Libriomancer

Magic ex Libris, Book 1

By: Jim C. Hines

Narrated by: David DeVries

Length: 10 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's summary

Isaac Vainio is a Libriomancer, a member of the secret organization founded five centuries ago by Johannes Gutenberg. Libriomancers are gifted with the ability to magically reach into books and draw forth objects. When Isaac is attacked by vampires that leaked from the pages of books into our world, he barely manages to escape. To his horror he discovers that vampires have been attacking other magic-users as well, and Gutenberg has been kidnapped.

With the help of a motorcycle-riding dryad who packs a pair of oak cudgels, Isaac finds himself hunting the unknown dark power that has been manipulating humans and vampires alike. And his search will uncover dangerous secrets about Libriomancy, Gutenberg, and the history of magic....

©2012 Jim C. Hines (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"This may be Jim Hines's best work. Libriomancer is smart, silly, and deadly serious, all at the same time. It's a book about loving books. This is the magic librarian and ass-kicking dryad adventure story we’ve all been waiting for." (Seanan McGuire, The New York Times best-selling author of Discount Armageddon)

"All writers believe in the magic of books; Jim Hines has created a system where that magic becomes real, usable, and very definitely not always safe." (Tanya Huff, best-selling author of the Blood Books)

"This funny and fast-paced series opener...will be sure to surprise and entertain urban fantasy fans.... Isaac is sure to be an instant fan favorite, and the secondary characters are vivid and multidimensional." ( Publishers Weekly)

This book made moving fun!

Listening to the audio book for Libriomancer, the arduous task of packing for a move became a pleasant span of time wrapped up in a delicious story. It hots the ground running and seamlessly introduces us to the world of Porters and Libriomancy. a world that calls to all book lovers and dreamers. Jim C. Hines does a beautiful job of avoiding tropes and clichés without calling blatant attention to the rounded realism of the characters. He also brings up several topics certain magical themes take for granted when these items really merit close scrutiny. I was thrilled to see them noted, and hope that hr expands on such things as the series progresses.
This book is really a keeper. As soon as I finished it, I began listening to it again. And again. I got 7 badges and "Pro" level in audible from this book ALONE. It just doesn't lose its charm. Five really big, bright gold stars for Libriomancer!

Great story, difficult narration

I love the story, but my only issue is the voices chosen for some characters. While New York and foreign accents were covered well, the accent of the main character and others from Northern Michigan were completely absent.

whimsy and awe

enjoyably inappropriately timed whimsy and awe, pauses at something magnificent before the return to more immediate concerns like survival. this is a fun read. the main character is a lovable dork whose obsessive tendencies are well... both dangerous and highly useful. there is a particular scene where all he is doing boils down to basically being research, but getting to experience the excitement even as he he did something as mundane as research tickled me almost more than anything else in the book. love the main character. loveable, dangerous dork.

Fast-Paced Fun

I absolutely looooove the idea of this book. The rules are there, the idea is simple and effective, and the possibilities are endless. If you could pull objects from books into the real world, what would you pick?

The story itself is light and fast, but there's still plenty of room for some character development, most of which is definitely aimed at a teenage audience. But for every misstep or perceived shortcoming, this book offers a great deal of fun and imagination.

The narrator is decent. What would have been a higher score for performance is dropped by his inability to pronounce the word "automaton." This word is used a LOT, especially in the second half of the book, so the more it's mispronounced, the more it grates. Apart from that, it's clear the narrator had as much fun with this as I did.

Good story, but the narrator is a little grating.

The narrator seemed wrong for this book. The main character was fine, but the females were all very nasally. The story itself was entertaining though, and the magic system was pretty novel. If you're looking for something to tide you over until the next Dresden book comes out this one isn't bad.

Book geek book for book geeks

If some librarians were wizards... is a fun premise for a real-world fantasy novel, with vampires, werewolves, a conquistador sorcerer, and an endearing fire spider. Many non-cis characters, much flirtatious dialogue, but no actual sex scenes.

Convenient

The writing was good and the story flowed well. Overall I enjoyed it. I just found the premise just too much of "writers convenience". By being able to pull things out of books it seemed just a bit to easy.

Really fun read

I was not expecting such a well written fun read but there you have it.
There were unexpected - but not totally unbaked surprises, just not what I *thought* would happen, really nice to find a new author to read who doesn't cheat to make the ending work.

Narration may not do justice to this book

I enjoy the story very much, and maybe I'm just spoiled on James Martsers's narration of the Dresden Files, but I think I would enjoy the story more if it was narrated by another reader. David DeVries is talented, but I'm halfway into a suspense or action scene before I realize it because he doesn't give enough tonal shifts. His matter-of-fact tone is better suited for a biography or nonfiction work. And maybe I'm just being a pedant, but his pronunciation of 'automaton' drives me a little bit crazy. Great story still, though I may be reading the rest of the series for myself.

Interesting take on magic

I enjoyed this immensely. The narration was entertaining, but I had a few quibbles (thus, the 4 on performance... if it were a 1-10 scale, it'd've been a 9). It was an interesting take on magic and manipulating it. I plan on snagging the next book when I have a few extra bucks.