The Library at Mount Char

The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

When Father goes missing, the Librarians he trained try to solve his murder while his legacy hangs in the balance. But what happened to him and who is responsible? More importantly, what will happen to His Library?

I got this from Netgalley.

I'm not completely sure how I felt about this book. Hell, for most of the book, I wasn't sure who was supposed to be the main character. However, I did enjoy it. Here's how it all went down.

Father, aka Adam Black, aka various other aliases, scooped up twelve orphans and spent three decades training them to be Librarians, the wielders of the knowledge he accumulated in his sixty-thousand year dominion over Earth. When he goes missing and the Librarians are barred from the Library, things go to hell quite quickly.

Each of the twelve orphans has a catalog. Carolyn, whose catalog is languages, is the main character, although supporting characters Erwin and Steve get a lot of screen time. As the story unfolds, the backstory of the Librarians is revealed.

The writing was pretty good and there was a surprising amount of humor. I thought the scheme the mastermind pulled off was very well done.

As I write this review, it occurs to me that this is one of those books that I like the ideas way more than the execution. The magic system reminds me of The Magicians a bit and I love the idea of a nigh-immortal wizard training twelve orphans. However, I didn't really care about any of the characters other than Steve and the lions. I thought the story meandered all over the place and could have been more focused. It's also one of the few books where I wanted a lot more worldbuilding.

All things considered, the Library at Mount Char was a pretty engaging read. I guess my only problem was that it wasn't the book I was expecting. Three out of five stars.

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