A review by ceallaighsbooks
Ex-Libris by Ross King

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