Rating: 
Summary: Mentis Gratissimus Error
Review: "A most delightful hallucination", is the title of these comments in a more customary form. It is a phrase that was used in Mr. Ross King's book, "Ex Libris", and I thought it is an appropriate term for the suspension of disbelief that all good novels must accomplish. This is a mystery in which books play a prominent role. The detail that is related is vast so I can understand why some might find the enormous number of descriptions tedious. I am an absolute book addict, so I enjoyed the history of how the paper was made, the words created and concealed, and the manufacture and repair of what are now very old books, or manuscripts that predate books by many centuries.The book is very well written and features an unassuming bookseller as the protagonist who owns a shop and lives on London Bridge in the 17th Century. His cloistered world is shattered one day, and from that moment until the book ends, readers follow him along on a complicated mission to solve a mystery. To make matters more complex, there is a second background story taking place many years in the past that helps with the exposition of what our bookseller is dealing with. The players are legion and a very good memory is required to follow the tale. A pad of paper and a pen helps to track the important pieces. As many of these pieces are rare editions of old books and book fragments, it could make anyone a bit dizzy while keeping all in order. As I said, for me it was great fun, but I can see why others would be frustrated if they were expecting a more straightforward tale. The book jacket suggests a few Authors whose work is comparable to that of Mr. King's. One I agree with and one I do not, but I do feel a third is even more appropriate. Mr. Charles Palliser writes very intricate tales in historic periods that are a maze to follow as well as a book to read. I truly think most will find this a wonderful book and reading time very well spent.
Rating: 
Summary: A literate but not literary warehouse of facts and details
Review: 17th century England, not to mention the world, was a place of huge turmoil, a profound flip-flopping of ideas and fortunes. The sciences unleashed by the Renaissance, the new order of religion introduced by the Reformation and the discovery of the New World shook the foundations of European culture. In England, the Civil War temporarily deposed the royals and Oliver Cromwell seized power. It was a time of high intrigue, spies, suspicion and superstition. It was a time when knowledge was a powerful and frightening thing, and the books and maps that held it inspired the best and worst intentions of humanity.
Against this backdrop, Ross King has set the story of a quiet bookseller, a 40-year-old widower with a club foot, who becomes a reluctant agent in the intrigues of his century when he is asked to go looking for an ancient text that was apparently pillaged along with everything else in a country estate that had been taken in the Civil War and only recently returned to the original heir. Interwoven with the bookseller's first-person account is the third person narrative of 4 decades earlier, following the suspenseful trail of three individuals caught up in the Bohemian royal's escape to England with a mysterious cargo for which people are willing to risk lives.
King has reams of good material going for him but he squanders it in lackluster prose. His bookseller's voice is indistinguishable from that of the third person narrative and there is little affective character development. King drops every opportunity to exploit the potent irony in many scenes. In the end, the book is a warehouse of details and facts, rather than a passionately moving story.
Rating:
Summary: In need to great revision
Review: A fine tale too long told. Unfortunate that the editors at Penguin Books did not require King to reduce the text by another 40-60%. I have no doubt that King has a tremendous grasp of the politics of the 17th century, but he need not try to squeeze everything he knows into one novel. His characterizations are poor except for two major characters. He cites the greed and manipulations of political and eclesiacticl princes, but offers no personality traits; just his comdemdation. I struggled to finish the work. King could offer a revised and greatly reduced volume without losing anything except words.
Rating:
Summary: Fast Start but Nowhere To Go
Review: After several years of reading others' reviews, this is the first time I've written one myself. The question is, Why this one? I've read a lot better books in the last few years. King's recent non-fiction works have been weel received so I found this fiction piece at a decent price and figured I'd try it before going to the others. Mistake. I'm hoping the non-fiction works are an improvement. Mr. King needs some work as a fiction author. I'm forced to agree with an earlier reviewer (Mr. Fantino); this book starts fine. The first 100 pages are intriguing, but not overpoweringly so in contrast to Eco's "The Name of the Rose", to which it is unfortunately compared. When there is dialogue, it is in a contemporary 21st century speaking style, not one comparable to how 17th century characters would actually have spoken. The first 340 pages move along nicely, but the final 20 pages are a mess. The ending comes from nowhere; it's as if King couldn't figure out how to finish it and made it up the day the manuscript was due at the publishers. the last two chapters really weaken what otherwise is a decent tale of intrigue and double-dealing. It's not bad, but it could have been a whole lot better.
Rating:
Summary: Fast Start but Nowhere To Go
Review: After several years of reading others' reviews, this is the first time I've written one myself. The question is, Why this one? I've read a lot better books in the last few years. King's recent non-fiction works have been weel received so I found this fiction piece at a decent price and figured I'd try it before going to the others. Mistake. I'm hoping the non-fiction works are an improvement. Mr. King needs some work as a fiction author. I'm forced to agree with an earlier reviewer (Mr. Fantino); this book starts fine. The first 100 pages are intriguing, but not overpoweringly so in contrast to Eco's "The Name of the Rose", to which it is unfortunately compared. When there is dialogue, it is in a contemporary 21st century speaking style, not one comparable to how 17th century characters would actually have spoken. The first 340 pages move along nicely, but the final 20 pages are a mess. The ending comes from nowhere; it's as if King couldn't figure out how to finish it and made it up the day the manuscript was due at the publishers. the last two chapters really weaken what otherwise is a decent tale of intrigue and double-dealing. It's not bad, but it could have been a whole lot better.
