Codex Born

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. (Aug.)