Library at Mount Char

WHO IS THIS AUTHOR AND WHERE DID HE COME FROM....??? I can't believe he went from being a Linux writer, to an author of this......mythological awesomeness. (I think that he now belongs in a category separate from most fantasy authors. He's a mythos-builder, and that can easily be a category custom-built for some of the greats like Gaiman or Joe Hill). It's crazy. It's scary. It's thrilling. And I couldn't wait a damn second to get back to it....!

What happens when man becomes God and has to train His descendants? Why, he opens a library and forces twelve orphans to study specific catalogs: everything from languages to animals to war. The way to immortality and infinite knowledge involves a whole lot of torture, though. You will love and show more hate almost everyone, and often simultaneously.

Which brings me to the storyline. Hot-damn is this book gory!! Not that I minded...... But...! If they ever manage to put to film the contents of this story we're talking a very hard R-rating. Guts on the ceiling, testicles removed, and a TON of blood are only a few things you'll come across. The horror fiend in me was giddier than a redneck at a Larry the Cable Guy show. You will also run into lions, other-Worldly-beings, animal deaths, the walking dead (kind of...?), the bitch-slapping of a pissed off lioness, nuclear explosions and time travel. I'm telling you, this book is fucking out there. show less

I honestly didn't know what I was getting into picking up this book but when I did, I didn't put it down. Hawkins put together a truly crazy universe and then didn't feel the need to explain any of it to the reader. It reminded me a little of a Dan Simmons book, in which the author just whispers "trust me, just go with it" and for no reason at all you do, all the while asking yourself "why in gods name does this work?". I guess that one of the exiting things about this is that you can honestly throw all your expectations out the window and "just go with it". Hawkins found this balance in which you can imagine all sorts of things about his world at which he just hints instead of handing it to you in its entirety.

There must be some things show more I disliked about this book, but I can't remember any of them. It is very gruesome though, which I normally don't particularly care for, but for some reason it only contributed to the feeling of awesomeness in the book. show less

Scott Hawkins, whose day job has something to do with open-source software, has left his science fiction readers hanging for nine years—so far—waiting for a sequel to The Library at Mount Char. Given the nature of that book, we should all be grateful that “left hanging” is just an expression.
My first thought on beginning to read it was that “this is the Manson Family with magic,” but then, Carolyn, the homicidal librarian, said there is no such thing as magic. So, ancient gods, designer universes, black suns—all science? If you say so, Carolyn. Whatever. The Library at Mount Char bends its genres in ways that remind me of Charles Stross’s New Management series with the added nuttiness of John Dies at the End.
Trigger show more warnings in place. Have fun. show less

When I started reading this book, I didn't much like the protagonist, Carolyn, because she's almost completely amoral and has no objection to using people, murdering them, and doing other generally horrible things. Oddly, I also had a hard time putting the book down once I picked it up. This is because despite being almost monstrous,or in some cases actually monstrous, the characters are interesting, and the plot is exciting.

This was a really great book, though it is very gory and is very much a dark fantasy/horror type of story and may be a bit too disturbing for some.

A missing God. A library with the secrets to the universe. A woman too busy to notice her heart slipping away.
Carolyn is a librarian. But she's not the usual kind of librarian you think of when you hear that word. She is one of twelve students of a man she knows as "Father". He's a very powerful man who "adopted" her and eleven others that are now known as her siblings. This all happened when they were all still children. Father has a vast library and each of his twelve students is responsible for reading, understanding, and mastering a specific catalog from in the library. These books, like their owner, are not ordinary, and the power that they contain is beyond what a normal human being could ever imagine. Father will settle for show more nothing less than the highest level of effort, success, and obedience from his students, even if he has to use brute force to get it.

But now Father has gone missing, and the librarians have come together to try to find out where he's gone and if he's okay. The dynamics between Carolyn and her "siblings" aren't what most people would ever describe as functional, but they do all have the same interest...to find the man that raised them and to retuning soon to the library to continue their studies. But to do so, they will need to enlist the help of some outsiders...some Americans. Their involvement quickly reveals there is much more going on here than meets the eye.

