The Book Report #56

Episode #55

The Book That Broke the World By Mark Lawrence

The Book

This is the second book in the Library trilogy. My copy is a first-edition hardback bought from Forbidden Planet and signed by the author.

This edition was printed and published by Harper Voyager, an imprint of Harper Collins Publishers in 2024. The book has 369 pages including a page of acknowledgements

What Did I Think

It has been a while since I read the first book in the trilogy, whilst waiting to read the sequel. But I have now and I am happy I did.

To help those who may need a recap. Mr Lawrence has included a reminder of what you may have missed or have forgotten. It also helps answer some of the questions I had from the first book.

The library is a multi-world collection of many species of literature, in all shapes and sizes. The Exchange is a travel/ waiting zone to the various worlds at various points in time. Whereas I thought it was one world and that world was invaded or visited and they may have got stuck.

But this time we have a greater threat from the humans versus the caniths. We have the Skeer. What seems an insect race. Who seems not to care about anything but the Skeer.

We don’t know if this is true as there has been no communication with them except destruction and death.

The love story of Livira and Evar is not a case of Will they, won’t they but more of Will you give them a bloody chance? They get to be with each other for barely five minutes until something pulls them away again. Fair enough they spent many years together but they didn’t know that until after the fact. Maybe they can finally have some time at the end of the third book. Or it may never happen.

I Want Wentworth!

Wentworth is an unsung hero in this book. Being the provider and protector of all the people stranded wherever in time and space. Good job Wentworth. Volente was mentioned but not seen in this part of the story.

Yute seems to be ageing with all the stress from trying, what he thinks is the right thing and trying to convince everyone else to do the same.

All this hassle the library is having is because Livira wrote a book. What is the big deal? Well, my theory came from the end of the story (the end credit scene), A disgruntled, villain librarian has managed to get hold of the book and has read it. The part that is shown to the reader is close to events that have happened in the story.

As if it is writing its own version of events. The power of that generates problems for the library.

What’s Going On?

My theory is that Livira understands more of the workings of the library and the magical mechanics even if she doesn’t realise it. And because of this, she has instilled that “magic” into the book. But because of this, the book is screwing with the library as the book also is moved through time by many people over the centuries.

But this is only one part of the story as the other seems to be a continuous war over the presence, and the existence of the library between the two brothers. One states that the library should always be there for all life to learn and build. And the other states that all life should start from scratch as the library hinders them from making new choices instead of repeating the same mistakes, again and again. By the sounds of it, and what I have read, he isn’t wrong about the repeating.

So who is right and who is wrong?

Meh!

The only meh part of the story is Celcha and Hellet. These are new characters brought into the story but the outcome was weak and pointless at the end as it didn’t impact the story in any real way and could have been left out completely and wouldn’t have been any real difference. The start of the idea was good, but it didn’t lead anywhere concrete.

But apart from that I can not but, I will have to wait for the next chapter to arrive.

Would I Recommend

Absolutely. I can’t wait for the next and final chapter in the series. It will be released in April 2025. So I will be keeping an eye out for the release. I am hoping for another signed copy. Also, I am hoping for some more short stories.

Please give it a go.

Would you like to purchase your very own copy?

You could try these online stores: Amazon UK/USA. Waterstones. AbeBooks UK/ USA, Barnes and Noble and eBay UK/ USA.

Alternatively, you could try your local bookshop or even your local library.