Worldsoul

by Liz Williams

What if being a librarian was the most dangerous job in the world? Worldsoul, a great city that forms a nexus point between Earth and the many dimensions known as the Liminality, is a place where old stories gather, where forgotten legends come to fade and die -- or to flourish and rise again. Until recently, Worldsoul has been governed by the Skein, but they have gone missing and no one knows why. The city is also being attacked with lethal flower-bombs from an unknown enemy. Mercy Fane and her fellow Librarians are doing their best to maintain the Library, but...things...keep breaking out of ancient texts and legends are escaping into the city. Mercy must pursue one such dangerous creature. She turns to Shadow, an alchemist, for aid, but Shadow -- inadvertently possessed by an ifrit -- has a perilous quest of her own to undertake.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Magic, Science Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Books About Books, Urban Fantasy

312 pages, Paperback

First published June 13, 2012

About the author

There is more than one author with this name

Liz Williams is a British science fiction writer. Her first novel, The Ghost Sister was published in 2001. Both this novel and her next, Empire of Bones (2002) were nominated for the Philip K. Dick Award.[1] She is also the author of the Inspector Chen series.

She is the daughter of a stage magician and a Gothic novelist. She holds a PhD in Philosophy of Science from Cambridge. She has had short stories published in Asimov's, Interzone, The Third Alternative and Visionary Tongue. From the mid-nineties until 2000, she lived and worked in Kazakhstan.[2] Her experiences there are reflected in her 2003 novel Nine Layers of Sky. Her novels have been published in the US and the UK, while her third novel The Poison Master (2003) has been translated into Dutch.

Series:
* Detective Inspector Chen
* Darkland

Reviews

[TL *Humaning the Best She Can*]

DNF at 46%



Really did try... loved the idea of it and it was fun for awhile.

What lead to me DNFing it:
1. The world building: this was a small part of it, we are just thrown into this world without any explanations about how this world came to be or the customs/terms of it all.

2. The pacing: it didn't bother me at first and I can be a patient reader if the plot interests me enough but I just couldn't take it anymore. I had to force myself to keep going... I eventually lost interest in even my favorite character.

I donated it to the library so maybe someone else will fall in love with this, but for me it just was a dud.

If you are still interested, don't be afraid to try it... it may your cup of tea after all :)

[CS · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mercy Fane is a Librarian, but sometimes the stories in the Library run free. One particular captive escapes, leading her to casually meet up with an alchemist from the Eastern part of Worldsoul (think "City"), Shadow. Together, they start to learn some serious stuff about Worldsoul and a devious plot from one of the Council.

This is one of those slow-starting books that a reader dreams of. So many times, I read a book, bored to death in the beginning and it never gets better. But we keep reading, hoping desperately that the book gets interesting.

This book is a classic example. The first 80 or so pages were SO BORING that I nearly gave up - even if I did suggest it as a Buddy Reads. But in one final push, I kept going - and the story I found was pretty exciting (if never really elevating it to the point where "it was worth it" to read through the boring part).

The hardest part of "Worldsoul" is that there is NOTHING to latch onto and help you adjust to this new world. You are literally thrown, head first, into this world and never given any reference. Is it futuristic? Alternate History? Fantasy? Contemporary? Mercy uses public transportation to get to work, but there's no mention of computers. Or there's an airship with engines but magic spells?

Or how about the weird "interludes"? What the hell was up with that? Talk about freakin' confusing! You either didn't know who the character was or didn't know what the freakin' relevance was (For instance, based on the end, WHY was a Darya POV needed?!).

But you know, once you get past that magical 80-aught pages, it just clicks into place. I think really what makes it make sense is having Mercy and Shadow, our two protagonists, meet up. Before this point, they really are two random people having random issues (Mercy is hunting down a figure released from the Library while Shadow is being courted to do alchemy on a djinn for a man named Shah). But once they meet, it's like that lightbulb goes off.

Though to be honest, I never really could follow the plot of this book. Hiding for potential spoilers.

So Jonathan Deed, Abbott General of the Council and a disir himself, wants to - take over Worldsoul? He has a protege, Darya, another disir, whom he uses to do his dirty work (I guess get the third, unnamed disir to sneak out of the Library or open the portal in the Library, but given he seems capable of opening the portal in his very office seems to question WHY the Library is even necessary). Mercy happens to come upon the disir before the disir escapes. She starts investigating, learning it has to do with her Northern past, meeting up with Shadow, dodging Flower attacks. What Flower Attacks really are is left unclear, but an idea I had is that they were part of some story I had never read (much of the book is about various stories, such as Loki and other even older ones).

