What if being a librarian was the most dangerous job in the world? Worldsoul, a great city that forms a nexus point between Earth and the many dimensions known as the Liminality, is a place where old stories gather, where forgotten legends come to fade and die - or to flourish and rise again. Until recently, Worldsoul has been governed by the Skein, but they have gone missing and no one knows why. The city is also being attacked with lethal flower-bombs from an unknown enemy. Mercy Fane and her fellow Librarians are doing their best to maintain the Library, but...things...keep breaking out of ancient texts and legends are escaping into the city. Mercy must pursue one such dangerous creature. She turns to Shadow, an alchemist, for aid, but Shadow - inadvertently possessed by an ifrit - has a perilous quest of her own to undertake.
Worldsoul
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A little closer to UF than to the superb SF of the author, but an entertaing tale
June 4, 2012
Format:Paperback
After quite high expectations, I have to say that Worldsoul turned to be a little mixed for me as the novel aligned closer to the UF subgenre than to the SF that remains by far the most interesting of the author's oeuvre to date. It is true that the novel is not quite the usual UF junk as it takes place in a "higher dimension" from Earth, but Earth's cultures, myths, supernatural beings of lore, books and tales are crucial for all that happens.
Worldsoul has great inventiveness and the writing style is the compelling one I have been expecting from Liz Williams with interesting main characters, and action happening in the higher dimensional city Worldsoul of the title, metropolis which is in a bit of disarray as its former rulers vanished a while ago and the various powers to be have started the struggle for domination.
Mercy is a somewhat naive but dogged librarian - though of course not of a mundane library - from a Northern tundra clan lineage whose two mothers have left on a quest to find the disappeared rulers - Worldsoul is a Liz Williams book so expect men to have minimal roles if they are not dispensed with as in her superb Solar System novels like Banner of Souls or Winterstrike - while Shadow is a devout alchemist from a Middle Eastern inspired culture who is compelled by the local power broker, a male Shah, to do some work for him that her ethics code finds distasteful.
A few demons including a duke of Hell - still female - who is the best and funniest secondary character, Disir i.e.... Read more ›
Worldsoul has great inventiveness and the writing style is the compelling one I have been expecting from Liz Williams with interesting main characters, and action happening in the higher dimensional city Worldsoul of the title, metropolis which is in a bit of disarray as its former rulers vanished a while ago and the various powers to be have started the struggle for domination.
Mercy is a somewhat naive but dogged librarian - though of course not of a mundane library - from a Northern tundra clan lineage whose two mothers have left on a quest to find the disappeared rulers - Worldsoul is a Liz Williams book so expect men to have minimal roles if they are not dispensed with as in her superb Solar System novels like Banner of Souls or Winterstrike - while Shadow is a devout alchemist from a Middle Eastern inspired culture who is compelled by the local power broker, a male Shah, to do some work for him that her ethics code finds distasteful.
A few demons including a duke of Hell - still female - who is the best and funniest secondary character, Disir i.e.... Read more ›
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By PAQuilter
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
I have read Liz William's other books, especially enjoying the Inspector Chen series, and found her always to be an author with a great imagination that takes us to the most interesting places. Worldsoul gives us a new set of worlds, featuring a bold warrior librarian who goes on various adventures in other dimensions defending the library. I gave it four stars rather than five because I did not find it as intricate or compelling as some of the other books, though it was a very good read and I will purchase whatever sequel she writes as soon as it appears.
By WordWrangler
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Liz Williams has written some fantastically good novels, this is just okay. It reads like a parody with too facile solutions to grandiose problems. I might have felt better about it if it had not been written by Liz. Love the author, but this book is just okay
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Liz has not written a bad novel yet. I was addicted to her work after reading the first "Inspector Chen novel, Snake agent". She routinely takes fantasy in new and unexpected directions. Highly recommended.
By Cissa
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I tend to love Liz William's writing, and this was not an exception.
I liked that she basically dumped us readers into a completely new world and context with minimal explanation, so we had to read and scrabble to figure out what was going on, and who was doing it. Most authors don't do this, and I like it a lot more than being spoon-fed the context; Williams does this very well, as does Melissa Scott.
The world is polycultural, with explicit Nordic and Middle Eastern elements- and others that are referred to but that do not play as much of a role in the plot.
Most of the main characters are female; that's rather a refreshing change, since in most urban fantasy, even when the protag is female pretty much everyone else is male.
The plot was complex and relies a lot on the reader's piecing things together. I thought it worked well.
I very much enjoy a book where I need to learn the world as well as the rest of the plot and characters, and this was a very enjoyable read, though maybe not for everyone.
I liked that she basically dumped us readers into a completely new world and context with minimal explanation, so we had to read and scrabble to figure out what was going on, and who was doing it. Most authors don't do this, and I like it a lot more than being spoon-fed the context; Williams does this very well, as does Melissa Scott.
The world is polycultural, with explicit Nordic and Middle Eastern elements- and others that are referred to but that do not play as much of a role in the plot.
Most of the main characters are female; that's rather a refreshing change, since in most urban fantasy, even when the protag is female pretty much everyone else is male.
The plot was complex and relies a lot on the reader's piecing things together. I thought it worked well.
I very much enjoy a book where I need to learn the world as well as the rest of the plot and characters, and this was a very enjoyable read, though maybe not for everyone.
Format:Paperback
Worldsoul features strong women characters who meet a series of adventures with wit and courage. They live in a society where stories and words have a real existence. Librarian Mercy steps up to defend the books under her care when a destructive magical monster attacks. Alchemist Shadow searches for a cure when she is invaded by a strange creature. Using magic power, craftiness, and fighting ability, the two women battle demons and sorcerers. The fun for the reader is to watch how the heroines overcome challenges. It's refreshing to see women in positions of power, appearing as princes, dukes, and head librarians.
Although I enjoyed the strong female protagonists, I thought the book lacked a clear depiction of the world. I could picture individual settings, but I never had a good overall mental image of the various communities, including the sectors that made up the city Worldsoul. I also didn't really understand how the concept of stories being real played out in the plot. I would compare this work to the world created by Jasper Fforde, where I vividly understand the way fiction is a reality. Williams is a very talented writer who can create worlds with great physicality, as in the Inspector Chen novels. I would like to see the Worldsoul landscape portrayed as vividly.
Although I enjoyed the strong female protagonists, I thought the book lacked a clear depiction of the world. I could picture individual settings, but I never had a good overall mental image of the various communities, including the sectors that made up the city Worldsoul. I also didn't really understand how the concept of stories being real played out in the plot. I would compare this work to the world created by Jasper Fforde, where I vividly understand the way fiction is a reality. Williams is a very talented writer who can create worlds with great physicality, as in the Inspector Chen novels. I would like to see the Worldsoul landscape portrayed as vividly.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good could have been better
My Review: 4 Stars
"This one I read in a day. It was a great idea but had some issues. It was still a great read! I would deff. pick it up and give it a try. Read more
"This one I read in a day. It was a great idea but had some issues. It was still a great read! I would deff. pick it up and give it a try. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Crossroad Reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars
great idea, poor excution
This book suffered from a great idea, poor excution. I was so excited about this book, but it fell short of my expectations. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Workaday Reads
