The Library at Mount Char

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The most genuinely original fantasy I’ve ever read. Hawkins plays with really, really big ideas and does it with superb invention, deeply affecting characters, and a smashing climax I did not see coming.” —Nancy Kress, Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author of Beggars in Spain A first-rate novel… a sprawling, epic contemporary fantasy about cruelty and the end of the world, compulsively readable, with the deep, resonant magic of a world where reality is up for grabs. Unputdownable." - Cory Doctorow I would. In fact, I've listened to it twice already. I found the story to be gripping and fresh. Listening to it the second time made me appreciate all the subtle clues that the author has left for us to discover, and gave my second listen a different feel than the first one. I also found the narrator to be suitable in her portrayal of the various characters, though I must say that she makes extensive use of vocal fry (think bedroom voice) and that might annoy some people. I was ok with it though, I found it to be charming. Reading the blurb I thought I was in for some sort of urban fantasy of the angels + demons, werewolves + vampires sort that often has a young woman in leathers on the cover showing an inch of midriff. I was just typing up a reply saying something like "I love playing the recommend-me-a-book game, but it's tough to come up with good recommendations if I only know one book that you--"

Carolyn however has a plan, a plan that stretches into the past and future, a plan for the one thing she wants most; revenge! Carolyn and Steve, it transpires, had known each other as children. Father had also planned for Carolyn to depose him. David, in between life and death, and in agony, serves as Earth's new, dark sun, but Steve voluntarily replaces him. Carolyn, with the assistance of Michael and Erwin, will protect the Earth from Father's inhuman foes.

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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. Carolyn is my favorite, probably because most of the novel is told through her perspective. It's very interesting that so much is from her POV and yet there is still a lot about her that is a mystery to the reader. In some ways this book is a character study of a very disturbed person, that becomes weirdly relatable by the end of the novel. Steve was also a great character, as someone who is more grounded in normal reality, he provides a "way in" to parts of the story. Erwin is just the best. He provides some needed (dark) comic relief throughout the novel.

After each one, I'd put the book down for a second and start to rethink the story from the new vantage point that the author had just provided. Yes, the attempt to outsmart the reader by far more twists and turns than necessary feels too clever by half, especially when VERY exotic physics give the easy way out. But it is still amazing.One problem I did have, is while we get to see a lot of several of the Pelapi, others were only given cursory character sketches at most, whilst others did not appear at all, even though they apparently were present for most of the book’s events, indeed the gamer in me would love to get a break down of all twelve librarians and the nature of their catalogues, whilst the reader in me is sorry that such potentially fascinating characters as Rachel, a prophet who sees possibility through the ghosts of her murdered children barely register, Indeed to say that early on Carolyn mentions that she doesn’t know Jenifer well, it was a little odd that we got to see so much of her and so little of many of the others. In the years since then, Carolyn hasn’t had a chance to get out much. Instead, she and her adopted siblings have been raised according to Father’s ancient customs. They’ve studied the books in his Library and learned some of the secrets of his power. And sometimes, they’ve wondered if their cruel tutor might secretly be God. She wasn't clear on what "club sody" was, but she could tell from his tone that this was a joke. Not the laugh-out-loud sort, the commiserating sort. She snorted. "I'll do that." All the oddness of this book, its sheer creativity, blows me away. All its characters become real and archetypes and real all over again, wrenched from all those endlessly tired grounds to become something new and fantastic again.

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. In a way this can be classed as urban fantasy. It's set in fairly modern day America, but if certain kinds of magic were real but only available to a very limited number of people who had been carefully groomed for the roles to fulfill certain purposes. It's not urban fantasy in the noir-detective-but-with-magic vein.

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OMG! This uniquely creative story is pushing me to be a fan of this genre! When a fantastical cult of badass "librarians" is making trouble within the real world, you can bet that a whole lot of shaking is going on! With such an original plot line, I could not predict the ending (even though I tried!); Review on English, followed by the Bulgarian one. Ревюто на английски е първо, следва това на български. 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. As many other reviewers have said, this book is a lot of weird and strange and horrifying. And also straight up compulsively readable. I don't generally think I like dark books, but sometimes they pull me in really strongly. This book certainly did.

Well I won't be giving away any spoilers here but basically the novel was one hell of a ride. The central point of the story is the 12 Librarians search for Father, an almost omnipotent, omniscient being who "adopted" them when they were young and raised them, and taught them many things. These things vary among the 12, as each has a domain that is all his/her own to learn and master. It’s hard to know where to start with this book other than … WOW. What a trip. Imagine if the movie Mother!, Dr. Strange, and an M. C. Escher painting had a baby — you might be close to capturing the essence of this psychotropic tome.Of course, this isn’t actually a mystery book, either. The book is classified under “contemporary fantasy”, and I guess that will have to do. I don’t want to go into the plot too much because half the fun of this book is the slow, steady reveal of how weird and crazy things are. Suffice to say, I have not read anything like it before, and just when I thought I figured out what’s going on, I was sooner proven wrong. 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. So when I heard tell of a book which was apparently so hard to categorise it was said to be in a genre of its own, I of course had to try it. The second third had me gushing thinking I had a new book for my top 10 - I couldn't put it down! So much was happening and I couldn't wait to see what would happen next! The dogs! Lions! Hostages! Erwin! All great. Then it all went dark (literally) and I was so excited for what was going to happen next... Nothing wrong with that- we are all fans for a reason, and sometimes opening a high fantasy book with elves, dwarves and knights set in medieval europe with a farmboy for a main character is comforting; like eating a favourite meal.