Carolyn's not so different from the other human beings around her. She's sure of it. She likes guacamole and cigarettes and steak. She knows how to use a phone. She even remembers what clothes are for.
After all, she was a normal American herself, once.
That was a long time ago, of course—before the time she calls “adoption day,” when she and a dozen other children found themselves being raised by a man they learned to call Father.
Father could do strange things. He could call light from darkness. Sometimes he raised the dead. And when he was disobeyed, the consequences were terrible.
In the years since Father took her in, Carolyn hasn't gotten out much. Instead, she and her adopted siblings have been raised according to Father's ancient Pelapi customs. They've studied the books in his library and learned some of the secrets behind his equally ancient power.
Sometimes, …
Carolyn's not so different from the other human beings around her. She's sure of it. She likes guacamole and cigarettes and steak. She knows how to use a phone. She even remembers what clothes are for.
After all, she was a normal American herself, once.
That was a long time ago, of course—before the time she calls “adoption day,” when she and a dozen other children found themselves being raised by a man they learned to call Father.
Father could do strange things. He could call light from darkness. Sometimes he raised the dead. And when he was disobeyed, the consequences were terrible.
In the years since Father took her in, Carolyn hasn't gotten out much. Instead, she and her adopted siblings have been raised according to Father's ancient Pelapi customs. They've studied the books in his library and learned some of the secrets behind his equally ancient power.
Sometimes, they've wondered if their cruel tutor might secretly be God.
Now, Father is missing. And if God truly is dead, the only thing that matters is who will inherit his library—and with it, power over all of creation.
As Carolyn gathers the tools she needs for the battle to come, fierce competitors for this prize align against her.
But Carolyn can win. She's sure of it. What she doesn't realize is that her victory may come at an unacceptable price—because in becoming a God, she's forgotten a great deal about being human.
I really struggled with the first third of this book - it felt like nightmare after nightmare with no obvious reason. Horror and gore for kicks. But the back half really justifies the first: this is a story about remembering your humanity in the face of dark times, and a little about how power corrupts. If you squint, there’s maybe something here about how terrible things are sometimes needed to maintain peace and stability, but I’m going to choose to ignore this thread. The first half of this book was harrowing; I enjoyed the second half very much.
I was hooked by the setup in this book of a group of adopted children, partially pulled out of time by a god-like Father, and each set to learn one specific branch of knowledge and ancient power. My favorite part of this book was the slow unfurling of background machinations and scheming that all paid off in the end. The characters somehow manage to be somewhat relatable even as the book continually demonstrated how extreme power alienates them from their own humanity.
Parts of this book reminded me of Charles Stross's Merchant Princes series, especially around the US government attempting to "negotiate" with people who have fantastical power.
I will say also that this book goes to some very dark places, so content warning for abuse and violence and and torture and trauma. To put it one way, when somebody has enough power to read minds, bring people back from …
I was hooked by the setup in this book of a group of adopted children, partially pulled out of time by a god-like Father, and each set to learn one specific branch of knowledge and ancient power. My favorite part of this book was the slow unfurling of background machinations and scheming that all paid off in the end. The characters somehow manage to be somewhat relatable even as the book continually demonstrated how extreme power alienates them from their own humanity.
Parts of this book reminded me of Charles Stross's Merchant Princes series, especially around the US government attempting to "negotiate" with people who have fantastical power.
I will say also that this book goes to some very dark places, so content warning for abuse and violence and and torture and trauma. To put it one way, when somebody has enough power to read minds, bring people back from the dead, or go back in time to manipulate the past, there's very little escape from their will and manipulation.
A strange and interesting fantasy novel set in a warped version of our world where magic, of a sort, is real. Featuring multiple interesting characters, some more unpleasant than others, and a good dose of weirdness, it was quite an enjoyable, though not pleasant, read. I liked being unable to predict where the story was going to end up, and had the ending been slightly more satisfactory it would have garnered 4 stars from me. Worth the read.
So much about this book was great—the story, the characters, the slow but insanely compelling roll of it. But there is a huge amount of physical abuse in it and that abuse gets excused at the end too easily for me as something that was necessary for an end goal. So I devoured this book and then felt really gross when I finished it.
Review of 'The Library at Mount Char' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
What a ride!