Shadow, meanwhile, is being coerced to do alchemy on a djinn for a man named Shah, who saves her and therefore she gets stuck doing it. Only the djinn imbeds itself in her. And then she tries to get it out which means heading to the Eastern Desert with a demon named Gremory? While Mercy decides she needs to go North and meets Mareritt?

Ultimately, it leads to people finding out about Deed's plan ALONG with ANOTHER plan from even BIGGER baddies called The Storm from a place called "The Pass" who want to eat all the stories. And then Mercy, Shadow, Gremory, Mareritt and Mercy's pet spirit, Perra, have to defeat them
Both. Somehow.

Writing out the above DOES help make some of this make some semblance of sense; however, at the end of the book, I kept thinking, "And the point was...?"

I don't want to sound like I hated it; I didn't. I actually ADORE how there are SO MANY female characters on all sides of the morality spectrum! Mercy, her moms, Shadow, Gremory, Mareritt, Darya - this is a world where women do loads of things and there is NO ROMANCE to be found! No silly romantic triangles or women unable to do anything until a man comes around or women who are constantly questioned or women who are slut-shaming each other and having arguments with others about how awesome they are (ANITA BLAKE!).

What makes the above even better is that these women are diverse and INTERESTING. Mercy is white, but her boss, Nerren, is described in a manner consistent with black people. Shadow reads as Arabic and definitely Muslim. Gremory is a demon, Mareritt is a story and Darya is a disir. Beyond just physical appearance, their character is different. They have different motivations, histories, backgrounds, beliefs. It's so awesome to see so many different types of women in one story!

And although Goodreads indicates it's part of a series, this book is definitely OK to read as a standalone. There are hints at potential further stories, but it has a nice climax followed by an ending. Which is nice, because sometimes it's nice to read a contained story.

While the book did somewhat redeem itself from its boring beginnings, if I would have known about the slow, confusing start, I wouldn't have purchased this book (regardless of that AMAZING tagline), and I certainly won't be rereading it. Again, it's nothing against the author or the book itself; for me, it just took too long to kick into gear and get interesting. I shouldn't need a decoder ring or to muddle through such a long, tedious beginning to get to something mildly interesting.

That said, of the books for my 2016 Summer of Love, this has been the biggest winner - take that how you will.

[Nafiza · Rating 3 out of 5]

Never have I been more frustrated by a book than this one. I know that info-dumping is not cool however I need context especially since this is the first novel in a series. I didn't get that context. I got NO information whatsoever about the world - there is no worldbuilding whatsoever - no, that's wrong. There is a world, it seems like a fascinating world but I have no idea where it is - is it a different planet as I suspected? And if so, how was it populated by humans? Are they still humans? What is the time context? How far off in the future is this world located? The religions and the divisions seem to be similar to ones found on earth but are the sections all found in one city? But if so how can the different climates all exist in the same city? And if it's not the same city, why is it that traveling from one place to another seems so easy? And who (or what) exactly is this Skein? Why are there so many female characters in the novel but the men, when present, are the ones who are powerful and corrupt in their power? What the heck is going on exactly?

From the above questions you might be able to discern my state of mind while reading and after reading. The book is well written and with a bit more care taken to the world building and information, it would easily have been a favourite. However, there are so many characters being introduced, left, right and center, that you are unable to make any lasting connection for a good chunk of the novel. And then there are the "interludes" where Williams becomes all mysterious and the character is either "He" or "She" to add to that mystery and it just made me angry because I was fast running out of patience with a novel that refused to let me read and enjoy it. Not that the characters are poorly developed - they are not. There are just way too many of them and they serve to scatter attention. Also, I thought the focus was going to be the library and it is but only in the loosest sense. Most of the focus is on the "rent" in the books and the "Storyways" which are never explained. There are angels and "Dukes of Hell" but they are also not explained and it all a bloody soup that Williams keeps adding ingredients to.

The narrative mentions "modern" architecture which again begs the question of time - what time is modern and is my modern the same as their modern and is that even possible because contemporary modern is not possible for a world that does not exist on Earth. Gah. Frustrating doesn't even cover it.