Rating:
Summary: Not the Best; but Not Bad
Review: As a book collector and voracious reader, I have a soft spot in my heart for books about people interested in books. This genre has produced great non-fiction ("A Gentle Madness" by Nicholas Basbanas leaps to mind) and great fiction (such as "The Club Dumas" by Arturo Perez-Reverte). Ross King has produced a novel that is not among the best in the genre but it isn't bad. This is a novel that tells two parallel stories: First, of a London bookseller in 1660, Isaac Inchbold, who is charged with tracking down a rare manuscript. Second, of Emilia, a lady-in-waiting to the young Queen of Bohemia in 1620, who flees the destruction of Prague with the treasure-trove of books from Prague Castle. Of the two, the secondary story of Emilia is the more interesting of the two. Hearing a bit of Prague in its glory days took me back to a recent visit I made to the city and brought it to life for me again. Also, Emilia comes off as a sometimes bewildered but ultimately intelligent and together young woman. On the other hand, I found Inchbold to be rather uninteresting. He seems to be intelligent but allows himself to be easily manipulated and rather slow on the uptake. I found myself rather irritated with this character who is supposed to be our guide through this story and who allows himself to almost completely controlled by rather obvious means. Fortunately, this novel is also peopled by quite a few interesting minor characters such as Inchbold's apprentice, Monk; Biddulph, the old Navy historian; and Appleyard, the blind clerk in the deeds' crypt. Unfortunately, I'm not quite sure the culmination of the novel is really worth the effort it takes to get there. There are some interesting revelations concerning the book that is the object of everyone's interest but the end in rather anticlimactic. Still, this novel is an easy read and there's some interesting things here. All in all, it's not a bad way to spend an afternoon.
Rating: 
Summary: Ex Libris? How about "Ex-cruciating."
Review: As an avid bibliophile, I purchased Mr. King's novel with much anticipation. As I began reading, however, I became aware of a curious and unpleasant sensation at the base of my skull. I later determined that this sensation was boredom mixed with irritation and a dash of indignation. Mr. King has produced a horribly written, poorly researched waste of wood pulp. In addition to unforgivable faults like a complete lack of character development (one really does not care in the slightest for any of the stick-figure characters in the book) there is the painfully overwrought prose. Apparently ... producing prose that I am sure he believes sounds "authentic" but really is just "obtuse" and "precious." Adding insult to injury, there is Mr. King's complete lack of an "ear" for the kind of historical prose he is attempting to write. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the nautical passages of Ex Libris. Anyone who has read O'Brien, Lewis or any other good historical novelist will cringe at Mr. King's descriptions of his characters' tribulations at sea. [Note to Mr. King: It is much more salty (and correct) to say "fo'c'sle" without appending "deck" to it--"fo'c'sle deck" is awfully lubberly. In addition, the orlop deck of a wooden square-rigger is BELOW the waterline, so it would be inadvisable to open a "scuttle" and peer out.] Nonetheless, I stuck with it, hoping against hope that I would recieve someking of payoff in the end. Instead, what I got was an ending so pat that you could still hear Mr. King running out of steam. Or perhaps Mr. King experienced the same unpleasant sensation whilst writing as I later did reading and just could not bear to do it anymore. Avoid.
Rating:
Summary: Literary swashbuckler - fun to read
Review: Ex-Libris by Ross King is fun to read. It's a swashbuckler, a literary analysis, and a depiction of life in 17th century Europe. It spurred me to investigate obscure literary works, chemistry, astronomy and cryptography. By developing two timelines simultaneously, the author weaves two dramatic tales that merge in the book's final pages. The only unexplained enigma I found was an incorrect decryption of a cryptogram in the early pages of the book. King's decryption of the last two lines is, "THAT SETS THE MARBLE ON ITS PLINTH AND UNTWISTS THE WORLDS LABYRINTH". I believe the correct decryption of those lines is, "THAT SPIL[L] THE MARBLE FRO[M] ITS PLINTH AND WREATHE THE BLOODY LABYRINTH". The differences are significant in meaning and reflect different parts of the story-line. The discrepancy isn't mentioned in the book; so I assume the ciphertext is a relic from an earlier draft of the manuscript. I waited in vain for the plot to develop the different decryptions. The epilogue would have been the perfect place for such a discovery - and would have made a nice twist. Regardless of my nitpick, Ex-Libris is worth reading. I had fun.
Rating:
Summary: The Means Do Not Justify the End
Review: Ex-Libris is a fascinating and ultimately frustrating gothic novel about books. Ross King overwhelms the reader with a wealth of bibliophilic minutiae, parallel plots, and loads of historical detail only to conclude his story with a denouement that would be embarrassing to a supermarket romance. His intentions may have been honorable, but his literary judgement is suspect. The best thing about the novel is its invocation of a time when writing books and owning books was dangerous business. One of the plots unfolds as the Thirty Years' War is breaking out and both Catholics and Protestants are busily burning books as well as one another. The second plot (really the main one, alas) concerns a Restoration London bookseller named Isaac Inchbold. Inchbold is hired by a mysterious noblewomen to locate an ancient manuscript called "The Labyrinth of the World", part of the "Corpus Hermeticum" supposedly written by the greatest of Egyptian scholars. Three black-garbed figures appear in both plots, killing everyone who becomes involved with the manuscript. Galileo, Alchemy, the Rosicrucians, the library of Rudolph of Bohemia, Sir Walter Raleigh's voyage to the Orinoco, and the riddle of longitude all figure in the story.
Rating:
Summary: A fine histrorical mystery
Review: Ex-Libris is a fine historical mystery bringing the reader back to 17 century England. Other reviewers have given a pretty good synopsis of the plot and its quite a few unexpected turns. I would just add that the characters are quite good, although not completely developed. If you like John Dunning's "bookman" mystery series you will love this book. There is something special and intriguing about the art of collecting and appreciating books and Ex-Libris is a fine addition to this sub-genre.
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