PRAISE FOR
THE INVISIBLE LIBRARY
#2 on the Independent’s Best Fantasy Novels of 2015 List
“Flavored with truly unique mythology and a dash of the eldritch. Such clever, creepy, elaborate world building and snarky, sexy-smart characters! Also, remote-controlled alligators. You just can’t go wrong with that.”
—N. K. Jemisin, author of The Fifth Season
“A breath of fresh air. . . . With a companionable heroine in Irene and a satisfyingly complex plot, The Invisible Library—the first of a series—is a book in which to wallow.”
—The Guardian (UK)
“Written in a similar vein to Deborah Harkness’s All Souls trilogy . . . contemporary meets fairy tale in this novel.”
—Big Issue
“Surrender to the sheer volume of fun that appears on every page . . . thoroughly entertaining.”
—Starburst
“Fantasy doesn’t get much better. . . . If you’re looking for a swift, clever, and witty read, look no further.”
—Fantasy Faction
“Highly entertaining. . . . It reminded me a lot of Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next series.”
—The Book Plank
“This witty and spirited adventure sets up a potential gold mine of lore for the writer to plunder in future sequels . . . a fun and original page-turner.”
—SciFiNow
“Everything I could ever want out of a book . . . a stunning work of art that has me absolutely begging for more.”
—Fantasy Book Review
“An adventure story to delight the heart . . . thoroughly satisfying.”
—Sci-Fi Bulletin
“A tremendously fun, rip-roaring adventure with protagonists that are easy to love and a setting that couldn’t have suited my tastes better.”
—A Fantastical Librarian
“At the top of my favorite books read this year . . . so much fun.”
—Fantasy Cafe
“I’ve seen it compared to Doctor Who. I’m sure it’ll be compared to Harry Potter. . . . These comparisons [are] well-earned.”
—Bastian’s Book Reviews
ROC
Published by New American Library,
an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014
This book is a publication of New American Library. Previously published in a Tor edition.
Copyright © Genevieve Cogman, 2016
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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA:
Names: Cogman, Genevieve, author.
Title: The invisible library/Genevieve Cogman.
Description: New York City: ROC, [2016] | Series: An invisible library novel; 1
Identifiers: LCCN 2016000476 (print) | LCCN 2016004531 (ebook) | ISBN 9781101988640 (softcover) | ISBN 9781101988657 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Librarians—Fiction. | Rare books—Fiction. | Secret societies—Fiction. | BISAC: FICTION/Fantasy/Contemporary. | FICTION/Fantasy/Paranormal. | GSAFD: Alternative histories (Fiction). | Adventure fiction. | Fantasy fiction.
Classification: LCC PR6103.O39 I59 2016 (print) | LCC PR6103.O39 (ebook) | DDC 823/.92—dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2016000476
PUBLISHER’S NOTE
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thank you to everyone who helped with this book. Thank you to my agent, Lucienne Diver, who is awesome and whom I still can’t quite believe I got as an agent, and my editor, Bella Pagan, who is fantastic and turned this into a much better book than it was originally.
Thank you to all my readers, supporters, and friends, including but not limited to Beth, Jeanne, April, Anne, Phyllis, Nora, Walter, Em, Jennifer, Stuart, Elaine, Lisa, Hazel, and Noelle. You are all cool and awesome.
And thank you, now and always, to my parents.
CONTENTS
PRAISE FOR The Invisible Library
TITLE PAGE
COPYRIGHT
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
EXCERPT FROM The Masked City
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
CHAPTER 1
Irene passed the mop across the stone floor in smooth, careful strokes, idly admiring the gleam of wet flagstones in the lantern-light. Her back was complaining, but that was only normal after an evening’s work cleaning. The cleaning was certainly necessary. The pupils at Prince Mordred’s Private Academy for Boys managed to get just as much mud and muck on the floor as any other teenagers would. Clean indoor studies in the dark arts, military history, and alchemy didn’t preclude messy outdoor classes in strategic combat, duelling, open-field assassination, and rugby.
The clock in the study struck the quarter hour. That gave her forty-five minutes before the midnight orisons and chants. She knew from months of experience—and, to be honest, her own memories of boarding-school—that the boys wouldn’t be getting up a moment earlier than necessary. This meant most would be dragging themselves out of bed at eleven forty-five before heading to the chapel with hastily thrown-on clothes and barely brushed hair. So that gave her thirty minutes before any of them started moving.
Thirty minutes to steal a book and to escape.
She propped the mop in her bucket, straightened, and took a moment to rub her knuckles into the small of her back. Sometimes undercover work as a Librarian involved posing as a rich socialite, and the Librarian in question got to stay at expensive hotels and country houses. All while wearing appropriately high fashion and dining off haute cuisine, probably on gold-edged plates. At other times, it involved spending months building an identity as a hardworking menial, sleeping in attics, wearing a plain grey woollen dress, and eating the same food as the boys. She could only hope that her next assignment wouldn’t involve endless porridge for breakfast.
Two doors down along the corridor was Irene’s destination: the House Trophy Room. It was full of silver cups, all engraved with variations on Turquine House, as well as trophy pieces of art and presentation manuscripts.
One of those manuscripts was her goal.
Irene had been sent by the Library to this alternate world to