Listen, I know that readers are supposed to glean a world from between the lines but not like this! Never like this! There were things I liked about this novel, in fact, I could have LOVED this novel had it been clearer and more explicit. What a freaking waste, man. Also, you spend the novel thinking that one aspect, the villainous aspect is what the main conflict is but it turns out you're wrong at the 11th hour. And the villain? Well, he's not much of a villain. Gah. I apologise for this is not a very coherent review but considering the novel, you should not be too surprised.

Can I recommend it to you? I don't know, man. Maybe it's me and I'm too dumb to completely understand and comprehend the intricacies present in this novel. I just think that the story of the two different women, their friendship and their journey together could have been presented way better than it was.

[Snail in Danger (Sid) Nicolaides · Rating 4 out of 5]

"What if being a librarian was the most dangerous job in the world?" I think that tagline sold a lot of people on this book, or at least convinced them that it was something that they might be interested in. I know it hooked me. Which is why I was delighted to receive a review copy from Prime Books via Netgalley.

So how well does it live up to that tagline? Moments of subtle wry humor, the mythological mashup of the setting (a universe where tales have tangible power), women bonding because of shared adventures — I liked all these things. If you were hoping for Lara Croft-style badassery in a library, that won't be exactly what you'll find here. You will see women characters who have to deal with difficult situations. Mercy has to cope with an apparition loose in her library and a geas from an unexpected source, while worrying about her missing mothers. Shadow finds herself possessed by a demon and coerced into working for the Shah, who rules the quarter of the city where she lives. Gremory has to undertake a difficult mission for her demonic superior, Astaroth. And they — as well as the mage Darya — must cope with the power-hungry machinations and manipulations of the Abbot of the Court, Jonathan Deed.

This is very much the beginning of a trilogy. There are many unanswered questions about the characters and what some of the antagonists want even at the end. It would be easy to confuse this with a lack of character depth. In the case of this book's main villain, I think that's not completely unjustified. But I'm willing to wait and see what the next novels bring us before I make up my mind about the protagonists. My sense is that in this book, Williams refrained from using the dreaded info-dump, preferring in most cases to drop clues along the way, breadcrumb-like, as events unfolded.

This novel will demand a certain amount of patience from the reader. The first few chapters in particular involve a lot of skipping around from character to character and place to place after a relatively short number of pages, and Williams is by no means eager to hand all the answers to questions about the characters and the setting to the reader. She does paint gorgeous word-pictures, though. If the deft use of words makes you happy, and you can wait until fairly late in a book to get answers to things that may confuse you at first, you should give this a try.

3.5. What happens in the following novels will determine for me whether this is ultimately a 3- or a 4-star book.

Things I'm curious about regarding the next novel: will the dove motif continue? Have we really seen the last of Darya? I hope not and I have a theory that she is the disir from the beginning of the book. Paradox anyone? And will Mercy get more information about her ancestry, either from her mother or from Mareritt, if she should choose to reappear? What does the Shah have in mind for Shadow? How will Astaroth react to Gremory's failure? Will Loki try again to gain control of Worldsoul?

[Stefanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

"What if being a Librarian was the most dangerous job in the world?" What book loving librarian could resist a tag line like that? Set in an alternate reality where stories, myths, and the creatures that inhabit them coexist, the great Library of Alexander was saved from the flames, but for whose benefit? This is a world where the leading class has just disappeared, the opposing factions of the Library and the Court are secretly at war, and magical creatures quickly complicate things with their own agendas.

I liked the story, but it definitely took some time for me to warm up to it. I mean, awesome kickass librarians are enough for me to give it three stars just on face value, but there are definitely some flaws. There are three main characters, Mercy Fane, Jonathan Deed, and Shadow and the narration rotates between the three. This is pretty standard fare for Scifi and Fantasy, George R.R. Martin and Charles de Lint do it to perfect in several of their novels, however, Liz Williams adds these little interludes between certain chapters. Its used a device to let the reader know what is happening to the other characters at the same time, but they are kind of awkwardly placed and I don't think they add anything to the story other than confusion.

At the beginning of the novel there was nothing really there to make a reader care about any of the characters. The story just begins in a strange world with no introduction to the rules or society. However as the story progresses and the characters have to interact with each other, the combination of magic, myth and duty create a compulsion that keeps you glued to the pages. The social hierarchy are explained in the context of the book, but a lot of the questions it raises are left unanswered. Why is the city being flower bombed? What actually is a flower bomb? Who are the Skein? and why are the old gods interested in the Library?