I've read a few urban fantasy books, but stopped reading even more. The genre always appealed to me. I grew up reading World of Darkness TTRPG rulebooks. But most novels I read felt too eager to fulfill fantasies without any care for being a good novel.
I'm not saying this is untrue of The Library at Mount Char. It's also mostly focused on hitting a series of fantastic dioramas with little care for what happens in between. But come on! These dioramas are really cool! And there are so many of them! Just non-stop cool scenes! Everything is over the top. And I mean OVER THE TOP!!!
I think a cornerstone of this genre is wacky situations that must be resolved with a perfectly logical explanation hundreds of pages later. "No time to explain! You must stick this banana in the tiger's ear or we all …
What a ride!
I've read a few urban fantasy books, but stopped reading even more. The genre always appealed to me. I grew up reading World of Darkness TTRPG rulebooks. But most novels I read felt too eager to fulfill fantasies without any care for being a good novel.
I'm not saying this is untrue of The Library at Mount Char. It's also mostly focused on hitting a series of fantastic dioramas with little care for what happens in between. But come on! These dioramas are really cool! And there are so many of them! Just non-stop cool scenes! Everything is over the top. And I mean OVER THE TOP!!!
I think a cornerstone of this genre is wacky situations that must be resolved with a perfectly logical explanation hundreds of pages later. "No time to explain! You must stick this banana in the tiger's ear or we all die!" This is taken to the extreme here. Nothing makes sense in the first 100 pages. I love this formula. (I didn't love that the wacky thing was often torture or murder.)
The conclusion of the plot takes this to the next level, with hidden messages in childhood memories providing the "perfectly logical" explanations. I think that's a perfect way to end the book.
An intention to have a meaning and characters you can connect with are important pillars of a good novel. This novel doesn't have them, at least not for me. Yes, we have a wacky cast of more than a dozen characters with well presented, diverse personalities and other traits. A bloody warrior in a pink tutu, a cunning librarian, a kind naked guy who is used to living with animals, etc. Somehow none of them works as an anchor for the reader. They have plenty of curious traits, plenty of scenes, and still I didn't care about anybody. Everybody is either evil or an idiot. Only Carolyn has a goal. Steve getting hyperfocused on saving Naga is out of the blue, but a valuable emotional motor while it lasts!
That said, this novel works fine without meaning or good characters. There's plenty of that stuff in other books. It's okay to just be a fun ride!
Review of 'The Library at Mount Char' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
Until about half way through, I was pretty sure this was only going to get 3 stars from me. I already knew it was innovative and inventive (there is no other book quite like this) but it was just too dark and miserable and I couldn’t see a reason for that. BUT… the last half changed my mind. I’m still not entirely sure what the message is (something about power) but the sheer craft of the plot and ideas is truly amazing. I can’t think of any other book I’ve had quite this reaction to.
The writing isn't it's strongest part.
The story is strong, the characters quirky, but the ending is weak if mostly satisfying.
Resurrection seems to be the main fantastical tool used with few archaic Arabic sounding words that just feel thrown in.
The size of the library becomes a little too Warehouse 13 or those TV movies and series 'The Librarian' or 'The Librarians' - where this story diverges is not in missing artifacts or books, but rather in the focus on 'The Librarians' being criminally insane and it's an adopted-family feud.
I did enjoy this book, but it lacked something in the story, the writing was the weakest part, dialogue was fine, but the actual writing was the weakest part.
Review of 'The Library at Mount Char' on 'Goodreads'
2 stars
Maybe I'm just a grumpy old man who doesn't care for speculative fiction anymore or I simply didn't read the same book as apparently everyone else on my friends list, but I simply did not have a good time with this book. I saw repeated warnings that "the first third/half is really weird, but just stick with it!" So I did, and occasionally I did catch small glimpses of what this book could have been, but unfortunately it never got there for me.
If nothing else, I can't deny that this was an ambitious book. This was the kind of story where domino pieces were set up very early, only to fall into place at just the right moment well after you'd forgotten about them. Which is awesome, I love a Push (2009) (god, does anyone even remember that movie?) kind of situation where the story hinges on this insanely …
Maybe I'm just a grumpy old man who doesn't care for speculative fiction anymore or I simply didn't read the same book as apparently everyone else on my friends list, but I simply did not have a good time with this book. I saw repeated warnings that "the first third/half is really weird, but just stick with it!" So I did, and occasionally I did catch small glimpses of what this book could have been, but unfortunately it never got there for me.
