The Library at Mount Char

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I cried after Carolyn succeeded in getting her revenge, and I cried again after I realized what she had become by doing so. I don't need a heart coal to see me through to the end, though. I just cried like a little baby when Steve finally succeeded. 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. It kind of reminded me of an M. Night Shyamalan film, except instead of one gasp-worthy moment, there were maybe six of them.

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. Jesus," he said. "Was there an accident?" His voice was warm with concern—the real kind, not the predator's fake that the last man had tried. She heard this and knew the old man was seeing her as a father might see his daughter. She relaxed a little. A wholly original, engrossing, disturbing, and beautiful book. You’ve never read anything quite like this, and you won’t soon forget it. Any complaints I might have about this book were minor. There are some long talking scenes that repeat information to characters that I, as a reader, already knew. That was fine, it happens to the best of us. The pacing of the last act runs a little long, but again, by that point I didn’t care because the book was just laying down the payoff of the mysteries it promised to solve at the beginning, and I was fine with that. There are horrible things done to people. Horrible things! But it’s not voyeuristic and purposeless. There is a method to the horror and madness, and it’s treated fairly. Gods walking the earth is one thing, but to actually watch them perform an infinite regression of events to create their own successors in such a way that the poor sap doesn't even realize it until long after the big battle is a scale of craft that ought to be left to actual gods, and not some person named Scott Hawkins, who, out of the blue, blew my mind by actually pulling it off.

Open Library

in fact, i already want to read it again to see how those earlier scenes read now that i know all that i know. i think my obstacle is that with MR and slipstream, things are only just slightly tweaked, and what i relish is that unsettling feeling - that the possibility for fantastical occurrences is present, but there's still something concrete and recognizable to ground me. Did it hold up to my beefed-up expectations? Did it lose any of the fires of ultimate agony or any of its Asshole Buddhism? Hello, No. :) I still love it. 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.

Damn, I love this book. It has not lost any of its flavor. I could keep reading this every single year and still love it. It's definitely one of my all-time favorites. :) A pyrotechnic debut…The most terrifyingly psychopathic depiction of a family of gods and their abusive fathersince Genesis.” —Charles Stross, Hugo and Locus Award-winning author of Accelerando and The Apocalypse Codex

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Now, Father is missing--perhaps even dead--and the Library that holds his secrets stands unguarded. And with it, control over all of creation. Carolyn’s life changed forever when she was 8. That was the year her ordinary suburban subdivision was destroyed and the man she now calls Father took her and 11 other children to study in his very unusual Library. Carolyn studied languages—and not only human ones. The other children studied the ways of beasts, learned healing and resurrection, and wandered in the lands of the dead or in possible futures. Now they’re all in their 30s, and Father is missing. Carolyn and the others are trying to find him—but Carolyn has her own agenda and her own feelings about the most dangerous of her adopted siblings, David, who has spent years perfecting the arts of murder and war. Carolyn is an engaging heroine with a wry sense of humor, and Steve, the ordinary American ally she recruits, helps keep the book grounded in reality despite the ever growing strangeness that swirls around them. Like the Library itself, the book is bigger, darker, and more dangerous than it seems. The plot never flags, and it’s never predictable. Hawkins has created a fascinating, unusual world in which ordinary people can learn to wield breathtaking power—and he’s also written a compelling story about love and revenge that never loses sight of the human emotions at its heart.

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 only trouble is that in the war to make a new God, she’s forgotten to protect the things that make her human.It has everything I could ever want. A mastermind plan or three. Godlike powers. A mystery, a revenge story, a freaking humorous and heartbreaking debacle including lions, dogs, and a very special man in a tu-tu, and a library that is so much more than a library. So yes, a very imaginative, very well written, intriguing, exciting, brutal, funny book that you should definitely give a go.