![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nwhikerLibriomancer by Jim C. Hines.
What a fun book!
Basic idea: Gutenberg created libriomancy when he created the printing press: enough belief in the item from a book enables those who possess a certain type of magic to reach into books and grab items out of said book.
Who has not dreamed of that?
You can't bring people, because they go insane if you do, or there are a few characters I'd SO yank straight out of the pages. Ahem.
Isaac is a libriomancer/librarian who is currently not allowed to do magic. But stuff happens, and he does. Accompanied by Smudge, a fire spider he pulled out of a book a long time before, a dryad called Lena, he rushes around the midwest trying to save a whole bunch of important people, including Lena's lover. Oh. And Gutenberg, who would be Very Dangerous if turned to the wrong (vampiric) side.
It's a fun book. Libriomancy touches on the stuff a readers dreams are made of.
Next up: some spoilers that talk about a more serious theme in the book that leads to a very funny I can't beleive I did that parenting story.
As I said above, Lena is a dryad. Brought into our world when someone pulled an acorn from a really crappy book about nymphs and dryads, didn't realise what they'd done, and tossed it. It grew, hence Lena. Whose nature is as she was written: she has no free will and must please the human she is bonded to. Her nature is to please. Her previous lover, a shrink, managed to rationalize their relationship in a way that makes sense and does not ping my "consent" issues. Lena tries to bond to Isaac because she needs someone to bond to, for safety reasons -bonded to a bad guy, she could be powerful and evil, see the lack of free will-. To his credit, Isaac hesitates... and goes on for a long while about free will, how can he, when she etc. It was a good exploration of free will and consent, and who can give it. I liked that.
I gave the book to Perry to read. I hadn't quite finished it -a chapter left- when I did so. I was ok with Isaac's musings on consent and desire because eh, it is stuff that I'm good with talking over with Perry and I figured when he was done, we could chat about it a bit. Boys, imo, can never get the 'consent! clear consent! from a clear-headed able to consent adult!' message too many times.
And then in a last chapter, we find out that Lena is having fights with her lover. Which, since she's supposed to only please her lovers, is a bit of a change for her. But anyhow, she and her lover show up at Isaac's doorstep with the message that Lena needs him to be, perhaps, more of her own self than she otherwise could be. So....
I've essentially handed my almost 13 year old son a book in which the main character ends up in a polyamourous relationship with a shrink and dryad.
Parenting fail of the year?
Anyhow. To reassure folks, Tolkien's books have been locked so that nobody can pull out the One Ring. This is good.
What a fun book!
Basic idea: Gutenberg created libriomancy when he created the printing press: enough belief in the item from a book enables those who possess a certain type of magic to reach into books and grab items out of said book.
Who has not dreamed of that?
You can't bring people, because they go insane if you do, or there are a few characters I'd SO yank straight out of the pages. Ahem.
Isaac is a libriomancer/librarian who is currently not allowed to do magic. But stuff happens, and he does. Accompanied by Smudge, a fire spider he pulled out of a book a long time before, a dryad called Lena, he rushes around the midwest trying to save a whole bunch of important people, including Lena's lover. Oh. And Gutenberg, who would be Very Dangerous if turned to the wrong (vampiric) side.
It's a fun book. Libriomancy touches on the stuff a readers dreams are made of.
Next up: some spoilers that talk about a more serious theme in the book that leads to a very funny I can't beleive I did that parenting story.
As I said above, Lena is a dryad. Brought into our world when someone pulled an acorn from a really crappy book about nymphs and dryads, didn't realise what they'd done, and tossed it. It grew, hence Lena. Whose nature is as she was written: she has no free will and must please the human she is bonded to. Her nature is to please. Her previous lover, a shrink, managed to rationalize their relationship in a way that makes sense and does not ping my "consent" issues. Lena tries to bond to Isaac because she needs someone to bond to, for safety reasons -bonded to a bad guy, she could be powerful and evil, see the lack of free will-. To his credit, Isaac hesitates... and goes on for a long while about free will, how can he, when she etc. It was a good exploration of free will and consent, and who can give it. I liked that.
I gave the book to Perry to read. I hadn't quite finished it -a chapter left- when I did so. I was ok with Isaac's musings on consent and desire because eh, it is stuff that I'm good with talking over with Perry and I figured when he was done, we could chat about it a bit. Boys, imo, can never get the 'consent! clear consent! from a clear-headed able to consent adult!' message too many times.
And then in a last chapter, we find out that Lena is having fights with her lover. Which, since she's supposed to only please her lovers, is a bit of a change for her. But anyhow, she and her lover show up at Isaac's doorstep with the message that Lena needs him to be, perhaps, more of her own self than she otherwise could be. So....
I've essentially handed my almost 13 year old son a book in which the main character ends up in a polyamourous relationship with a shrink and dryad.
Parenting fail of the year?
Anyhow. To reassure folks, Tolkien's books have been locked so that nobody can pull out the One Ring. This is good.
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}