The Library At Mount Char

by Scott Hawkins

[inlibrisveritas]

The Library at Mount Char is one of those oddball books that are hard to find, and harder to describe. Is it fantasy? Magical realism? Horror? Dark Comedy? Probably all of the above.

This is a book that requires patience and a willingness to be in the dark for most of the story, and because of this it took me sometime to get through it. The story is sort of non-liner in nature and as a result you get a bits and pieces of the over arcing plot in small doses, until about 70% of the way through and then it all starts falling together into a picture you can fully understand. The plot as a result doesn’t make sense at times, but it all fits nicely together once the explanations come out and then you realize how well thought Carolyn’s decision were. As the summary suggests much of this has to do with Carolyn, a young women who along with her brothers and sisters have been raised as the children of a god-like man. They all have vast knowledge, but only in one subject and as a result must work together to accomplish things. I loved the fact that they each had a specialization and how that focus changed their personalities. For example David, who controls the library of war and combat, is a bit unstable…he runs around coated in blood and thanks to a bit of ‘lost in translation’ thinks a tutu is something like a battle kilt. My favorite though is Michael, who specializes in animals of all kings (big or small, past or future) and spends much of his time naked and speaking in roars, yips and howls.

To make things a bit easier to digest we have two other point of views that are from a normal human perspective. The first is Steve, who gets pulled into the schemes of these godlike librarians and pretty much out of his league the entire time. His humor is pretty spot on for me, and the fact that his defense mechanism is being a smart ass was just perfect as it relieved some of the tension added by being in the dark and in danger all the time. His unlikely friendship with Naga, a lioness, was also pretty awesome. Erwin is the more brash of the two main humans and knows what he’s dealing with to a certain extent when it comes to the citizens of Garrison Oaks. Carolyn is on his shit list, and he wants her and her siblings gone…but he doesn’t really count on being pulled into the schemes and ends up playing a much larger role than he anticipated. All three of the main characters were likable and I think their vastly different personalities really made this story worth reading even during the slower parts.

Parts of this book were out right hilarious and other parts so horrifying that I could easily understand why the Librarians were a little whacked in the head,. Surprisingly there is a ton of action and some really cool but off the wall world building, and I think the combination of all of these elements really made it into something unique. The book isn’t perfect but I think with the right of amount of patience and willingness to let things get weird this one could be a hit for a lot of people.