'You co-opted a mob boss to blast a couple of dragons out of the sky with bootleg alcohol!’ Evariste growled.
‘We do the best we can with the materials available to us,’ Irene said. [p. 299]
Fourth in the Invisible Library series (previous reviews here, here and here), featuring Librarian Irene Winters, her associate Kai (a dragon, mostly in human form) and an interdimensional Library which sits between the worlds, cementing its links to those worlds -- and their places in the balance between order and chaos -- by 'borrowing' works of fiction.
In The Lost Plot, Irene and Kai find themselves involved in a political race between two dragons. One of those dragons has enlisted the help of another Librarian in fulfilling a challenge: but the Library must remain neutral, and cannot be seen to ally with the dragons (agents of order), especially by the Fae (agents of chaos). It's up to Irene and Kai to investigate the rivalry between the two dragons, and to negotiate an alternate New York that's strongly reminiscent of 1920s Prohibition, where the police believe Irene is actually a powerful British mob boss ...
This was a fun read but didn't really engage me, though there was plenty of swashbuckling action, cinematic scene-setting and clever use of the Language, the method by which Irene persuades reality to do what she wants. I'm not sure if this lack of engagement is an artefact of hindsight: when I'd finished this I immediately skimmed the first three novels again (to ensure that I understood the impact of a major development late in the book) and then went on to the next in the series. So I must've liked it, right? But it hasn't stuck, for whatever reason. Possibly the highly formal, mannered society of dragons -- which Irene negotiates elegantly, though with considerable effort -- is less appealing to me than the indulgent chaos of the Fae.
Very creatiive post
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