If nothing else, I can't deny that this was an ambitious book. This was the kind of story where domino pieces were set up very early, only to fall into place at just the right moment well after you'd forgotten about them. Which is awesome, I love a Push (2009) (god, does anyone even remember that movie?) kind of situation where the story hinges on this insanely complex and elaborate plan that a character spent multiple in-fiction years crafting and setting up. It's supposed to feel satisfying to watch it all finally come together, but here I just got too bogged down in all the scenes and side characters leading up to that payoff. The word that kept coming to mind was "unnecessary". A lot of the goofy nonsense could have been pared down and I feel the central plot would've benefited from it.
One of the main characters (who is human, by the way) has been removed from society for a long time, and when she's forced to interact with people again there's a lot of the "Humans Through Alien Eyes" trope where she comments on how odd Americans watch "television" and wear "clothes". It's boring, it's not funny, and whenever I encounter it in any media I don't even have the energy to roll my eyes, and this was no exception. A lot of the attempted humor felt like mid-2000's "lol so random XD" culture, and maybe it would have landed for me if I was still 13. And then there was other stuff I just did not care for such as a few separate scenes where there are dozens of dogs murdered, there are two characters that are honest-to-god lions that were given way too much attention and focus, there's some casual homophobia thrown in for no reason (this was really strange because there are literally no queer characters at all), and there's a flashback to the first of many times that the protagonist was murdered because she resisted against her adopted brother trying to rape her. Every time I came across one of these passages I wanted to stop reading, but I pushed through because of this supposed big payoff.
Some variation of "I can explain later, but now isn't the time" must've been repeated over a dozen times in this book. As a reader, I was growing just as confused and irritated as the side character that was the target of these pleas, and then when the time finally comes we're treated to massive blocks of infodumping exposition where no dramatic action is happening. I appreciated that most of the bigger questions I had - save for all these supposedly dangerous enemies lurking in the shadows that we never see or encounter - were answered at the end, but I just wish they had been introduced more naturally instead of all at once in what felt like a lecture.
It was certainly unique, but I'd be hard pressed to recommend this one. This book unfortunately falls into that dubious category of "liked the premise, wish someone else had written it."
Review of 'The Library at Mount Char' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
A combination of a fish out of water, an elephant in a china shop and we are as Ants to the Gods.
This page turner keeps you engaged at every wrenching twist and turn, and even though it slows down to a halt towards the end the conclusion is rewarding.
Review of 'The library at Mount Char' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
Amazing in scope, yet well edited and not long, an easy read without being simplistic. It has compelling characters, all with their own fascinating stories, and a gripping plot. It left me wanting more, immediately. The story also covers so much literary ground; it's thrilling and mysterious, at times horrific and hilarious, and always stunningly original. I've found myself thinking back on this book often, months after having completed it. It's definitely a book I'll read again - not something I do often.
Review of 'The Library at Mount Char' on 'Goodreads'
2 stars
I dunno how to rate this.
I mean, I guess if you like stories about people who rise from the ashes to do extraordinary things, stories about terrifyingly powerful magics that are hidden behind reality, maybe this is your jam? It reminds me a little of the Chinese 'cultivation' story, but I'm not familiar enough with that genre to really pick apart the similarities and difference, so just dropping that in there for people more familiar.
the blurb gives you an idea:
After all, she was a normal American herself once.
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 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 …
I dunno how to rate this.
I mean, I guess if you like stories about people who rise from the ashes to do extraordinary things, stories about terrifyingly powerful magics that are hidden behind reality, maybe this is your jam? It reminds me a little of the Chinese 'cultivation' story, but I'm not familiar enough with that genre to really pick apart the similarities and difference, so just dropping that in there for people more familiar.
the blurb gives you an idea:
After all, she was a normal American herself once.
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 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.
Now, Father is missing—perhaps even dead—and the Library that holds his secrets stands unguarded. And with it, control over all of creation.
The most charitable description of this book is that it's about overcoming suffering, and learning to reject becoming what one's abuser was. The least charitable description is that it's about how abuse makes you strong, so it's all worth it in the end. I don't know if either of those are true, but as you can tell, the thing that stuck with me was the abuse.