The book would actually make an excellent movie script. About halfway through the story I could almost imagine a Bladerunner-esque backdrop for the action taking place in the story and I think the added interludes would actually make more sense on the big screen. I'm looking forward the rest of this series and hope that maybe it will translate to an intensely beautiful cinematic event. I wouldn't say this is a book for the average reader. Its a little obscure, a little difficult to follow, and not yet completed.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remember reading a book by Liz Williams before, though I'm not sure of the title. I think it was The Poison Master. As I recall, I was a little disappointed that, with such wonderful materials to work with (Dr Dee!), she had crafted a less-than-amazing book.

She's improved since then, clearly. I enjoyed Worldsoul, especially the second half (the first half I found a little slow-moving). The setting, a magical city more-or-less powered by story, is wonderful, and she doesn't waste too much time on setting-exploration for its own sake, but at the same time conveyed a wonderful sense of a fascinating place.

What I did find less than wonderful was the constant cutting back and forth between multiple viewpoint characters. It's a technique that takes careful handling, and for me it was a little overdone. Each of the characters was interesting and distinctive, but it made the already-complex plot harder to follow.

There were also one or two moments that disturbed my immersion a little by seeming to mix technological levels. At one point, one of the viewpoint characters goes to another room and checks with someone in another part of the city on the bona fides of another character. We're not shown or told what mechanism she uses to do this, whether there are telephones that are never explicitly mentioned anywhere and that hardly anyone else uses, or if there was a magical means of communication, or what. I would rather have had some other means of checking used, like a veracity spell or something, that didn't break my conception of the world.

Apart from those quibbles, Worldsoul was very much to my taste, and I'm glad to see that it's the start of a trilogy.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

An extravagant mess of a setting; the Library of Alexandria is stolen by the Powers and set up in the middle of a world-spanning city outside of time... or something. Story-pathways open into everywhere. It's Pratchett's "L-Space" taken three-quarters seriously, with cod-Miltonian angels and demons butting heads with djinn as Loki stirs up trouble. At one point the White Witch shows up, or a close calque of her, zipping along with a bag of kings' heads in the back of her chariot. I loved that. I love a lot of the razzmatazz that goes on here, but just as often it trips over its own feet. (If you put Loki on-stage and he *doesn't* steal the entire show plus half the theater, you're doing it wrong.)

The spark that infused the Detective Inspector Chen books is still visible -- the niftily tangled magic/science worldview, some fascinating scenes exploring the geography of the world's story-space. ("...Down past the Holdstockian layer...") However, the Chen series was more tightly focussed; or at least, it built its foundation of ancient-vs-future-China solidly before it started branching out into other mythologies. This is... a mess, I'm afraid.

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book suffered from a great idea, poor excution. I was so excited about this book, but it fell short of my expectations. It started slow, and I had a really hard time getting into the story. About 2/3 of the way through, I still couldn't understand what the overall plot was about, and where the story was moving to.

The characters felt very one dimensional. I didn't feel much of anything for anyone. Mercy and Shadow seemed somewhat interchangable, and I could't find any reason to care about either of them.

The story was full of action, but I never felt excited about it. It felt boring without much happening. The ending was a let down with no climax. Everything seemed to smooth away without a final conflict.

The world building was very intricate. There were many aspects to it including times when stories come alive. But I never really understood the history of the world, or the way the entire universe was set up and worked.

I think this story would interest many people, especially book lovers, however I couldn't get into it or stay interested.

[Daniel · Rating 2 out of 5]

As when I read Liz Williams's first Detective Chen book, I found myself distracted and unattached to the characters in Worldsoul. Williams's strong prose is still in evidence, as is her ability to mash up genre tropes into a concoction that feels fresh. The trouble is, the characters in this outing change little over the course of the story and act more as foils to a weird world rather than living inhabitants of it. The shake-up events that pepper the story also felt random.

Some of Williams's earlier books bedazzled me, notably "Empire of Bones" and--most especially--"Banner of Souls;" this one, sadly, did not.

[Kara-karina · Rating 1 out of 5]

Egalley thanks to Prime Books
Unfortunately me and Worldsoul got separated due to irreconcilable differences twenty or so chapters in the story.

You see, I like to have the lay of the land as soon as the story begins, a little bit of world-building, a bit of history for the main characters, some sort of inkling as to what direction the story would take.

