The Library at Mount Char

Product Information

I'm staring at a blank screen trying to figure out how to even review this book. Outside the rain has been falling steadily for hours. I don't think it has any plans of slowing down today. The rain is a nice distraction. I can sit and listen to it while I sit inside and wrestle with coherency. I don't even know if that makes sense, but it sounds pretty impressive to me. You might try The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides. It's a slow build, but it's got a kind of surreal, not-quite-a-dream, trapped-in-the-suburbs vibe that I really like. I pull that one out and reread it every couple of years. The audiobook version is also excellent. Possibly due to growing up with Doctor Who, possibly due to just me being a fairly eclectic individual, I’ve never cared too much about genre boundaries. Oh, there are times I might fancy a change of setting, and might swap modern day horror for dystopia, or exchange some traditional space sf for a bit of high fantasy, but that is just another destination for my literary Tardis and sooner or later I know I’ll be setting the randomiser and be off somewhen else. Naturally, this also means that I have a distinct fondness for books which don’t fit easily into one category or another. I finally got around to reading The Library at Mount Char, by Scott Hawkins, which had been on my TBR list ever since it released in June 2015. Thank goodness books are not buses – if you’re late, you can still catch it – because I loved this ride. in fact, i already want to read it again to see how those earlier scenes read now that i know all that i know.

I'm not completely sure how I felt about this book. Hell, for most of the book, I wasn't sure who was supposed to be the main character. However, I did enjoy it. Here's how it all went down. At times reminding me of bits of American Gods and The Magicians, The Library at Mount Char is both interesting and pretty messed up. There are scenes with tons of dogs being brutally murdered and people being burned to death in a grill shaped like a bull. Not to mention that the kids grow up to pretty much be sociopaths, with the rape and murder and such. P.S. Много е готино да имаш лъвица за другар в бедите и да можете да си говорите, но на собствения ѝ език. Завидях на Стийв! So yes, a very imaginative, very well written, intriguing, exciting, brutal, funny book that you should definitely give a go. The book has been highly successful. Its average rating is good but not sky high, and I suspect that this is to do with the way that the closing sections really don't make a lot of sense unless you are prepared to take a lot of random arm waving on board.A word of caution to the squeamish. This is a violent and gory book. Some might say that the author made it too violent and over-the-top but I disagree. The scenes of violence are all brutal and described in minute, gory details but it never seems like it was done to excess. Aside from the violence, there are also scenes that might disturb more sensitive sensibilities like talking decapitated heads, repeated suicides, and others. For me, all this was necessary for the reader's/listener's understanding of the world and the characters that Scott Hawkins has created. The world of the Pelapi is dangerous and brutal, and it deserved to be shown as such. at its most basic level it's a dark fantasy version of a bildungsroman in which orphaned children are schooled in esoteric and powerful arts by a man known as "father," whose lessons are dangerous and frequently cruel. they grow up in the flexible time of his library and are raised according to the ancient rituals of the pelapi, which distances them from the americans they once were. they never break into song like the charming orphans in annie, PS—I first heard of this book from this article: Just Trust Me: In Praise Of Strange Books — piquing my interest with: "Give me something dark … Give me a book that sunk its teeth into you. One that changed you, left you a little different by the time you were done.” As I write this review, it occurs to me that this is one of those books that I like the ideas way more than the execution. The magic system reminds me of The Magicians a bit and I love the idea of a nigh-immortal wizard training twelve orphans. However, I didn't really care about any of the characters other than Steve and the lions. I thought the story meandered all over the place and could have been more focused. It's also one of the few books where I wanted a lot more worldbuilding.

When we are introduced to a couple of characters from the real world, both Hawkins strengths and weaknesses begin to show. Like James Herbert or Stephen King, Hawkins is able to give a short but intensive character portrait and history making the worlds of his human characters as rich as that the Pelapi. I also really admired the way he was able to show the Pelapi through seemingly every day human eyes, and show just how twisted even the nicest of them are, Carolyn most definitely included. A wholly original, engrossing, disturbing, and beautiful book. You’ve never read anything quite like this, and you won’t soon forget it. Did it hold up to my beefed-up expectations? Did it lose any of the fires of ultimate agony or any of its Asshole Buddhism? Hello, No. :) I still love it. It has everything I could ever want. A mastermind plan or three. Godlike powers. A mystery, a revenge story, a freaking humorous and heartbreaking debacle including lions, dogs, and a very special man in a tu-tu, and a library that is so much more than a library. I bought this book before leaving for vacation. I had a six hour flight looming before me and I wanted something interesting to read/listen to and to help pass the time. This definitely held my interest and kept me reading/listening throughout the flight.

Here's the thing. I spent a good chunk of last summer working on a short story--actually a novella--that I ended up not releasing. I wanted to give it away as a freebie to people who liked the book, but it just wasn't very good, honestly. After six weeks or so of not doing much else besides that, I finally decided it was best to keep it on my hard drive rather than release something substandard. You start the story in total confusion and stay that way for most of the book. Information is released in tiny increments. Bizarre characters enter and fantastic events unfold; you scratch your head and keep reading. It does become clear, from the beginning, that there are realms of reality co-existing in this book. One is our normal one, going about its day-to-day business. That average world, with which we are so familiar, is completely oblivious of that second plane of existence, which is operating busily right under its radar. The inhabitants and events in this secret universe are largely unseen, and when they do collide with humanity, humanity suffers the worse of the encounter.

The only trouble is that in the war to make a new God, she's forgotten to protect the things that make her human. That was a long time ago, of course. Before her parents died. Before she and the others were taken in by the man they called Father. I think, if one makes The Library at Mount Char into a metaphor for reality, it fills the same role, in a modern way, as those more ancient stories.A terrific book, full of dark mystery and genuine beauty.” —Richard Kadrey, New York Times bestselling author of Sandman Slim And even though the deaths, more deaths, and even more deaths, of world-eating plagues and starvation, of the snuffing out of the sun and the raising of a new one, it's kinda odd... that this is strangely one of the most up-beat and hopeful of Fantasies or Science Fiction or Horror that I've ever read. :) Ohhh . . ." the old guy said vaguely. "Right." He glanced at her legs in a way that wasn't particularly fatherly. "Sure you don't want a lift? Buddy don't mind, do ya?" He patted the fat dog in the seat next to him. Buddy only watched, his brown eyes feral and suspicious. My word, I can't get over how much new mythology that Mr. Hawkins crammed into such a short book, or how much of it wormed its way into my brain. I haven't been this enthused about any book like this since American Gods, and I have to admit this is a BETTER EXPRESSION than even that. I am absolutely amazed by what I have just read, and I'm bumping this one up to one of my top ten novels of all time. It's just that good.