Revisionary - Magic Ex Libris vol. 4

Revisionary is the fourth book of the Magic ex Libris series by American author, Jim C. Hines. When Isaac Vainio announced the existence of magic to the world, he was hopeful and optimistic: magic had enormous potential for good in the world. He was totally unprepared for the negative backlash, the paranoia, and the endless government regulation. What Isaac would really like to do is get on with business as the Director of Research and Development at New Millennium.

Then a series of attacks on people opposed to magic, attacks carried out by inhumans, has Isaac and his dryad lover, Lena Greenwood, and her lover, Dr Nidhi Shah working to discover who is behind the violence. Could the inhuman resistance group, Vanguard, be involved? Vampire and ex-libriomancer, Deb deGeorge is bound to know something. Their investigations lead them into the Atlantic Ocean and then to a prison (or is it a lab) in Virginia.

While the book starts off with an excess of politics, there is a purpose to it, and readers who persist are rewarded with another action- and magic-filled tale that leads to an exciting climax. There is lots of magic from different genres, sirens feature prominently, and Isaac's team have developed a host of clever magical tools. An in-tooth phone, pearls from magic-resistant oysters, invisibility cloaks, and a magic crow are just a few examples, but with a wealth of fiction and fantasy books to draw from, the potential is almost endless.

Once again, Hines uses a series of emails, promotional fliers, hearing transcripts, press releases, news reports, web posts, news items and letters between the chapters, as a device to detail behind-the-scenes events and public opinion. Each chapter starts with a conversation between Isaac and the now-truly-deceased Johannes Gutenberg: advice, reflection and wry commentary.

Using the premise of magically extracting objects and creatures from the printed page, this novel is a tribute to the imagination of fiction and fantasy writers everywhere. As always, Hines provides plenty of humour, but readers are warned that Smudge does suffer a disfiguring injury in this instalment. With apologies for the pun, this is another magical read.