuesdays. Boom, I'm a genius. Everybody, everybody, genuflect. All right, I'm feeling, I'm feeling the love. And, abiento.