I had absolutely no idea what was happening in Worldsoul through most of the book. There are few major characters driving completely separate plot lines and POVs - Mercy Fane, Shadow, The Duke and Deed.

We see what's happening in their own individual lives with their own string of secondary characters, but it doesn't explain why they are introduced to us, which is why I lost interest in the plot so early.

No clarity as to what is the world like, how it works, how it connects to all these numerous dimensions, what was the original goal of The Library, The Court and so on and so forth... There are pieces of a puzzle, but they do not make sense together, and I just couldn't accept it.

If there was a potential in the story, blame me for not being able to see it. Severely disappointed.

[else fine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here's what I love best about Liz Williams: she is always more subtle and complicated than you think she's going to be. When I start one of her books, I think 'oh, this is what kind of book this is'. But I'm almost always wrong. Her world-building is complicated and revealed slowly, so if you're the kind of reader who is put off by a dreamlike ambiguity, then Williams will probably frustrate you. If you're willing to trust that her puzzle will fit together in the end, then relax and enjoy. She's one of the smartest, wittiest, and most diverse writers working in the field, and this, though not her most challenging work, is well worth your time.

[Lilja · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is an interesting story and I will definetly read the next book, however at times I felt that the author could have taken more time to explain some or the ideas and rules of this world a bit better. I don't think it is necessarily a good idea to assume that your audience knows what you are talking about as this is a new world to them and their understanding of something may not be what is meant by the author. It took some dedication to stick with this book until the end, but it was well worth it.
All in all a well written tale which came together nicely in the end.

[Kaisa Ranta]

Harvoin tulee valitettua siitä, että fantasiakirjassa on liikaa ideoita, mutta tässä oli. Tai oikeastaan turhan eeppinen asetelma (
- kaupunki, johon Aleksandrian kirjasto siirrettiin ja jossa kaikki on myyttistä ja maagista ja hallitsevat jumalolennot kadonneet ja valtapeliä ja taruja tihkuu todellisuuden raoista ja dzinnit ja demonit ja Loki ja ja ja. Luvut (300-sivuisessa kirjassa n. 50) kovin lyhyitä, toki vielä vuorottelevista näkökulmahahmoista, niin että mihinkään ei saanut upottua ja koko ajan päänsisäinen mytologiatietosanakirja ruksuttaa. Kaikki niin eeppistä koko ajan, että periaatteessa eeppisetkin juonenkäänteet lakkasivat tuntumasta miltään. Hahmot eivät varsinkaan tuntuneet miltään. Olisi voinut olla kiva, kepeä välipala, mutta en vain päässyt imuun ja olo oli kuin valtavan teemapuiston nykivissä rullaportaissa jotka jatkuvat jatkumistaan ja nykivät nykimistään.

[Liviu · Rating 5 out of 5]

After quite high expectations, I have to say that Worldsoul turned to be a little mixed for me as the novel aligned closer to the UF subgenre than to the SF that remains by far the most interesting of the author's oeuvre to date. It is true that the novel is not quite the usual UF junk as it takes place in a "higher dimension" from Earth, but Earth's cultures, myths, supernatural beings of lore, books and tales are crucial for all that happens.

Worldsoul has great inventiveness and the writing style is the compelling one I have been expecting from Liz Williams with interesting main characters, and action happening in the higher dimensional city Worldsoul of the title, metropolis which is in a bit of disarray as its former rulers vanished a while ago and the various powers to be have started the struggle for domination.

Mercy is a somewhat naive but dogged librarian - though of course not of a mundane library - from a Northern tundra clan lineage whose two mothers have left on a quest to find the disappeared rulers - Worldsoul is a Liz Williams book so expect men to have minimal roles if they are not dispensed with as in her superb Solar System novels like Banner of Souls or Winterstrike - while Shadow is a devout alchemist from a Middle Eastern inspired culture who is compelled by the local power broker, a male Shah, to do some work for him that her ethics code finds distasteful.

A few demons including a duke of Hell - still female - who is the best and funniest secondary character, Disir i.e. Loki's supernatural minions, and assorted supernatural beings play the humans and one another and are occasionally played in turn while the novel moves at a brisk pace and ends at quite a satisfying point solving its main local stories though of course the big picture is just coming into focus as the ending emphatically punctuates that.

Where my reservations lie is in that the whole UF setup is a bit hard to take seriously and the external world lacks focus with the Worldsoul itself more of an abstraction or a stage for our characters than a "real place" with texture and depth.

