Chaos thrives in a world of masks, but knowing one's identity brings power to break through that chaos. The Masked City, book number two in The Invisible Library series has the backbone of an excellent story; however, I struggled to get through the opening chapters -- chapters which fill in much for someone who has not read book number one or has not read it in a long time. I had rushed from book one to reading book two, and my mind was twiddling its synapses impatient to get into the new part of the story.
Sadly one of my favorite characters was not exactly missing in book two but had very little interaction in the book. That knocked my rating down for this book. I did not, however, stop me from bookmarking some favorite pages or stop me from wanting to read the next book in the series.
I continue to enjoy running into allusions to other literary works and authors. I've bookmarked an historical reference (also found in a famous play) as well as a reference to Murasaki, an author whose works I hope to get around to reading. Also, Cogman continues to grow Irene in her sense of identity, but I was disappointed in one particular rescue made in the book. With these disappointments, I want to give the book a middling rating -- a 3. Then, Cogman writes in a discussion between Lady Guantes and Irene. Irene is questioning Lady G on the benefits of Venice (this alternate Venice) for humans. Lady G claims the humans are happy. Irene claims, "The moment one of your kind interacts with them, the humans lose their volition, their freedom. Their life. In your world, the humans are just background characters."
To which Lady G replies, "But such happy background characters..." There's more and all worthy of discussion, and, if you've read my reviews before, you know how much I love discussion worthy books. UP goes the rating to 4 stars.
For now, I'll skip over the family ties and spiritual formation ties...oh, wait. I did think of something that would be intriguing: where would the various characters fit in the Enneagram?
Sadly one of my favorite characters was not exactly missing in book two but had very little interaction in the book. That knocked my rating down for this book. I did not, however, stop me from bookmarking some favorite pages or stop me from wanting to read the next book in the series.
I continue to enjoy running into allusions to other literary works and authors. I've bookmarked an historical reference (also found in a famous play) as well as a reference to Murasaki, an author whose works I hope to get around to reading. Also, Cogman continues to grow Irene in her sense of identity, but I was disappointed in one particular rescue made in the book. With these disappointments, I want to give the book a middling rating -- a 3. Then, Cogman writes in a discussion between Lady Guantes and Irene. Irene is questioning Lady G on the benefits of Venice (this alternate Venice) for humans. Lady G claims the humans are happy. Irene claims, "The moment one of your kind interacts with them, the humans lose their volition, their freedom. Their life. In your world, the humans are just background characters."
To which Lady G replies, "But such happy background characters..." There's more and all worthy of discussion, and, if you've read my reviews before, you know how much I love discussion worthy books. UP goes the rating to 4 stars.
For now, I'll skip over the family ties and spiritual formation ties...oh, wait. I did think of something that would be intriguing: where would the various characters fit in the Enneagram?
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