‘... humanity is indeed weak, and we mortals are creatures of the moment. Yet humanity has created works of art, works of literature, philosophical structures and stories that last. The Fae do not create – they merely imitate. And from what I have seen, the dragons collect what humans have made.’ [p. 373]
Fifth in the Invisible Library series. At first it seems that the major change in circumstances at the end of The Lost Plot has had little or no impact on Irene, but it's soon plain that things are not as they were. And in the greater multiverse, changes are also afoot: in a momentous development, a series of peace talks between dragons and fae -- opposite sides in the great balancing-act of order and chaos -- has begun. Kai's relatives are part of the dragon contingent: the Fae muster a number of powerful archetypes, including the Princess (she's so good), the Cardinal (he schemes) and the Blood Countess (based on Elizabeth Bathory). Unfortunately, one of the factions also hides a murderer. Irene's friend Peregrine Vale, an instance of the Great Detective, is recruited to discover the killer of a dragon diplomat, and Irene -- together with Kai, and also Lord Silver, a rakish Fae -- accompanies him as a representative of the Library.
The setting for this novel is an alternate Paris, covered in snow (possibly a side-effect of the murder: dragons influence weather) and home to a Grand Guignol theatre and a number of scruffy urchins, et cetera. We don't get to see much of the city, though, for most of the action takes place in the hotels occupied by the two factions. Of those, the Fae are more engaging to me, though I was stirred to annoyance by a new Librarian character who seemed to have swallowed a few volumes of contemporary management training. Irene, I am happy to say, had little time for him, not least because he lacks competence.
All is, of course, resolved to some extent: yet I can't help wondering, with Irene, what would become of the Library -- which maintains the balance between order and chaos by 'borrowing' unique works of fiction -- if dragons and Fae kept to their own ends of the multiverse. Yet do I wonder enough to rush into reading the two remaining published novels in the sequence? I do not. They will wait...
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