On many occasions scenes that are supposed to have tension simply lacked it for me as I had no idea what the parameters were (and no idea if the book follows standard UF ones as I heartily detest the subgenre) so the various fights, chases etc read: "well this happened because it happened" with no way for me to realize if it was normal, an act of valor or something unusual.

I would compare my experience in those parts of the novel as with reading about a Wild West gunfight without having any ideas what guns can or cannot do - pretty much everything described can happen as the fact that the sheriff is faster on the draw may simply be so because his gun is a "lawful" one so it comes out faster, the fact that he shoots straight and the villain shoots badly maybe because his gun is an AI that targets itself etc and if the author inserts that the sheriff's gun shot 500 times in succession without recharge, it may seem a little odd but hey, it may be possible after all...

Overall, I think that if you are a UF buff you may love Worldsoul a lot, while personally I found it entertaining and I would definitely recommend it. Not as grand as the author's excellent sf, but I am still looking forward to see what comes next in the series!

[Abigail · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mercy Fane is a librarian in the Liminality. The kind of librarian that chooses a favorite weapon before wandering the stacks, these books have a tendency to misbehave. Things have been going downhill since the Skein disappeared. They were the almost-gods who made things run smoothly and ever since they left, things have been, well...less than smooth. When a very old creature escapes, or is released, from a very old text, Mercy vows to find it. Along the way, she is joined by a djinn-infested Alchemist and a Duke of Hell. Will the motley crew be able figure out why and how the creature was released and can they face the consequences?


I heard about this book more than a year ago when the tagline "What if being a librarian was the most dangerous job in the world?" was posted on several library-related blogs and message boards. I was sold then, when I knew nothing more about it, granted, being a librarian, I am a bit bias. But seriously, BEST TAGLINE EVER.

Anyway, moving away from my slightly unreasonable reasons for reading this book in the first place...

The world Williams creates for this book is fascinating. I am eternally grateful she does not give us a great deal of exposition about how the world functions as many sci fi/fantasy authors are wont (i.e. "As you know here in FANTASYLAND, we believe monkeys control our fate and therefore we placate them with our firstborn banana children...."). She choses the Frank Herbert route in that the world functions and you pick up how as you go along (on an unrelated note if anyone can tell me what exactly 'Spice' is, I would be eternally grateful. Seriously, is it a drug? A dry rub for barbeque? What?) You learn more and more as the book goes on which I think adds great depth to the story.

The plot could be tighter but is always entertaining. She goes through several characters' perspectives to tell the story, which, if you're familiar with my reviews, you will know I'm a huge fan of. It keeps the story moving at a good pace and provides motivation for many important characters including the antagonists.

I am really looking forward to being in this world more. If you like entering new fantasy worlds and if you have any love of books, this is a definite recommendation.


P.S. I don't hate "Dune." It's great. It just really bothers me that, for being a huge part of the story, he never tells you what the hell it is.

[Katharine Kimbriel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here’s a quirky little fantasy containing some of my favorite elements, including myths, alchemists, and librarians who have the most dangerous job in the world – managing the Library located in Worldsoul. And what is Worldsoul, you ask? Why, it’s an immense city that forms a nexus point between that backwater known as Earth and the dimensions known as the Liminality.

What kind of place is Worldsoul? A strange and wondrous place, where architecture rises like a thousand cultures, magics blend and burn purely, and old stories arrive to either fade into death or rise like the Phoenix. It was once ruled by the exotic Skein, but they have disappeared, leaving both a power vacuum and an unprotected city.

Now Worldsoul is under attack with lethal bombs from an unknown enemy. The mages and the librarians are at each others' throats, and, oh, yes, things are breaking through the space-time continuum and escaping into the city. Librarian Mercy Fane and her cohorts are doing their best to hold onto the warp and weft of reality, but Mercy needs allies. An alchemist from the eastern quarter will do nicely, even if the woman may be possessed, and there’s that rip between worlds up in Section C...

This is a story that runs on lush world spinning and a swift, intricate plot, plumbing the depths of myth and folklore, weaving new legend as it goes. You think there should be more time with characters, or a love interest popping up, and suddenly you realize that you know these people very well, indeed, and that there’s no time for a love interest. They’re running out of time, everyone is holding at bay a greater power trying to control them, and then, drat Williams, she both ties everything up nicely and drops the intro to another book splat on your doorstep.

