Codex Born

June 3, 2013
Nonstop action and laughter power Hines’s riveting second journey into the “peculiar life” of Isaac Vainio (after Libriomancer). Isaac has become a Porter, a member of an elite group that polices the magic of libriomancy. Assigned to mentor teenager Jeneta Aboderin, a budding libriomancer with a knack for working magic with e-books, Isaac continues his research into the ways that people can manifest items from the shared belief in books, testing his strengths and limits. Along with his lover, the dryad Lena, and her other partner, therapist Nidhi Shah, Isaac also begins investigating a series of vicious murders that may be related to magic contained in ancient Chinese texts, and he soon realizes that the people he trusts the most might be his enemies. Like a good pinball game, Isaac’s adventures are frantic, fascinating, and more than a little noisy. Hines supplies everything a reader needs—werewolves, ghosts, robot insects, a fire spider that eats candy, and homages to classic SF—for a very good time. Readers are advised to begin with book one; the technical details of libriomancy are a bit dense for newcomers. Agent: Joshua Bilmes, JABberwocky Literary Agency.

August 1, 2013

Isaac Vainio belongs to a group of mages known as the Porters, an organization founded by Johannes Gutenberg to protect the innocent from wrongly used magic. As a libriomancer, Vainio has the power to pull creatures and objects from books. When he becomes involved in the search for the killer of a wendigo--a type of werewolf--in a town claimed as werewolf territory, Vainio realizes that the killer actually seeks to capture Lena Greenwood, Vainio's dryad lover and part of a love triangle that includes their psychiatrist Nidhi Shah, herself a Porter. As further complications arise, Vainio learns truths about his order and its still-living founder that make him question everything he knows about magic and about the Porters themselves. The sequel to Libriomancer delivers more pulp fantasy action that's infused with a genuine love for books and for creating unusual--and unusually likable--characters. VERDICT Bibliophiles and fantasy enthusiasts will enjoy the author's intelligent approach to both magic and literature.

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.