I would like to thank Pan for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review

Publisher – Pan

Published – 9/12

Price – £8.99 paperback £4.99 Kindle eBook

Librarian Spy Irene is heading into danger. Not for the first time, but could this be her last? She’s tasked with a terrifyingly dangerous solo mission to eliminate an old enemy, which must be kept secret at all costs. But even more troubling news emerges. Multiple worlds are disappearing - and the Library may have something to do with it. 

Determined to uncover the truth behind the vanished worlds, Irene and her friends must descend into the unplumbed depths of the Library. And what they find will change everything they know. This may be Irene’s most dangerous assignment of her hazardous career. 

Please note there will be spoilers for earlier books!

To paraphrase a certain Doctor when I think about Genevieve Cogman’s The Invisible Library series ‘It all started as a mild curiosity in stealing books for a library, and now it’s turned out to be quite a great spirit of adventure!’ Eight books detailing the adventure of Irene the Librarian of a immense powerful Library that normally just wants to save books and creates links between worlds but has now become a major power in the multiverse between dragons of Order and fae of Chaos. Eventually there was going to be a reckoning for all the factions and in the newest instalment The Untold Story the secrets of Irene and the Library are finally revealed.

Irene has brought into being a powerful peace treaty between the major Fae and Dragon powers and in the process discovered the most evil renegade Librrian Alberich may actually be her father. She has been parked into some fairly tedious work but the itch to finally work out what is going on is growing. Eventually Irene, her former assistant and now lover Kai a Dragon prince and her newest Apprentice the fae Catherine and her friend the great Detective Vale need to meet old friends, foes and create new alliances to discover the truth. This time even the Library may not be on her side.

If you were to consider joining the series, then don’t enter here this is very much episode of an eight-part series and Cogman is taking no prisoners in wrapping up a number of plotlines. Crucially what is the secret of Alberich and his relationship to Irene and what exactly is the Library for? There have been various hints there is a bigger design at place and Cogman aims fairly high the fates of the universe are on trial and ultimately, it’s Irene who has to make the case for what a Librarian should be. The satisfaction for the fan of the series is finally being able to ay ahhhhh! There is also a theme of can you do great things for bad reasons plus we meet even more powerful archetypes all of whom have differing relationships with the power of story. For a series that has explored the power of genre to trap people in dramatic conventions this feels a fitting ending

It is very nice that Cogman allows various key characters in the series to return for this story and does make you appreciate the size and scale of Cogman’s series. It is also satisfying to see Irene herself accept how far she has come and in particular at a personal level come to a reckoning regards her parents and also her relationship with Kai. Those scenes add the emotional heart to the story. My one reservation was the first half of the book did a lot of scene-setting and in many ways was various charcters discussing pros and cons of any action but it was also rather key to recapping a lot of stories and reminding us what is left to solve. Once out of the way the story really picks up and becomes quite multidimensional as the secrets of the Library get shown.

This is a satisfying end to what Cogman calls the first season of the series. The journey for now is over and I look forward to what Cogman has planned in the near future. It is for the characters that survive a suitable cleaning of the board for fresh adventures and possibly new main characters – we will have to see. What I can say is this series has been a love letter to genre and to have lasted so long a testament to Cogman’s writing ability. This book is ended but the story never ends. Library fans you will want to read this!