Looking forward to the next book!

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Worldsoul took a little while to get used to. There are several POVs to keep track of, and this book takes the "in media res" idea awfully far. I put this down a few times because there is so much the author isn't telling us about the world. It's a beautiful world, what we can find out about it, but there is so much hinted at that isn't ever explained. I have a feeling that this book will benefit from being read as a series, where dangling plot points or tantalizing  bits of prose will turn out to be important later on. Once I threw my hands up and dealt with the fact that I wouldn't understand quite a lot of the underlying motives for the characters, I enjoyed the story. There's quite a bit of action and intrigue, and the author weaves several different cultures together; the alchemist with the Middle Eastern background was especially nice to read about, since that culture is quite lacking in typical fantasy. Towards the end, the backstory hints stop being so overt and the story progresses well, which made the ending much more enjoyable for me than the beginning. There are plenty of plot points waiting for resolution in future books, and I like the writing enough that I'd be willing to give the next in the series a try, as long as the world building is cleared up a bit. There's a great story in there, but it was difficult to find it, even for a veteran fantasy reader like me. 

I received a copy of this via Netgalley and the publisher.

[Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

Worldsoul features strong women characters who meet a series of adventures with wit and courage. They live in a society where stories and words have a real existence. Librarian Mercy steps up to defend the books under her care when a destructive magical monster attacks. Alchemist Shadow searches for a cure when she is invaded by a strange creature. Using magic power, craftiness, and fighting ability, the two women battle demons and sorcerers. The fun for the reader is to watch how the heroines overcome challenges. It’s refreshing to see women in positions of power, appearing as princes, dukes, and head librarians.

Although I enjoyed the strong female protagonists, I thought the book lacked a clear depiction of the world. I could picture individual settings, but I never had a good overall mental image of the various communities, including the sectors that made up the city Worldsoul. I also didn’t really understand how the concept of stories being real played out in the plot. I would compare this work to the world created by Jasper Fforde, where I vividly understand the way fiction is a reality. Williams is a very talented writer who can create worlds with great physicality, as in the Inspector Chen novels. I would like to see the Worldsoul landscape portrayed as vividly.

[Katie Spina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I won an Advanced Reader's copy through a Goodreads contest, so I wanted to get my feedback up since it comes out next month.

The book started heavy in the world jargon, and I was a little confused. It lasted only about a chapter or so though, so it was easily overcome. Once I got used to the language, the story got a chance to grab me.

I enjoyed the story overall. There were places that I would have liked more information, but I think maybe it will flesh out when the trilogy is complete.

I like the characters of Mercy and Shadow, and I thought their relationship evolved as naturally as it could under the circumstances.

An enjoyable read, and I will pick up the next in the trilogy when it comes out to see what happens to the story world next. I'm not good at reviews without spoilers, so I encourage you to read it for yourself and see what it's like when "being a librarian is the most dangerous job in the world."

[Beth Bernobich]

I'm not sure what kind of rating to give this book. I loved the first 80 or 90%. I loved the setting of Worldsoul, the characters, and Williams's ability with the sense of weird and otherworldiness. I did get a bit tired of chapters ending with the character blacking out, and a few plot points seemed to happen too easily, but I was happy to go along for the ride.

Then came the final section, which was far too chaotic, far too rushed. I remember checking the number of pages left and wondering how the author would tie up the plot.

The answer is: she didn't. First things got chaotic. Then confusing and rushed. Then the book just stopped.

The major cliffhanger at the end implies a sequel. I hope so, because whatever complaints I have about this book, I do want to find out what happens next.

[Suvi · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book. Who wouldn't love adventurous, sword-wielding librarians and quirky cities built on myth? I'm not sure whether I was expecting this book to be something it is not, or whether the execution simply fell short. There were so many ideas and so much potential, but it feels like almost none of it was used. In the end, I only had a vague idea of who everyone was and what exactly was happening. Also did we ever find out what was going on with the flower attacks?

[Kirsten · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a bit disappointing. It's a fine story with a nicely diverse cast, but I never felt very attached to any of the characters, nor did I have much of a sense of their motives.

OH, ALSO!

What the heck is up with the cover of this book? Who is that supposed to be? Mercy is not described as looking ANYTHING like that, and Shadow is veiled 99% of the time.

