The Book That Wouldn’t Burn by Mark Lawrence – a Review

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Description:
A boy has lived his whole life trapped within a vast library, older than empires and larger than cities.

A girl has spent hers in a tiny settlement out on the Dust where nightmares stalk and no one goes.

The world has never even noticed them. That’s about to change.

Their stories spiral around each other, across worlds and time. This is a tale of truth and lies and hearts, and the blurring of one into another. A journey on which knowledge erodes certainty, and on which, though the pen may be mightier than the sword, blood will be spilled and cities burned.

Review:

The Book That Wouldn’t Burn by Mark Lawrence is the first book in his new The Library Trilogy. Lawrence creates a series revolving around a library, with a record for every book and places they are ruled to live; filled with knowledge, as well as truths and lies.

This story follows two main characters, a young girl, Livera, who lived in the Dust, and soldiers saved her and other young children’s after an attack by Sabbers (enemies); a young man, Evar, trapped in an isolated huge chamber within an ancient library that has many chambers.

As the years pass, Livera, who is fiery and passionate, constantly asks questions to increase her knowledge, as she finds books that allow her to learn more about the library. Livera, coming from the dust, is not respected by many on the council, as well as the king, but her amazing abilities that she has discovered, allows her to find things no one else can.  Evar is the calm one between his brother and sister, who are more violent than him.  During his constant traveling to find a way out, he meets a young girl (livera), whom they spent time together, and when a few years pass, he runs into her again. That seems to be the pattern, with Evar meeting up with Livera every few years, and now she is around 20.  Together they will explore all facets of the library and the various chambers.  We know that Livera and Evar became close, even with the many missing years, but together they were able to explore so much of the library, trying to find a way out.  Malar was one of the great characters, as he was the soldier to saved Livera, and over the years, he became her protector when necessary.  There were many very good characters between Livera and her friends, as well as Evar and his family.

This is a difficult review to write, as the whole concept was about books to reveal secrets, knowledge, freedom, and the first half of the book was very slow.  It does pick up in the latter part of the story, though a lot did remain somewhat confusing, but many things do fall into place closer to the end. 

The Book That Wouldn’t Burn was a different kind of fantasy, set in a huge immense library, with many chambers, with those who were trapped inside. The library had its own mechanism, with protectors of history, and the power of knowledge from those special books. The overall theme is knowledge, power, responsibility and war.  The Book that Wouldn’t Burn was a complex and intriguing story line that was well written by Mark Lawrence. However, I will note that I have loved a number of series by Lawrence, and this book was a bit slow for a big part of the book, but it was an exciting end. 

Reviewed by Barb

Copy provided by Publisher