The Left-Handed Booksellers of London

Product Information

But quite often they discover the key to raise some ancient myth, or release something that should have stayed imprisoned, and they share that knowledge via their writing. You would think that with all of these unnecessary details that at least we would have a clue as to what is going on but sadly this is not the case. The two sides of the family (a very extended family) wear gloves on whatever hand is their dominant one, and they reminded me so much of the Clayr librarians that I kinda squeed and just kept on squeeing, because I LOVE Lirael. I enjoyed this very much finding myself caught up in the story of Susan Arkshaw and her quest to locate her father in a slightly alternative 1983 London. Although her mother could certainly provide details, she’s inexplicably vague (there’s a hand-wavy “drugs in the 60s” line, which is a surprising line to find).

There were numerous times where something would happen and Susan would be confused (because falling into a magic world IS confusing) and those around her just push her questions aside with an “I’ll tell you later”. They find themselves being shot at, facing criminals, abduction attempts by goblins, a wolf, Cauldron borns and more. The deep magic consumed my attention; I was in love with Merlin's overflowing personality and Susan's unflappable drive. I was a gigantic fan of Sabriel/Lirael/Abhorsen growing up, and so naturally I jumped on this fast, exciting read when it popped up somewhere in my timeline. While I found the worldbuilding to be quite clever especially in part of the booksellers, the plot was fairly standard and predictable albeit adequately engaging to keep me entertained.Set in a version of 1983 London, where the worlds of the ordinary and the magical, the present and ages past, overlap. The map takes the trio to a place separated from this world, maintained by deadly sorcery and guarded by monstrous living statues.

The Left-Handed Booksellers of London was an enjoyable urban fantasy romp in an alternate 1980s-London which left me wanting more from this clever and fascinating world of magical secret service booksellers. la base c’est un autre livre de l’auteur qui me tentait et puis la magie d’internet m’a suggéré cette histoire-ci.Susan has made it to London and found a man, Frank Thringley, she thinks may know something when that man is struck down into a cloud of dust before her very eyes. It certainly reads young, but without those conventional Young Adult staples that I sadly encounter so often when picking up a younger audience fantasy read.

I really liked the idea of the Booksellers as a group secretly protecting England, and how there is a Left-Handed and Right-Handed path for its members. I’ve bounced off Sabriel by Garth Nix enough times that I was hesitant to give his latest a try, but Nataliya’s fine review caught my imagination, along with–of course–the titular booksellers. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. But there are… entities… who can help unravel the past or look toward the future, give clues to help work out what went on.Even though he also became interested in Susan, it was refreshingly not because of her looks or awesome abilities, but rather by her personality and ability to roll with the weird magical situations she was suddenly facing. There’s no real point to the extended clan of magicians engaging in book trade — except for our cultural knowledge that booksellers are odd and awesome and probably a bit out of this world* — because, as Stephen King once said, “Books are uniquely portable magic”. Merlin is one of London’s organization of booksellers who engage with the magical world, policing its interaction with what normal humans think of as reality.

A girl’s quest to find her father leads her to an extended family of magical fighting booksellers who police the mythical Old World of England when it intrudes on the modern world. To unravel the secrets of a murderous Ancient Sovereign, the booksellers must investigate centuries of disappearances and deaths. I loved that this book was inspired by Nix's own visits to the United Kingdom, the first time coincidentally being in 1983, and his gratitude to booksellers which came across in his Acknowledgement. A complex ethical substrate that leaves the reader with relatively few fully bad or fully good characters (though there are some) and that poses open-ended questions.On top of that the main character, Susan, is treated like a 5-year-old who needs to be led around by the hand without being told anything.