"What if being a Librarian was the most dangerous job in the world?" What book loving librarian could resist a tag line like that? Set in an alternate reality where stories, myths, and the creatures that inhabit them coexist, the great Library of Alexander was saved from the flames, but for whose benefit? Worldsoul is a world where the leading class has just disappeared, the opposing factions of the Library and the Court are secretly at war, and magical creatures quickly complicate things with their own agendas.
I liked the story, but it definitely took some time for me to warm up to it. I mean, awesome kickass librarians are enough for me to give it three stars just on face value, but there are definitely some flaws. There are three main characters, Mercy Fane, Jonathan Deed, and Shadow and the narration rotates between the three. This is pretty standard fare for Scifi and Fantasy, George R.R. Martin and Charles de Lint do it to perfect in several of their novels, however, Liz Williams adds these little interludes between certain chapters. Its used a device to let the reader know what is happening to the other characters at the same time, but they are kind of awkwardly placed and I don't think they add anything to the story other than confusion.
At the beginning of the novel there was nothing really there to make a reader care about any of the characters. The story just begins in a strange world with no introduction to the rules or society. However as the story progresses and the characters have to interact with each other, the combination of magic, myth and duty create a compulsion that keeps you glued to the pages. The social hierarchy are explained in the context of the book, but a lot of the questions it raises are left unanswered. Why is the city being flower bombed? What actually is a flower bomb? Who are the Skein? and why are the old gods interested in the Library?
The book would actually make an excellent movie script. About halfway through the story I could almost imagine a Blade Runner-esque backdrop for the action taking place in the story and I think the added interludes would actually make more sense on the big screen. I'm looking forward the rest of this series and hope that maybe it will translate to an intensely beautiful cinematic event. I wouldn't say this is a book for the average reader. Its a little obscure, a little difficult to follow, and not yet completed.
