Codex Born

Magic Ex Libri Book 2

Jim C. Hines

DAW Books, 326 pages
Urban Fantasy (some mature themes)
Hardcover

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Codex Born is the second installment in Jim C. Hines’ Magic Ex Libri series, and for the first time, we get a first-person glimpse into Lena Greenwood’s background and her simple perspective of complex relationships.  Simple for a book-born hamadryad, since her personality and characteristics are written in a pulp-fiction fantasy titled Nymphs of Neptune.  She merely does what comes naturally, without much thought as to whether it is fair for her to suit her partner’s needs and desires without free will.   The complexity of this trait is more from the human perspective, especially those who truly care for Lena and don’t want to see her exploited.  Nidhi Shaw and Isaac Vainio both struggle with their feelings between desire, guilt, and jealousy when Lena so willingly adapts into the perfect companion for each of them.

Lena’s attempt to protect herself from being influenced by vampires resulted in a complex relationship between Nidhi and Isaac.  Neither are sure about sharing Lena, but they both agree that it is best for Lena to be influenced by more than one person at a time to help her develop her sense of self, at least as much as her book-written description allows.  This independence becomes more important throughout this story, as the enemies of Gutenberg and his Porters scheme to use Lena’s unique magical abilities in an attempt to awaken an ancient magic of their own.  Unbeknownst to the mastermind behind this plan, he is being used by a much darker presence that has been waiting for this chance to invade our world, and he unwittingly supplies their means to unleash an army of chaos called the Devourers upon us all.

This book introduces several types of werewolves, some who join forces with the Porters to try and squelch this invasion, having suffered casualties of their own kind.  This story had a lot of action built in, along with some new characters.  Aside from the relationship struggle between Isaac, Nidhi, and Lena, there is a new form of libriomancy emerging through a young prodigy named Janeta Aboderin.

Janeta has a penchant for poetry, and is able to pull items through an e-reader — something that was previously thought impossible, and that may pose its own threat from high-traffic web articles and blogs.  She is studying at a camp for young libriomancers and tutored by Isaac, who is learning just as much from her as she is from him (poetry is not his strong suit).  With the idea that poems contain symbolic imagery, the simplest of items could be a threat if a metaphor gives it power enough to be used the wrong way, and context is everything.  Because of her natural magical skills and ability to access electronic writing as well as printed matter, Janeta is a target for the Devourers, who appear in her nightmares and present a real threat.

In contrast to Lena, Isaac’s book-born fire spider, Smudge, shows an independent personality, despite his magical attachment to Isaac, who brought him into this world.  As Isaac and Lena discuss the finer points of being independent, he points out that although Smudge is a loyal pet, he has definitely developed his own tastes in entertainment: Smudge hates Journey and loves Spongebob Squarepants.  Easy for Smudge: he wasn’t written as a fantasy woman who patterns herself after her lover’s desires.  To my delight, this large spider with an even larger personality has some really fun scenes in this story.  He also gets a large “drive-in monster” moment in this book, in which he is fabulous.

As Lena learns independence from her friends and stretches beyond the text-book compliant version of herself, she becomes more complicated and interesting, possibly even problematic for some readers to understand.

Says Hines: “That said, she’s supposed to be problematic. If you’re not at least a little troubled by her, especially after reading this book, then I’ve failed as a writer.”

If you’ve been paying attention, you may wonder just how Lena got here, especially considering that nothing larger than the book can be pulled through to reality.  The theory is that a novice libriomancer pulled an acorn from a magical oak in Nymphs of Neptune, and tossed (or planted) it here, instead of returning it to the book.  The tree grew for many years before Lena, developing within, emerged.  This happened over 50 years before this story occurs, and we learn through her recollections about her early years on Earth.  She is perpetually young, and the only one of her kind in this world…for now.  She returns to her tree in Isaac’s yard most nights to sleep and restore her essence — if her tree dies, so does she.

Hines continues to develop a rich back story for his characters, magically weaving mythology and science fiction with history throughout time and now across cultures.  This adventure takes our hero into the ancient book magic of China, which is much older than the Porters.  Isaac witnesses a magical book culture that clearly predates, outclasses, and frightens Gutenberg, leaving him wondering about Gutenberg’s motives in locking away books and people who seem to pose no greater threat than possessing more knowledge than himself.  Ultimately, Isaac has figure out how to outwit a cunning foe who has commandeered Porter technology, fight and stop a power that he doesn’t fully understand, and save the world from the malice of a much darker presence that is trying to emerge and destroy us all.