2020 alternate-world fantasy, seventh of its series. Irene's trying to
train up a new assistant, but someone's attacking them and their
allies…
Well. Finally. Maybe I've got into the groove of these books but
I really enjoyed this one. Irene's apprentice Catherine is a fae,
young enough to be still picking the stereotype she'll live by; though
as a sort of proxy at least for this reader, she has quite reasonable
objections: having signed up to be a librarian, she has no interest
in being a thief of books supporting the largest book-hoarding
organisation across multiple worlds. And sure, Irene has an answer to
that, but what's important is that finally someone is mentioning
this thing that's been annoying me since back in book one.
Along with that, the secret we apparently weren't supposed to have
guessed at the end of book three finally comes out into the open; but
most importantly there's stuff for Irene to do, and she does it, with
something like gusto. Finally, rather than whimpering and complaining,
she seems to have accepted that she's an action hero, and she might as
well enjoy it!
"They get very unhappy about people trying to sue them. The last
person who tried was jailed for indecency with public transport—"
"With or on?"
"With. It was complicated…"
Yes, all right, the Language is still the all-purpose problem solver,
as powerful as it needs to be in any given situation. And distractions
of draconic power politics feel like, well, distractions. And a
postscript of anonymous shadowy plotters makes me glad that there's
only one book left, so that all this stuff will get resolved soon.
Not one to start with, but a significant up-tick for me.