The book definitely seems a little strange at first, and that's because IT IS different. Until you get a sense of Carolyn and the backstory, it's easy to wonder what in the world is going on. You'll wonder that through most of this book, but each chapter shows a "different way". As it all starts to come together, if you're like me, you will be in awe at the various other hints that have been dropped along the way...and how many you overlooked or missed entirely.

Scott Hawkins does an excellent job of keeping the story moving along and occasionally inserting what he labels as "Interludes" along the way, which take the reader back in time before the current story, providing just enough of Carolyn's past to help to better understand what is going on in the present. Amazingly, the character dynamics and interactions don't disappoint at all.

I don't usually recommend books unless I know the reading preference of the individual fairly well, but I would definitely give this one a high recommendation.... especially if you are fan of dark fantasy. show less

It's always fun finding out that everything you assumed about a book is wrong – I had this pleasure with **The Library at Mount Char** by *Scott Hawkins*. It was beyond not what I expected (shame on me for having preconceived notions of what a library is), and it was a lot of fun at that. The middle parts felt a bit drab, what with the gore and blood and war, but everything came together for a really satisfying endgame, which I liked a lot. Seeing the protagonist Carolyn grow (via flashbacks and other narrative devices, but also due to the plot) from a regular girl, to a traumatised girl, to … here lie spoilers, to experiencing true character growth was wonderful. Side characters feel fleshed out instead of being reduced to a single show more character trait, or just propping up the protagonist. If you're not terribly touchy about violence in your books, Library of Mount Char is a great read. show less

"With this particular species of crazy, you stop trying to make things better. You start trying to maximize the bad. You pretend to like it. Eventually you start working to make everything as bad as possible. It's an avoidance mechanism." Jennifer looked Carolyn directly in the eyes. "It can't actually work. That's why they call it crazy."

I've been singing the praises of this novel for years, but it's also been years since I've read it. Spurred on by a fellow author's initial love, and ultimate disappointment with the novel, I decided it was time to revisit it.

My original review from October 16, 2016 read like this:

Holy hell, what did I just read?

Imagine, if you will, Clive Barker's The Great and Secret Show sitting at a bar. Neil show more Gaiman's American Gods comes in, sits down, and buys the Barker book a drink. Probably something mixed by Alan Moore. They slow dance to Neil Gaiman's Sandman series, then go back to one of their bedrooms and make sweet, sweet love. Nine months later, this is the book you would get from that union.

That's the best I can do. That's the only description I can think of, and trust me, I thought about this a lot as I went through this amazing novel.

I will say, for the first quarter of this book, I mostly thought, What the hell am I even reading? None of this makes sense. Characters come and go and I don't know why.

For the next quarter of the book, I began to understand the shape of the story, and I thought, Enh. It's okay, but nothing to write home about. Some neat concepts, but where is it all leading?

Then, around the halfway point, shit began to happen. I sat up and took notice. Then, shit turned left, then left again. Then shit went into seventeen dimensional space. I was hooked.

The first half is necessary set-up. The last half? It's fucking genius. I am in awe of Scott Hawkins.

This book easily... easily wins best book of the year for me. Nothing else I have, or will read this year will come close to its scope, its imagination, or sheer breathtaking wonder.

It's a shame I can only award five stars. This one sits in a dimensional reality all its own, and in that reality, it wins all the stars.

_______

So, that was seven years, two months and five days ago. How did I feel about it the second time around?

That I was pretty much spot on with that last review, that's how.

There's so much that happens in this novel. There's so many concepts. This novel is the embodiment of two quotes from famous authors, both published in 1962. Arthur C. Clarke's "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." And Stan Lee's "With great power there must also come great responsibility."

But, for all the wild events, the universe-shaking occurrences, I think the thing that hit me the most on this re-read was the heart of the characters, especially toward the end of the novel. Just the little moments with the Black Beauty novel alone.

Hawkins takes liberties with the pacing and the plot, but they're all in service to the story. Trust me, outside of Tom Sweterlitsch, I don't think you'll find another novel quite as mind-blowing as this one.

I loved it seven years ago. I love it more now. show less