I tend to really dislike books that try to appeal to book nerds, and Libriomancer is only the latest in that trend. Alcatraz fell utterly flat for me, and also that book that was about librarians running their supernatural library between heaven and hell, and also even that aspect of Inkheart, and the Jo Walton book that was basically just “yup, I was a SFF nerd”. Maybe because it all feels kinda Ready Player One-ish. (Not as bad, sure, but …)
Also, it’s very male nerd power fantasy. I read it immediately after the Chrestomanci books, and they snook up on me and raised my standards, and then this power fantasy posturing made me want to raise my eyebrows and send the author to his rooms, no matter how much they pretend to be critically reflecting their power fantasy.
This book is part of the 2022 Backlog Incident.