[Vampfiction · Rating 2 out of 5]

This books needs a glossary. Too many kinds of characters with no real explanation. Very hard to get into.

[Jack Deighton · Rating 3 out of 5]

This starts promisingly enough in the prologue when the ancient library of Alexandria lifts off into the sky like a rocket with parts of it still burning. What follows after though is a bit of a disappointment by comparison as its settles down into a tale of fantasy and magic which arguably does not need that preamble at all. When we start chapter one the library has for a long while been in Worldsoul, a place in connection with Earth but also on the border of the Liminality - woven by the Skein out of the legends of the ancestors of man - and a kind of limbo known as the nevergone.

A power vacuum has been created by the sudden unexplained disappearance of the Skein, who used to run Worldsoul, and now various entities are trying to muscle in. It falls to librarian Mercy Fane and an alchemist called Shadow to resist.

Since the origins of the Liminality are not revealed till near the end the mythologies the book draws on appear a bit of a mish-mash with djinns and ifrits, not to mention a Shah, mixed in with demons and Norse gods, Loki in particular. Another off note is the short chapters, which do become more appropriate towards the end when the action hots up but at the start prevent the reader getting to know the characters well enough before being flung off into another viewpoint. Then, too, the action sequences are curiously perfunctory and there is too much info dumping, with a lot of telling rather than showing. The ending screams “sequel coming.” I might give that a long time before ever reading it.

Still, fantasies like this are not really my thing and I have found Williams’s work more palatable in the past.

[Pat · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read in ebook format.

Started with high hopes, but after a while, I realized that I was confused and never became unconfused. What are "storyways"? Who are the Skein? Why is there a Library? How are stories actually used? And what on earth was with the flower attacks? It just got extremely tangled.

Shifts in pov were-- Well, this can be treacherous for a writer, because readers don't always like all the pov characters. This happened here: I'd rather focus on one character, but I was willing to go with it. Except I didn't feel the need to sympathize with the villain and didn't need to know what was going on in that mind. Also, Williams dropped some points of view as she went along, and that's a little irritating.

Big battles during the climax went on far too long; I started skimming. And then at the end Williams threatened a sequel, and my only thought was, "No. Please don't. And if you do, don't tell me about it."

I'll stick to the Inspector Chen stories.

[Marsha · Rating 2 out of 5]

Worldsoul by Liz Williams

I'm just disappointed. This is a terrific concept, but it is not well executed. There are too many characters and too many events that are left dangling. It did not feel cohesive, nor did it come together at the end.

[Erin · Rating 1 out of 5]

I tried reading this twice and I just couldn't get into it. Maybe it was the writing style but this was just not the book for me.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not exactly what I expected but a fun read all the same. It jumped around between characters more than I like though.

[Graculus · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought this book a while ago and, I have to be honest, it's been sitting on my shelf because while it's supposed to be the first book of a series, I understand it's quite possible that none of the subsequent books may ever make it into print. So I approached Worldsoul with a degree of suspicion that grew as the number of pages remaining diminished, wondering if the author would be able to tie up the story enough - I'm pleased to say there is a conclusion, though it certainly leaves stuff unexplained enough for further books to have room to explore. 
 
Worldsoul is set in a massive city of the same name, a place where Earth and various other realities join together and which had, until recently, been ruled by the Skein. Because this is a place where reality and myth or story come close to one another, it's quite possible to let things loose from the library and among its attackers are the disir, with a version of Loki playing a major role. This is a world where tales of all sorts are real, with our protagonists (a librarian and an alchemist) coming into contact with a wide variety of beings as a result. 
 
I've seen other reviews for this book commenting that they found it hard to follow and, it's true, it's not the most linear book going - that's mostly because there are usually at least 3 different plots happening at the same time (gosh, like real life?) rather than spoon-feeding of the reader about everything. I liked that, though I can see how that might be confusing for some people. 
 
Anyway, I enjoyed it - the 3.5 stars is mostly because of the fact that some things are left hanging and there may not be a resolution. However the world-building is solid, the writing deftly done especially in terms of the use of descriptive language, and I will be more than happy to read anything else that Liz Williams puts out in the future. 

[Bethany Lung · Rating 4 out of 5]

AWESOMEAWESOMEAWESOME PREMISE
The entire idea of the Library and the stories and the magic and the fantasy were all GREAT AND LOVED THEM
Only thing was this book was a tad slow and hard to get into sometimes, But I enjoyed it a lot! :D