Reviews

I picked it up with high hopes - the intriguing title, the promise of a historical romp through rare books - but the author's unrelenting suspense... ugh. Not a single clue or piece of information can be passed without first jumping to a new scene, one of uninteresting drudgery, and then leading up to a long discussion of unrelated topics, which the principal characters engage in with great enthusiasm, butler-maiding their way through all the news of the day and recent history. It wouldn't be so bad if they didn't discuss the SAME historical events over and over, and with the same dry tone as a history book.

I did read to the end, though, largely out of pure ornery determination to find out what, exactly, the plot WAS. Sadly, it wasn't worth it, and in the end, not only is depressingly little revealed, but the principal characters effect no change on events or each other. LAME.

kristennd's review against another edition

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3.0

Picked it up because of comparisons to Instance of the Fingerpost and The Club Dumas. It was fine, but not as enjoyable as either of those. Crammed full of historical tidbits, but the action sometimes got melodramatic and it was just sort of difficult to get excited about the story or the main character. He didn't have much personality. Flipping through it now, the style/setting isn't all that different from Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell either.

leahtsdudley's review against another edition

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1.0

This was like reading a textbook with the author filling most of the pages with didactic history lessons. The few times a scrap of plot would show up it was not compelling and by the end I didn't care about any of the characters or the resolution. Honestly, I don't think I even understand what the heck this was really about. I regret reading this.

katymvt's review against another edition

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2.0

I'm not quite sure what to make of this book. There was some adventure going on it, but it all seemed to lead nowhere. And it all seemed so contrived. On the plus side, the main character was very likeable.

100onbooks's review against another edition

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History via books.

ceallaighsbooks's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging funny informative mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

“Because every ruler celebrated his conquests by setting torch to the nearest library. Did not Julius Caesar incinerate the scrolls in the great library at Alexandria during his campaign against the republicans in Africa? Or General Stilicho, leader of the Vandals, order the burning of the Sibylline prophecies in Rome? … There was nothing so dangerous to a king or an emperor, he went on, as a book.”

TITLE—Ex-Libris

AUTHOR—Ross King

PUBLISHED—1998

PUBLISHER—Chatto & Windus

GENRE—historical fiction

SETTING—17th c. England & Central Europe

MAIN THEMES/SUBJECTS—old libraries, book collectors of the 17th c., bookselling, the Vatican & the Inquisition, the Protestant Reformation, Cromwellian period & the English civil wars, Galileo, alchemy, ancient literature, transcription, book sciences, oceanic navigation, a mystery plot, the machinations of imperialism & colonialism

WRITING STYLE—⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

CHARACTERS—⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

STORY/PLOT—⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/⭐️

BONUS ELEMENT/S—LOVED the historically accurate worldbuilding. King is one of those authors that some of the things he writes make you wonder if he isn’t actually a time traveler…🧐

PHILOSOPHY—Some of the language around the various “age of exploration” elements of the story was cringey… but I also may have misread/misunderstood those parts…

PREMISE—⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

EXECUTION—⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/⭐️

I really enjoyed reading this book. I was fully absorbed in the story the whole time and didn’t mind any of the tangents the author would take (quite often) in order to explore some particular historical niche of this time period on all of the various subjects touched upon in the novel. It was actually one of the most enjoyable parts of the book.

However. I think by the end I was ultimately not able to follow all of the subtle clues that the author had laid along the way so the ending felt a little unsatisfying to me but that might be because I just didn’t fully understand what had happened. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I might reread it though because it was a lot of fun.

I would recommend this book to readers who love particularly dense historical fiction and expository writing but with an exciting plot behind it.

“Littera scripta manet, I thought: the written word abides, even under erasure.”

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

CW // home invasion, claustrophobia, drowning, flooding (Please feel free to DM me for more specifics!)

Further Reading—

THE BOOKSELLER OF FLORENCE, by Ross King
SHADOW OF NIGHT, by Deborah Harkness
“Weapon of Choice”, by Susanna Kearsley in THE DEADLY HOURS
WOLF HALL, by Hilary Mantel
Hannah Kent
Bernard Cornwell
POPCO, by Scarlett Thomas—for the cipher discussion

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