THE DARK ARCHIVE - Genevieve Cogman


Irene is a Librarian, which is to say that she is a spy for the Library - gathering special books from other locations, including alternate worlds and realities. Irene has been doing this for a number of years and is now teaching an assistant, a Fae, the ins and outs of being a Librarian. Due to Irene's success as a spy, however, there are many, many others out there looking to assassinate her.  She and her assistant, Catherine, only narrowly escape an assassination attempt (it doesn't hurt that Irene's boyfriend, Kai, is a Dragon) and Irene decides that Catherine might as well learn this part of being a Librarian first-hand.

A good defense is knowledge and Irene and Catherine (and Kai) will do what they do best being Librarians ... research. They must uncover who it is who is looking to have them killed, and why. But in doing so, Irene will have to dig into her own past, which is something she has avoided until now.

This is the 7th book in the Invisible Library series, and before you even think about reading this volume you really probably should have a better of understanding of the characters and the world this is set in.

I found this book to be a little ... 'off' ... from the rest of the series that I've read.  There was still a lot of action and adventure and cool fantasy things going on (let's face it, use of The Language is a really great concept) but the story here didn't have the feel of being a part of a larger story arc the way most of the other books did.  This felt like it could easily have been any fantasy story that was slightly adapted with these characters and world in mind, whereas my recollection is that the other books felt uniquely suited to the Invisible Library.

The character of Catherine has a lot of potential. She's the niece of Lord Silver and while a teenager and maybe not as enthusiastic about training with Irene as one would hope, this feels very much like a set-up for future books and she certainly makes a nice counterpart to the ambitious Irene and her partner, the Dragon Kai. But this feels a lot like establishing the character so that she can be used more efficiently in future books.

We're seven books in to the series now, and this is a series that I've recommended successfully to others, but this is probably my least favorite of the Invisible Library books that I've read. But how do you not read it if you are reading the series? If you skipped this one, you might wonder who Catherine is in the next one?

This is not a book to recommend on its own, but I do recommend the series.

Looking for a good book? The Dark Archive is the seventh book in Genevieve Cogman's Invisible Library series. This volume appears to act as a 'reset' for a future storyline and as part of the series it's worth reading.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

3 stars

* * * * * *

The Dark Archive

author: Genevieve Cogman

series: The Invisible Library #7

publisher: Ace

ISBN: 9781984804785

paperback, 336 pages

 

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